Visual Description: Stumping on the path.
AKBAC = ABACK, ZIPAZ = PIZZA, NILMEG = MINGLE, LETREN = RELENT — Giving us: AACPIAMIGRLNT
Clue/Question: The politician who went for a hike was on the – – –
Answer: CAMPAIGN TRAIL
(This one struck me as pretty obvious! I’m guessing that none of the clue words are new. Three of the jumbles appear to be new, with “nilmeg” showing up as being used before. Nice job with the answer letter layout. If you didn’t buy in from the cartoon and set-up clue/question, I don’t think the answer letter layout would have helped you much. Cute cartoon, but I don’t think you’d find too many politicians wasting their time out in the sticks. They are much more concerned with quantity than quality. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
PS. Fox brought back The X-Files! It was on last night after the NFC Championship game. And, episode II is supposed to be on tonight! That show is a lot of fun. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. — YUR
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Only thing that perplexed me, Unc Rave, was failure to get one of those Zs into the secret word. I thought, surely they wouldn’t use a great word like PIZZA without weaving at least one Z into a weird, distorted pun! Otherwise, it was a really easy puzzle.
You got that right, buddy! — YUR
Yes, it was a very easy answer. RELENT gave me a fair bit of trouble, though.
MINGLE was a toughie for me. Had to stare at the jumble for minutes before it finally came to me. Even the cartoon was easier!
X-Files was one of my all time favorites! Glad they brought it back at least for a little while. I really enjoyed both episodes!
Joe