Asa Hutchinson

Asa Hutchinson (born December 3, 1950) is a former U.S. Attorney for the 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 of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. A graduate of Bob Jones University and with a law degree from the University of Arkansas, Hutchinson is currently running for governor of Arkansas.

Legal career

Before being elected to political office in 1996, Hutchinson practiced law in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for 21 years and tried over 100 jury trials. It was during this time that he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. At the age of 31, he 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. In 1984 he prosecuted Roger Clinton, Jr., the brother of then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton on cocaine possession charges.

Political career

In 1986, Hutchinson's first political race (for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Dale Bumpers) ended in defeat. In 1990, Hutchinson's race against Winston Bryant for Attorney General ended the same way. After losing that race, Hutchinson became the chairman of the state Republican Party, a position he would hold for 5 years. Hutchinson considered a rematch with Bumpers in 1992 before deferring 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.

U.S. Congress

In 1996, when his brother decided not to run for re-election in the House, running for the U.S. Senate instead, Hutchinson ran for the seat and won. (His brother also won his campaign for Senate, and served for one term.)

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, offering an alternative proposal to the the bill by Christopher Shays and Marty Meehan, which he opposed on the grounds that it "went too far". Hutchinson did support the bill by John McCain and Russ Feingold in the Senate. ^*

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. During his tenure at the DEA, Hutchinson led a re-evalution 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 and Predatory Drugs (also known as Date rape Drugs) against women.

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.

In January of 2005, Hutchinson announced that he was stepping down from DHS and returning to Arkansas.

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 the 2006 election. He will face the Democratic nominee, attorney general Mike Beebe, in the general election on Tuesday, November 7, 2006

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 the Venable Law Firm in Washington, DC as the chair of its Homeland Security practice. Hutchinson ended his contract with Venable in March 2006 to focus on his campaign for Arkansas Governor and his consulting firm in Little Rock.

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 notes that Hutchinson is unable to touch his stock for another two years. The six founding shareholders in Fortress America include, besides Hutchinson, 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. Hutchinson filed an amended report the following day, May 5, to correct for the oversight. [http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/153831/.

External links

1950 births | Living people | American lawyers | Members of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas | People from Arkansas