Huckabee Rallies the Right in Iowa

As we reported last week, Mike Huckabee’s right-wing supporters are going all out in Iowa to try and propel him to victory in the upcoming caucuses, with Vision America, Redeem The Vote, the Iowa Family Policy Institute, and the Iowa Christian Alliance gearing up for ten days of voter registration and mobilization efforts. 

Just in case that is not enough, Marc Ambinder is now reporting that Huckabee himself is scheduled to do his own outreach to the Religious Right, starting with an address to the Iowa Renewal Project: 

Today or tomorrow, Huckabee is a featured guest at the latest pastor briefing of the "Iowa Renewal Project," which aims, in the words of an e-mail Don Wildmon sent to pastors, to "encourage pastors and their congregations to take a stand for morality in their daily lives."

Don Wildmon, is, of course, the president of the American Family Association, one of the Project's key sponsors. He's also endorsed Huckabee.

There is no overt coordination between the project, which has affiliates in South Carolina and New Hampshire, and the Huckabee campaign. But to the extent that pastors who attend the project's briefings are familiar with Huckabee and Wildmon's support for his candidacy, Huckabee's rivals worry that the group amounts to a "campaign organization for pastors" operating on Huckabee's behalf.

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The briefing takes place the Des Moines Marriott and is closed to the press. Huckabee is listed as a guest on the invitation but does not list the event on the schedule his campaign distributed to reporters Sunday.

Huckabee will be joined by the likes of Wildmon, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, and Mat Staver – who have all endorsed him – as well as Newt Gingrich and David Barton, the right-wing pseudo-historian who was last seen in Iowa stumping with Sam Brownback.  

With Brownback now out of the race, can a Barton endorsement be far behind?   And, for that matter, Gingrich has had nothing but good things to say about Huckabee in the past, so perhaps an endorsement from him will forthcoming as well.