WASHINGTON - Republican candidate for governor Asa Hutchinson said Thursday that he regrets endorsing the nomination of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2008.
“As I look back and I look at the record he has established, I have no hesitation in saying, first, it was a mistake and second, Eric Holder should resign as Attorney General of the United States,” Hutchinson said in a statement released by his campaign.
Hutchinson was not made available to speak to reporters, and his campaign staff did not answer follow-up questions. Hutchinson initially walked back the endorsement in an interview with KATV-TV, Channel 7, on Wednesday.
Hutchinson endorsed Holder in a Dec. 22, 2008, letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and in a conference call with reporters.
“I always found him to be truthful and forthcoming in his dealings with Congress and with me personally,” the letter stated.
In June 2012, the U.S. House voted 255-67 to hold Holder in contempt of Congress over his failure to turn over documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal, in which weapons from the United States were allowed to pass to suspected gun smugglers.
The goal was to trace the weapons to Mexican drug cartels, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost track of hundreds of weapons, some of which have been linked to crimes, including the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent in 2010.
“He has done an atrocious job of enforcing the law, and this is not the first time that I have called for his resignation. In August of 2013, I publicly called for Holder to resign,”Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson called for Holder’s resignation Aug. 28 on Twitter, his spokesman Christian Olson said.
In a statement, Republican candidate for governor Curtis Coleman called news of the endorsement “a devastating blow to the Republican Party.”
“I am shocked that a Republican gubernatorial candidate would write a glowing endorsement of President Barack Obama’s Attorney General who tells states attorneys general not to enforce their own state laws, who demands acceptance of gay marriage, who wants to outlaw home schools, has sanctioned the killing of American citizens using drones and supports gun control,” he said.
Former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross and Lynette Bryant of Little Rock, who has been a substitute teacher, are the Democratic Party’s nominees.
“This is just the latest example of bureaucrat-turned-lobbyist Asa Hutchinson doing one thing in Washington and saying the exact opposite here in Arkansas. The fact that he worked so aggressively to bring Eric Holder to power - one of the NRA’s biggest adversaries - has to cause many Arkansans to question Congressman Hutchinson’s judgment,” Ross spokesman Brad Howard said.
Ross was one of 17 Democrats who voted to censure Holder in June 2012.
Bryant declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday.
Endorsements of Holder have come up in other political races this year.
In January, Georgia television station WSB-TV, Channel 2, questioned Republican congressional candidate Bob Barr about his 2009 endorsement of Holder. In 2013, Barr, a U.S. representative from 1994 to 2003, called on Holder to resign.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 03/25/2014