Victory in Arkansas State Race Hailed by GOP as Anti-Clinton
For the first time in 13 years, voters in President Clinton’s home state have elected a Republican to statewide office, and GOP leaders say it is a sign that the President is in trouble.
Among those commenting about Tuesday’s election was Bob Dole, Senate Republican leader.
“Today, there’s new hope for Republicans. Not Hope, Ark., but hope in Arkansas, where voters have chosen Republican Mike Huckabee as their lieutenant governor,” Dole said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
Arkansas voters chose Huckabee, a Baptist minister from Texarkana, over 33-year-old lawyer Nate Coulter, the favored candidate of many top figures in the dominant state Democratic Party. Coulter is a former counsel to then-Gov. Clinton and has worked as a lawyer for the state party.
“There was a very hostile climate out there to the Democratic Party in general, and to Bill Clinton in particular,” a dejected Coulter conceded after the election.
But Clinton’s press secretary, Dee Dee Myers, said the outcome had nothing to do with the President. “It was not a referendum on the President or his program,” she said.
Democratic Gov. Jim Guy Tucker called the special election to choose a successor for the office he vacated in succeeding Clinton as governor Dec. 12.
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