Tim Hutchinson

Infobox Senator | name=Tim Hutchinson
nationality=American


jr/sr=United States Senator
state=Arkansas
party=Republican
term_start=January 7, 1997
term_end=January 3, 2003
preceded=David Pryor
succeeded=Mark Pryor
state2=Arkansas
district2=3rd
term_start2=January 3, 1993
term_end2=January 2, 1997
preceded2=John P. Hammerschmidt
succeeded2=Asa Hutchinson
date of birth=birth date and age|1949|08|11
place of birth=Bentonville, Arkansas
dead=alive
date of death=
place of death=
spouse= 1) Donna Hutchinson (divorced)
2) Randi Fredholm
religion=Baptist

Timothy "Tim" Hutchinson (born August 11, 1949) is a Republican politician and former senator from the state of Arkansas.

Hutchinson was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, and he graduated from Bob Jones University. He currently practices law and is a resident of Alexandria, Virginia.

Early political career

Hutchinson served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1985 to 1992. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1992, representing the 3rd District to succeed retiring incumbent John P. Hammerschmidt. He defeated a fellow Republican state lawmaker Richard L. Barclay of Rogers, also from Benton County. Hutchinson served in the House until 1997, after being elected to the United States Senate.

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 [Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=108 |title=Mike Huckabee |publisher=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |accessdate=2008-07-17] ; 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, [Cite web |url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/u/usa/pres/1996.txt |title=Presidential Elections of 1996 |accessdate=2007-07-17 |publisher=Adam Carr's Election Archive] Hutchinson defeated Bryant 53%-47% to become the first Republican Senator from Arkansas since Reconstruction.

Actions in the Senate

His voting record was 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). [Cite web |url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SJ00046:@@@P |title=S.J.RES.46 |accessdate=2008-07-17 |publisher=The Library of Congress]

2002 re-election campaign

Hutchinson faced a tough re-election campaign in 2002 against Attorney General Mark Pryor, David Pryor's son. During his term as Senator, Hutchinson divorced his wife of twenty-nine years and then married a congressional aide in 2000. Though Hutchinson denied any impropriety and Pryor refused to make it an issue in the campaign, the divorce was well known to his constituents and substantially hurt his popularity. Pryor was also helped by the presence of his still popular father in a campaign commercial. [ Cite web |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A38104-2002Aug2 |title=In Tight Arkansas Senate Race, Family Matters |publisher=Washington Post |accessdate=2008-07-17 |date=2002-08-03 |last=Russakoff |first=Dale] Hutchinson lost to Pryor by eight points, making him the only Republican incumbent to be defeated that year. [Cite web |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/11/05/elec02.ar.s.hotrace/index.html |title=Pryor defeats Hutchinson in Arkansas |date=2002-11-02 |accessdate=2008-07-17 |publisher=CNN]

Post-political career

Hutchinson joined the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Dickstein Shapiro in January of 2003 as a senior adviser. [ [http://www.dicksteinshapiro.com/hutchinsont/ Hutchinson's bio at Dickstein Shapiro LLP] ]

Family

His twin sons, Timothy and Jeremy Hutchinson, were both members of the Arkansas House. Tim, Jr. represented parts of the communities of Rogers and Lowell while Jeremy represented part of Pulaski and Saline counties.

His brother Asa Hutchinson was his successor in the House of Representatives and later served as director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

References

External links

* [http://wasearch.loc.gov/107th/20021212012120/http://hutchinson.senate.gov/ Senate website archived by the Library of Congress]
*Congbio|H001015
* [http://ontheissues.org/Senate/Tim_Hutchinson.htm Hutchinson on the issues]