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Bradley in DC
07-17-2007, 07:49 AM
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/07/17/WashingtonDCBureau/342765.html

Huckabee touts momentum, not money
Tuesday, Jul 17, 2007

By Aaron Sadler
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Mike Huckabee's campaign remained optimistic Monday despite a weekend report that shows him well behind other Republican presidential contenders in gathering financial support.

Huckabee's campaign bank account is nickels and quarters compared to presumed Republican front-runners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani who are flush with dollars.

But Huckabee maintained he has met his modest goals and has raised enough money to carry him to the next stage of the primary campaign, a straw poll next month in Iowa regarded as a measure of the candidates' organization skills.

"He keeps slogging away and hopes he makes a break-through," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Huckabee on Sunday reported raising $765,873 during the three months that ended June 30.

He spent $702,622 in the second quarter, leaving him with about $437,000 in cash, well behind Republican front-runners for 2008 who have raised at least $25 million this year.

Huckabee's total since his Jan. 29 entry into the race is $1.3 million.

Despite the widening money gap, Goldford and others said the former Arkansas governor still has a chance to emerge as the Republican choice since many party voters remain undecided six months ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

Marc Ambinder, associate editor of The Atlantic Monthly, said Huckabee remains a viable candidate as long as he keeps getting good media attention.

He said Huckabee's performance in three debates this spring put him "right on the cusp" of positioning himself as first among a slew of so-called second-tier candidates.

Bill Vickery, an Arkansas-based Republican consultant, said Huckabee has cashed in on untold value from media appearances. Last week, Huckabee hit the radio and television talk-show circuit after pointed comments he made about filmmaker Michael Moore.

But Vickery said, and other Arkansas Republicans agree, that Huckabee struggles as a money raiser.

"I think he's like a lot of politicians, they're not comfortable asking people for money," he said. "That's good in that they don't go into politics to try to beat people out of money, but that makes it difficult during a presidential election."

Ambinder said Huckabee made solid connections with GOP donors as chairman of the National Governors Association in 2005, though it seems not to have helped.

"The guy doesn't seem to like fundraising, and if he doesn't like it, he's not going to do it," Ambinder said. "Money is one way to measure support, and if he's not raising money, then his support, obviously, is not high."

Huckabee has said he met his fundraising goals during each quarter. His second-quarter aim was to have enough money to sustain his campaign through the Aug. 11 straw poll in Ames, Iowa.

"While a lot of focus is placed on money raised, the rest of the story is money spent and how effectively," Huckabee said in a statement. "By frugal spending, the campaign is focused on each step in the process and making it to the next milepost, which we have done."

Huckabee has a strong opportunity to finish high in the straw poll, said Jim Black, a former Iowa state senator and the GOP chairman in Kossuth County.

He should be buoyed by the poll's snub from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Black said.

Black added that he thinks there's a malaise among Iowa Republicans and Huckabee can capitalize.

"Organizations on the Republican side are lacking, period," he said. "They just don't have the energy and don't seem to be putting out the effort. ... I think there's an opportunity out there for (Huckabee) and I think he sees it."

Ambinder said Republicans in general are having difficulty raising money this year, with the party hurting because of an unpopular president.

Huckabee's most likely competition for a third-place or better finish in the straw poll is Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. Both are courting the social conservative vote.

Brownback raised $1.4 million in the second quarter. He had just about as much on hand as Huckabee, with $460,236.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson was the only GOP candidate to raise less than Huckabee in the second quarter. He trailed the eight others with $461,268 raised.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who took in $17.5 million over the quarter, raised the most.

In downplaying the figures, Goldford pointed out that a tax initiative in Des Moines was soundly defeated recently even though supporters outspent opponents 200 to 1.

"It's a question of bang for the buck," he said, acknowledging, though, that "It's a Catch-22. To demonstrate viability, you need money, but to get money you have to demonstrate viability."

Close to half of Huckabee's money over the past six months has come from Arkansas, where in-state donors have given $552,287.

The number of donors from Arkansas is more than those from other states combined.

The next largest contributing state is Texas, where Huckabee has picked up nearly $180,000.

In Iowa, he's received $4,152 from eight donors, including Eugene Ver Steeg, a northwest Iowa pig farmer.

Ver Steeg said he gave $1,000 to the Huckabee campaign because he was impressed by the enthusiasm and values of the Southern Baptist minister.

Others don't seem so convinced, he said.

"I don't detect a lot of momentum," Ver Steeg said. "If anybody's going to talk him up, it's me that's doing it."

foofighter20x
07-17-2007, 07:56 AM
He's gonna have to do a whole lotta talking.

Bradley in DC
07-17-2007, 08:02 AM
He's gonna have to do a whole lotta talking.

Pig farmers can be surprisingly talkative.