Donna Hutchinson

Last updated
Tim Hutchinson
​
​
(m. 1970;div. 1999)​
Donna Jean King Hutchinson
Member of the ArkansasHouseofRepresentatives
from the 98th district
In office
January 2007 –January 2013
Relations Asa Hutchinson (former brother-in-law)
Jeremy Y. Hutchinson and
Timothy Chad Hutchinson (twin sons)
Joshua Luke Hutchinson (youngest son)
Jim Hendren (former nephew by marriage)
Kim Hendren (former in-law)
Residence(s) Bella Vista, Benton County
Arkansas, U.S.
Alma mater University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
OccupationMediation counselor

Donna Jean King Hutchinson (born August 23, 1949) is a Republican former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from District 98, which includes part of fast-growing Benton County in Northwest Arkansas. A resident of Bella Vista, she was initially elected to the House in 2006 and assumed her position in January 2007.

Contents

Family background

A member of the Blackfeet Nation, [1] Hutchinson was born into a ranching family in Montana. As a child, she lived in twenty-nine different locations. She holds a master's degree in education from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Employed as a professional mediator by DJ Consulting, [2] she is a non-denominational Christian. [1]

Her son, Jeremy Hutchinson, is a former state representative who has served since 2011 in the Arkansas State Senate from a district in Little Rock. Timothy Chad Hutchinson, Jeremy's twin brother from Springdale, previously served with his mother in the state House. The twins were born in 1974 in Kansas City, Kansas. A third son, Joshua Luke Hutchinson (born 1978) resided in 2013 in Keller, near Fort Worth, Texas, and was formerly a resident of Rogers, Arkansas. Tim Hutchinson, Donna Hutchinson's former husband, from whom she was divorced in 1999 after twenty-nine years of marriage, [3] served from 1997 to 2003 as the first Republican U.S. senator from Arkansas since 1879, two years after the close of Reconstruction. In 2000, a year after the divorce from Donna, Tim Hutchinson married in a private ceremony his former staffer and state director, Randi Fredholm, who is fourteen years his junior. She had left Hutchinson's employ in 1998 to attend law school. Hutchinson asked his sons not to attend the wedding out of respect for their mother. He called the collapse of his first marriage an "intensely personal thing." [4]

In 2002, Tim Hutchinson was unseated by former Democratic Senator Mark Pryor. Tim and Randi Hutchinson are employed by the Dickstein Shapiro firm, he as senior advisor and she as an attorney, and the couple resides in Alexandria, Virginia. [3] As a congressional wife from 1993 to 1999, Donna Hutchinson had remained in Arkansas. Tim Hutchinson had filed for divorce on grounds that the couple had lived apart for more than eighteen months, the requirement for an uncontested divorce in Arkansas. [4]

Her former brother-in-law, Asa Hutchinson, is a Republican former member of the United States House of Representatives for Arkansas's 3rd congressional district and former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. In 2014 he was elected as governor of Arkansas. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate in 1996, Tim Hutchinson had preceded his brother as representative for the Third Congressional District.

Political career

Representative Hutchinson served on the Arkansas House Education Committee and was the chairman of the Subcommittee on Vocational-Technical Institutions. She was assigned to the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Joint Budget Committee. For a time, she chaired the Arkansas Legislative Women's Caucus. [1]

Representative Hutchinson sponsored legislation designed to (1) protect children from registered sex offenders, (2) further define the criminal act of voyeurism, and (3) ascertain that the legislature receives information on highway funding prior to each regular session and each fiscal session. [2] In 2012, Hutchinson ranked 89 percent on the Arkansas Freedom Scorecard, which measures the votes cast by legislators in regard to issues relating to economic freedom, educational reform, "good government," personal liberty, small government, and tax/budget policy. Only ten members of the House at that time ranked higher on the survey than did Hutchinson. [2]

Hutchinson considered educational issues the most vital to Arkansas because 60 percent of the state budget is earmarked for schools and universities. In an interview with Progressive Arkansas, she explains her concerns:

We are ranked one of the highest states in students attending college, but the lowest in students graduating. Our education system shuffles students through the process without giving them an adequate education to be successful ... I am not advocating all students enter college, but they should be prepared for a job. We have a huge problem when 25 percent of our students entering college -- not just graduating from high school, but going on to college -- must be given remediation in reading! We have conducted interim studies for two years; we understand the problems and hope to have bills which will correct them. These will not be easy bills to pass. ... We have not been getting our money's worth. Education is about the students, not the adults running the system, but those adults will be determined to keep the status quo. [5]

In 2010, Hutchinson sponsored legislation to ban K2, a synthetic drug often likened to marijuana. K-2 is placed on materials such as incense that are dried and smoked. [6]

In her last election in 2010, Hutchinson defeated an Independent, candidate, Jim Parsons, by a wide margin. [2] Ineligible to seek a fourth term in the House in 2012, [7] she was succeeded in a reconfigured District 98 by fellow Republican John Burris of Harrison in Boone County, previously the representative from District 85.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Pryor</span> American politician (1934–2024)

David Hampton Pryor was an American politician who served as a representative for Arkansas's 4th congressional district from 1966 until 1973 and as a senator from Arkansas from 1979 until 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Pryor also served as the 39th Governor of Arkansas from 1975 to 1979 and was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966. He served as the acting chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party from 2008 to 2009, following Bill Gwatney's assassination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blanche Lincoln</span> American politician (born 1960)

Blanche Lambert Lincoln is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 1999 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected to the Senate in 1998; she was the first woman elected to the Senate from Arkansas since Hattie Caraway in 1932 and youngest woman ever elected to the Senate at age 38. She previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Arkansas's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Ross (politician)</span> American businessman and politician (born 1961)

Michael Avery Ross is an American businessman and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. representative for Arkansas's 4th congressional district from 2001 to 2013 and was his party's nominee for governor of Arkansas in 2014. He is currently the last Democrat to have represented Arkansas in the House of Representatives. He was also a member of the Arkansas Senate from 1991 to 2001, a member of the Nevada County Quorum Court from 1983 to 1985, and a small business owner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Hutchinson</span> American politician (born 1949)

Young Timothy Hutchinson is an American Republican politician, lobbyist, and former United States senator from the state of Arkansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asa Hutchinson</span> Governor of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023

William Asa Hutchinson II is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 46th governor of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. attorney, U.S. representative, and in two roles in the George W. Bush administration. He was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Jeremy Young Hutchinson is a former politician and convicted felon. A Republican, he served in the Arkansas State Senate for District 33 in the capital city of Little Rock, Arkansas. He served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from two different districts in Pulaski County between 2000 and 2007 and as a state senator from 2011 to his resignation in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Boyda</span> American chemist and politician (born 1955)

Nancy Boyda is an American chemist and politician. She is a former Democratic U.S. Representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district. On November 4, 2008, Boyda was defeated for re-election to a second term by Kansas State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Jenkins</span> American politician (born 1963)

Lynn Haag Jenkins is an American politician and lobbyist who served as the U.S. representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district, in office from 2009 to 2019. She previously served as Kansas State Treasurer from 2003 to 2009, in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1999 to 2000 and the Kansas Senate from 2000 to 2002. She is a member of the Republican Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Huelskamp</span> American politician (born 1968)

Timothy Alan Huelskamp is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for Kansas's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2017. Huelskamp, a member of the Republican Party, was rated the least bipartisan member of the House during the 114th Congress by The Lugar Center - McCourt School of Public Policy Bipartisan Index. Prior to entering Congress, he represented the 38th district of the Kansas Senate from 1997 until 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Fischbach</span> American politician (born 1965)

Michelle Louise Helene Fischbach is an American attorney and politician who is the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 7th congressional district. The district, which is very rural, is Minnesota's largest by area and includes most of the western part of the state. A Republican, Fischbach served as the 49th lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 2018 until 2019. As of 2024, she is the last Republican to have held statewide office in Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Yoder</span> American politician (born 1976)

Kevin Wayne Yoder is an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Kansas's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Yoder was the Kansas State Representative for the 20th district from 2003 to 2011. In his 2018 reelection bid, he was defeated by Democrat Sharice Davids by a nine percent margin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Arkansas gubernatorial election</span>

The 2014 Arkansas gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the Governor of Arkansas, concurrently with the election to Arkansas's Class II U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. This was the last time the Arkansas Governor’s changed partisan control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Arkansas</span>

The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Arkansas was held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014 to elect the four U.S. representatives from the state of Arkansas, one from each of the state's four congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including the governor of Arkansas and a United States senator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Kansas</span>

The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Kansas was held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014, to elect the four U.S. representatives from the state of Kansas, one from each of the state's four congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including the 2014 Kansas gubernatorial election.

Timothy Chad Hutchinson is an attorney in Fayetteville, Arkansas, who is a Republican former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 95 in Benton County. He was initially elected in 2004, two years after his father, Tim Hutchinson, lost reelection to Democrat Mark Pryor to a second term in the United States Senate.

Ann Veasman Clemmer is an American political scientist and politician from the U.S. state of Arkansas. A Republican, Clemmer is a former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, having represented District 23 from 2013 to 2015. She was sworn in for her first term in 2009 in House District 29. Clemmer is also credited as being the first woman ever to preside over the Arkansas House in the state's history, during the 2014 special session held in the Old State House; it was the first time the state legislature convened in the building in more than a century.

James Paul Hendren is an American politician who served as a member of the Arkansas Senate from the 2nd district. From January 2019 to January 2021, he also served as Senate Majority Leader. Until February 2021, he was a Republican; but he had left his party in the wake of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. He resides in Sulphur Springs in Benton County in Northwest Arkansas.

Rebecca Dean Petty, also known as Rebecca DeMauro, is an American politician and activist from Rogers, Arkansas. After her 12-year-old daughter, Andria Brewer, was murdered in 1999, she became an advocate for victims of violent crime. She is also a former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from the 94th district. The district she represented encompasses a part of Benton County in the northwest Arkansas, her adopted state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Arkansas gubernatorial election</span>

The 2022 Arkansas gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the next governor of Arkansas. Incumbent Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson was term-limited and could not seek a third term. Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, defeated Democrat Chris Jones to become the first woman ever elected to the office, and was sworn in on January 10, 2023.

Alicia Dawn Straub is an American politician who is a member of the Kansas Senate from the 33rd District since January 11, 2021. She is a former member of the Kansas House of Representatives representing the 113th district from March 19, 2019, to January 11, 2021. A resident of Ellinwood, Kansas, she was selected by Republican precinct committee members on March 12, 2019, to succeed former Rep. Greg Lewis (R), who resigned due to health issues. Senator Straub was formally appointed by Governor Laura Kelly to the seat on March 14 and was sworn in by Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab on March 19. Prior to her election to the House of Representatives, she served as a county commissioner in Barton County, Kansas and was the commission chairman from January to March 2019. She resigned from the county commission from a meeting on March 18, 2019, in order to take her seat in the Kansas Legislature.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Donna Hutchinson, R-98". arkansashouse.org. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Donna Hutchinson". ballotpedia.org. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Darrell Wayne Brown, Young Timothy "Tim" Hutchinson". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Sen. Tim Hutchinson to wed former staffer". thecabin.net. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Donna Hutchinson: Answers to Questions from Progressive Arkansas, 2010". progressivearkansas.com. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Tabatha Hunter, Representative Wants State K2 Ban, May 21, 2010". The Northwest Arkansas Times . Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Lavina Grandon, RCA members and staff give testimony before legislative committee". thenewrural.org. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.