A week ago, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee stopped inviting reporters to travel with him as he tried to drum up voter support around the country, in part because the cost of a half-empty plane was draining his coffers.
But Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has refused to run his campaign into debt and instead has relied on lots of cable and local television appearances to spread his message. He narrowly came in second in South Carolina, behind John McCain, raising questions about whether he would survive to the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday.
But in the run-up to Feb. 5, when Republican candidates compete in nominating contests in 21 states, having reporters travel with you pretty much guarantees coverage. Otherwise, they have to catch up with you at rallies that don’t always make a candidate’s daily schedule.
Huckabee’s resumes flying with the media on Thursday in sunny Southern California, according to his spokeswoman Alice Stewart. “Please let me know if you will be flying our friendly skies,” she said in an e-mail to reporters.
Reporters hope Huckabee decides against flying to wintry Alaska (one of the Feb. 5 voting states).
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria (Huckabee boards plane at Miami airport Jan. 25)
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Come on California, make some noise! Are we going to let the only clear Republican candidate get muscled out by John McCain or Mitt Romney?
Mike Huckabee is a true, honest candidate and has nothing more than YOUR interest at heart! Look at what he has done for Arkansas since Clinton! His moral values alone should make you look at him as a wise, God fearing man who will do everything in his power to bring America back. Today in the Blogs, one sided news agencies, etc, all you hear is McCain this and Romney that! Mike is only 6 points behind Romney so that has to tell you that someone thinks he knows what he is talking about. Huckabee is running a clean campaign that doesn’t slander his competition, it tells that facts, only the facts!
Do you realize that he did have a commercial produced that responded to an effort by a constituant to spread untrue trash about him, and that after he reviewed it he refused to run it on TV because it was negative and demoralizing and he felt that it would do more harm than good? What a valid effort by an American politician to run a clean campaign with little money yet stay up with his competition!
Come on California, come on America look at Mike Huckabee before you go to the voting booths and see that he is the right person to run our country for the next 8 years!
- Posted by Stan Young