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Ark. Gov. Huckabee: No 'Scary' Republican
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says if he runs for president he won't be a Republican who will "scare the living daylights" out of independents and moderate Democrats. "I think I would appeal to true conservatives for whom conservatism doesn't mean they're angry at everybody," Huckabee said in an interview with The Associated Press. "My brand of conservatism is not an angry, hostile brand. It's one that says 'conservative' means we want to conserve the best of our culture, society, principles and values and pass them on." Huckabee leaves office Jan. 9 after serving 10 1/2 years as governor of a Democratic-leaning state; he was ineligible to seek re-election because of term limits. The governor has not said when he'll announce a decision on a potential presidential bid. "I'm not on anybody else's clock when it comes to making an announcement. I feel like there are steps I have to take both personally and politically," Huckabee said. "It's more important to take the right step instead of the first step." On the day he leaves office, Huckabee will launch a nationwide tour to tout his book, "From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPS to Restoring America's Greatness." With chapters on taxes and foreign policy, Huckabee's book lays out his potential talking points for a presidential campaign.
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Huckabee also enjoys residual publicity from his 110-pound weight loss, and in December raised $500,000 in a political action committee fundraiser to finance trips to key political states. But Huckabee dismisses the idea that he needs to announce early in the new year to mount a credible challenge to big-name potential GOP rivals such as Arizona Sen. John McCain or former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "When people say it's all going to be settled by March or April. Who says? George Allen was the hottest brand going until he made a little speech that got on YouTube. Now he's gone," Huckabee said. Allen, a Republican senator from Virginia who was positioning himself to run for president, lost a re-election bid in November after a video showed him referring to a Democratic campaign aide of Indian descent as "macaca," regarded by some as a racial slur.
Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, has taken some positions, particularly on illegal immigration, that have put him at odds with Republicans in his home state. "I would be the kind of Republican who doesn't scare the living daylights out of people who are in the center or slightly to the left," he said. Although Huckabee has shown a fundraising ability in a state dominated by Democrats, he said the message is more important than money while building a campaign.
The departure of Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Republican Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee from the 2008 race is evidence that cash isn't the key, Huckabee said. Bayh had $10.5 million in his Senate campaign bank account, money he could have shifted to a presidential exploratory committee. Frist was the Senate Republican leader in the Congress that just adjourned and is personally wealthy. "What that tells me is it's not about the money," Huckabee said. "Money can get you in, but money can't get you through."
© 2006 Associated Press.
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