HUMAN EVENTS Polls Conservatives

Human Events’ presidential preference poll of American conservatives found that former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson leads the competition for conservative support with 23% of the participants selecting him over the other candidates. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tied for second with 19%, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came in third at 13% and Arizona Sen. John McCain -- in what is probably a direct result of his stance on amnesty for illegal aliens -- came in dead last at 2.1%.

The poll, conducted by e-mail between October 24-29, was sent to approximately 32,000 HUMAN EVENTS subscribers and other people on our e-mail lists. Those requests garnered 2,013 responses. Respondents were spread across the nation: 21% on the East Coast, the same number in the Midwest, 16% on the West Coast, 15% in the Southeast, 12% in the Southwest and the remainder distributed in other parts of the country.

Among likely Conservative primary voters nationwide, 1,984 answered the question “If a Republican presidential primary were held in your state today, which of the candidates would you vote for?”

HUMAN EVENTS also asked participants to “Rank the following issues (value, healthcare, education, media bias, illegal immigration, taxes, right to life, War in Iraq, size of government, competence in government, and homeland security) with 1 being the most important and 10 least important.”

Of the 977 responses to that question, Illegal Immigration came in as the most important issue for conservatives (as it did in a similar HE poll in May) with 284 votes -- indicating where conservatives’ principal problem with Sen. McCain apparently lies.

Competence in government came in as the second most important issue with 170 votes and then Homeland Security with 163. The War in Iraq came in as the fourth most important...

nmh, you were asking about Huckabee then the thread was pulled ...

HUCKABEE IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE.

Club for Growth was scathing on Mike Huckabee.
In return, Mike called Club for Growth the “Club for Greed”. Since the CfG is #1 RINO hunter out there, and spot-on group for conservatives, it seems the Huckster has been ‘outed’:
He’s a pro-life, pro-family, soft-on-crime-and-immigration liberal populist.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010782
JOHN FUND ON THE TRAIL
* Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once “his No. 1 fan.” She was bitterly disappointed with his record. “He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal,” she says. “Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don’t be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office.”

Phyllis Schlafly, president of the national Eagle Forum, is even more blunt. “He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles,” she says. “Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a ‘compassionate conservative’ are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee.”

The business community in Arkansas is split. Some praise Mr. Huckabee’s efforts to raise taxes to repair roads and work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. Free-market advocates are skeptical. “He has zero intellectual underpinnings in the conservative movement,” says Blant Hurt, a former part owner of, and columnist for, Arkansas Business magazine. “He’s hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate.”

http://taxhikemike.org/

* Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush’s veto of the Democrats’ bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program. Only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe.

* Tax hikes as Governor of Arkansas. These include:

* Sales Tax, 1996 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/07/96)
* Gas and Diesel Fuel Taxes, 1999 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 04/02/99, 04/25/99)
* Sales Tax, 2000 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 09/25/02)
* Cigarette Tax, 2001 (Associated Press, 04/02/01)
* Nursing Home Bed Tax, 2001 (Associated Press, 06/25/01)
* Sales Tax, 2002 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/15/02)
* Income Surcharge Tax, 2003 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/09/07)
* Tobacco Tax, 2003 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/09/07)
* Internet Taxes, 2004 (Bond Buyer, 02/24/04)

* Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “Sooner or later, Mike Huckabee is going to have to answer for his liberal tax-and-spend record, and humorous one-liners and half-truths won’t cut it. The American people deserve honest answers, not a stand-up routine.”

* Cato Institute gave Huckabee a “D” rating - Thanks to a final term grade of F, Huckabee earns an overall grade of D for his entire governorship. Like many Republicans, his grades dropped the longer he stayed in office. In his first few years, he fought hard for a sweeping $70 million tax cut package that was the first broad-based tax cut in the state in more than 20 years. He even signed a bill to cut the state’s 6 percent capital gains tax—a significant pro-growth accomplishment. But nine days after being reelected in 2002, he proposed a sales tax increase to cover a budget deficit caused partly by large spending increases that he proposed and approved, including an expansion in Medicare eligibility that Huckabee made a centerpiece of his 1997 agenda. He agreed to a 3 percent income tax “surcharge” and a 25-cent cigarette tax increase. In response to a court order to increase spending on education, Huckabee proposed another sales tax increase. Huckabee wants to run for the GOP presidential nomination next year. He’s already been hailed as a viable big-government conservative candidate by some. That seems about right: Huckabee’s leadership has left taxpayers in Arkansas much worse off.

HUCKABEE: “Did we raise taxes on fuel? Yes. But 80% of the people voted on it because it was on the ballot” (“Meet The Press,” 01/28/07).

TRUTH: Governor Huckabee signed a gas and diesel fuel tax increase that was not contingent on voter approval. A second bill, which raised $475 million dollar in bonds, did require voter approval. Governor Huckabee shouldn’t falsely blame the voters for his tax increase.

HUCKABEE: “We were under a Supreme Court order to raise revenue for our schools” (“Meet the Press,” 01/2/07).

TRUTH: The Arkansas Supreme Court required the Legislature to devote more funds to education, but the Legislature had the option of cutting spending on other programs. It was not forced to raise taxes. When the Legislature raised sales taxes by 17%, Huckabee did not sign the bill, but he did not veto or fight the tax increase either. He also opposed repeal of the sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002 and proposed a sales tax increase of his own shortly thereafter.

HUCKABEE: “I have always been staunchly opposed to any tax on Internet access. I am adamantly opposed, always have been. For them to say anything otherwise is an outright lie” (National Review, 09/10/07).

TRUTH: In February of 2004, Huckabee joined with two other Democratic governors in urging Congress to reject a bill that would make the Internet access tax moratorium permanent and embrace a temporary two-year extension of the ban instead.

HUCKABEE: “I’ve earned my stripes in government. I’ve run something. I’ve made tough decisions. I’ve balanced budgets” (Human Events, 06/18/07).

TRUTH: Balancing the Arkansas state budget is not a demonstration of Huckabee’s alleged fiscal responsibility but a function of Arkansas law that requires governors to produce a balanced budget each year. In fact, every Arkansas governor over the past fifty years has balanced the budget, from Orval Faubus, to Bill Clinton, to Mike Huckabee.

“If Governor Huckabee thinks he can wave away his tax-and-spend record with clever nicknames and half-baked stories, he has another thing coming,” Mr. Toomey added. “Make no mistake: Governor Huckabee is no economic conservative and—here’s a little bit of advice—making fun of the Club for Growth won’t actually make him one.”

NO TAX CUTS IF MIKE IS PRESIDENT:
* Huckabee said during an appearance on Iowa Public Television: “I don’t think it’s realistic to say we’re going to go in and slash taxes.”

* Ramesh Ponnuru writes: [Huckabee] seems to combine some of Pat Buchanan’s bad ideas with some of George W. Bush’s. He’s the protectionist compassionate conservative. No thanks.”

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Retire the liberal tax raising, open border, algore loving, nanny state Huckster