US Presidential Election Candidates

Former Arkansas governor, Republican Mike Huckabee's campaign may be haunted by the ghost of rapist Wayne Dumond. While Dumond died in prison in 2005, Huckabee's rivals are reviving the controversy surrounding the 'special' efforts put in by Huckabee to grant parole for Dumond.

Freeing Dumond was a mistake, as the rapist went on to rape and kill two other women in Northwest Arkansas and in West Missouri. Huckabee himself has however, denied responsibility for freeing Dumond. He has consistently underplayed his role in the affair, saying that the process of granting Dumond parole was started by his Democratic predecessors, namely Jim Tucker and Bill Clinton, and that he merely supported Dumond's eligibility for being paroled.

Mike Huckabee has often drawn criticism for being weak on illegal immigration. In 2005, as Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee had supported a bill that proposed to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for scholarships and in-state college tuition. His argument in favor of the bill was that it would allow children who had completed their schooling in Arkansas to have the same opportunities as their peers. It would also ensure, he maintained, that a child was not punished—by being denied educational opportunities that he deserved on academic merit, only because of his illegal status—for a crime committed by his parents.

While the bill was never passed, Huckabee's decision to support it was questioned. In 2007, when he was asked about it during a Republican presidential debate, Huckabee defended the bill on the following grounds:

a)     The bill required stringent conditions and applied only to a student who had schooled in Arkansas from the age of five to six years onwards.

b)     The student would need to have been an A-plus student, with an exceptional record, who had completed the core-curriculum.

c)     He had a drug- and alcohol-free record.

d)     He had to apply for citizenship."