No arguments. But a $25k salary is more or less encouraging the officeholder to “supplement” his salary, as the old New Orleans police force did. The idea was that it saved the taxpayers money over funding a fully paid force.
Good point,, shades of part-time legislators actually being a sane and safe way to govern the masses,, a great idea and one we could readily afford today across the nation as many states have become nothing more than ‘puppy mills for legislation’ that does more to grease their palms than benefit the public.
I think the main point on this piece is that he refused to acknowledge he was getting tobacco money even as he denied it.. and expected others to accept him at his word. The record would seem to speak otherwise, however.
At that time I was making less than that in base pay as a service member.
Should I have considered myself “encouraged” to “supplement” my income in unsavory ways?
Low government salaries seem to inspire Arkansas politicians to all sorts of creative endeavors to supplement their pay. Can you say Whitewater?
Huckabee should be toast. Why he isn't is way beyond the capabilities of my pea-brain to discern.
My thought is that it is not so much that he got money from this “Action America” thing but that he consistently refused to reveal who was donating the money.
If his trips around the country to urge pastors to get their congregations to oppose the Clinton health plan were indeed financed by Reynolds Tobacco, both the pastors and the congregations should have been told of the Reynolds backing. Since many evangelicals oppose smoking altogether, it might well have made a difference in the weight they gave Huckabee’s speeches.