Huckabee Refuses to Bow to Low Funds, Big States
Just weeks ago Mike Huckabee was soaring high after his Iowa victory which brought national attention and a stream of contributions and endorsements. But lately, the former small town Baptist preacher is struggling to keep Team Huckabee afloat after a string of losses left his campaign in tatters and in desperate need of funds as Super Tuesday looms ahead.
The two-term Arkansas governor called his staff his "scrappy little army" this week after funds shortage forced the campaign to announce it was unable to pay salary. Most of the staff chose to remain without pay, but some left.
Ed Rollins, Huckabee's top adviser, gave up his salary along with other staffs to allow the campaign to buy television advertising and pay travel expenses, Rollins told The Associated Press.
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"The reason we cut some cost is because we've always operated in the black, we don't borrow money, unlike some of the other candidates who can write a big fat personal check and pay for everything – I can't," Huckabee said while at an anti-abortion rally in Atlanta earlier this week, according to CNN.
"So what we recognized was that our primary goal right now is to get nimble, to get quick, to get where we can get from place to place as quickly as possible," he said about his new strategy.
He added, "I think a lot of folks would like to see the next president treat the taxpayers' money as frugally as we're treating campaign money."
Besides cutting salaries, the Huckabee campaign has also grounded chartered planes reserved to help members of the press cover his movement. Although media companies pay for their own flight, empty seats have cost the campaign money.
But Huckabee's lack of resources is starting to hurt him as he competes in financially demanding states such as Florida, New York, California, Illinois and New Jersey – all of which will vote within the next two weeks.
In the big states, candidates need to run TV ads that cost millions a week to run an effective campaign.
David Johnson, a former executive director of the Florida Republican Party, told The Tampa Tribune that Florida is a "very difficult state to play in" if a candidate does not have plenty of cash.
"This is a media state, and retail campaigning can only get you so far," Johnson noted.
Similarly, it costs about $3 million a week to run ads in New York and about $4 million a week in California, ABC News reported.
The Huckabee campaign said it will run TV ads on Florida's national cable news channel, but will not buy air time on the states broadcast stations because of the higher cost.
Instead, Huckabee says he plans to focus on less expensive Southern States such as Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and his home state of Arkansas. In addition to being less expensive, these so-called Bible belt states also are expected to be highly receptive to his social conservative message.
Responding to concerns about his campaign's future, Huckabee said, "Nobody thought we would even be in the game," he noted. "People are talking about us in every national poll at either number one or number two. I'd call that a pretty good momentum for us.
"Our scrappy little army's doing pretty well out there on the battlefield," he added.
The Republican race proves to be still divided, although it has settled down to three main candidates: John McCain who won New Hampshire and South Carolina; Mitt Romney, victor in Michigan, Nevada and Wyoming; and Huckabee who claimed first place in Iowa.
The former preacher turned politician remains optimistic about the race. "I'm in much better shape than some of the candidates who've spent tens of millions of dollars, and they're way behind us," Huckabee said this week. "I'd much rather be where I am with the amount of resources we've had than where some of these guys are with the kind of resources they've spent."
