Huckabee Trims Costs in Presidential Race
ORLANDO, Florida — Battling to stay competitive after his weekend loss in South Carolina, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is taking new steps to save money, including no longer scheduling planes and buses for journalists trying to cover his presidential campaign.
Huckabee said he will continue to campaign in Florida on a shoestring budget, but added that he may pull out of the state before its Jan. 29 Republican primary if his prospects look dim.
“I don’t want to abandon Florida yet,” Huckabee told reporters Monday on a late-night flight from Orlando to Atlanta, where he planned to campaign Tuesday. “We have not come to the conclusion that Florida is out of play.”
He said his campaign will evaluate the Florida situation day by day. Meanwhile, he said, he will find time to campaign in several other southern states holding primaries on Feb. 5.
“We really need to conserve as much as we can” for TV and radio ads in those states, Huckabee said in a 36-minute news conference at the back of his press charter. He said he is airing no ads in Florida, one of the nation’s largest and costliest states for campaigns.
“We don’t have enough people to try to field staff in all of these states,” he said. “So what we’ll do is put a leaner team together.”
As of Tuesday, the Huckabee campaign stopped arranging planes, vans, meals, hotel reservations and other means of helping national news organizations cover his events. News outlets pay for their travel, but campaigns can lose money if many seats go vacant.
“A 50-seat plane for 15 people doesn’t make sense,” Huckabee said, noting that his press coverage has thinned since his Iowa caucus victory was followed by losses to Arizona Senator John McCain in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Huckabee also defended his relatively light schedule of public events in Florida. McCain, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney are campaigning heavily there this week.
Huckabee made a brief appearance in Orlando on Monday, and planned a late-afternoon visit to Gainesville on Tuesday. Meanwhile, he campaigned in Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday, and planned to spend much of Wednesday in Little Rock, doing long-delayed chores such as seeing his eye doctor.
“We’ll be in Florida everyday this week,” Huckabee said. But he will also find time to campaign in Georgia and other states that could include Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, he said. They are among the 24 states holding primaries on Feb. 5, and they include many social conservatives and evangelical Christians who are the mainstay of his campaign.
His noon event Tuesday in Atlanta featured anti-abortion activists.
Huckabee denied that his second-place finish in South Carolina on Saturday significantly robbed his campaign of momentum, although many Republican strategists disagree.
“I haven’t necessarily detected that people are bailing on us at all,” he said.
Huckabee said no Republican has established himself as a front-runner, and therefore winning delegates in largely overlooked states can be as important as winning closely watched states such as Florida. Some party activists speculate that Huckabee hopes to win enough second-tier states to cut a deal later, such as a vice presidential spot on McCain’s ticket, should McCain win the nomination.
Huckabee dismissed such talk Monday, saying his goal is to win the nomination and the presidency. Still, he indicated that he knows defeat is possible, but he will not go into debt to avoid it.
“If the campaign doesn’t make it all the way we want to be walk away completely in the black,” he said.
The Huckster is a charming preacher but that is not what America needs. I saw a comment on this article from a lady who said “european people we´re praying for Mike Huckabee to lead the world against the islamist global war.”
I find that statement EXTREMELY hard to believe. The rest of the world has already pulled out of Iraq. Nor does the rest of the world want to continue to wage war against extremists. The answer is not the continuation of an already bogus war. The longer we occupy a muslim country, the more reason we give the extreme minority to attack us.
The only person willing to take on any of our major issues is Ron Paul. Folks are going to start demanding REAL answers and not just this republican/democratic rhetoric about raising/lowering taxes. Taxes don’t matter when your money is (literally)(not figuratively) worthless………EDUCATE YOURSELF ON HOW OUR MONEY IS MADE! Then find out which candidate makes sense. You will find that the list is frighteningly short………..
Romney winning a few prizes/not persons
I think it’s important to take notice of some things.
In recent blogs, I’ve re - highlighted how that conservative media are overlooking viable, positive candidates because of a fixation on Romney. Fox News and TownHall are excessively bent on promoting Romney, when he has fallen flat in places where there’s a real race. He’s won in the very skewed Mormon population in Nevada and in his familial tied Michigan. He’s won where he is uncontested. Otherwise, he falls flat.
A real test of his candidacy occurred in the South Carolina. He spent massive dollars and came in fourth. I think this is a statement of what people really see.
As governor of Massachusetts, the job growth rate was the fourth worst in the country. And yet, he claims to be the candidate to turn the economy around?
He held an Olympics. (oops, or was it that there were some people excited about the Olympics and volunteered to make it a success?) Maybe if the Presidential candidacy were really an Olympics?
I’m not sure I like the analogy of winning my vote to winning the gold? I’m not a prize. I’m a person.
So far, Romney is winning a few prizes. I’m not sure he’s winning a few persons.
Huckabee has no money, yet, he comes in 1st or 2nd in contested races. hmm…maybe Huck has something?!!!!!!!