|
|
| |
| Mon, Sep. 8, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Huckabee says he will not challenge Pryor Saturday, Mar 31, 2007 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Despite modest fundraising that continues to trail well behind Republican frontrunners, Mike Huckabee said Friday he remains focused on his 2008 presidential bid and will not challenge Sen. Mark Pryor next year. "The rumors have been out there and I need to put them to bed. I don't see it happening," Huckabee said of the possibility he would drop out of his run for president to take on Pryor, a first-term Democrat. "There are no ifs on this one. I have a race I'm in, and I'm committed to it." The former Arkansas governor was in Washington on Friday for a flurry of fundraisers and media appearances in advance of today's deadline for quarterly financial statements. He said the first quarterly report for his presidential exploratory committee will show he has raised about $500,000, which he said was his goal. The top-tier GOP candidates - former New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Sen. John McCain of Arizona - are likely to have raised between $10 million and $20 million over the same period. "We had to start from zero and from a dead stop," Huckabee said. "We've done exactly what we had hoped to do in the first quarter." On Wednesday and again on Friday he sent out a mass e-mail to supporters asking for contributions ahead of the March 31 deadline for his financial report. Friday, he pleaded for donations of between $15 and $1,000 and asked supporters who had already contributed the individual maximum of $2,300 to forward the e-mail to someone who had not. He said expenses have been limited for the campaign, with some volunteers living "frat-house" style and subsisting on paper-bag lunches. Huckabee claimed to be at a fundraising disadvantage compared to U.S. senators, who can by federal law transfer money from their senatorial campaign accounts. Huckabee is not permitted to use money from his Virginia-based political action committee on his exploratory campaign. The PAC had $350,000 in the bank at the end of 2006. His principal competitor among social conservatives, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, had $52,796 in his campaign coffers at the end of last year. Huckabee's fundraising in Washington included a reception Thursday hosted by the American Trucking Association and Reps. John Boozman, R-Rogers, and Don Young, R-Alaska, and former Arkansas Sen. Tim Hutchinson. Boozman said about 70 people were at the reception, where there were no contribution minimums. None of them were other members of Congress, he said, since most had left town for a two-week spring recess. Hutchinson, who lost to Pryor in 2002, said he thought it was too early in the campaign to measure Huckabee's viability based on fundraising. "I think the governor makes an excellent point that he's not raising as much, but he's not spending as much," said Hutchinson, now a lobbyist who said he will not endorse a presidential candidate. "Everybody knows he's the underdog and fighting an uphill battle," Hutchinson said. Huckabee is getting pressure from national Republicans to ditch his campaign and run against Pryor, Hutchinson said. He may also be driven toward the race by in-state Republicans who see Huckabee as the only credible GOP challenger to Pryor, pundits said. Without Huckabee, the party "is going to have to go to the bench, but it's decimated here in the state," said Richard Wang, a political science professor at Arkansas State University. "They appear to be left with very little, if the 2006 election cycle is any indication, they just lack a bench," said Janine Parry, professor at the University of Arkansas. "They lack both a coach and a bench." Democrats shut Republicans out of every constitutional office at the state Capitol last year. Neither Parry nor Wang could think of a viable Republican other than Huckabee to challenge Pryor. Tim Hutchinson said a bid to regain his seat was out of the question. His brother, Asa Hutchinson, lost the governor's race to Mike Beebe last year and probably will not make another run for statewide office, Parry said. "(Huckabee) is now the strongest candidate, if only because, who else is there?" Wang said. "The state is certainly going to be leaning on him." Wang said it will be difficult for Huckabee to advance in a crowded GOP presidential field without money, since many states have moved their primaries to the first quarter of 2008. "It's front-end loaded and that puts more of a premium on fundraising and a person like Huckabee, a relative unknown, has a disadvantage," Wang said. But Huckabee said there are promising signs of momentum. He noted he and Romney were the top choices among Iowa GOP county chairmen in a survey taken by Iowapolitics.com. Iowa has the first party caucuses in the nation. Huckabee also has picked up an endorsement from South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds. |
