Asa Hutchinson

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Asa Cornelius Hutchinson
Asa Hutchinson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arkansas's 3rd district
In office
January 3, 1997 – August 6, 2001
Preceded by Tim Hutchinson
Succeeded by John Boozman
Born December 3, 1950 (1950-12-03) (age 57)
Bentonville, Arkansas
Political party Republican
Religion [[]]

Asa Cornelius Hutchinson (born December 3, 1950) is a former U.S. Attorney for the Fort Smith-based Western District of Arkansas, U.S. Congressman from the Third District of Arkansas, Director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the first-ever Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In 2006, Hutchinson ran as Republican candidate for governor of Arkansas and lost to Democratic candidate Mike Beebe.

Contents

[edit] Legal career

Hutchinson practiced law in Fort Smith for twenty-one years and handled more than one hundred jury trials. It was during this time that he was appointed by President Ronald W. Reagan as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. At the age of thirty-one, Hutchinson was the youngest U.S. Attorney in the nation and made national headlines after successfully prosecuting the CSA (The Covenant, The Sword, and The Arm of the Lord), a white supremacist organization. The CSA forced a three-day armed stand-off with local, state and federal law enforcement. As U.S. Attorney at the time, Hutchinson put on a flak jacket and personally negotiated a peaceful conclusion to the stand-off.

During his tenure as U.S. Attorney for the Western District, Hutchinson was described as aggressive in his efforts to prosecute criminals. However, conspiracy theorists have continued to raise questions regarding his actions surrounding the investigation of infamous pilot and drug smuggler Barry Seal. [1]. Hutchinson opened the investigation into Seal but did not see the case through to completion when he resigned to run for the Senate. Hutchinson would later be appointed to head up the DEA. Asa Hutchinson was one of the names being considered to replace Alberto Gonzales for the United States Attorney General position that Gonzales has recently resigned from.

[edit] Political career

In 1986, Hutchinson challenged popular Democratic U.S. Senator (and former governor) Dale Bumpers. It was a nationally Democratic year, and he fared worse than had Bumpers' previous challenger, Little Rock investment banker William P. "Bill" Clark, in 1980. In 1990, Hutchinson's race against Winston Bryant for attorney general of Arkansas also ended in defeat in another nationally Democratic year, but the race was very tight up to the end. After losing that race, Hutchinson became the co-chairman, with Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock, of the state Republican Party, a position he would hold for five years. During that period, Hutchinson was credited with helping build the GOP organization in Arkansas dramatically by leading the effort to require the state to finance polling stations throughout the state, allowing more Republican voters to get to the polls and vote. Hutchinson considered a rematch with Bumpers in 1992 before he deferred to Mike Huckabee, who also lost to Bumpers. That same year, Hutchinson's brother, Tim Hutchinson, was elected to represent the northwest quadrant of Arkansas in Congress on the retirement of veteran Republican U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison.

[edit] U.S. Congress

Asa Hutchinson's congressional photo
Asa Hutchinson's congressional photo

In 1996, when his brother decided not to run for re-election to the House in order to seek the open U.S. Senate seat that year caused by the retirement of popular Democrat David Pryor, Asa Hutchinson ran for the seat and won. (His brother also won his campaign for Senate, and served for one term.) Hutchinson defeated Ann Henry, who was a long-time friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and who was able to outspend Hutchinson during the campaign.

Hutchinson was re-elected to the House twice more — in 1998 and 2000. In office, he led efforts to crack down on illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamines. Hutchinson also served as one of the managers (prosecutors) during the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1998. In 1999, Hutchinson was involved in the effort to reform campaign finance laws and offered an alternative proposal to the bill by Christopher Shays and Marty Meehan, which he opposed on the grounds that it "went too far" because it attempted to ban television commercials by legal third party organizations. Hutchinson did support the bill by John McCain and Russ Feingold in the Senate. [2]

[edit] Executive branch

After being re-elected to his third term in Congress in November 2000, Hutchinson was appointed Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2001. Nationally respected Washington Post columnist David Broder praised Hutchinson's appointment to head the DEA, writing: "The high esteem in which former Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas is held by his colleagues was demonstrated by the 98-1 Senate vote confirming him last month as the new director of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Even more telling was the fact that Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and an ardent opponent of the impeachment of President Clinton, appeared at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to praise Hutchinson, who had been one of the Republican House managers presenting the case against Clinton to the full Senate. In his 4 1/2 years in the House, Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney, earned an estimable reputation as a thoughtful conservative and, as liberals like Conyers and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont affirmed, as a fair-minded advocate." http://www.oakridger.com/stories/082701/opE_0827010021.html

Broder, however, questioned the effectiveness of the traditional approach to the "war on drugs" and called for a new direction. Hutchinson did just that. During his tenure at the DEA, he led a re-evaluation of the DEA's mission and resources, concluding that too many resources were focused on 1980s-era drug enforcement priorities. Hutchinson called greater attention to newly emergent drug threats such as Meth in rural America, Ecstasy among youth, and Predatory Drugs (also known as date rape drugs) against women. He also lobbied aggressively for greater investments in prevention and treatment. He particularly focused on using Drug Treatment Courts as a way to help non-violent drug offenders beat addiction.

After the September 11 attacks, Congress created the Department of Homeland Security. President Bush tapped Hutchinson to lead the Border and Transportation Security Directorate, the largest division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with more than 110,000 employees. Hutchinson was confirmed by unanimous consent by the U.S. Senate on January 23, 2003. Later, during his campaign for Governor of Arkansas, Hutchinson's opponent attempted to portray him as mishandling immigration issues. Hutchinson's critics particularly focused on his efforts to limit the Border Patrol to patrolling the border and stopping illegal immigrants from crossing the border, while giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sole responsibility for removing aliens already in the country. [3] [4]

While serving as Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security in the Bush Administration, Hutchinson supported the President's proposals to provide more job opportunities for illegal aliens without criminal records, while tightening security on the border. In September of 2004, he said: "Eliminating the fear of deportation will be an incentive." In his written response to Senate questions, Hutchinson also said "Undocumented aliens will tell you they often have trouble sleeping at night, and leaving for work each day, not knowing if they will make it home at the end of the day." Hutchinson also said that Americans are not willing to put in the resources that would be required to remove the the estimated 12 million or more population of illegal immigrants. [5]. In that same testimony, Hutchinson emphasized that any debate over immigration reform must start first with enforcement of immigration laws and border security, asserting, "You have to start with the proposition that in order to be effective in the war against terrorism our nation must be able to secure its borders." http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/051705_hutchinson.pdf

Hutchinson was also careful to temper his support for the President's Temporary Worker Proposal with a call for strengthening security first. In his testimony, he asserted: "The necessary elements to tackle this enormous problem [of illegal immigration] effectively are: (1)Increasing the funding of technology and security personnel along the border, (2)Making it more difficult for illegal aliens to get jobs in this country, and (3) providing a workable and practical means for migrant workers to meet the job needs in this country when those jobs cannot be filled otherwise. When, and only when, these security measures are established then it is appropriate to begin a conversation on providing a temporary legal status to the 8 million illegal workers already in this country. It is a significant security vulnerability to allow such a large population live and work anonymously in our communities, with no legal identities or other common connections to society. It is, in fact, a terrorist’s dream. Moreover, any legal status should be a temporary work permit with a point of return to the alien’s home country." http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/051705_hutchinson.pdf

[edit] 2006 Governor's race

Main article: Arkansas gubernatorial election, 2006

Shortly after his return to Arkansas, Hutchinson announced his intention to run for governor in 2006. He was defeated in the general election by the Democratic candidate, former attorney general Mike Beebe.

[edit] Business career

In early 2005, Hutchinson founded a consulting firm, Hutchinson Group, LLC with partners Betty Guhman and Kirk Tompkins, in Little Rock and accepted a contract for a one-year position with Venable LLP in Washington, D.C., as the chair of its Homeland Security practice. Hutchinson ended his contract with Venable LLP in March 2006 to focus on his gubernatorial campaign and his consulting firm in Little Rock. In January 2007, Hutchinson rejoined Venable. [6].

In June 2006, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported that Hutchinson's $2,800 investment in Fortress America Acquisition Corporation, a company that Hutchinson advises, was worth over a million dollars after the initial public offering. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette story noted that Hutchinson is unable to touch his stock for another two years. The six founding shareholders in Fortress America besides Hutchinson include: former U.S. Representative Tom McMillen of Maryland, former U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma, and a private-equity firm that has former CIA Director James Woolsey among its partners.

On May 4, 2006, Hutchinson filed a financial disclosure form, which he was required to submit as candidate for governor, that did not include the Fortress American holdings. On the form, Hutchinson listed his stock and options in two other companies, and even disclosed bank and credit-union accounts with balances under $1,000. He did not list his 200,000 shares in Fortress America, which were trading at about $5 per share. "Just totally an oversight," Hutchinson said when questioned by the media. [7]. Hutchinson filed an amended report the next day to correct the error. [8]

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Tim Hutchinson		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arkansas's 3rd congressional district
1997 – 2001		 Succeeded by
John Boozman
Preceded by
Donnie R. Marshall		 Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration
2001 – 2003		 Succeeded by
Karen Tandy
Persondata
NAME Hutchinson, Asa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION United States politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH