How Huckabee did it in Iowa

Washington Times:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has gone from near zero to a statistical tie for first in polls of Iowa Republicans, not because of a superior organization or from spending money, but because of a tactic few candidates can copy: Religious word-of-mouth.

"He hasn't used direct mail and his very first commercial is airing on TV now," Iowa Republican Party executive director Chuck Laudner said. "The word on Huck is being spread by the news media, on the Internet — and the faith community is pushing Huck by word of mouth, phone trees, e-mail and also through caucus training sessions that occur all over the state."

Mr. Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, has raised little money and cannot afford to hire a large paid staff, but campaign professionals working for other candidates and Republican officials in the state say he has a gift for making people listen to him and like him.

"Iowa is a state where, if you work very hard and are a very good speaker, you can get to speak at a gazillion small meetings and have a gazillion people say, 'Holy heck, this guy is really good,' " confided a veteran Iowa Republican leader with ties to most of the party's current crop of hopefuls. "That's what Huckabee has, and most of the others don't."

Mr. Huckabee enjoys considerable popularity among churchgoing voters, polls show. Iowa's churchgoers in turn have helped substitute for his lack of paid staff across the state's 99 counties by engaging in "viral marketing."

"The party has caucus trainings for our [county and precinct] chairmen, but the faith community organizes training sessions for their members, which includes planks for the party's platform, how to run for delegate [to the presidential nomination caucus] and urging a vote for candidates that match their socially conservative belief system," Mr. Laudner said.

After the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, at which he now is expected either to win or place a strong second, the Huckabee campaign's next major target is South Carolina, where it hopes the same strategy will work.

"I expect him to use the same viral marketing here as in Iowa," said Rep. Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Republican who has endorsed Mr. Huckabee. "Huckabee is the virus, and a bunch of sneezers spread it by word of mouth, forwarding their good impression of him to family members, neighbors, people on their e-mail lists, or folks at work."

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I will be surprised to see the same strategy work in South Carolina. The chances are remote that it would work in States like Florida, New York, New Jersey, Texas or California. At some point you have to get your message out through advertising and you have to have people with organizational skills to get supporters out.