‘Revitalized’ Over Whitewater, McDougal Says He’ll Seek Office

James B. McDougal, the Arkansas business partner of the Clintons in the failed Whitewater real estate deal, announced a bid for Congress Tuesday, saying that the controversy has “revitalized” him after years of bankruptcy, bad health and mental illness.

McDougal is under investigation by Whitewater special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. in connection with a variety of actions arising from the Whitewater project and the failure of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, which he owned. He declared his candidacy in Arkansas’ 4th District, which includes his current residence of Arkadelphia.

“I’ve just decided it’s time for me to come out again and give these Republicans a fight,” McDougal told a packed gathering of reporters in the state Capitol rotunda in Little Rock.

The seat is currently held by Republican Jay Dickey of Pine Bluff, who was first elected in 1992.

McDougal said that he is not planning to advertise much because the Whitewater scandal has made his name well known.

The Whitewater figure said that he would not have a large campaign budget because he is broke, living on approximately $1,000 a month in Social Security disability payments and a small inheritance. He is living in a borrowed bedroom in a friend’s house in Arkadelphia.

McDougal, 53, suffered a stroke in 1986 and said he has been battling manic depression for several years. He said Tuesday that he takes the mood-altering drugs Prozac and lithium.

He and his former wife, Susan, were equal partners with President and Mrs. Clinton in the Whitewater Development Corp., a 230-acre retirement property project in northern Arkansas.

Fiske is examining the real estate venture and its relationship to now-defunct Madison Guaranty. Madison’s failure in 1989 cost taxpayers at least $47 million.