Club for Growth hits Huckabee hard

Posted: Thursday, August 02, 2007 12:12 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: Republicans

From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro

Just nine days before the Ames straw poll, the fiscally conservative Club for Growth is up with a potentially damaging attack ad on Huckabee in Iowa. The ad paints the former Arkansas governor as a “tax-and-spend" liberal and compares him to Bill Clinton.

"Who is that liberal tax and spend Arkansas Governor?” the announcer asks as Wild West-style piano music plays and cards on an easel are flipped to the floor. “Bill Clinton? No. It’s Mike Huckabee"

The ad is already running on cable and will start running on network affiliates on Sunday -- the day of the ABC Republican Iowa forum. It is an $85,000 buy that will run through Aug. 10th -- the day before the straw poll.

Full transcript:
Announcer: There once was a governor from Hope, Arkansas, who raised taxes like there was no tomorrow.

Higher sales taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes, even higher taxes on nursing home beds.

Raised spending by 50 percent too.

Who is that liberal tax and spend Arkansas Governor?

Bill Clinton? No. It’s Mike Huckabee.

He even wants to tax the Internet too.

Tell Mike Huckabee to give lower taxes a try.

EMAIL THIS

Comments

He's a lower tier anyway. Anybody who wants to raise taxes has no hope in this election.

jerry/corpus christi texas (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 12:35 PM)

$ 200,000.00 a "minute" to be in Iraq.

Y oh Y (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 12:36 PM)

$200,000.00 a minute to be in Iraq, and Repubs think it's better to BORROW and spend, than to TAX and spend. Why oh Why indeed.

Buzz (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:00 PM)

Yeah how about those BORROW, SPEND AND BANKRUPT Republicans.

juan,ft lauderdale,fl (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:09 PM)

Waste of money...Not even in the running....

Jackson, Houston (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:36 PM)

Seems like Brokeback and Huckleberry are trying to garner all of the 2-3% they share...boy if one of them gets up to 3%...won't that be a big story....yawn.

Al, KS (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:41 PM)

Huckabee is a nobody to notice.

F StLouis (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:47 PM)

Ouch..Republicans eating their own.

CJ (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:51 PM)

Juan, you DID mean in the MONETARY sense when you said BANKRUPT, right, and not the MORAL sense?

Buzz (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 2:28 PM)

Or 'Tax cut and spend reactionaries'
sounds like the Republicans and the 'Club for Growth' (sic)

Ignorance is it's own punishment

Sierra, San Francisco (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 2:39 PM)

Ronnie Ray-Gun, the reactionary icon, raised taxes as Governor of California and as President of the US.

The right wing whackos seem to forget that

Sierra, San Francisco (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 2:41 PM)

And probably the only true conservative in the republican party - at least he really does know and practice his religion, but he only has one spouse so the family values party probably thinks he is one or more families short.

Southern Christian (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 3:13 PM)

Uh, did the Club for Growth miss the part where Huckabee is the ONLY candidate running on a platform of actual tax REFORM? (The FairTax. Go read about it. It'll save the American economy.) This ad has nothing to do with principle - this is the Club for Growth's in-kind contribution to Brownback and Thompson.

Megan, Westminster, MD (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 4:02 PM)

taxes don't need raised per say, just adjusted to be more equitable for everyone, some people should feel a little more pain, some a little less

MK,MO (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 4:52 PM)

The Club For Growth is the Republican version of MoveOn.org. They choose a candidate to back and then spends a lot of money to discredit whoever they feel might be ahead in the polls. This can only mean one thing Mike Huckabee is ahead in the polls and he has moved up to top tier.Seriously, would the Club for Growth spend 84,000 on an candidate who was low-tier? Huckabee is getting very popular with the people of Iowa and this TV ad and money spent on it proves that.

Keith, Cape Cod, Ma. (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 5:00 PM)

Waste of money, perhaps. But it's a very amusing ad.

Nick Kasoff, St. Louis, MO (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 5:22 PM)

Perhaps if you educated yourself you'd see that he is truly worthy of notice. The press just doesn't want you to see it.

Jan Broucinek, Clearwter, FL (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 5:40 PM)

Yeah, Jan. Good one. The press has it out for Huckabee. (insert eye roll here!)

Why would the Club for Growth run an attack ad against Huckabee? I don't know who they're backing but this is either an incredible waste of money or they're expecting Huckabee to finish much higher than anyone else is. Could the Club for Growth be that fiscally irresponsible?

chuck, richmond, tx (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 6:28 PM)

Huckabee raised taxes in Arkansas only after the voters approved it first, by over 80%, to improve some of the worst roads in the country. He also CUT taxes almost 100 times, saving taxpayers almost $380 million. When he left office, he left a budget surplus of almost $850 million.

RH, AK (Sent Thursday, August 02, 2007 11:15 PM)

It is really a brilliant pro-Huckabee ad. Watch, his recognition and numbers in the polls will rise after this.

Is Club being used as a noun or a verb?

nuanced (Sent Saturday, August 04, 2007 10:21 AM)

now it's 11/18, doesn't look like the ad smear campaign worked. mike huckabee's practically 1st in Iowa. and he didn't have to bag on any of the other candidates to get there, he didn't even have to spend any money.

he's a man that doesn't have to "pay for it."

i also checked into the claim and i found he IS NOT A TAX HIKER.

monique alponte (Sent Sunday, November 18, 2007 1:50 PM)

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