Tim Hutchinson

Tim Hutchinson
United States Senator from Arkansas
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	David Pryor
Succeeded by	Mark Pryor
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	John P. Hammerschmidt
Succeeded by	Asa Hutchinson
Personal details
Born	Young Timothy Hutchinson (1949-08-11) August 11, 1949 Bentonville, Arkansas
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	(1) Donna Hutchinson (divorced) (2) Randi Fredholm
Relations	Brother Asa Hutchinson Son Jeremy Hutchinson Son Timothy Chad Hutchinson Son Joshua Luke Hutchinson Brother-in-law Kim Hendren Nephew Jim Hendren
Residence	Fort Smith, Arkansas (1984-2003) Alexandria, Virginia (2003-present)
Alma mater	Bob Jones University University of Arkansas
Occupation	Clergyman;[1] lobbyist[1]
Religion	Southern Baptist

Young Timothy Hutchinson, known as Tim Hutchinson,^[1] (born August 11, 1949) is a Republican former United States senator from the state of Arkansas.

Hutchinson was born in Bentonville in northwestern Arkansas, the son of John Malcolm Hutchinson, Sr. (1907-1991) and Coral Hutchinson (1912-1998). He was reared on the family farm in nearby Gravette. He graduated with a B.A. from Bob Jones University and received an M.A. in political science from the University of Arkansas in 1990.^[1]

He currently is a lobbyist and is a resident of Alexandria, Virginia. He is married to Randi Fredholm Hutchinson, an attorney in Washington, D.C. He was the first Republican to have been elected to the U.S. Senate in Arkansas since 1879.

Early political career

Hutchinson served in the Arkansas House of Representatives representing part of Fort Smith from 1985 to 1992. In 1992, he ran for the Republican nomination in Arkansas's 3rd congressional district after the popular 26-year incumbent John P. Hammerschmidt announced his retirement. He defeated a fellow Republican state lawmaker Richard L. Barclay of Rogers, for the Republican nomination. He faced Democrat John VanWinkle, an attorney from Fayetteville, in the general election, and won by only 7,500 votes—a margin of five percent. He owed his victory to a 10,000-vote margin in his native Benton County. It was the second-closest margin in the 3rd, one of the most Republican districts in the South, which Hammerschmidt had represented since January 1967. The only closer race was in 1974, when Bill Clinton came within 6,300 votes of ousting Hammerschmidt. Clinton narrowly carried the 3rd in his successful run for President, a presumed factor in the closeness of the 1992 congressional race.

The district reverted to form in 1994, and Hutchinson was reelected with 63 percent of the vote.

United States Senator

1996 election

Hutchinson ran for the Senate seat being vacated by popular Democrat David Pryor in 1996. Initially, the leading Republican candidate was Lieutenant Governor Mike Huckabee. When Democratic Governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned after being convicted of mail fraud, however, Huckabee assumed the governorship and dropped out of the Senate race;^[2] Hutchinson entered soon after and captured the Republican nomination. He would face state Attorney General Winston Bryant in the general election. Even though native son Bill Clinton carried the state by a 17 point margin over Bob Dole in the presidential race,^[3] Hutchinson defeated Bryant 53%-47% in the Senate election, largely by running up the votes in his congressional district. He became the first Republican Senator from Arkansas since Reconstruction, and the first to be popularly elected.

Tenure

His voting record was strongly conservative: he is pro-life, supports tax cuts, supports de-regulation of the economy, supports the death penalty and a Constitutional amendment banning flag burning, opposes same-sex marriage, and opposes expanding hate crimes legislation.

He served on the Armed Services Committee, Aging Committee, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Veterans' Affairs Committee. He was one of 16 co-sponsors of the Iraq Resolution (S.J.RES.46).^[4]

Senator Hutchinson honored the Little Rock Nine in the award ceremony for their Congressional Medals of Honor.^[5]

2002 election

Hutchinson faced Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor, David Pryor's son, in his 2002 re-election campaign. During his term as U.S. Senator, Hutchinson had divorced his wife of almost three decades, Donna, a former Arkansas state representative, and married an aide in 2000. Hutchinson denied any impropriety, and Pryor refused to make the matter an issue in the campaign, but the well-publicized divorce substantially hurt his popularity. Pryor was also helped by the presence of his still popular father in a campaign commercial.^[6] Hutchinson lost to Pryor by eight points, making him the only Republican incumbent to be defeated that year.^[7]Jim Keet, the 2010 Arkansas Republican gubernatorial nominee, operated Hutchinson's Little Rock office for a time prior to 2002.^[8]

Post-political career

Hutchinson joined the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Dickstein Shapiro in January 2003 as a senior adviser.^[9]

Family

Randi Fredholm Hutchinson

Tim is married to Randi Fredholm Hutchinson. She joined Dickstein Shapiro in September 2001 and serves as counsel in the Public Policy & Law Practice.

In 1984, Fredholm served as a staff assistant on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. On this committee she provided assistance on the Water Resources Development Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Superfund legislation. During 1985, she was a staff assistant to U.S. Senator Patrick Patrick Leahy. In 1986, she worked in the Majority Office of the New Jersey General Assembly.

From the fall of 1986 to 1993, Fredholm served as Legislative Director to U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt, the Ranking Member on the Public Works and Transportation Committee. She was responsible for overseeing and coordinating the legislative agenda in the congressman’s personal office, working closely with the Transportation Committee staff.

From 1993 to 1997, Fredholm was the legislative director to U.S. Representative Tim Hutchinson. While directing the congressman’s staff and overall legislative program, Ms. Hutchinson had specific legislative responsibilities in the areas of transportation, infrastructure, environment, and welfare reform. Legislation she was involved in included the 1996 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, several of the Water Resources Development Act bills, and the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. Upon the congressman’s election to the U.S. Senate, she moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, to work in the state office. From 1997 to 1998, Fredholm continued as a senior advisor to the senator, including serving as state director. She had responsibility over the senator’s state offices and continued her work on infrastructure and environmental projects.

Mrs. Hutchinson is admitted to practice in Arkansas, and the District of Columbia. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the Arkansas Bar Association.

Mrs. Hutchinson received her B.A. in both political studies and history from Gordon College (1986), and her J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) School of Law (2000), where she was a member of the UALR Law Review.

Donna Jean Hutchinson (born 1949), Hutchinson's first wife, is a Republican former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from District 98, which includes part of Benton County. A resident of Bella Vista, she was initially elected to the House in 2006 and assumed her position in January 2007. She was term-limited and ineligible to seek a fourth two-year term in 2012. A member of the Blackfeet tribe, she was reared in a military family and lived in twenty-nine different locations as a child. She holds a master's degree in education from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She is employed as a professional mediator and is a non-denominational Christian.^[10]

Donna and Tim Hutchinson divorced in 1999. He subsequently married Randi Fredholm Hutchinson, a senior member of his staff.^[11]

Tim and Donna Hutchinson have three sons. Jeremy Hutchinson (born 1974) is a former state representative who has served since 2011 in the Arkansas State Senate. Another son, Timothy Chad Hutchinson, Jeremy's twin, of Fayetteville previously served with his brother in the state House. Jeremy and Timothy Hutchinson were the first identical twins to serve alongside each other in the Arkansas General Assembly, both as members of the Arkansas House. A third son, Joshua Luke Hutchinson (born c. 1978), is a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and resides in Texas.

Tim Hutchinson's brother is Asa Hutchinson, a Republican former member of the U.S. House from Arkansas's 3rd congressional district, the former undersecretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2006, the same year that Donna Hutchinson was elected to the state House. Prior to his election to the Senate in 1996, Tim Hutchinson had also held the Third District U.S. House seat.

Tim and Asa Hutchinson are both 1972 graduates of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

Tim and Asa Hutchinson are the brothers-in-law of Arkansas State Senator Kim Hendren, who married Hutchinson's sister, Marylea, in 1958. Hendren was a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the 2010 election. On May 18, he lost the primary to current Senator John Boozman. Kim Hendren's son, Jim Hendren, was elected in 2012 to the District 2 seat from Benton County in the Arkansas State Senate.

References

External links

• Senate website archived by the Library of Congress
• Tim Hutchinson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Hutchinson on the issues

United States Senators from Arkansas Class 2 Fulton Ashley Sebastian McDonald Clayton Garland Berry Davis Heiskell Kavanaugh Robinson Miller Spencer McClellan Hodges D. Pryor Hutchinson M. Pryor Cotton Class 3 Sevier Borland Johnson Mitchel Rice Dorsey Walker Jones Clarke Kirby T. Caraway H. Caraway Fulbright Bumpers Lincoln Boozman

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas Territory Bates Conway Sevier At-large Yell Cross Yell Newton Johnson Hynes Breckinridge 1st district Greenwood Hindman Roots Hanks Hodges Gause Dunn Cate Featherstone Cate McCulloch Macon Caraway Driver Gathings Alexander Lincoln Berry Crawford 2nd district Warren Rust Warren Rust Hinds Elliott A. Rogers O. Snyder Slemons Jones Breckinridge Little Brundidge W. Oldfield P. Oldfield Miller Mills Tucker Bethune T. Robinson Thornton V. Snyder Griffin Hill 3rd district Boles Edwards Boles Wilshire Gunter Wilshire J. Cravens J. Rogers McRae Dinsmore Floyd Tillman Fuller Ellis Fulbright Trimble Hammerschmidt T. Hutchinson A. Hutchinson Boozman Womack 4th district Gunter Peel J. Rogers Terry Reid Little W. B. Cravens O. Wingo E. Wingo W. B. Cravens W. F. Cravens Tackett Harris Pryor Thornton Anthony Dickey Ross Cotton Westerman 5th district Peel Dinsmore Reid Jacoway Ragon Terry Hays Alford 6th district Neill Brundidge J. Robinson S. Taylor C. Taylor Sawyer Reed Glover McClellan W. Norrell C. Norrell 7th district Wallace Goodwin Parks Kitchens Harris