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While he’s not willing to name names, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says his presidential campaign is picking up momentum in Iowa and that he anticipates significant endorsement announcements will be made late this week.
“We’ve had a big weekend — in fact, quite a big week — beginning with the new poll numbers that came out in Iowa last week, showing that we had virtually tied in second place,” Huckabee said during a conference call Monday evening, Oct. 22. “I think that was somewhat surprising to many people, but, frankly, not so surprising to us. We have sensed a growing momentum and that was even before Sen. [Sam] Brownback dropped out of the race.”
In a Rasmussen poll from mid-October, Huckabee received support from 18 percent of those polled. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney topped the list with 25 percent while Fred Thompson had 19 percent. In addition, Huckabee said his Iowa campaign is now reaping the benefits from the Senator’s departure by picking up previous Brownback supporters.
“Our Iowa people tell us that many of his supporters have called and they are coming on board with us,” he said. “That’s a very good piece of news and we think that our numbers in Iowa will continue to climb.”
The campaign is also touting the results of the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit held in Washington D.C. over the weekend. Although former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the straw poll with 1,585 of the total 5,576 votes cast, Huckabee, who spoke last and gave a speech the Associated Press described as a “fiery sermon,” earned a close second place finish. When the poll results were separated into groups who voted online and those who attended the summit, Huckabee won support of more than 50 percent of those at the event. Romney, in contrast, pulled only 10 percent of the summit attendees.
“In the overall, [Romney] slightly edged us with 30 votes, but that was with two weeks of email and mail ballots that could be encouraged in,” Huckabee said. “For us, the significance was that the people who actually made the effort to get to Washington, bought hotel rooms and airplane tickets and sat through speeches — we had more votes than all of the other candidates put together and a five-to-one margin over the nearest vote getter. That was extremely gratifying.”
For those who watched Huckabee’s performance in Iowa during the state party’s straw poll fund raiser, the results of summit participants isn’t necessarily surprising. Unfortunately for the Huckabee campaign, however, success in straw polls has not yet translated into donations or significant endorsements. (He took in roughly $1 million during third quarter fundraising and while that figure is the most he’s raised thus far in the race, it fell well behind the $5 million raised by Congressman Ron Paul, whom many consider to be much less viable.) The tide may be turning in Huckabee’s favor.
“All along people have said ‘You have to have this much money to be competitive’ and they’ve been quite wrong about it,” Huckabee said. “Every figure that has been thrown out there we have not met, but we are gaining ground. We’ve stayed on our feet. I think I’m the only campaign that has never had a retreat and has never had poll numbers that were better in the past than they are now.”
Huckabee said that because of recent good news, his campaign is now seeing the type of results in a week that would have previously been expected in a three- or four-week time frame.
“We’re at several hundred thousand dollars just from these last few days,” he said. “I have no idea what today is bringing in, but it has been pretty phenomenal.”
There was one more piece of good news that Huckabee said speaks directly to campaign momentum: An announcement by Chuck Norris — or “Walker, Texas Ranger” for TV Land viewers. The martial arts star, a long-time evangelical, writes a weekly column for WorldNetDaily. His entire Sunday article was spent on an endorsement of Huckabee, whom he described as “the only one who has all of the characteristics to lead America forward.” The attention did not go without notice.
“One of the things that’s getting lots of attention and that we’re real happy about is the endorsement of Chuck Norris,” Huckabee said. “That just happened — it was something that came out of the clear blue. I’ve not had a chance to visit with him or talk with him. I heard about it and checked out the comments he made — it was very gratifying.”
Huckabee said that there is “no truth to the rumor — yet anyway” — that if he is elected president, Norris will be appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Who knows? Crazier things have happened,” he said.
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