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Posted: July 3, 2007 11:54 AM
Huckabee Vows to Boost Polls Numbers Despite Low Funds
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee last weekend played down the financial gap between his campaign and his better-funded rivals, saying he would still make headway in the polls.

Without releasing his latest fund-raising numbers, he told the Associated Press that he expected his fund-raising totals for the second quarter of the year to exceed his first quarter figure of $500,000.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was the only GOP candidate to release his second quarter totals at $11 million as of Monday. The remaining Republican contenders are expected to release their figures later this week.

Fund-raising is viewed by many as an indicator of the viability of many second-tier hopefuls including Huckabee. But on Saturday, Huckabee said his campaign is leaner than the front-runners’ and predicted his effort would remain strong.

Despite a lack of funds, Huckabee vowed to boost his poll numbers out of the single digits. On the radio show The Right Balance, he said, “We are moving upwards. Other candidates are beginning to slip backwards. I think that’s exactly where we had hoped we would start being. We always looked at this as hanging in there for the long haul. I think the debates have helped us. Now we have to do well in the Iowa straw poll and just keep the tires on the track.”

In Iowa earlier in the week, Huckabee again dismissed questions about whether he will participate in the straw poll on Aug. 11 in Ames. On Friday he told supporters at a fundraiser in the state, “We’re in, unless they decide to cancel it.”

The candidate has made several efforts in recent weeks to assure Iowans that he is committed to the event, after expressing uncertainty when front-runners McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said they would not participate. The non-binding poll is traditionally the first test of strength for presidential candidates and no one has ever won the Iowa caucuses in January who did not participate in the straw poll.

Huckabee told reporters in a conference call that he intended to spend much of the next six weeks in Iowa.