Huckabee: I’m here as a positive, not negative force

CEDAR RAPIDS — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made clear Wednesday at a press conference that his presence in the state was to accentuate the positives of the person he believes is the best choice to lead the state of Iowa, and not to serve as a negative attack dog on other politicians.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob Vander Plaats talk to the media in Cedar Rapids (photo by Lynda Waddington/Iowa Independent).

Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa presidential caucuses, will make several stops Wednesday on behalf of Bob Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman in the midst of a heated Republican gubernatorial primary. The Iowa Family Policy Center, an influential conservative religious organization, has made clear that as an organization it will not support any other candidate for governor besides Vander Plaats, and that it will encourage those who feel the same to stay home if another candidate wins the June primary.

“[T]hat’s not why I’m here. I’m not here to get in the middle of their (The Iowa Family Policy Center’s) business,” said Huckabee, noting that he and Terry Branstad, Iowa’s former governor now considered the front-runner for the Republican nomination, have long been friends.

“We not only served together as governors, but we were co-national chairs for the presidential election bid for Lamar Alexander at one time. We’ve been good friends during my many visits to Iowa. This is not about Terry Branstad. This is about the very strong, deep, personal relationship I have with Bob Vander Plaats, plus my confidence that he would be a great governor at this time in Iowa.”

Huckabee, who is the only Republican presidential candidate from recent years to foster and maintain an active political arm in Iowa, also downplayed any connection of his recent state visits to a 2012 bid of his own.

“I think it is too early. I know a lot of people are already laying out the tracks and getting all set, but I love what I’m doing,” he said, and noted the success of both his television show on the FOX cable network and his radio commentary series.

“This year I’m busy helping people like Bob,” he said. “I think it is a little getting ahead of the process when we are already trying to lay out what’s going to happen in 2012 [when] 2010 is the election cycle we have to focus upon. And, I’m not ruling anything out, but I’m not even going to start thinking about my position in 2012 until sometime in 2011. I understand that others are head-long and full-throttled. I get that. I don’t have the luxury of that because I’m totally consumed right now with what I already have to do.”

He added that his reasons for visiting the Hawkeye State are “not so much about what I’m going to do in the future, but a whole lot to do with what I’ve already done in the past” and the people he has come to know and respect in the state.

Following the press conference, held near the Eastern Iowa Airport, Huckabee and Vander Plaats traveled to a private fundraising event, and then appeared at an event hosted by the Iowa Family Policy Center in Des Moines. Huckabee will be back in Cedar Rapids tonight for a rally on behalf of Vander Plaats at the Marriott on Collins Road.