As Long As He Keeps Winning Delegates, Huckabee's In
LYNCHBURG, VA. -- Mike Huckabee knows he has a base of voters, so until he stops winning delegates, the campaign says, it's game on. As of 9 a.m. Eastern Time, he had picked up an additional 36 delegates in Saturday's contests, plus the campaign has about $1 million on hand, after spending spent all the money they needed to on ads in Virginia. They feel like they are in a good place, especially since they brought in an additional $250,000 online yesterday.
Huckabee speaks at Jerry Falwell's church on Sunday. Asked if he thought his ties to the family would boost his appeal in the evangelical community in Virginia, the candidate said:
"Obviously I would hope so. Don't think it will hurt me. If I thought it would ruin me, I wouldn't go probably but the truth is I would go anyway because the Falwells have been friends of mine. I'd known the late Dr. Jerry Falwell since 1977, I guess, and have known him personally that long. I've known his family for about that long. I've spoken at his church on several occasions dating back the past ten or twelve years and so it's not like I'm showing up for the first time to be on his campus or being on the church program."
Huckabee said he hopes to "renew friendships" with folks he's known a long time.
Huckabee visited the Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday, where he visited the son of a career Air Force service officer that worked in his governor's office. The son, Maj. David Underwood, Jr., had his arm amputated after an IED explosion in Iraq.
With Virginia's upcoming primary on Tuesday and its large military population, I asked him how he planned to make inroads when it would seem those voters would naturally gravitate towards war vet John McCain.
"Well first of all, if anybody looks at the veteran's bill of rights proposal that we have, I don't think anybody will be able to say somebody has a clearer understanding of what we ought to be doing for our veterans," said Huckabee. "And in some ways, because the draft ended before I turned 18, I wasn't called upon to go to the military, I feel a greater obligation to really serve the needs of our veterans than really I would had I been one. Because I understand they're the one who bought my own freedom. They're the heroes of this country."
Huckabee's wife Janet and his sister will campaigning through Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay area the next few days before Tuesday's primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C.