Former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s political action committee raised more than $ 500, 000 in the last quarter of 2006, including $ 100, 000 each from real estate magnate Jim Lindsey of Fayetteville and investment firm Stephens Group of Little Rock.
Hope for America PAC reported its fundraising and expenses to the Virginia State Board of Elections on Tuesday. Donors can give as much as they want to the Huckabee-run group because it’s incorporated in Virginia, a state that allows unlimited contributions.
$500,000 in the 4th quarter of 2006 sounds mildly impressive until you put it in the context of what other candidates are doing. Mitt Romney raised $6.5 million the week he announced his candidacy. Experts are predicting that candidates will need $100 million to run.
Of course, Huckabee’s $513,631 raised last quarter is less impressive when you recall that he held a single gala fundraiser that raised $500,000 in December. So other than that fundraiser, Huckabee’s Hope for America PAC hasn’t raised any money.
About 350 people paid a combined $500,000 to attend what was billed as a Christmas gala to benefit Gov. Mike Huckabees Virginia-based political action committee, the governor said Saturday night. [Arkansas Republican Assemblies Blog, 12/17/06]
At the time both I and Soren Dayton pointed out that Huckabee’s PAC fundraising was largely irrelevant to the presidential race. The money from his PAC is barred by from going towards any presidential campaign expenditures. Moreover, though the PAC can spend its money to support other candidates campaigns - effectively enabling Huckabee to buy endorsements from legislators in early primary states - the Hope for America PAC hasn’t spent any money supporting political candidates.
None of the expenditures appeared to be a contribution to a political candidate, and the PAC had previously claimed on its Web site that supporting political candidates was its main purpose.
Kirsten Fedewa, a political consultant for Huckabee, said the former governor traveled to 30 states in the 2006 election cycle on behalf of Republican candidates and causes. She said that although the PAC didn’t give directly to a candidate, Huckabee was often traveling in support of them.
Huckabee’s Hope for America PAC spent $213,094 on his travel expenses. Hope for America PAC’s website no longer mentions supporting other political candidates. Also, while it’s “Donation” function used to be broken (it’s now fixed), the “Join the HAPAC Team” function is not working. Likewise the “Photo Gallery” and “Podcast” sidebar links are inactive and no content has been added.
Most embarrassing of all, though, is the link to “Sign-up for an Email Newsletter” takes visitors to a backdoor page that shows exactly how many people have signed up (108). From there it’s possible to click through to the sign-up form - but this is clearly a pretty big mistake on Convio’s, their web provider, part.
Huckabee hasn’t demonstrated any power as a fundraiser, his website is a joke, and an email list of 108 people isn’t going to win him any primaries. He is the darkest of dark horse candidates.
Technorati Tags: Mike Huckabee, Convio, Soren Dayton
7 Responses to “Huckabee’s Fundraising - and Website - Woes”
People aren’t looking for a governor for a governor’s sake — they’re looking for a skill set and a remove from Bush’s foreign policy that only a governor can offer. Brownback, as a Senator, has a voting record a mile long that can be used against him, and he’s much closer to the failed Iraq policy than Huckabee (or Gilmore). That’s why governors are well positioned.
Soren Dayton took a look at Huckabee’s “donor base” and concludes it ain’t much to run a presidential on.
[...] Having documented some of Mike Huckabee’s fundraising woes, I can certainly appreciate his need to run an inexpensive. Moreover, he’s right: a candidate should be able to have a genuine conversation that doesn’t involve fleets of SUVs, private airplanes, and Rain Man suites at every hotel they stay in. The presidential campaign would be a more honest conversation if it weren’t prefaced by each candidate having to raise tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. [...]
[...] Comments You Decide 2008 » Blog Archive » Thursday Afternoon Roundup on Huckabee To Run On The CheapEmboldened » Blog Archive » Huckabee To Run On The Cheap on Huckabee’s Fundraising - andWebsite - WoesYou Decide 2008 » Blog Archive » George Pataki “Effectively Out” on Pataki’s Effectively OutMatt Browner Hamlin on Hagel: GOP “Needs to Get Back to What It Once Stood For”Kurt Williams on Hagel: GOP “Needs to Get Back to What It Once Stood For” [...]
Something to say?
All good points. But he fills a gaping niche in the field — that of the solidly conservative governor — and that should buy him a little time. Still, I agree that the clock is ticking, and that Huck needs to shit or get off the pot. One has to imagine that Jim Gilmore - a former RNC chair with access to a nice Rolodex — could very easily supplant Huck as the non-Mormon conservative alternative, no matter how charming and less-fat-than-he-used-to-be Huck is.
Left by Trapper John
January 19, 2007 at 10:05am