Huckabee Used Private Fund As Ark. Gov.

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee used a private fund as governor to raise money for his official portrait and a ceremony in honor of the Arkansas quarter, but has not disclosed contributors to the fund.

Janis Harrison, the state Department of Finance and Administration's director of administrative services, said the state helped manage the account while Huckabee was governor but said the fund has since been closed.

"It was a private bank account that was used to collect donations from people who wanted to contribute to state events so taxpayer money would not be used for those events," Harrison said Wednesday.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported on the fund Wednesday and said it was revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request made by the newspaper.

A 2001 law requires public disclosure on donations and gifts that governors and certain other elected officials receive on behalf of the state. Graham Sloan, director of the state Ethics Commission, said he believes that means Huckabee should have disclosed donors to the account.

Huckabee campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart told the newspaper that Huckabee was not involved with the management of the fund. Stewart did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Wednesday morning.

A report filed with the commission last year says Huckabee received a portrait to hang in the state Capitol building valued at between $40,000 and $50,000 from Nancy Harris but does not list any other donors. The newspaper reported that two donors to the fund said they contributed money for the governor's portrait, which was unveiled on Nov. 9, 2006.

Harris, a Williamsburg, Va., artist, painted the portrait.

"If private funds were donated, the people who contributed the money should have been reported rather than the artist," Sloan said.

Sloan would not say whether he believed Huckabee violated state law by not disclosing the names of donors to the fund.

Huckabee's financial interest statements, filed with the secretary of state's office, list no donation to the special events fund or for a portrait.

Harrison said she did not know how much money had been raised by the fund and said it was the only private account the agency helped manage.

"We definitely don't do it anymore," Harrison said. "That was the one private account that we did work with."

Harrison said the account was also used for expenses related to a 2003 ceremony marking the unveiling of the Arkansas quarter.