He’s scaling back his campaign staff and cutting advertising, but Mike Huckabee has no intention of dropping out of the race anytime soon. In fact, he plans on being inthe presidential race until the GOP convention, one of his top advisers said Wednesday.
Some polls show Huckabee, who finished a disappointing second in South Carolina on Saturday, is trailing John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney in Florida, where Tuesday’s primary will award the winner all 57 of the state’s Republican delegates.
Huckabee might not be expecting to win in the Sunshine State, said Dick Dresner, a key campaign aide, but he is planning on sweeping up enough delegates in the massive Super Tuesday contest a week later to keep his campaign afloat until the Republican convention this summer and to perhaps make him an attractive running mate.
“We are doing very well in a bunch of other places, such as Missouri and Arkansas,” Dresner said. “The question is how we do overall, and everything says we are going to do reasonably well. We will win a good share of the delegates on Feb. 5.”
There are 1,081 GOP delegates at stake in 22 states on Super Tuesday.
The party rules awarding delegates vary from state to state. In Florida, for example, the winner takes all, but other contests award delegates proportionally to multiple candidates, which could benefit Huckabee if he musters strong second-place finishes.
Those rules combined with the GOP’s muddled field leave an opening even for a cash-strapped campaign like Huckabee’s, which can’t afford major advertising.
Huckabee’s campaign has always been the poorest of the top contenders, but his come-from-behind victory in Iowa didn’t produce an expected financial windfall. After failing to win any of the subsequent contests, the money stopped flowing.
Dresner said the campaign will focus on winning Southern states, where a larger evangelical voting base could boost the former Baptist minister.
“If there is one campaign that is capable of living off the land until the convention, it is Huckabee’s,” GOP strategist Craig Shirley said. “There is an infrastructure out there of church, family and social groups that he can rely upon that will keep his campaign going.”
Shirley said Huckabee’s strategy relies upon a brokered convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. “He’s planning on going into the convention with a pocketful of delegates along with the other candidates, and then he can make a play for a position on the ticket, if not leading the ticket himself.”
Dresner said Huckabee has never discussed a vice presidential bid.
“He’s certainly not running to become vice president,” Dresner said. “But if you have a bunch of delegates and someone needs a nomination, you never can tell.”
