Hard work to stay in the game

As key poll looms, Huckabee readies full court press

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 9, 2007 at midnight

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BOONE, Iowa - Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is not the tallest fellow in the Republican presidential race.

He's not even the round mound of rebound that he was before he lost more than 100 pounds.

So some of the folks gathered under a tree outside the Boone courthouse on Wednesday smiled when the little fellow started comparing himself to a basketball player.

"I've not been spending my time trying to bash other candidates," Huckabee said. "I believe the best way to win a campaign is to hit the three-point shots from out on the perimeter, not by going under the goal and elbowing somebody or knee-capping them, but rather to be able to play your best game."

In Boone, as elsewhere, Huckabee got a warm reception with his soft-spoken, amiable style. But pick apart his remarks and there are plenty of pointed jabs for all those "nice, decent people" who are in the crowded Republican field with him.

"If they haven't been able to get the job done in Congress, why, then, would we give them the White House?" Huckabee told the folks at Wednesday's ice cream social.

He urged the crowd to decide whether unnamed rivals have "done a great job" solving the immigration issue, making taxes "fairer" and more "family friendly," balancing budgets, passing laws to oppose abortion and defend the traditional definition of marriage.

With just a few days to go before the Iowa GOP's straw poll - a make-or-break moment for any second-tier Republican presidential contender - Huckabee is playing his trump card in hopes of separating himself from the pack.

He's a former governor. His chief ideological rival, fellow religious conservative Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, is not.

Matter of experience

Huckabee never mentions Brownback or any of the other candidates by name. But he definitely wants comparison shoppers - particularly from the family values camp - to factor in his executive experience.

"And I would ask you," he tells the crowd, "don't just look at me or anybody else and say, 'OK, well, he believes like me.' The question is, has he done anything that proves he can do what he believes, because that's what it really comes down to."

Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, has been getting a lot of face time on Iowa television in recent weeks. But not all of it is flattering.

The national advocacy group Club for Growth has backed satirical ads portraying Huckabee as a tax-happy former governor from Hope, Ark. - even worse, they say, than that other man from Hope, former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Huckabee adamantly disputes the ad's premise and has tried to roll with the punches, using the ads as proof that he is not a "wholly owned subsidiary" of Wall Street.

It blends in with a populist pitch that Huckabee has woven with his traditional values message. He often talks about the Republican Party being in danger of being kept out of power for a generation if it's viewed as fighting for corporate interests, not the interests of real people.

He features health care reform as a centerpiece of his campaign, often including his personal story about a diabetes scare that caused him to begin training for marathons and shed all that weight he once carried in the Arkansas governor's mansion.

Even on traditional values issues, his message is adamant but not fire-and-brimstone. When talking about abortion, for example, he always mentions that he is for protecting life "at all stages," and includes a call for showing compassion to the poor, the sick and the elderly.

Some headway

Polls suggest that Huckabee has gained a little traction since earlier this year, when most Iowans knew him as the weight- loss-guy, the political equivalent of Jared from the Subway sandwiches commercials.

A new ABC News-Washington Post poll released on Sunday showed him tied with Sen. John McCain of Arizona in fourth place in Iowa - still trailing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who has not yet entered the race.

Huckabee also has trailed in campaign fundraising, but now he says he has momentum at just the right time, when the symbolic straw poll could act as a brick wall for candidates who finish in the bottom half - without Giuliani, McCain or Thompson competing on Saturday.

In recent weeks, he has sparred with Brownback, who has pegged his own candidacy on a stern anti- abortion, traditional values message combined with a call for an optional flat tax. Huckabee also has defended his immigration position against charges by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado that his approach is akin to "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.

And, although he also calls Romney a good man, he tells voters they need to evaluate the Iowa front-runner's shifts in position, like Romney's past support of abortion rights.

One last shot?

Veteran Iowa political reporter Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa said the conventional wisdom about Huckabee "is that he does very well in the debates but hasn't shown a ground game in the early states."

The straw poll is his big chance to prove that he belongs in the top tier of candidates, and he reportedly has gotten commitments from Christian pastors who have pledged to bring flocks of supporters, Henderson said.

If not, then Huckabee could be among those re-evaluating their campaigns on Sunday morning. That might be why there was a sense of urgency in his voice as he told the small group outside the Boone courthouse to do whatever they had to to get all their friends to show up - on one condition.

"If they say they're going to vote for somebody else, they are not to be in Ames or anywhere near Ames on Saturday," Huckabee said, flashing that shooting guard's smile. "You tell them the straw poll has been moved to February. Do whatever you gotta do."

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