You have literally hundreds of appointments that you can make over the next couple of years, patronage, jobs. Bumpers has heart problems, but I think this was probably going to be Dale's last term anyway. Bynum Gibson of Monticello, chairman of the state Democratic Party, is not so sure. I'm not going to try to predict what Mike Huckabee is going to do. But being governor, I would think, is vastly different than being U.S. senator.
Most people agree it's a harder job.
You have more interests to balance, you have more politics to play. By and large it's riskier business. I don't think he's a risk-taker. State government being what it is, things can come up where you have to take a position on things-something he's not accustomed to doing. Dropping out of the Senate race would create an immediate problem for the Republicans.