Former Gov. Mike Huckabee's second bid for the presidency is official.
He announced the run on Tuesday, as expected, in his hometown of Hope. That is the same small south Arkansas town that produced President Bill Clinton and Huckabee's announcement was punched with references to his political emergence from "Bill Clinton's Arkansas."
The conservative Republican, who left Arkansas to build a national broadcasting career on radio and TV, joins an ever-growing field of candidates for the party's nomination. Six have formally announced. More will join the race.
In recent months, Huckabee gave up his broadcasts as he prepared to run again for president. He last ran in 2008, the same year Hillary Clinton sought the presidency the first time.
Both are coming into this contest as experienced campaigners, although they start from different places. Clinton is the established front-runner for the Democratic nomination while Huckabee starts well behind Floridians Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio in the Republican race.
Nevertheless, Huckabee opens his bid with double-digit numbers in the polls, solid name recognition and strong support in the conservative Christian base that propelled him to win the Iowa caucuses in 2008.
That upset win catapulted him to victory in Southern primaries that year, but his campaign ultimately collapsed because of inadequate funding.
Huckabee is still counting on support of evangelical Christian voters but will apparently work to broaden his appeal, focusing on economic and foreign affairs issues as well as the usual social issues.
We'll learn more about that later, but here's the question of the day. What does Huckabee's entry signal for Arkansas?
He wasn't taken so seriously last time around as he will be this time. Nor were there so many others who might gin up opposition campaigns against him.
Consequently, his record in Arkansas, as lieutenant governor and governor, may get greater scrutiny.
Even a video released just prior to his announcement deserves a little scrutiny.
The video opens on Rex Nelson, identified in the video as political editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
That's the first problem.
Nelson has held that title but he should have been identified instead as a long-time spokesman and campaign manager for Huckabee. Nelson has since held other jobs and is moving on to another one soon, but he was clearly speaking as a former Huckabee staffer.
Now to the message:
"On his first day in office, Gov. Huckabee's door was nailed shut. It was in Bill Clinton's Arkansas," says Nelson.
What he said was true, if you know that lieutenant governors are commonly called "governor."
If you don't know that, or that Huckabee's first day "in office" was as lieutenant governor, the video might make you think the door nailed shut was to the Arkansas governor's office. The video also suggests it was done with rough-cut wood hammered into place, as the exaggerated opening image portrays.
Here's the real history for those who care to know.
Huckabee was elected lieutenant governor in a special election after then-Gov. Bill Clinton was elected president. Jim Guy Tucker, who was the lieutenant governor, moved up to replace Clinton as governor.
The lieutenant governor's office was empty from the time of Clinton's resignation on Dec. 12, 1992, until after the July 27, 1993, special election. Somewhere during the transition, part of the lieutenant governor's office was sealed off to provide space for another office. A door was nailed shut.
That's what greeted Huckabee on his actual first day in office. Eventually, his office got the additional space back.
Huckabee served as lieutenant governor until Tucker had to resign as governor and Huckabee moved up.
While the nailed-shut door might make for more captivating video, Huckabee's best day in office may have been his last as lieutenant governor and first as governor.
Arkansas state government was in crisis because Tucker, who had been convicted of fraud, threatened at the 11th-hour not to resign. He rescinded his resignation just as Huckabee was preparing to be sworn in on July 15, 1996.
Huckabee handled the situation calmly and well, working with legislative leaders of the day. Tucker did resign and Huckabee began what would be a 10-year tenure as governor.
He finished the remaining two years of Tucker's term and won election to two four-year terms of his own.
So, expect what happened in those 10 years to come under greater scrutiny now that Huckabee is in the presidential race.
He may be long removed from Arkansas but this is where his political history is.
Unfortunately, some of what you hear will be right and some won't be, depending on who is providing the political spin and for what purpose.
Commentary on 05/06/2015