Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s visit to Newport Beach

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a “proven executive, fiscal conservative, family man with authentic conservative values,” was well received at the estate of Colleen and Buck John’s last evening. As Frank Mickadeit covered this event in the local section of today’s OC Register I will fill in a few missing details starting with Gov Huckabee’s Arkansas tax cut package and over 90 additional taxes cut during his 10 years in the governor’s chair. Bear in mind that Arkansas, like California, has a democratic majority in their legislature.

We were told that the governor chaired the National Governor’s Association and is suggesting that we dump our current tax system replacing it with a consumption tax.

While Frank Mickadeit commented on his quizzing Republicans at the event my reaction is that there are many Orange County conservatives that remain undecided AFTER having attended earlier local functions to hear Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. Having attended all of the above events I can report that I spotted many of the same faces in the crowd which tells me that they were not attending simply out of respect for the hosts, but an ongoing search for the man to be our standard bearer at the top of the Republican ticket.

As to the Baroness. In her remarks Baroness Knight of Collingtree, DBE, member of the British House of Lords, shared some history of George Washington’s U.K. heritage which included the origins of the stars and stripes found on our national flag.

The Baroness, whom, I had the honor of escorting to her car after the event, told the audience that she personally knew two political giants (of my generation).
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Frank Mickadeit was correct in reporting her trashing of
British P.M. Tony Blair.

My sense is that Governor Huckabee has stayed the course and is now in the top tier of the Republican field. There is no question that it will take a huge war chest for any candidate to get out their message.

For specifics on the Governor, or how to assist his campaign, simply go to his web site:

www.mikehuckabee.com

About Larry Gilbert