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james1844
12-14-2007, 07:02 PM
The more I hear about this guy, the less I like him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/us/politics/15huckabee.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: December 15, 2007
When Mike Huckabee became lieutenant governor of Arkansas in 1993, he complained of being burdened by college tuition bills for his son, the expenses of two residences — one in Texarkana and the other in Little Rock — and the cost of commuting between the two.

With an annual salary of $25,452, he said he was falling short in covering the bills. “It was costing me money to be lieutenant governor,” Mr. Huckabee recalled in a 1997 newspaper interview.

To bridge the gap between his income and expenses, Mr. Huckabee and a few close political advisers came up with a plan: They formed a Texas-based nonprofit organization that raised money for Mr. Huckabee to travel the country promoting conservative politics to fellow ministers and attacking then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan.

By the time the organization, Action America, ceased operations three years later, it had collected $119,916 from a dozen or so donors. Among them were former Senator Bob Dole’s political action committee, an Arkansas cotton gin owner who had been jailed for stock fraud and R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco giant that had opposed the Clinton health plan. As for Mr. Huckabee, he ended up with $61,500 for his efforts before becoming governor in July 1996 and shuttering the group.

Mr. Huckabee never reported that income on his financial disclosure form, resulting in Arkansas ethics commission charges in 1997. He also has steadfastly refused to identify the donors, both then and now.

As Mr. Huckabee moves to the top tier of Republican candidates, new scrutiny is being drawn to Action America and other alleged ethical lapses while he held office in Arkansas. In all, at least 16 ethics complaints, were filed against Mr. Huckabee, and he was found to be in violation for five of them and had to pay a $1,000 fine.

As for Action America, new details have emerged, first reported by Newsweek, about the extent of tobacco money behind it and the way the industry tried to use Mr. Huckabee’s rising profile among conservatives to create grass roots opposition to the Clinton effort, which would have raised taxes on cigarettes.

Mr. Huckabee has since denied knowing that Reynolds money was behind the group — a claim other officers of Action America dispute today.

But long before Mr. Huckabee began running for the Republican nomination for president, he resisted efforts to identify Action America’s donors.

“Comments like funneling money is where it keeps going, and that’s not what this is about,” Mr. Huckabee told The Associated Press in Little Rock in 1997, referring to the stream of questions from Democrats in Arkansas about contributors to the secretive group. “This is about earning a legitimate income.”

Mr. Huckabee, who had been president of Action America, never made the donors public. Besides becoming a political issue, the enterprise also led to a “letter of caution” from the Arkansas state ethics commission in 1997, for failing to report his Action America income on his 1994 financial disclosure statements.

Action America capitalized on demand for Mr. Huckabee on the conservative lecture circuit after he became lieutenant governor in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. The invitations, however, often did not include offers to pay.

Then two political associates, J. J. Vigneault and Greg Graves, who also worked as consultants to R. J. Reynolds, approached Mr. Huckabee with the idea creating a nonprofit so he could earn money from out-of-state speaking engagements — and, at the same time, drum up opposition to the Clinton plan. Mr. Huckabee was the only person to be paid by the organization.

“We would give him the Congressional districts to go to,” said Mr. Vigneault in an interview. “And he would put together the pastoral meetings. He would talk about why the health plan wasn’t good. The goal was for the pastors to go to their churches and mobilize their congregation to say they are opposed to the plan.”

Others involved in the effort included Brenda Turner, who became Mr. Huckabee’s chief of staff, and William Cox, Mr. Huckabee’s personal accountant. The organization was registered in Texas.

Tax filings reported in Arkansas newspapers show that Mr. Huckabee gave 38 speeches to nearly 4,000 people in nine states — but not Arkansas — in 1994 and 1995.

During the presentations, Mr. Huckabee promoted citizen activism and encouraged ordinary people to become involved in politics. Often it was a member of the audience who brought up the health care plan, which was roiling the country, his former advisers said.

“We provided the background,” Mr. Vigneault said. “But he wrote his own speeches. He could pump the ministers up. He can talk the talk and walk the walk. He could mobilize them better than anyone I’ve seen.”

Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for R. J. Reynolds, said company records show it gave the group $20,000 in 1992. The company is continuing to search its records to see whether it gave more.

“We were opposed to the health care bill because it had a substantial tobacco tax that would impact our consumers,” Ms. Payne said. “Action America was designed to speak out in opposition to the plan. We did support the organization and Mr. Huckabee’s involvement in it.”

Mr. Huckabee, in an interview in Newsweek last week, denied knowing that tobacco money was behind the group. The campaign did not respond to e-mail requests for comment.

But Mr. Vigneault said that Mr. Huckabee “absolutely” knew of the Reynolds connection. Besides the fact that Mr. Huckabee knew that Mr. Vigneault and Mr. Graves were Reynolds lobbyists, Mr. Huckabee met with Reynolds executives in his apartment in Little Rock, Mr. Vigneault said.

“There’s no way he could not have known about the money from R. J. Reynolds,” Mr. Vigneault said. “If he’s saying he didn’t know about the Reynolds money, he’s been less than truthful.”

In recent years, Mr. Huckabee, who lost 110 pounds, has become an advocate for healthy living. In 2003, he signed a ban in Arkansas on smoking in the workplace and backed smoking cessation programs.

Jay Bradford, a former Democratic state senator who had criticized Action America’s secrecy, said he was not surprised to learn of the tobacco money.

“He firmly stood with the tobacco manufacturers,” said Mr. Bradford, now director of behavioral health for the Arkansas health department. “He was with them all the way.”