LITTLE ROCK — It would not be enough for Gov. Mike Huckabee to give back the $25,000 a publisher is paying him for his new book, Kids Who Kill, the Democratic Party state chairman said Thursday.
Huckabee should call his publisher and stop the book from reaching stores, Vaughn McQuary of Little Rock said.
The Republican Party state chairman, Lloyd Stone of Conway, defended Huckabee's book, calling it "a book that addresses the greatest law and order issue of our time."
Huckabee is the Republican nominee for governor in the Nov. 3 general election.
Stone accused a Jonesboro lawyer and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill Bristow of being hypocrites for saying on Wednesday that Huckabee should apologize for the book.
McDaniel said Huckabee should donate the money to a scholarship fund commemorating victims of a March 24 schoolyard shooting near Jonesboro.
"If the governor needs $25,000 so badly, I'm sure I can find 25,000 Democrats willing to donate $1 apiece to prevent this embarrassment to Arkansas," said McQuary. "This is nothing but the exploitation of what happened in Jonesboro."
"How can he know that when he hasn't read the book?" responded Jim Harris, spokesman for Huckabee. "To our knowledge, the only copy of the book that's in Arkansas is at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette."
The contract between Huckabee and the publisher was signed on April 6, 13 days after the shootings, The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reported Thursday.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed editor for the publisher.
Huckabee had been working on the book months before the shooting, his spokesmen have said.
"I wasn't privy to the book negotiations, but I know I've personally heard him talking about such a book since last summer at least," Harris said.
Bobby McDaniel, attorney for relatives of two of the shooting victims, said Wednesday Huckabee should donate the $25,000 to the scholarship fund.
McDaniel, a supporter and friend of Bristow, also criticized Huckabee for "personally profiting from this tragedy."
Bristow had nothing to add, but retracted nothing, his spokesman, Kay Stebbins, said Thursday.
How does one stop a book that's already being printed? McQuary said, "It seems to me that he has a good working relationship with his publisher, since this same publisher came out with his first book. He should at least try."
Stone accused Bristow and McDaniel of "hypocrisy" for attacking Huckabee. The book is not "centered on" the tragedy near Jonesboro, but on "the ills in our society that are responsible for this and other shootings," Stone said.
He said McDaniel will profit from representing victims' families in lawsuits.
"Is that not the ultimate profiteering?" Stone said.
In a written statement, Stone said Bristow "represented a convicted cop killer, James Dean Walker" and defended former Attorney General Steve Clark who was convicted of theft by deception from the state.
McDaniel said accepting a commission growing out of a court judgment for making sure victims of a homicide are represented differs from being a "public servant who should serve the public, not profit from the tragedies of the public."
He said his statement represents the views of his clients.
"These are my thoughts and the families' thoughts," he said.
"The families have authorized me to state their position in advance.
"The families are angry with Gov. Huckabee, who apparently lacks the insight or sensitivity to see that what he did was wrong and hurtful," McDaniel said. "Apologize, donate the money to the West Side scholarship fund, and get on the business of the state."
He said Stone "chose to attack me personally" rather than "admit he [Huckabee] is wrong. This is about Gov. Huckabee, not Bobby McDaniel," McDaniel said.
He said average citizens could not afford to hire an experienced lawyer without a contingent fee arrangement "which is the poor man's key to the courthouse."
"In this case, without a civil judgment against the killers, they could sell their stories at age 18 and keep the money," McDaniel said.
He said neither he nor the victims' families are interested in making political hay out of the book issue for Bristow or anybody else.
"We just want this dealt with and gone," McDaniel said.
Four students and a teacher were killed in an ambush at Westside Middle School at Bono on March 23. Ten other people were wounded.
The book, subtitled Confronting Our Culture of Violence, was published by Broadman and Holman of Nashville, Tenn., which has published for the Baptist Sunday School Board.
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