The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> STATE OF THE FAIR TAX br> With word that the FairTax political operation has run out of money, the talk in Iowa is that a new organization may be coming to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 's aid. A 501c4 organization is said to be forming to help Huckabee in the 30 or so days leading up to the Iowa Republican caucus. /p>

Huckabee has been leveraging the support of two semi-obscure groups in Iowa, the FairTax group, a one-time offshoot of the Church of Scientology, and a second-tier home-schooling coalition, which operates a 501c4 and has been attempting to organize support for Huckabee in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida.

One school of thought has segments of the FairTax folks re-forming to lend support to Huckabee, who is the highest profile supporter of the national sales tax model that the FT-ers support. Huckabee insiders say that their candidate supports the national sales tax model, rather than larger tax cuts or a flat tax, because the sales tax generates larger amounts of revenue for the government.

"Under other tax reform models, the amount of cutting you'd have to do would harm the performance of the federal government," says a Huckabee supporter. "The governor isn't willing to do that, which is one reason why he runs into trouble with groups like the Club for Growth, which are just zealots for tax cuts and nothing more."

At the same time that FairTax might be looking to re-jigger its operations in Iowa, there is talk that Huckabee fundraisers are pushing hard to build up a war chest to handle the huge media buys their candidate is making in Iowa. Political observers in Pinellas County, Florida, say that Huckabee supporters have been active recently in the Clearwater area, which not coincidentally is a hotbed of activity for the Church of Scientology.

Huckabee is looking at a media buy of about 1000 Gross Rating Points in Iowa -- one point represents reaching one percent of households. By comparison, media buys of 400 GRPs (four views of an ad) are considered large enough to ensure a candidate's message is seen or heard by the majority of likely voters in the caucuses.

p> FEDERALISM BACKFIRES

topics:
Education, Barack Obama, Energy