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Huckabee to defend tax record on New Hampshire swing Thursday, Feb 8, 2007 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Mike Huckabee will visit New Hampshire Friday to court fiscal conservatives and try to deflect attacks from a national anti-tax group. The pro-business Club for Growth responded to the former Arkansas governor's decision to explore a 2008 presidential bid with a five-page report critical of Huckabee's record on taxes and government regulation. The club said Huckabee had a "mixed" record of supporting limited-government, pro-growth policies while in office. Huckabee said Wednesday that he will spend time defending his actions in New Hampshire, where voters focus more on fiscal management and smaller government than do Republicans in other early primary states. "The biggest thing I do is just put the facts out there, with the 90 tax cuts we did have," he said. "For everything they say we've increased, we've decreased 10." Huckabee was in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday for media interviews, visits with conservative leaders and one-on-one meetings with some congressmen. He has interviews and private meetings in New York today. He will follow his two-day New Hampshire visit with a trip to South Carolina early next week. South Carolina's Republican primary is a week after New Hampshire's next January. Last week, Huckabee made his first official campaign swing through Iowa, site of the earliest 2008 presidential caucuses. The Club for Growth criticized Huckabee for two sales tax increases, hikes in fuel and cigarette taxes and a bed tax on nursing homes. Huckabee said the group fails to note that the taxes enjoyed popular support and that a seven-eighths percent sales tax approved by the state Legislature in 2003 was a response to court-mandated education reforms. The club blames Huckabee for a dramatic increase in state spending during his 10 1/2 years as Arkansas governor and was troubled when Huckabee refused to pledge not to raise taxes during an Jan. 28 appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." Huckabee said his approach in New Hampshire will be slightly different than in Iowa, where the Southern Baptist minister emphasized an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage platform. "I'd say New Hampshire focuses more on fiscal and government issues instead of more of the social issues than Iowa, but it is a place where they need a strong, authentic conservative," he said. A strong showing in an August straw poll in Ames, Iowa, is almost essential for Huckabee to continue his campaign, he told Washington-based print reporters Tuesday. In an interview Wednesday, he said landing in the top three would be a big boost for a campaign now seen as second-tier by most analysts. "I don't know that it's the total deal breaker, but it's a significant opportunity and if we do better than expected there, that can be a real turning point," he said. Likewise, the tide can turn against him. GOP contenders Dan Quayle, Elizabeth Dole and Lamar Alexander dropped out of the 2000 presidential race shortly after a poor straw poll showing. "I think Iowa is important because it does have the straw poll in August and the demographics of Iowa are such that it can be a real breakthrough state for us," he said. |
