Mack McLarty

Thomas Franklin McLarty III was born on June 14, 1946, at Hope, Arkansas, where his family had an automobile dealership and where he attended Miss Mary Purkins's kindergarten with Bill Clinton. He was president of the student body at the University of Arkansas, graduated in 1968, and was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives at twenty-three for a single term.¹

Arkla

He rose in the management of Arkansas Louisiana Gas under Sheffield Nelson, who on retiring on December 31, 1984, named him his successor, and he headed the company until 1992. Nelson had in 1982 bound the utility to buy three quarters of the gas of Jerry Jones's Arkoma Production Company. In 1989 the state's Public Service Commission opened an investigation on learning that Arkla had paid Arkoma 174.8 million dollars to be released from it. With Curt Bradbury of Worthen Bank he organized the Little Rock fundraisers for Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992.¹²

The White House

McLarty was chief of staff in 1993 and 1994, and then counselor to the president and special envoy for the Americas. On March 13, 1994, the day before Webster Hubbell announced his resignation as associate attorney general, McLarty attended the White House meeting on Hubbell's difficulties and told the first lady: "We're going to be supportive of Webb." He and his staff director "telephoned Hubbell about once a week, telling him he still had friends in the White House," and he was one of those who "made calls on Hubbell's behalf" to prospective clients. Seventeen supporters of the president paid Hubbell more than 500,000 dollars in the following months.¹³

After leaving the administration in 1998 he formed Kissinger McLarty Associates with Henry Kissinger.¹