Mike Huckabee Concedes With Honor

Everyone associated with Mike Huckabee’s campaign for the presidency, regardless of their association, was honored to be a part of the effort. In the twelve months or so that I have been involved to one degree or another I have never met anyone who regretted in anyway working with Mike Huckabee on his campaign. Some college age young people worked full time for more than a year for free, in various states. One attorney left his practice to work full time without pay, and on the night Mike Huckabee conceded he had no regrets.

Over the past year I have met with Governor Huckabee numerous times, including a meeting with him shortly before he conceded on the night of March 4^th. At no time did he show resentment or anger toward the other candidates. His positive attitude toward life and his love of God and country was evident to me in all that he did. Everyone that came in contact with Mike Huckabee was immediately struck by the honorable way in which he conducted himself at all times. My only regret is that I could not have dropped all that I was doing to work full time in his campaign.

During the campaign I was part of Team 100, the group of men who had promised to raise $100,000 each for the campaign. I actually fell short, raising just under $70,000. I regret that I was unable to raise twice or four times that amount. Mike Huckabee’s campaign was run with about 30 employees plus volunteers. Compare that to Hillary Clinton, who had hundreds of employees just in New Hampshire. Rudy Giuliani spent more than $40 million and won only one delegate. Mitt Romney spent nearly $90 million officially, for about as many delegates as Mike Huckabee won with about one tenth as much money spent. And Mitt Romney’s total does not include the millions of dollars he directed to third parties such as the Club for Growth to run a smear campaign against Gov. Huckabee.

If Mike Huckabee had won South Carolina he would have won the nomination; there is no doubt about that. He lost because those who should have been the most supportive of him abandoned their core beliefs to seek favor with those they thought would be in power. Most of America’s evangelical leaders supported a rich Mormon over a poor evangelical. They sought out the loud bandwagon leading the parade, instead of sticking with those committed to righteousness. Their support of Romney assured the victory of John McCain. There is now a wide disconnect between evangelical leaders and their grass roots. Most evangelicals in the pews were more interested in righteousness than their leaders were, and voted for Mike Huckabee. That could not have been more evident than in Texas where he received more than half a million votes, for 40%, despite the lack of support from men such as Rev. John Hagee who sold out to John McCain at the last minute to seek favor in a future White House. I have bad news for Rev. Hagee; all he did was to assist the Democrats in winning the White House.

John McCain’s mindset is still somewhere between the Nixon and Reagan administrations. He does not even think in this century. He won because of a bandwagon effect and there is no true enthusiasm for him within the party. As a Washington insider I can attest to the fact that there is a “this is the guy we are stuck with” attitude toward him.

I am writing this in Texas the day after Gov. Huckabee conceded the nomination. There is just no enthusiasm here for McCain either, not even among those who voted for him. In interviews many said they voted for McCain because he was “inevitable.” That is not the kind of support that can win an election in November. Twice as many were showing up at the polls to vote in the Democrat primary as in the Republican primary.

The outlook for November is bleak, unless ….

Unless John McCain looks at a map and realizes that that he needs to win not only the states, but the counties that Mike Huckabee won. Mike Huckabee could help John McCain carry southern states despite the huge black turnout there will be for Barack Obama. One way or another Obama will be on the Democrat ticket, either at the top or as the vice presidential nominee; that is inevitable. If McCain does as Senator Dole before him and picks a relatively unknown congressman as a running mate his fate will be the same as Bob Dole’s.

There is also the matter of temperament. John McCain is known throughout Washington, DC for his volatile temper. Having a more temperate running mate such as Mike Huckabee would help to relieve fears that he would be fast to the trigger in international disputes. Americans are not presently keen to any new armed conflicts. There is also the matter of age. McCain is twenty years older than Huckabee. Many have fears that he will not run again in 2012 at age 76, even if he wins in 2008. A young, strong conservative such as Mike Huckabee in the vice presidency would give people confidence of a continuum.

I see little hope for Republicans in November without Mike Huckabee on the Republican ticket with John McCain unless another running mate with all of Mike’s attributes can be found.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition

Related sites: http://www.gingpac.org/, http://www.blogger.com/www.youtube.com/gingpac http://www.rfcnet.org/

January, 2008 Campaign Update

THE PRESIDENCY AND THE SENATE

Right now our political action committee is focused only on the presidential race and a couple of the Senate seats held by social conservative allies. I will address the presidency first. Government Is Not God - PAC has officially endorsed Gov. Mike Huckabee for the presidency after taking a close look at all of the candidates. On the social issues Gov. Huckabee is 100% with us. His stand on Islamo-facism is also where it should be and the only arguments against him have been in the area of illegal immigration and taxes.

Some taxes did go up in Arkansas while he was governor and he has been viciously attacked for that by Wall Street groups including the Club for Growth, which accuses him of not being enough like Ronald Reagan. Oddly, in his first year as governor of California, Ronald Reagan raised taxes more than $1 billion! Unlike the federal government the States can’t just print money to pay bills; they actually have to balance their budgets. When Mike Huckabee took over from a Democrat governor who was charged with felonies, the state was broke and $200 million in the hole. When he left office last year the state had a surplus of $800 million. When he took over, the schools were ranked 48th in the nation and when he left they were rated at 8th place. Truckers magazine said that Arkansas roads were the worst in the nation when Huckabee came to office and by the time he left office, Arkansas had some of the best in the nation.Cutting taxes is a great idea, but having major bridges on our freeways collapse is not. There has to be balance. Taxes can’t be cut to the point that a state cannot repair its roads or pay its bills. (Photo above: Gov. Huckabee, William Murray, Gov. Beasley)

As for immigration: Gov. Mike Huckabee has always favored legal immigration to the United States including the use of temporary workers for agriculture. He has never favored amnesty for those that came to the United States illegally. Numerous establishment outlets, including the Wall Street Journal have said that he wanted to give in-state tuition to illegals. This is just flat not true. He proposed in-state tuition to the children of illegals only if the those children were in the United States legally and had graduated from Arkansas high schools. Oddly, the Wall Street Journal supports the John McCain proposal of amnesty to all illegals. The Wall Street types will do anything they can and tell any lie they can to stop Mike Huckabee from becoming the Republican nominee for president. Why?

Right now the Wall Street guys own the Republican Party and we are their workers. Every election we do the foot work for the ultra-rich, pro-gay, pro-abortion businessmen and then we get tossed a few bones in the form of legislation that virtually never actually passes.

If Huckabee wins the nomination he becomes the head of the Republican Party and heads start to roll. The leadership will be changed and social conservatives will become the influential leaders in the party, instead of the pro-business types who actually hate our guts and would get rid of us if they could. The writing is on the wall; their days are numbered if Mike Huckabee wins and they will do anything they can to stop him.

Meanwhile: As the chairman of GING-PAC I am doing what I can to help Mike Huckabee. I have done numerous radio shows in New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina and Florida in support of Mike Huckabee’s candidacy. I attended events in New Hampshire before the primary there and GING-PAC ran a half page ad in the program of the GOP’s “First in the Nation” Sunday brunch.

In South Carolina GING-PAC paid for nearly 200,000 automated calls to Republican voters the day before the primary. The calls last 30 seconds and were scheduled to run the day before the election:

Hello, Atheist Michael Newdow wants under God out of the Pledge to our flag and he hates Christian leaders like Gov. Mike Huckabee and me. If elected president Mike Huckabee will appoint the kind of judges who will stop atheist Newdow from destroying our nation’s heritage. How do I know? My atheist mother, Madalyn Murray O’Hair removed prayer from our schools using the courts. As a concerned Christian I support Mike Huckabee for president. My name is William J. Murray and I authorized and paid for this ad.

Just before the primary elections in New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina GING-PAC mailed tens of thousands of letters to social conservative activists telling them why GING-PAC supported Gov. Mike Huckabee.

AND: GING-PAC has financially supported the Huckabee campaign.

You can help support Mike by giving a contribution to him at:

www.MikeHuckabee.com

THE SENATE:

A good friend of the social conservative movement, Senator Jim Inhofe, is really going to come under attack in Oklahoma this year. Jim actually goes to Africa every year during the August recess to preach the Gospel. He leads the Senate Bible study and has always stood as a witness for the Lord on Capitol Hill. The radical left will try to replace him with a pro-abortion Democrat.

Already GING-PAC has given the Inhofe for Senate campaign several thousand dollars, but we could do more if we had the funds.

REAL HONESTY: in my last letter I asked people to send GING-PAC a gift and to also send a separate check made to Huckabee for President for us to pass along to him. I was stunned by the number of checks for $5.00 I received made out to Huckabee for President. We could not elect someone to the office of dog catcher for the funds we received last month. Political campaigns cost a huge amount of money, many millions of dollars. Senator Hillary Clinton has already spent more than $35 million running for president. The radical MoveOn.org has stated they will spend as much as it takes to defeat Senator Jim Inhofe. MoveOn.Org on average raises more money each week than GING-PAC raises each year .... Think about that when you are deciding the kind of check to send to GING-PAC this month. We desperately need some larger checks to be effective this year!

THE HOUSE:

Yet another long term incumbent Republican is leaving the House. Congressman Jerry Weller (R-IL) will retire at the end of this session of Congress after serving the Chicago suburbs for eight terms. Republicans have huge problems in the “land of Lincoln” and winning this seat will not be easy if a “moderate” wins the primary. There are a lot of good blue collar social conservatives in the district that would vote Democrat if the Republican is pro-abortion. There are now three open Republican seats in Illinois including the one being vacated by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

Please continue to help GING-PAC elect pro-life social conservative candidates such as Senator Jim Inhofe and Governor Mike Huckabee. Click here to help today . Thank you!

William J Murray, Chairman