Fundraising concerns? Huckabee has 18-day money tour planned

Mike Huckabee made it official Tuesday: He's running for president again.

If he wants to win Iowa again, however, GOP activists said Huckabee will have to adapt to higher expectations than he faced as a relative unknown ahead of his 2008 Iowa caucuses victory. He will also have to outlast a crowded field of candidates looking for a chunk of the conservative bloc that carried him to victory in 2008.

"He's not viewed as an underdog," said Danny Carroll, Huckabee's Iowa co-chair from 2008. "He can't play that role."

Carroll, a former Iowa legislator, recalls struggling to get a dozen people to show up to see Huckabee at a diner in 2007. This year, a pre-campaign stop by Huckabee at a Sioux City restaurant in March drew nearly 70.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and one-time Fox News host, is back in Iowa for several campaign stops Wednesday and Thursday.

What remains up for debate: whether Huckabee can win solely by appealing to social conservatives or whether he'll need to expand his message to more mainstream Republicans. Also unclear, activists said, is whether Huckabee can overcome the fundraising hurdles that tripped up his 2008 campaign.

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"He will have to show that he has the financial backing to go the distance in the primaries with a strong indication to compete in the general," Carroll said.

Raising funds doesn't just sustain a campaign, said Wes Enos, Huckabee's former Iowa political director from 2008. It also projects a competitive posture. That's particularly important as the Iowa process winnows the field. As candidates invariably bow out along the campaign trail, their supporters will look to the rest of the field to pick a new favorite.

"That's always been a challenge for him — fundraising," said Enos, who remains unaffiliated this cycle. "He's never been that good at it. Even as governor of Arkansas he wasn't that good at it. But he'll have to get good at it, and quickly."

Bob Vander Plaats, a noted evangelical leader in Iowa and Huckabee's 2008 state chairman, said Huckabee has the character and competence to gain his support in 2016.

Vander Plaats said he is undecided on which candidate he'll support, but whether he endorses Huckabee again will in part come down to fundraising.

"He's a top-tier candidate, but he'll need to put together a top-tier organization with a competitive fundraising strategy," he said.

Huckabee's team agrees: In a fundraising memo released first to The Des Moines Register, Huckabee's campaign announced an "aggressive" 17-day fundraising tour throughout the U.S. running May 11 through June 5. Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart said the campaign has a strong strategy in place.

"People will be pleasantly surprised by what they see," Stewart said. "The fundraising apparatus is already in full swing."

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Huckabee, a celebrity among conservatives, enjoys front-runner popularity among Iowa Republicans. No other Republican found a higher favorability rating, at 66 percent, in an Iowa Poll of likely GOP caucusgoers earlier this year.

Many voters became more familiar with Huckabee as host of his show, "Huckabee," for years on Fox News. But enjoying a TV host and believing in a candidate are two different concepts, Vander Plaats said.

"Some of the minuses that come with it is you're viewed as entertainment now," Vander Plaats said. "Although that didn't hurt Ronald Reagan that much."

Carroll, the '08 co-chair, said many voters know him better from Fox News than the Arkansas Statehouse.

"That's a liability due to the passage of time," said Carroll, who thinks highly of Huckabee but remains undecided. "Yes, he was the governor of Arkansas in rather remarkable circumstances, but that was quite some time ago."

Yet in that time, Carroll said, Huckabee has grown sharper on issues in the Middle East and Israel. Bob Parker, Huckabee's Story County co-chair in 2008, said Fox News made the candidate a sharper communicator.

In an effort to remind voters, Huckabee has touted his his pre-2008 years in Arkansas taking on the "Clinton machine" in stump speeches and a campaign video.

That's smart, said Vander Plaats, because Iowans already know Huckabee's background as a Baptist minister and TV host.

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But for Bob Brownell, the Polk County supervisor who endorsed Huckabee ahead of 2008, the mid-'90s — when Huckabee took over as governor — are too far in the past. While Brownell still thinks highly of Huckabee, he's supporting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for president.

Brownell pointed to Hillary Clinton, a favorite for the Democratic nomination for president.

"I don't know how we can criticize the Democrats for nominating a relic from the end of the 20th century when we're nominating basically the same," Brownell said.

In contrast, Parker thinks Huckabee's never looked better. He plans to support him over other White House hopefuls vying for votes from social conservatives including Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz.

"Cruz is definitely attractive and personable, but he doesn't have Mike's experience in leadership," Parker said. "Santorum, I'm afraid, has to fight most against his losing record and the fact that his only governmental experience was in Washington. In that respect, I think Mike is superior."

While Huckabee's among at least seven candidates competing for the hearts of social conservatives, Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said Huckabee will need to appeal to mainstream Republicans, too.

"I don't think there's going to be a lot of carryover from 2008," Kaufmann said. "I think he's going to have to reintroduce himself and compete with more candidates than he had last time that tend to emphasize the social issues."

Vander Plaats disagrees. Moderate GOP nominees lost in 2008 and 2012, he said. If Huckabee hopes for higher ground, he said, he needs to be all about the base.