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10 years of a pragmatic conservative Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006 By David Sanders One writer who posts on Red State.com, a conservative blog, dubbed Mike Huckabee "one of the most underrated of all aspirants to the 2008 GOP nomination." The blogger went on to say that Huckabee's "center-right" approach helps him fit the "mold of one who wins Presidential elections in the United States." Since becoming governor nearly 10 years ago, Mike Huckabee has puzzled his critics, angered supporters and managed to build a broad base of support from a wide array of Arkansans. His politics are hard to categorize with a label. Huckabee emerged from political obscurity in 1992 when he challenged incumbent Sen. Dale Bumpers. To most political observers, this Southern Baptist preacher from Texarkana was a different kind of candidate. Most wrote him off as a member of the growing religious right. Others saw him as the future of a party that had been marginalized for decades. Having lost his first race, Huckabee didn't shy away from the political arena. Instead, when presented with the opportunity to run for the vacated lieutenant governor's office, he jumped at the chance. After winning the special election and a subsequent general election, Huckabee plotted his next move. In 1995, Huckabee's attention turned to Washington as he began to gear up for another U.S. Senate campaign. His longing to become a member of the world's most deliberative body was cut short when Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was convicted on charges stemming from the Whitewater investigation. Forgoing the Senate campaign, Huckabee ascended to the governor's office in July 1996. Going into the governor's office, he had a virtual blank slate from which to work. Many supporters and pundits expected him to govern as a "hard-right Republican," but he didn't. In his first legislative session as governor, Huckabee performed a political balancing act, signing a broad-based tax cut into law while pushing for a government-run medical insurance program for children, ARKids First. The governor has said that he is given little credit by members of his own party for changing the debate in Little Rock. "Until I came to the Capitol, the debate had centered on what taxes to raise and by how much. In 1997 the debate changed to what taxes to cut," he said in a 2002 interview. Over the past few years Huckabee has drawn criticism from some of his fellow Republicans for not being conservative enough. He had a primary challenge in 1998 and in 2002 staved off the threat of a primary. Those close to Huckabee are quick to dub as a "pragmatic conservative," arguing that Huckabee takes a realistic approach to governing. Huckabee points to his accomplishments with the state's highway program, ARKids First, increased per-pupil funding for K-12 education and his most recent plan to spend the state's share of the tobacco settlement dollars as highlights of his administration. More recently, he has drifted away from his "center-right" axis, by backing a plan to offer state-funded scholarships of the children of illegal aliens. Huckabee tries to couch his advocacy for the ultimate passage of a statewide, workplace smoking ban as a conservative policy accomplishment, but few people view it that way. Other than in 1997, he has never walked a hard line on economic conservatism; in fact, Huckabee has backed numerous tax increases, many of which he believed were absolutely necessary to run state government. Huckabee talked about fundamentally changing the tax structure in Arkansas, but was never able to do it. He has amassed a social conservative record that would make any named or unnamed Republican presidential candidates jealous. Huckabee has signed the Fetal Protection Act, a bill creating the nation's third covenant marriage law and implemented both abstinence and character education for public schools. Now that the governor is engaged in the first step of a presidential campaign, he will be touting his more conservative credentials and downplaying his more pragmatic tendencies. The big question: Will Republicans warm to this "underrated" candidate? So far so good. ------- David Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com. |
