Jim Guy Tucker

James "Jim" Guy Tucker, Jr. (born 12 June 1943) was a Governor of Arkansas and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas. Tucker resigned the governorship due to a plea bargain as a result of the Whitewater scandal investigation, although the conviction was not directly related to the Whitewater investigation.

Jim Guy Tucker was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Tucker attended public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1964.

Tucker served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1964 and worked as a freelance reporter in Vietnam during the Vietnam War during 1965 and 1967.

He graduated from the law school at the University of Arkansas in 1968 and was admitted to the Arkansas bar that same year.

Tucker established a private law practice in Little Rock from 1968-1970, and served as Prosecuting Attorney for the Sixth Judicial District of Arkansas from 1971-1972. He was appointed to the Arkansas Criminal Code Revision Commission and served from 1973-1975. Tucker was elected Arkansas Attorney General and served from 1973-1977. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1972.

Tucker was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-fifth Congress and served from 3 January 1977 - 3 January 1979. In 1978 Tucker gave up his seat in the House to wage an unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate.

Tucker resumed the practice of law. A well-known intra-party rival of Bill Clinton's, he was defeated by Clinton when both sought the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1982. He intended to run for the Governor's office in 1990 against Clinton, who was seeking a fifth term, but withdrew from the primary election to run for the post of Lieutenant Governor, recognizing that Clinton had his eyes on the presidency and might not serve a full term. He succeeded to the governorship upon Clinton's resignation on 12 December 1992.

Tucker won election in 1994 but was convicted of one count of conspiracy and one count of mail fraud in 1996 as part of Kenneth Starr's Whitewater scandal investigation. Many consider both the charges and the conviction to have been tainted. The trial was notable in several ways. Tucker was forced to defend himself in conjunction with fellow defendants James B. McDougal and his wife Susan McDougal, though their alleged violations were only peripherally connected. Too, the prosecution of all three, conducted primarily by OIC prosecutor Ray Jahn, was, in the eyes of investigative reporters and authors Joe Conason and Gene Lyons and others, motivated as much towards connecting President Bill Clinton with Whitewater-related infractions as convicting the three co-defendants. Tucker chose not to testify in his own defense against the advice of his own attorney, in part because he felt that his debilitating liver disease would make it impossible for him to handle the rigors of a month or more's worth of probing questioning and cross-examination.

Arkansas law prohibits convicted felons from serving as Governor and, as a consequence, Tucker resigned. As his successor, Mike Huckabee, was preparing to be sworn in, Tucker rescinded his resignation on several grounds, including his appeal because a juror on his trial was married to a man whose cocaine possession conviction Tucker had twice refused to commute. Worse, this juror was the nephew of local activist Robert "Say" McIntosh, who had demonstrated against Tucker during the trial. Arguing that his conviction was tainted, as well as the Arkansas constitution was vague about his status as a convicted felon, Tucker initially reversed his resignation, but held to it when the promise of substantial legal battles loomed ahead.

Tucker, whose liver problems were seriously debilitating him and threatened his life (he had nearly died from gastro-intestinal bleeding in 1994, and had steadily worsened since), received a lenient sentence of four years' probation and house detention in part because of his poor health. In 1997 Tucker received a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic.

Jim Guy Tucker is currently a resident of Little Rock, Arkansas and in recent years has avoided the media spotlight.

References

• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Arrow Books. ISBN 140003003X.

• Conason, Joe and Lyons, Gene. The Hunting of the President. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0312245475.