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Senate, future presidential races among Huckabee's options Thursday, Mar 6, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Mike Huckabee's exit from the 2008 presidential race came two days into Arkansas' weeklong political filing period, giving hope to Republicans who want Huckabee to run for U.S. Senate against Democrat Mark Pryor. Some political observers believe the former Arkansas governor is more likely to run against Sen. Blanche Lincoln in 2010, if he runs for the Senate at all. Grover Norquist, president of the Washington, D.C.-based anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform, said Wednesday he will ask Huckabee to run against Pryor this year. "The party and the movement and economic conservatives need one thing from him right now: A senate seat," Norquist said. Conservative Republicans are no fans of Pryor, according to Norquist. "He votes with us when we don't need him and screwed us on the death tax," he said. "He's bad on union issues, he's bad on trial lawyer issues." State GOP Chairman Dennis Milligan said the party would be glad to see Huckabee run for any position, but he did not expect that to happen this year. "I don't think at this time he's going to be running against Sen. Pryor, but obviously Blanche Lincoln's seat comes up in two years," Milligan said. "Without reading too much into it, that's a potential logical step." U.S. Rep John Boozman, R-Rogers, said he will support Huckabee in whatever he decides to do, but Boozman also doubted that Huckabee would challenge Pryor. "He'll probably be under certain pressure to do that, but he's not indicated that's what he wants. That's something he has not shown he's really interested in doing," Boozman said. Huckabee said last month there was a greater chance he would "dye my hair green and get tattoos all over my body and do a rock tour with Amy Winehouse" than run for the Senate. He probably meant it, said Andrew Dowdle, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Arkansas. "From a strategic point of view, he'd probably be better situated to run against her (Lincoln) in 2010 than Mark Pryor in 2008, in terms of the fact that he would have time to build up a senatorial campaign," said Dowdle, who is planning a book on the 2008 presidential primaries. But Norquist said that if Huckabee wants to improve his relationship with economic conservatives, he needs to prove himself. "One thing he can do is run for the Senate and win and then be an economic conservative in the Senate," Norquist said. "The reason this is important is a couple of things: He has a record, and when he was in office he taxed and spent too much. Now he says he doesn't want to. "If he doesn't run for the Senate, I don't know what sort of conversation he can have with Republicans in the conservative movement." Few expect Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, to offer Huckabee a spot on the ticket as a vice presidential candidate. Some have speculated that Huckabee may host a television show or earn a living on the lecture circuit. If Huckabee still has presidential ambitions, that would be a bad move, according to Stephen Wainscott, a political science professor at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. "I think he's going to have to somehow establish more gainful political employment between now and when he runs again," Wainscott said. "He's certainly not in the category of, say, an Al Gore or any one of a number of candidates who could make a political plus out of being an 'unemployed candidate.'" A term in the Senate could improve Huckabee's credibility on domestic and foreign policy issues, Wainscott said. "The impression came about (during the campaign) that he was not sufficiently schooled in the things a president needs to know about as chief executive," Wainscott said. Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart said Wednesday that Huckabee has no long-range plans at this time. Huckabee was back in Arkansas on Wednesday, a day after announcing his exit from the GOP race in Irving, Texas. As he had promised, Huckabee dropped out only after McCain won enough delegates to secure his party's nomination. McCain passed the requisite number of 1,191 delegates with wins Tuesday in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. Huckabee planned to spend the next few days attending to personal matters, Stewart said. A Republican campaign aide in Washington said officials have not contacted Huckabee about a possible Senate run. "He has made it clear that he is not interested at this point in the seat and we take him at his word," the aide said. ------- Reporter Aaron Sadler in Washington contributed to this report. |
