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Political Notebook: Huckabee says Beebe will regret closing D.C. office Sunday, May 11, 2008 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - For Arkansas' former governor, it makes sense to keep open the state's office in Washington because, well, everybody's doing it. The office opened by Mike Huckabee in 2003 has been closed since Gov. Mike Beebe took over for the term-limited Huckabee last year. Beebe announced in April that he did not plan to re-establish a presence in the nation's capital. Huckabee disagreed with the move. He said the majority of governors know the benefit of a Capitol Hill office. "There's a reason that 37 states have state offices up here," Huckabee said. "If we were the only ones, I'd say you could make a strong argument that it may not be necessary, but we were one of the last to get one." In his decision to shutter the operation, Beebe said the Arkansas congressional delegation was strong enough to advocate for the state. He did not want to duplicate efforts. Huckabee said federal lawmakers have different perspectives than their state government counterparts. "I heard the thing, 'Well, we have a great congressional delegation,' and we do. It's not the point," Huckabee said. "The congressional staff doesn't wake up every day saying, 'What can we do to help the governor's office and help the state legislature back home?' They just don't do that. They've got their own jobs." Huckabee employed five people in a five-room office suite just a few blocks from the Capitol. Their mission in Washington, he said, was to track legislation important to the state and fight for federal grant dollars. "I think that the longer he is governor, the more he'll realize he'll wish he had that office," Huckabee said of Beebe. The state paid just over $300,000 to maintain the office in fiscal 2006. Beebe last October subleased to the Delta Regional Authority the space in a building known as the "Hall of States." Some Arkansas legislators saw the office as an outlet for Huckabee to advance his personal agenda. He was chairman of the National Governors Association and head of the Education Commission of the States during the time the office was open. Bill Clinton was similarly accused of using the office for political gain during his first term as governor. Frank White closed it after he defeated Clinton in 1980. The state was without a Washington office for 23 years. Some hosts they were Arkansas' five Democrats in Congress threw a party last week and only one of them showed up for it. Lawmakers were tied up with votes on the House and Senate floors on Thursday, so they skipped a $500-per-person fundraiser they were to have hosted for Sen. Hillary Clinton. The only participant, Rep. Marion Berry of Gillett, missed votes to attend the event at a Washington hotel. He introduced Clinton to a crowd of about 60 Arkansans, according to people at the reception. Others in the delegation stayed at the Capitol to cast votes related to a housing bill in the House and flood insurance legislation in the Senate. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark., and Reps. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, and Mike Ross, D-Prescott, were scheduled to have attended the reception for the former Arkansas first lady. The event came the day after Clinton was soundly defeated by Barack Obama in the North Carolina primary, making her path to the Democratic presidential nomination much tougher. Rodney Slater, a Marianna native who was secretary of transportation under President Clinton, said Sen. Clinton should keep the faith. "I think we've still got a race to complete, and I think she gets stronger every day," Slater said after the reception. Conway man named to presidential panel President Bush last week named Eric Treat of Conway to a two-year term on the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Treat, 43, is president of "Arkansas People First," an advocacy group for disabled people. The group has about 250 members. Treat, who was born with mental disabilities, has long been a champion for disabled rights. |
