Huckabee Could Impact Tuesday's Results
Presidential hopeful former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., gestures while speaking to a studio audience Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008 at MTV Studios in New York. Despite their advanced age, four presidential hopefuls, two Democrats and two Republicans, have agreed to participate Saturday in "Closing Arguments: A Presidential Super Dialogue," a last chance for the candidates to make their case to the energized youth voting bloc before Super Tuesday, when 24 states hold nomination contests.(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
(Frank Franklin Ii - AP)
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Sunday, February 3, 2008; 9:59 PM
WASHINGTON -- Mike Huckabee hasn't won a Republican presidential contest in a month. The result: money is tighter, his staff is smaller and he can't seem to get the attention he once did.
Still, he says he's sticking around for the long haul _ well past Tuesday's coast-to-coast primaries and caucuses if need be.
"I'll stay in until someone has 1,191 delegates," the former Arkansas governor insisted Sunday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Kennesaw, Ga. He was referring to the number of convention delegates needed to win the party nod. "A year ago, nobody said I'd still be here. Look who's still on his feet."
With 21 states holding contests Tuesday and offering more than 1,000 delegates, Huckabee's continued presence could be a major factor in what essentially has become a two-man race between Republican front-runner John McCain and Mitt Romney.
A Southerner and one-time Baptist preacher, Huckabee hopes to perform strongly, if not win, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Missouri to reinvigorate his campaign.
In those states, Huckabee could end up helping McCain _ he calls him a friend _ by peeling away votes and delegates from Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is competing there after essentially ceding big-prize Northeast battlegrounds.
Huckabee and Romney draw much of their support from the same pool of conservative voters, while McCain tends to attract voters of all ideological stripes. Romney, himself, has raised the possibility that Huckabee might be continuing his bid solely "to try and split that conservative vote."
Huckabee dismisses any notion that he's a stalking horse for McCain and that he is trying to derail Romney. "I would really take umbrage to that. Maybe that it's Romney's staying in the race to take votes from me," he told the AP.
That comment aside, Huckabee virtually ignored McCain in appearances last week and instead criticized Romney's equivocations or reversals on gay rights, abortion rights and gun rights.
"Here's a man who didn't hit political puberty in the conservative ranks until 60 years old," Huckabee said at one point. He added: "You can't just have a change of opinion on fundamental issues over and over and wait until you're running for president to do it."
At a campaign appearance Sunday in Georgia, Huckabee said if anyone should get out of the race now, maybe it should be Romney.
"Why don't you give it up and go back to Wall Street," he said in Macon. "This ol' Arkansas boy is not for sale."
