Breaking News Update: Rollins signs on with Huck

The Republican presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, in many ways, has been caught unawares by its own recent polling success.

First, the lean staff was focused on Iowa, which was make or break for the former Arkansas governor. And as the conservative field thinned with the political surrender of Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore and Sam Brownback, Iowans, especially the 40% of GOP caucus-goers who are evangelical Christians, began to focus more on the amiable Huckabee, who says his Baptist faith doesn't just describe him but defines him. His third-quarter fundraising was pathetic -- raising barely $1 million, 20% ofobscure Ron Paul's haul.

But Huckabee's underdog story caught on, in significant part due to the communications prowess of consultant Kirsten Fedewa, a Washington PR veteran who spent much of the 1990s with the Republican Governors Assn., helping to raise the public profiles of a generation of successful GOP governors such as Christie Whitman, Marc Racicot, Michael Leavitt, Tom Ridge, Tommy Thompson, Gilmore, Ed Schafer, George W. Bush and Huckabee.

As voting time nears, for lack of a better choice, the Christian vote in Iowa and beyond seems to be coalescing around Huckabee, which causes more media exposure which brings more money and attention and so on. He now leads in Iowa. but what happens if he wins there? Then what?

Today, as a clear sign of his campaign's ramping up for a longer, national struggle, Huckabee named political veteran Ed Rollins as his new national campaign chairman and senior advisor. Rollins is a Republican heavyweight who brings additional credibility to Huckabee. He was a longtime political strategist and White House aide for the revered Ronald Reagan and the architect of Reagan's political demolition of Walter Mondale in 1984, winning 49 states.

As we noted earlier today as Huckabee made his announcement while campaigning now in...

New Hampshire with Chuck Norris, Huckabee told a jammed room of reporters including The Times' Maeve Reston sitting cross-legged on the floor that Rollins arrives with an "extraordinary record of bringing achievement and victory to presidential campaigns. Ed will help us take this campaign to the next level and next step."

Rollins, he said, will help "fill many of the gaps that we've had" and help build the "vast infrastructure" that a national political campaign becomes.

Ther 64-year-old Rollins, who grew up in a Democratic household and learned politics by boxing in college, worked in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. He does add weight to the Huckabee campaign, although he noted today Huckabee's is his first campaign with no booze or donuts. "So it's going to be a real struggle for me," Rollins quipped.

“We are on the verge of winning in Iowa," Rollinsd added, "we are on the verge of coming back here and doing very well in this state.” Initially the '08 GOP presidential race race looked so frontloaded, Rollins observed, "that it became – if you weren’t rich and weren’t famous you weren’t going to have a chance.” Huckabee and Barack Obama have proven, he said, “that’s there’s no such thing as an inevitable nominee.”

Nor is there guaranteed success either with Rollins, who's been involved with losing efforts such as Katherine Harris' Senate campaign in Florida, Ross Perot's 1992 presidential campaign that undercut George H.W. Bush so much it guaranteed a Bill Clinton victory and the recent California electoral reform initiative.

And, to be honest, Rollins is not universally liked among his peers. "Ed is a ____," one of them said today in an e-mail. "And you can't quote me."

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[larry]

Ed Rollins? And he thinks "we" are winning Iowa. Huckabee may well win; Rollins has had nothing to do with it. But it's the holiday season, and Huckabee must look on Rollins as the Ghost of Campaigns Past. But why he needs him is a mystery.

[Richard]

Well, Lee Atwater is not available. Eds an old hand who just knows the ins and outs.

[Lamar Cranford]

Mike Huckabee lacks the judgement necessary to be President.
As Governor, Huckabee pardoned or commuted the sentences of more prisoners than all six states surrounding Arkansas during his first 8 years in office.

[neotrebor]

· Huckabee lost many of us with his comment of Lucifer and Christ being brothers regarding Mormons. He may look like and talk like Andy of Mayberry, but that was just another dirty trick politician in the clothing of a sheep. For all his talent, Rollins can not pull Huckabee out of a perception of voters of who he really is. We expect our public servants at all levels to be better than that.

[Martin]

I want the times to do a background check on Rollins, why has he not been working in politics lately? I have heard some disturbing rumors, and it looks like a poor hire for Huckabee.

[Nicholson]

The good news for Huck is that the base hasnt really gotten behind anyone yet. The bad news for Huck is that Ron Paul is a wild card that will raise more than any other GOP candidate this quarter. Hucks record as govenor isnt the best either. He raised taxes and likes big government.

Thats not very conservative.

[Shawn M. Hussey]

Mike Huckabee has little in common with Ronald Reagan as a political candidate or executive.President Reagan was a strong law and order man.President Reagan fought to lower taxes and succeeded.Governor Huckabee has a terrible record on crime and taxes.I also think he has tried to delegitimize the Mormon faith as a Christian religion.The GOP has many candidates better qualified to be President than Governor Huckabee.Republicans can nominate a pro-life candidate like Senator McCain or Senator Thompson.These men will not resort to exploiting religion to win votes.

[CALIFORNIAMARTY]

CAN THE FOLKS IN IOWA BE SO BACKWARD AS TO SELECT HUCK AND BARAK AS THEIR CHOICES?

Mike Huckabee is an out of work preacher with a record of net tax raising, 1033 pardons of murderers and rapists, one who killed after being released, based on their alleged new religious convictions.
His religious training should have but apparently did not prevent him from cheap-shot attacking the Christian theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their 13 million members worldwide. I guess the Mormon Tabernacle Choir all LDS, that performed for many presidents, and received awards all over the world, including praise from Mother Theresa, should not be allowed to sing the Christmas songs that Huckabee strums on his guitar, is that it? Their platinum sales should be forfeit to the state is that right Huck?

Huck, like Huck Finn never really worked at a real job. He never ran a real business, large or small. He has no MBA or J.D. or PHD or foreign policy experience that I can see unless the peace treaty he engineered between Arkansas and Tonga counts.
What is he doing in this race? He is a midget surrounded by giants like Mitt Romney and Rudy Guiliani and John McCain.

Obama has even less experience but he is ten times smarter than Huck and he is unqualified by experience or proven abilities. Bill Richardson is lost in the rhetoric and is a fine Governor. Joseph Biden has qualifications but he has no charisma. Hillary...well she at least knows where the China and linen are kept in the White House. Obama probably took the public tour.