Asa Hutchinson

William Asa Hutchinson ( born December 3, 1950 in Bentonville, Arkansas) is an American politician ( Republican). Between 1997 and 2001 he represented the third electoral district of the state of Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Asa Hutchinson is the brother of former U.S. Senator and Congressman Tim Hutchinson. He attended until 1968, the Springdale High School and then studied at the Bob Jones University in Greenville (South Carolina). This was followed up in 1975 to study law at the University of Arkansas. After qualifying as a lawyer Hutchinson worked from 1977 to 1978 as an attorney of the city of Bentonville. Between 1982 and 1985 he was United States Attorney for the Western Arkansas.

1986 Hutchinson ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate; four years later he applied also to no avail for the post of Attorney General of Arkansas. Between 1990 and 1995, Hutchinson was chairman of the Republican Party in his state. In the congressional elections of 1996 he was elected to succeed his brother Tim in the third district of Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the years 1998 and 2000, he was confirmed in each case in this office. In 1998 he was a member of the Commission, which organized the unsuccessful impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton.

After Hutchinson had been appointed in 2001 as Director of the Drug Enforcement Agency DEA, he resigned his seat in Congress. This office he held until 2003. Afterwards it was until 2005 Head of the newly created Department of Homeland Security of the United States. There he was responsible for the border security and safety in transportation. In 2006 he ran for governor of Arkansas, but lost to Democrat Mike Beebe.

In 2013 he was part of a bipartisan commission to investigate torture allegations.