Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is doing quite well in Iowa, fueled by support from social conservatives.
The question in New Hampshire is how well he can move beyond that base.
Much of his appeal here is the sense that he’s an honest man.
But New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports during his ten years as governor, the issues of ethics did come up.
A few weeks ago, most people didn’t know Mike Huckabee’s name.
Now, he’s a serious contender for the GOP nomination.
Despite all that, Huckabee still is looking for traction here.
That doesn’t surprise state Representative Lee Quandt.
3:31 I mean, it’s kind of hard I think for people in NH to vote for a guy named Huckabee, I mean it just doesn’t flow.
3:53 people have joked and said, how’s your candidate Huckleberry?
All joking aside, Quandt and other in-state supporters explain their candidate just hasn’t been here enough.
But with such a large slice of the Republican electorate still undecided, Quandt believes plenty of voters don’t like who has been here a lot.
Quandt is confident Huckabee can win them over with his best assets, self-effacing humor and his interest in the lives of ordinary people.
3:!0 he cares for people. his honesty. His integrity. People vote for you for one or two reasons...one is they like you as a person. Second they like your positions. So I think what Huckabee is going to do is he’s going to get people to realize he’s a niec guy. He’s honest. Then he’s got their attention. Then he will start in on the issues.
At two stops on Friday Huckabee frequently left voters with that sense he was a regular guy, a straight shooter.
Even Democrat Marybeth White- who saw him at Elektrisola in Boscawen- liked what she saw.
T.342
:53 I liked his candor. I liked his up frontness.
The sense that Huckabee is more principled than your average politician is a huge part of his appeal.
But Professor Jay Barth says voters might want to know a little bit about the former governor’s Arkansas record.
Barth teaches political science at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas.
It was entirely legal, but in 1999, Arkansas businessman Jennings Osborne gave Huckabee nearly $55 thousand dollars worth of gifts- half of that for clothing.
That same year, Huckabee appointed Osborne to a non-paid, but prestigious state commission.
7:55 clearly Jennings Osborne and Mike Huckabee were friends, and became deeper friends, and those gifts became great evidence of that friendship. Would he have gotten that appointment without these gifts, we will never know the answer...but the public shouldn’t have to ask those questions.
When I asked the campaign about gifts Huckabee had received, I was told to speak to his lawyer Kevin Crass.
5:31 I have served as his counsel and these issues regarding the ethics commission and these gifts, have been the subject of his political opponents through his races here in Arkansas. And I understand that somebody wants to raise it again. But they have all been dealt with and has made every effort to comply with the law.
Professor Barth agrees, Huckabee never broke the law.
But Barth says Huckabee showed a resistance to cooperating with the Ethics Commission.
In 2002 Huckabee sued the commission after it had tightened gift-giving laws.
And he tried to shut down an investigation into whether he had illegally accepted gifts earlier.
9:43 it was very much an attempt to really undermine this pretty important step by the ethics commission to limit the gift giving in the state. He had been the primary beneficiary of the gifts, and clearly it was a very personal thing.
Huckabee argued the law banning certain gifts was unconstitutionally vague, that it violated due process rights and was arbitrarily applied.
The court dismissed those charges.
Conceptually this kind of behavior runs counter to the image he’s crafted over the past couple of months.
But this kind of information doesn’t really interest Tim McDaniel, a maintenance mechanic at Elektrisola.
He says he expects all politicians to have some skeletons in the closet.
3:17 I think that everybody has their problems. I know the Clinton’s had their problems too. Everybody has something that you can knit pick at....if it was something that happened all the time, that would be a problem....everybody makes mistakes.
It’s unclear if most voters will see Huckabee’s record like McDaniel does.
But what is clear, is that now that Huckabee has a real shot to win the nomination, there’s going to be a lot more people talking about that record.
For NHPR News, I’m DG.
