Category: Politics

Club for Growth report on Huckabee flawed?

Joe Carter rebuts the Club for Growth’s scrutiny of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s fiscal record as governor.
Well worth a read. (source no longer online)

For several months the Club for Growth has been attacking Huckabee’s bona fides as a fiscal conservative. In the process, they’ve slandered the Governor’s record, deceived numerous trusting conservatives, and cast doubts on the organization’s honesty and trustworthiness. It’s a disgraceful situation made all the more shameful by our continued willingness to be duped.

While Huckabee was in his first term as Governor of Arkansas he:

  • Pushed through a Democrat legislature the first, major broad based tax cuts in the state’s history.
  • Pushed through a Democrat legislature an $80 million tax cut package.
  • Cut the state’s capital gains tax by 25%.
  • Established a Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights.
  • Limited the increase in property taxes to 10% a year for individuals and 5% per taxing unit.
  • Eliminated the income tax for families below the poverty line.
  • Increased the standard deductions.
  • Eliminated the marriage penalty.
  • Eliminated bracket creep by indexing the income taxes to inflation, thereby preventing taxpayers from moving into a higher bracket when their paychecks increase due to inflations.
  • Doubled the child care tax credit.
  • Eliminated capital gains tax on the sale of a home.

Of course Huckabee is the only candidate, that I know of, who has pledged to give his support the FairTax if he’s elected. Sure other candidates have said they’d sign it if it ever comes up, but Huckabee says he’ll work for it, which will lead to a complete overhaul of our current tax system and give you much more money in your pocket as well as completely shut-down the IRS.

Huckabee has best week ever

NPR reports that Mike Huckabee had the best week ever:

Mike Huckabee enjoys the best week of his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination: a bump in poll numbers in Iowa and a big spike in online fundraising.

Listen to the story online, including information on Huckabee’s busy weekend in Iowa.

Huckabee takes the heat

Looks like Romney couldn’t sit quiet knowing someone was snapping at his heals.
From Time Magazine:

That’s why there was special signficance, an arrival of sorts, to Mitt Romney’s seemingly offhand observation Friday in an Iowa Public Television interview that Mike Huckabee had supported “special tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants.” It marked the first time that the GOP frontrunner in Iowa had ever singled out Huckabee for an attack.

Gov. Mike Huckabee passed Romney for the first time in a national poll on Friday.
Time reports that while Huckabee is feeling the heat, it’s a good thing.

“I must be doing well,” Huckabee said Saturday morning, when I told him what Romney had said. The former Arkansas Governor had not known about the swipe. Huckabee had spent Friday night, as he put it, “rocking the stage” with his band Capitol Offense before an estimated 650 people at the fabled Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, which was the last place Buddy Holly had played before he died in a plane crash in 1959. On Saturday, Huckabee was to try his hand at pheasant hunting, a popular Iowa sport, which he considered an apt metaphor. “You never put the crosshairs on a dead carcass,” Huckabee said. “Somebody sees me as a real wall mount, and that’s a good thing.”

Read the full story.

HUCKABEE PASSES ROMNEY!

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows—for the first time ever–Mike Huckabee moving into the top four among those seeking the Republican Presidential Nomination.

And just think, I doubt he’s received half the money that the leading candidates have spent.

Rudy Giuliani remains precariously atop the pack with support from 20% of Likely Republican Primary Voters nationwide. Fred Thompson is close behind at 19% while John McCain enjoys a second straight day in third place with 14% of the vote. Huckabee continues to gain ground and is just two points behind McCain at 12%. This is the first time all year that Huckabee has surpassed Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts Governor slipped another point and he is now at just 11% nationally. No other Republican attracts more than 3% support while 18% are undecided.

From Mike Huckabee

Via e-mail:

With your efforts, we have raised a total of $703,879 online during the month of October, including $331,420 over the last five days.

Each member of my campaign team and I have watched the money tracker on the front page of our website with a mix of awe and humility.

Clearly something is happening.

Yet, after what neutral observers called a strong performance at the last presidential debate and following a win among attendees at the Family Research Council’s Washington Briefing, many in the Washington press corps and on rival presidential campaigns want you to believe that money problems will prevent us from capitalizing on our momentum.

Do you agree? I certainly don’t. As you personally invest in this campaign, please know that each of us is redoubling our efforts. We aren’t listening to the pundits we are listening to you.

This is our moment! Let’s throttle up and end the “Mike would be competitive if he just had more money.” Here’s how we end that right now.

Today, I am asking you to help me send a clear message to the press, our rivals and voters everywhere that feel disenfranchised by the gamesmanship and bitter gotcha politics of Washington. This campaign is not bouncing we are rising steadily towards victory. We are solutions based and people powered.

We have set a new goal of $1,034,487 by October 31st at midnight which is $1 more than our total efforts last fundraising quarter. I urge you to make an immediate “Million for Mike” contribution of $1 (A Buck for Huck!), $5, $10, $25, $50, $75, $100, $500 or even $1,000.

Let us match and exceed last quarter’ s fundraising performace! Reaching this online goal will leave our campaign with $1.7 million in the bank. A good start for the road to the White House!

And while I’m asking you to make a “Million for Mike” contribution personally of any amount that you can before October 31 at midnight, I’d also ask you to go the extra mile and send an email to at least 5 of your friends, family members, neighbors, or co-workers and ask them to match your contribution.

Of course, it would be even better if you could send this email to more than 5 people, but please don’t send it to less than that. While most of the other campaigns are relying on a few well known political fundraisers, I’m going to put my trust in YOU. We will make history and take the elections out of the hands of a few and put it in the hands of many. This is a big step of faith, but I believe we have a great opportunity to show that this campaign is unlike any other because we are supported by ordinary people who are going to make extraordinary things happen.

Thanks a Million!

With deep gratitude,
Mike Huckabee

Huckabee looking better and better

The DMN says Mike Huckabee is on the rise:

Longtime Bush adviser Dan Bartlett, candidly assessing the Republican field, calls Mike Huckabee the “best candidate” but questions whether Americans would elect another president from Hope, Ark., especially one named “Huckabee.”
Mr. Huckabee certainly lags in fundraising and national polls, but quietly, even unexpectedly, the genial former Arkansas governor may be turning the GOP’s Big Four into a Big Five. He scored a triumph last weekend at the “Values Voters Summit” and got good marks from Sunday’s Fox News Channel debate.
And in the key kickoff state of Iowa, there are signs of a showing that could transform the race.

The campaign is hoping to raise $1.034 million this month, or $1 more than they did in the third quarter. They’re only $300k or so short. If KERA can raise $500k in two weeks, I know Huckabee can raise $300k.
So get out your checkbook and help him surge ahead.

While you’re filling out the contribution form, watch Huckabee’s speech at the Value Voters Summit: