{"id":703,"date":"2007-11-02T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-02T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=703"},"modified":"2007-11-02T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-02T20:40:00","slug":"free-transport-huckabee-and-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=703","title":{"rendered":"Free Transport: Huckabee and family"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Updated: 12\/1\/2005<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

FREE TRANSPORT: Huckabee and family <\/span><\/strong>got it for this
\nmarathon run.<\/span><\/strong><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Gov.
\nMike Huckabee is still flying high on the taxpayers’ dime and refusing to
\nprovide details about it, claiming <\/span>security
\ninterests.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The Arkansas Times
\nfirst reported Nov. 3 about his use of the State Police’s twin-engine
\nBeechcraft King Air 200. He <\/span>has used it
\nseveral times since.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

From Oct. 22 to
\nNov. 10 he used the plane to fly to Atlanta, Charlotte, twice to Dallas and
\nthree times to Washington, D.C. On one of those trips, Huckabee and his wife,
\nson and daughter-in-law traveled to and from Washington so Gov. <\/span>and Mrs. Huckabee could participate in the Marine
\nCorps marathon.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Huckabee
\nwill not answer questions about how or why he decides to use the State Police
\nplane for almost all of his out-of-state travel, which includes about 40 trips
\nin 2005. “Whether we are talking in general or about specifics, when it is
\na <\/span>matter of travel
\nit is a security issue and we’re not going to comment,” said Huckabee
\npress secretary Alice Stewart. It <\/span>is
\nunclear what security concerns exist after a trip, but Stewart won’t discuss
\nthat either.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

State Police spokesman Bill
\nSadler said the department has “no recollection or record” of
\nHuckabee ever reimbursing <\/span>the department
\nfor his use of its aircraft<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

A
\nschedule released by Huckabee’s office says he is to be in Carlsbad, Calif.,
\nfor a Republican Governors Association <\/span>meeting from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, New York City to receive
\nan award on Dec. 5 and Greensboro, N.C., to deliver a speech on Dec. 6. His
\noffice would not say if Huckabee will use the State Police plane for those
\ntrips.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Sadler
\nsaid Huckabee’s use of the plane is governed by Section 12-8-108(a) of the
\nArkansas Code, which says, “The <\/span>Department of Arkansas State Police shall be responsible
\nfor the safety and security of the: (1) Governor and his or her <\/span>family.” It makes no
\nspecific provision for use of the plane to transport the governor, an expense
\nworth thousands of <\/span>dollars for every trip
\nat private industry prices.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Also,
\nChapter 17 of the State Police Field Operations Policy and Procedure Manual
\nrefers to the department’s aircraft. <\/span>Among the approved uses other than for law enforcement
\noperations is “transportation of other state officials in the <\/span>performance of official state business.”<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nsame chapter stipulates “the determination of whether a situation warrants
\nthe use of ASP aircraft shall be made by <\/span>ASP field supervisors. (The Commander of the Executive
\nProtection Unit may also schedule and request ASP aircraft <\/span>for use by the Governor.)”<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

According
\nto the manual, State Police flights must adhere to Federal Aviation
\nRegulations, which in the case of the <\/span>King
\nAir 200 are found in Part 91.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In South Dakota,
\nDemocratic state legislators have asked the Federal Aviation Administration
\nwhether their governor’s <\/span>use of a King
\nAir 200 complies with Part 91.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nArgus Leader, South Dakota’s largest newspaper, reported in September that Gov.
\nMike Rounds “sometimes uses <\/span>the state airplane to travel to high school athletic
\ncontests and other non-public events, often taking family members <\/span>and friends along. Rounds said
\nstate law allows him to pay for nonpublic use of the state-owned airplanes. He
\nsaid he <\/span>usually uses
\neither his campaign fund or a Governor’s Club fund created by donors to the
\nstate Republican Party to <\/span>reimburse the
\nstate for those trips.”<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In
\na survey of public aircraft policies in 49 states, the Argus Leader found mat
\nmost states clearly prohibit use of state-<\/span>owned planes for personal or political travel. For
\nArkansas the newspaper quoted Rex Nelson, Huckabee’s former <\/span>communications director, as
\nsaying, “He doesn’t use the airplane for personal trips. Occasionally,
\nthere’s a day when <\/span>official business
\ntravel is mixed with politics.”<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

There is bi-partisan
\nsupport among South Dakota lawmakers for examination of the use of the state
\nairplane by Rounds, <\/span>who is a Republican.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated: 12\/1\/2005 FREE TRANSPORT: Huckabee and family got it for this marathon run. Gov. Mike Huckabee is still flying high on the taxpayers’ dime and refusing to provide details about it, claiming security interests. The Arkansas Times first reported Nov. 3 about his use of the State Police’s twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 200. He has … Continue reading Free Transport: Huckabee and family<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-state-government-offenses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}