Huckabee in sprint to fill '16 war chest

He seeks to avoid funds lag of 2008

Mike Huckabee holds a miniature fire hydrant that was presented to him Wednesday during a campaign stop at the Clow Valve plant in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Mike Huckabee holds a miniature fire hydrant that was presented to him Wednesday during a campaign stop at the Clow Valve plant in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

WASHINGTON -- A day after announcing his 2016 presidential bid, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Wednesday announced 17 fundraisers across the country in the next month, including stops in five Arkansas cities.

Huckabee's 2008 fundraising lagged behind the amounts raised by U.S. Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and some pundits have questioned how Huckabee will do in a crowded 2016 Republican primary.

One expert said Wednesday that Huckabee will have to raise 20 times as much in 2016 as he did in 2008 to be competitive.

Huckabee spokesman Alice Stewart said, releasing the schedule of events a day after he announced was intentional.

"Folks have been so critical about whether or not he has any fundraising support and donors, and what better way to answer those questions than to release dates and events and names of people that are being supportive," Stewart said.

Hosts for the fundraisers include lawyers, doctors, an RV salesman in rural Texas, as well as a longtime critic of Bill Clinton. Some donated to Huckabee in 2008, others donated to his opponents, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Included among the people signed up to host fundraisers are Dean McWilliams, a Texas lobbyist who raised $100,000 for George W. Bush's first campaign, and his wife, Andrea McWilliams.

Jack Sisemore, an RV salesman, is to welcome Huckabee to Amarillo, Texas, on May 28. Ken and Roberta Eldred, the founders of Living Stones Foundation Charitable Trust -- a California-based nonprofit that funds religious projects -- are to host an event May 26 in Atherton, Calif., and one May 27 in Laguna Beach, Calif. Sisemore and the Eldreds gave thousands to Huckabee's 2008 campaign.

Floyd Brown, a conservative operative and Clintons critic who launched Citizens United, is to host a May 14 event in Phoenix with his wife, Mary Beth Brown, U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., and local business owners.

And longtime Republican donor Ken Abramowitz, a New York venture capitalist and contributor to the Republican Jewish Coalition, is to host Huckabee in New York City on May 31. Abramowitz supported McCain and Romney financially in 2008, and has donated occasionally to Democrats, including to Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2007.

Huckabee's schedule has him visiting Arizona, California, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C., in May before making stops in Jonesboro, Little Rock, El Dorado, Bentonville and Texarkana from June 3-5.

The names of the Arkansas fundraising hosts and the precise locations for the events will be released soon, Stewart said. She said Huckabee's presidential race announcement Tuesday in Hope spurred other offers to hold fundraisers.

In 2008, Huckabee won the Iowa caucus where one-on-one campaigning tends to define the contest, but when the campaign moved on to states with costly television markets, Huckabee had raised just a fraction of the amount taken in by his competitors, even those who didn't poll as well as he did.

Huckabee took in just under $16 million before he bowed out of the race in early March 2008. By that time, McCain and Romney had raised around $60 million, according to reports filed with the election commission. In total, McCain raised about $220 million for the primary election, Romney raised about $105 million.

Huckabee's 2008 national finance chairman, French Hill of Little Rock, is now an Arkansas congressman representing the central part of the state. Stewart said an announcement about who will be the national finance chairman for the 2016 race will be made soon.

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville professor Karen Sebold said candidates will have to raise an "inordinate" amount of money to compete in the coming primaries. Her research focuses on presidential primaries and changes in campaign financing.

"If you are going to be competitive, you probably need to be raising close to $300 million, because the winner is going to raise close to a billion," she said.

With half a dozen Republicans already announcing their candidacies, and at least that many saying they are considering running, Sebold said it isn't unusual for a candidate to point out his donors.

"It's a competition for that money, especially early on," she said. "If they are giving you money, most likely they are going to support you. With that growing Republican field, Huckabee is really smart to get in there. He's basically laying his stake or his claim into those groups."

Ouachita Baptist University political science professor Hal Bass said releasing names and events also helps dispel the perception that Huckabee won't raise enough money.

"There is an image out there of Huckabee that he's not good at fundraising, and he doesn't enjoy fundraising, he doesn't like to devote time and effort to it," Bass said. "He's trying to counter that reputation. He's trying to shift the image of himself to someone who understands that serious presidential candidates have to be attentive to fundraising concerns."

Rather than focusing on small contributions from many small donors, Bass said, many prospective candidates have begun to line up a group or even a single wealthy supporter willing to bankroll a "super" political action committee before they announce that they are candidates, at which point Federal Election Commission rules don't allow the campaign and the PAC to coordinate.

The commission limits individuals to donating $2,700 directly to a candidate in the primary and general elections in 2016, but people can give an unlimited amount to a super PAC that can spend money for or against a candidate.

"Raising money in $2,000 increments is very, very time-consuming," Bass said. "Raising money in million-dollar increments is much more efficient."

Huckabee's supporters created a super PAC, called Pursuing America's Greatness, in March.

"If that's the law then we're going to use it, because that's the rules of the game we're playing by," Huckabee told a reporters in April. "I'm not sure anybody can be competitive if they don't have super PAC backing."

Huckabee said a benefactor was waiting in the wings.

"I feel comfortable we're going to have some of those contributions, in fact I know that it's already going to happen," he said.

Stewart said Wednesday that the campaign isn't ready to name that person, but that he was at Tuesday's announcement.

Metro on 05/07/2015

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