Former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who stepped down in the wake of Whitewater, dies at 81

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Jim Guy Tucker, who became Arkansas’ governor when Bill Clinton was elected president but was later forced from office after being convicted during the Whitewater investigation, has died. He was 81.

Anna Ashton, Tucker’s daughter, said the former governor died Thursday in Little Rock from complications from ulcerative colitis.

“Because he had a public life, there will be a lot of focus on the details of that,” Ashton said. “In addition to that, he was a really wonderful father, an adventurous man, a fun person with a lot of friends who loved music, the outdoors. I couldn’t have asked for a better dad.”

Tucker ascended from lieutenant governor to succeed Clinton as governor in 1992, then won election to a four-year term in 1994 despite claims by his opponent that Tucker would soon be indicted for fraud. Tucker didn’t help his cause by refusing to release his tax returns, saying they were complicated and subject to misinterpretation, but still beat Republican Sheffield Nelson easily.

A grand jury charged Tucker five months after he was sworn in for a full term, and a jury convicted him in 1996 of lying about how he had used a government-backed loan. He pleaded guilty in 1998 to a tax conspiracy count, then spent eight years fighting to withdraw his plea, claiming prosecutors used the wrong section of the law when charging him.

He had no connection to Clinton’s north Arkansas land development that gave the Whitewater investigation its name. Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr ensnared Tucker after winning court permission to broaden his probe into several Arkansas-based small businesses.

Tucker eventually was convicted of misusing a $150,000 government-backed loan.

Instead of using the money to paint a water tower, Tucker used it toward the purchase of a water and sewer utility.

The Whitewater investigation ended in 2006 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up Tucker’s tax conspiracy conviction. He long lamented he would never have been pursued by prosecutors if not for Clinton, and when the case finally ended, deputy Whitewater prosecutor W. Hickman Ewing said, “It’s probably true.”

After his initial Whitewater case, Tucker announced he would step down July 15, 1996, but as the day approached laid claim to a new trial, saying a juror in his case had married into the family of a man whose clemency Tucker had previously rejected.

Minutes before the designated hour of his resignation with then-Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee preparing to be sworn in as governor, Tucker reneged and withdrew his resignation.

The ensuing mayhem that day created confusion over who was running the state. Tucker relented later that evening after facing threats of impeachment from Huckabee and a lawsuit from the attorney general. Huckabee, now President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel, went on to serve 10 1/2 years as governor.

“I clearly made a terrible mistake in delaying the resignation I had announced,” Tucker said in an interview 10 years after leaving office. “This is not an anniversary that I like to reflect that much on.”

Clinton on Thursday said Tucker’s public service “made Arkansas better, stronger, and fairer.”

“He accomplished a great deal, and would have achieved even more had his tenure not been unjustly cut short by a partisan witch hunt,” the former president said in a statement.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Huckabee’s daughter, praised Tucker as someone who “was dedicated to public service and providing for the most vulnerable Arkansans.”

Tucker’s political career started in 1970 when he was elected prosecuting attorney for an area that includes Little Rock. He later served two terms as the state’s attorney general before winning a seat in Congress in 1976.

“Jim Guy was smart as a whip and he was also tough,” said former Gov. Mike Beebe, who served in the state Senate when Tucker was governor and lieutenant governor. “He put forth all of his effort to make our state a better place and he stood up for what he believed was right.”

After losing a bid for governor in 1982, Tucker devoted time to his law practice and a growing cable television empire. He initially announced a run for governor in 1990 but switched to the lieutenant governor’s race when Clinton said he would seek another term. Tucker won, and after Clinton’s election as president became governor on Dec. 12, 1992.

Tucker’s health problems began in 1983 when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He also had sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic and sometimes fatal disorder of the liver.

Tucker remained active in recent years and was among the mourners at the funeral for former Arkansas governor and senator David Pryor last year. He also appeared at the governor’s mansion in 2020 to mark its 70th anniversary.

After Tucker’s initial Whitewater conviction, his lawyers argued a prison term would be akin to a death sentence, and a federal judge agreed. The judge temporarily suspended Tucker’s home detention in late 1996 so he could receive a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Tucker, born June 14, 1943, grew up in Arkansas before attending Harvard University. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was a civilian war correspondent in Vietnam.

Tucker is survived by his wife, Betty; stepson Lance Alworth Jr.; stepdaughter Kelly Driscoll; and his daughters, Anna Ashton and Sarah Tucker.

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Kissel, the principal writer of this obituary, retired from the AP in 2018

Andrew Demillo And Kelly P. Kissel, The Associated Press