From the Detroit News…
Huckabee would be the third candidate to air TV ads in Michigan, joining Mitt Romney and John McCain. He has made only two appearances in the state, at a televised debate in Dearborn in October and a small fundraiser in Shiawassee County in November.
Despite making relatively little effort in the state so far, Huckabee got significant support in the most recent public polling in Michigan. A Detroit News-WXYZ Action News Poll in mid-December showed Huckabee with support from 19 percent of likely primary voters, behind Romney at 21 percent.
Huckabee said his campaign is moving most of his campaign staff from Iowa, where he won last week’s GOP caucuses, to Michigan. Staffers also will come to Michigan from New Hampshire and the campaign’s headquarters in Little Rock, Ark.
Huckabee said he would campaign here Friday and Saturday, and hoped to return Monday and Tuesday.
The speech at the Economic Club’s Friday luncheon could be a significant event in the campaign. Huckabee’s success in Iowa was built largely on his appeal as a Baptist minister to the party’s social conservatives. But the anti-tax wing of the party has reacted with dismay to his campaign’s rise; the influential Club for Growth, an anti-tax group, has called Huckabee a liberal for his taxes and spending policies while governor. He said he would try to address those concerns in his speech to Metro Detroit’s business elite.
“I’ll try to clear up some, I think, misconceptions about my own economic perspectives. I believe in lower taxes, I believe in less government,” Huckabee said. But he said he’ll also argue that the nation’s economic policies can’t ignore what he called “the struggling class” — working poor families concerned about making ends meet.
