Presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said his second bid for the White House is, so far, going better than his first one.
Huckabee -- who was in Little Rock to celebrate his 60th birthday with family, friends and supporters at a private fundraiser Monday night -- said that his experiences running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, as well as years as a radio and TV personality on Fox News, have made this campaign a bit easier.
"Eight years ago at this point in the game I was one of those asterisks in the poll in the 'Do not know, never heard of him' column," he said. "I don't have to go into a place and introduce myself as who I am, and that's been a plus."
Huckabee, who announced his second presidential campaign in his native Hope on May 5, surprised the political world with his win in the Iowa Republican Caucus in 2008. He eventually lost out on the nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain.
At a press conference Monday, Huckabee said that familiarity has helped him raise money and assemble the foundations of a solid campaign infrastructure, one that has more than 70 county chairs in Iowa, which has 99 counties.
Filings with the Federal Election Commission show that through June 30, Huckabee has raised nearly $2 million, which he said is more than he had at this point in 2007.
Eight years ago, Huckabee said, he doubted he even had three county chairs in Iowa at this point in the campaign.
"The main thing you have to do is focus on what your plan is because you never have control over another candidate, whether there's three candidates or 17 in the race," Huckabee said. "We know it's more important than even getting a greater number of headlines. What really matters now is do you have people committed to working for you in those early states who'll get those voters out for you, either on caucus night or primary day."
Huckabee said he was pleased with recent polling data from Reuters Polling that showed him at 7.2 percent, good enough for fourth place.
New York real-estate developer Donald Trump led with 31.9 percent; former Florida governor Jeb Bush had 16.2 percent; surgeon Ben Carson had 8.3 percent as of Friday.
Reuters has said the tracking poll, that surveyed 501 people, has "credibility interval" of plus or minus 5 percent.
"[Fourth place] is a good spot for us to be right now," Huckabee said.
With several months to go before the Iowa Caucus, Huckabee said his campaign is trying to "swim in our lane" and continue to build supporters instead of focusing on his rivals.
"I don't react to what other candidates do. I'm not going to get sucked into evaluating comments they make," Huckabee said.
With the emergence of Super PACs, independent expenditure committees that can spend unlimited amounts of money with no coordination with candidates and no limits to spending, Huckabee said he expects the large Republican field will remain large for much longer than it would have even eight years ago.
"Clearly, if the field shrinks, it gives a greater concentration on those of us who are left," Huckabee said. "They'll have at least some sort of financial support to stay on their feet."
Huckabee said that he thought campaigns and voters would be better off if Super PACs were cut out of the campaign process. He said if candidates were in charge of the money, they'd also be responsible for the messages and advertisements being put out by the independent groups.
Campaign spokesman Alice Stewart said Monday that Huckabee will return to Iowa this week and also head to South Carolina next week to continue campaigning.
Metro on 08/25/2015