Jim Guy Tucker, a former governor of Arkansas who was caught up in the long-running investigation that unsuccessfully targeted his predecessor as governor, Bill Clinton, died on Thursday in Little Rock, Ark. He was 81. His death, at a hospital, was caused by complications of ulcerative colitis, said his daughter Anna Ashton.
His resignation as governor in July 1996, after serving less than two years of his term, was part of a larger story of intrigue and political scandal that entangled politicians, businessmen, and even a presidential candidate. The Whitewater investigation, which looked into purportedly fraudulent land deals in northwest Arkansas, was led by a Republican special prosecutor and consumed much of the Clinton presidency. But it wound up netting only secondary players on minor charges.
Tucker was one of them. He had been a leading figure in Arkansas politics and a rival to Clinton in the Arkansas Democratic Party. But he was forced to resign as governor, and he later served time in prison, where he had been sentenced to four years’ probation, after being convicted of receiving a fraudulent loan from a small business development company, Capital Management Services, in the mid-1980s.
But his conviction, like the Whitewater scandal itself, was later questioned. A federal judge sentenced him to four years of probation and ordered him to pay $294,000 in restitution to the Small Business Administration. Tucker avoided jail time due to testimony about a serious health condition and had already left the governor’s mansion before his sentence.
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