WASHINGTON — Could a Baptist preacher become the Republican Party's vice-presidential nominee — or more?
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's surprisingly strong showing in the Aug. 11 Iowa Straw Poll has significantly raised the profile of the pastor-turned-politician. But if he is to make it onto the Republican ticket, he has to breathe more life into his obscure and underfunded presidential campaign, according to a Baptist political science professor.
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Two years ago, Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet, took part in a marriage covenant ceremony performed by Dennis Rainey of FamilyLife, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Huckabee — outspent more than 10-1 by the straw poll's winner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — nonetheless came in second in Iowa. He garnered 18 percent of the votes cast to Romney's 31 percent.
Romney was the only top-tier Republican hopeful who participated in the event, which Arizona Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson all chose to sit out.
While nationwide polls of Republican voters have consistently shown Huckabee and the others far behind the top tier of candidates, his showing in the straw poll has caused journalists and politicos to take a closer look at his campaign.
“The biggest political event of the 2007 calendar year gave former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney victory, but the biggest winner may well be” Huckabee, wrote Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza, in an entry on the newspaper's political blog about the straw poll.
“Mike Huckabee sucked all the oxygen out of the event with his stunning second-place win,” wrote veteran Iowa political reporter Beverly Davis, on the Huffington Post blog site.
Perhaps more importantly, Huckabee far bested his closest second-tier opponent, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. Brownback has been a favorite of many social conservatives. But Huckabee is trying to prove he is the most viable candidate in the race who has strong Christian conservative credentials in an election cycle where many GOP social conservatives have found the front-runners less than satisfying.
“Huckabee may be the one Republican candidate who has the ability to create a new coalition of Christian backers holding traditional Christian conservatives who care most about abortion and gay marriage while bringing in the new breed of evangelical who is increasingly concerned about social-justice issues,” wrote David Kuo, the former No. 2 official in the White House's faith-based office, in his Beliefnet blog.
Does Huckabee's appeal and newfound attention make him more likely to appear on the 2008 GOP ticket — either as the presidential or vice presidential nominee? According to some political experts, a lot still depends on how he can capitalize on his latest publicity boost.
“To go to the next level, he's got to show more organization and more fundraising skills than he's shown so far,” said Hal Bass, a political science professor at Huckabee's alma mater, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. “And it seems to me that … his campaign skills have taken him to this point, but to move to the next level takes something more than he has shown.”
Prior to entering politics in his home state, Huckabee was pastor of a series of prominent Arkansas Baptist churches. While pastor of Beech Street First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Ark., he served as president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.
He also has extensive experience with broadcast media, Bass noted — and his unique combination of pulpit and TV experience has helped him stand out in the early GOP candidate debates.
“He really has a lot of communications skill, especially in what I call short, sound-bite settings. He's really good at talking to the clock,” Bass said.
Huckabee also has strong credentials, as a Baptist minister, with the Religious Right — but has couched his positions in rhetoric that often appeals to moderates. Bass said that juxtaposition may serve him well in the short term, but his two personae may come into conflict later in the campaign.
Huckabee has presented himself to the national media “in very authentic fashion, very moderate, very responsible, very mainstream,” Bass said. That will help him be seen by the Republican establishment as a serious and electable candidate, he said. Yet Huckabee is also attractive to the Religious Right because of “his ability to appear, in very authentic fashion, as one of them,” Bass added.
That creates “a potential tension” down the road, Bass said. “I think that, at some point, he is going to disappoint one of those very important constituencies, both of which he has cultivated very well so far.”
Before Huckabee crosses that bridge, though, he has more immediate fish to fry. His campaign budget and staff are dwarfed by those of the top-tier candidates.
“Huckabee's campaign was looking for a spark and they seem to have gotten it tonight. He must — and we repeat must — turn this surprise showing into campaign cash or it will be for naught,” Cillizza wrote. “But today is Huckabee's best day as a candidate by far.”