Mike Huckabee is running a presidential campaign on Enterprise minivans and stays at Days Inn in an effort to conserve the little cash he has. The Morning News of Arkansas:
Huckabee realizes he will not keep pace financially with other GOP contenders like former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Arizona Sen. John McCain.
…“It’s not necessary that I raise the money they’re attempting to raise because they’re spending money that I don’t want to spend, either,” Huckabee said, referring to his possible opponents.
“I feel like what I’ve got to do is make sure I take a methodical approach to getting the message out here. I’ll be focused more on message than saying ‘Gee, look how much money I’ve raised.’”
The no-frills approach, so far, plays into Huckabee’s theme as an everyman and “underdog” who rose from poverty to make a White House run.
“I think America is looking for someone to lead our party and our nation who didn’t grow up a child of privilege,” he said Wednesday in a speech in Cedar Rapids.
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.
The bet Huckabee’s making is that his Everyman-style campaign will gain grassroots support now, which can then be parlayed into bigger donor support down the road. Let’s not kid ourselves: Huckabee is not saying he’ll be running a $10 million campaign as compared to Romney, Giuliani, and McCain’s $100 million campaigns. Huckabee will still spend tens of millions of dollars this calendar year alone to stay competitive with the monied field. He’s just going to have to cut a few corners when it comes to his personal amenities.
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[...] The Right’s Field has info on Huckabee running on the cheap: Mike Huckabee is running a presidential campaign on Enterprise minivans and stays at Days Inn in an effort to conserve the little cash he has. [...]
Left by You Decide 2008 » Blog Archive » Thursday Afternoon Roundup
February 1, 2007 at 4:46pm