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Huckabee campaign back where it started Friday, Jan 25, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign, like Huckabee himself, is a lot thinner than it used to be. In a sense, the campaign has come full circle, according to Huckabee's press secretary, Alice Stewart. "We're getting back to where we started," Stewart said Thursday in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau at Huckabee's national campaign headquarters in downtown Little Rock. "We got through Iowa being lean and a small campaign with a very focused message, and we're now to the point where we are a lean staff but very committed, very dedicated and very loyal to the governor and his message, and certainly are refocused on doing exactly what we did in Iowa." This week, the campaign announced it had stopped providing transportation for news media covering Huckabee. On the heels of that announcement came word that some top Huckabee aides were working without pay or had left the campaign. "We're working on strategically how to go about placing ads in different states, and we're using all our resources to do that," Stewart said. "As a result of that, some of the staffers agreed to work without pay so we can use our resources in that area." Stewart said she did not know if Huckabee's three grown children, Sarah, David and John Mark - all of whom have been paid members of their father's campaign staff - were among those staffers now working without pay. "I'm not going to go down that employee list of who's getting paid and who's not," she said. Huckabee also has said he would not run television ads in Florida, which holds its primary Tuesday. Stewart said Huckabee will campaign in Florida every day through Tuesday, but also will make trips to Georgia and Alabama in the next few days. Huckabee experienced a surge after winning the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3 but has yet to win another contest. Recent polls show him ranging from 13 percent to 17 percent in Florida, trailing Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and, in some polls, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Though not conceding Florida, Huckabee apparently is saving some of his limited resources for states that will hold primaries or caucuses a week later, on Feb. 5 - especially Georgia. "We have a strong support group in Georgia, a strong showing of grassroots efforts that are very established," Stewart said Thursday. Florida, a winner-take-all state, was left with 57 delegates this year after the national Republican Party stripped the state of half its delegates as punishment for its early primary. Georgia has 72 delegates at stake. Huckabee's strategy could pay off, but it's risky, said Art English, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "I think when you're depending on Georgia and sort of saying, well, Georgia's got more delegates than Florida ... that's not really the issue. The issue is showing electoral strength - winning primaries and caucuses, and not finishing third or fourth or a poor second," English said. Stewart also mentioned Missouri and Oklahoma as states Huckabee will focus on leading up to Feb. 5. Arkansas, where Huckabee served as governor for 10 years, also holds its presidential primary Feb. 5. Stewart said Huckabee will not take his home state for granted, but she was unsure how much campaigning he will do here. "He will spend some time here, but the key is to go to the states and the areas where people have not met him and are not as familiar with his conservative message and spread that to folks that haven't heard it before," she said. As of Thursday, no television ads were planned in the state, although that could change, Stewart said. Plenty has changed since Huckabee opened his campaign headquarters on Valentine's Day last year. Talking to reporters that day about his status as a second-tier candidate - polling nationally behind, for example, Fred Thompson - Huckabee said, "There will be some people who are in the front now who won't finish." Thompson dropped out of the GOP presidential race Tuesday. Huckabee suggested that if the former Tennessee senator and "Law and Order" actor had done so earlier, Huckabee would have won last weekend's GOP primary in South Carolina primary, where he finished second to McCain. Huckabee campaign headquarters started with six paid workers, plus an unknown number of volunteers, in offices that took up a fourth of the 12th floor of the One Union West Capitol Building. The campaign now claims about half of the floor and employs about 25 workers - still a small operation for a man who conceivably could become the next president of the United States. Signs of the unconventional nature of Huckabee's campaign abound at his headquarters, including a tote bag from the television comedy show "The Colbert Report," media passes that say "Chuck Norris approved" and a prominently displayed copy of Huckabee's book about weight loss. Though some political observers have speculated otherwise, Stewart insisted Huckabee is in the race to become president and is not interested in a vice presidential spot. "He has always been focused on the No. 1 position, and that's where we are today still," she said. |
