The conservative Club for Growth is trying to cut short a possible presidential run by former Gov. Mike Huckabee in an email slamming the Arkansas Republican’s economic record,
Politico reported Friday.
The message sent to the press, referred to a white paper tied to Huckabee’s last presidential run in 2008, offering “highlights” that included charges that the former Fox News host and Christian conservative “raised sales taxes repeatedly" and “increased state spending” as well as “raised the minimum wage.”
In a statement, Huckabee defended his time in Little Rock and that he oversaw “the largest tax cut in my state’s history” and “a nearly $1 billion dollar budget surplus when I left office.”
“These times require pragmatic leadership based upon a vision for America that is true to the principles of our founding fathers…not politicians who will enslave themselves to the shifting whims of whichever fat cat made the biggest contribution to the Club for Growth this month.”
The email comes on the heels of Huckabee telling Thursday he was "keeping the door open" for a presidential run in 2016.
“I think right now the focus needs to be on 2014, but I’m mindful of the fact that there’s a real opportunity for me," he told the paper.
Earlier this year, Huckabee told Politico that he was “informally chatting with people, asking if they think there’s any value in my taking it to another level.”
In March,
Huckabee told Newsmax he was thinking about running for the GOP nod in 2016.
“I’m not sitting around having meetings with the strategic team, but it’s something I will certainly look at and I’m talking to some people just to determine whether it’s a kamikaze raid or whether it has potential and possibility," he told Newsmax.
A survey from the Wickers Group — a GOP consulting firm said Huckabee was leading the Republican presidential primary field in Iowa and South Carolina in two polls released on Friday.
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