Rett Hatcher & Company

Per the AP…

The Club for Growth is spending $175,000 to continue running ads in Iowa that highlight tax increases adopted in Arkansas when Huckabee was governor. During the past three weeks, the group has spent $550,000 to criticize Huckabee’s economic policies.

According to Federal Election Commission records, ClubForGrowth.net received $200,000 this month from Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder who in 2004 pumped nearly $4.5 million into the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth to pay for unsubstantiated ads that questioned Kerry’s Vietnam service.

Perry contributed $2,300, the maximum allowed, to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is Huckabee’s top rival in Iowa. Romney has been running his own ads against Huckabee, criticizing his record on immigration and taxes.

Perry has donated to the Club for Growth in the past, including $150,000 during the 2006 election cycle, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Another major donor is Jackson T. “Steve” Stephens Jr., a Little Rock, Ark., businessman and member of the Club for Growth’s board of directors. Stephens is a longtime critic of Huckabee who once considered running against him for governor. He has donated $200,000 to the group, including $100,000 this month.

“Most Iowans have figured out this is a Washington special interest that’s attacking the governor,” Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman said. “It’s one or two people with a lot of money.”