By Dave Levinthal, The Dallas Morning News ~ Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said he likes his odds of winning Texas' Republican primary, odds bolstered by a lucrative fundraiser...hosted by a highly successful, and litigious, Dallas real estate developer (Gene Phillips) who was once tried and acquitted on federal racketeering charges.
(Phillips figured in the controversial end of Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher's term in office. Fisher left office after questions were raised about his acceptance of office furnishings from Phillips and his associates. Phillips was interviewed twice by investigators from the attorney general's office, the grand jury's legal adviser, and Phillips' business associates were subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. One associate appeared before the grand jury twice. Stephen Jones, Phillips' Enid attorney, was successful in fighting efforts to force Phillips to appear.)
"We have the momentum, and I'm hoping we can build on it. People here want conservative leadership," the former Arkansas governor said, after a two-hour speech and meet-and-greet at Phillips' 13-acre Dallas estate (on December 18th).
"This is a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-traditional marriage state that believes in lower, not higher taxes. And I feel like if there's anyone in the race that feels a kinship with Texas, except in football, that'd be me."
Organizers announced at the end of the fundraiser that Mr. Huckabee generated more than $202,000 from the event, where standard tickets went for $2,300.
Those in attendance included Irving Mayor Herbert Gears and several members of the Oklahoma Legislature (who were not identified; Levinthal told The McCarville Report Online, "I didn't get their names - they left shortly after the group of about five or six of them were introduced publicly by an event organizer as Oklahoma legislators. It appeared all were men, however."). The Texas primary is March 4. The Dallas yield is yet another cash infusion for a candidate who even this fall was struggling to raise money while better-known GOP presidential contenders such as Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney wallowed in cash.
Last quarter, Mr. Huckabee raised just over $1 million, dwarfed by the sums Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney raked in. Even Ron Paul, the U.S. Representative from Lake Jackson, who's in single digits in the GOP polls, far outpaced Mr. Huckabee's receipts.
But Mr. Huckabee's poll numbers have soared on the strength of a conservative message that's appealed especially to evangelical Christians.
On Tuesday night, he regaled the audience of more than 150 with tales of his transformation from a small-town boy whose father never thought he'd meet the state's governor to a man who became Arkansas' 44th governor.
Mr. Huckabee spoke at length about replacing the federal income taxwith a consumption-based sales tax and empowering states to better tackle issues like education. But he didn't address immigration policy, abortion or gay marriage.
In an interview afterward, Mr. Huckabee eagerly defended his host, calling Mr. Phillips a wonderful man whom he's proud to count among his supporters.
In 2002, a federal jury acquitted Mr. Phillips on seven charges, including racketeering and wire fraud, stemming from allegations that he was illegally paying off union officials and mobsters.
This year, Mr. Phillips sued Google in federal court, alleging libel stemming from the search engine's placement of Web sites and articles about his past legal troubles. The suit has since been withdrawn byMr. Phillips.
He also has found himself crosswise with Dallas City Hall. Last year, Transcontinental Realty Investors authorized the bulldozing of the historic Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad depot, built in about1925 in the West End. Mr. Phillips' American Realty Investors owns more than 80 percent of Transcontinental. The city alleges in a case still pending that Transcontinental did not obtain proper permits and failed to secure permission from the city's Landmark Commission, which must authorize such demolitions.
Mr. Huckabee said he wasn't concerned about Mr. Phillips' legal dealings: "Not at all. Of course not," Mr. Huckabee said. "He's a wonderful person, and he's been nothing but just terrific to me. He and his wife are just delightful people who've been just wonderful to us."
Mr. Phillips said his ideology aligns well with that of Mr. Huckabee, whose name he barely knew just two months ago."His generally conservative and Christian message interested me," Mr.Phillips said Tuesday. "He's just come from out of nowhere, but people realized very quickly that he has a wonderful message, a presidential message. … He has a Texas-type message."
Labels: Gene Phillips, Mike Huckabee
