UPDATED - with Romney campaign reaction
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who trumpeted his decision not to use a negative advertisement against rival Mitt Romney in Iowa, decided to air one in Michigan that takes a veiled shot at his opponent.
“We’re losing manufacturing jobs, homeowners face a credit crisis, high fuel costs are spiraling, and families are hurting,” Huckabee said in the spot. “I believe most Americans want their next president to remind them of the guy they work with, not the guy who laid them off.”
Romney used to run Bain Capital, a corporate turnaround firm, and during his failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 1994 he was criticized by his incumbent opponent, Ted Kennedy, for laying off workers during his Wall Street days.
The Huckabee ad is running in a state where unemployment is 7.4 percent, the highest rate among U.S. states and well above the national unemployment rate of 5 percent. Also, Michigan had the sixth highest foreclosure rate in the nation, according to RealtyTrac.
The Romney campaign argued that its candidate knew how to create jobs and keep them in the United States while accusing Huckabee of seeking to raise taxes.
“Mike Huckabee likes to think that we can tax and spend our way to a better economy, while targeting the parts of our economy that create jobs,” said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. “We can’t have an economy that seeks to help the wage earner by tearing down the wage payer.”
Huckabee has trailed Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain in most Michigan polls but is leading in most opinion surveys in South Carolina after his win in Iowa.
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