.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} He has an odd name, but Iowans don’t see anything odd about Mike Huckabee. He surged into the top tier of Republican presidential candidates here after this summer’s Straw Poll.

Clad in blue jeans with an electric bass guitar slung over his shoulder, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee strummed out a pretty good rendition of “Johnny B. Goode” as his supporters munched on free cold watermelon slices at the event in Ames.

“It was a stunning surprise,” Huckabee told reporters after his second-place finish in the Straw Poll, edging out a crowded field of better known and better financed competitors vying for the GOP presidential nomination.

The big bounce from the non-binding vote has catapulted Huckabee into the top tier, and his political star is on the rise after high-profile television appearances with the likes of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher and feature stories in national magazines and newspapers.

Huckabee’s gentle stump speeches in a vitriolic presidential campaign season, even at this early stage, have Iowans taking a serious look at the former Baptist minister and two-term governor born in the same town of Hope as a more famous Arkansas son, Bill Clinton.

“It’s no secret that it’s been a challenge for this campaign to raise cash, and we’ve got to get some traction from the Straw Poll to get people who are waiting on the sidelines to start writing checks,” said Eric Woolson, Huckabee’s Iowa campaign manager.

While the money is being generated by his Little Rock, Ark., fund-raising operation, Huckabee answered several questions submitted to the Business Record by our readers during his recent campaign stops in Iowa.

• J. Barry Griswell, CEO of Principal Financial Group Inc.: “How would you solve the immigration problem?”

Huckabee: “My No. 1 priority is securing the border. We’ve got too many people entering the country illegally, and it has to stop. We’ve got to have tamper-proof, scannable ID cards, so employers can hire the employees they need legally. Those caught entering our country illegally have to be detained, processed and deported. Besides stopping terrorists, we need to weed out immigrants with a criminal background or communicable diseases.”

• Ric Jurgens, CEO of Hy-Vee Inc.: “The biggest health-care issue in America is not insurance costs but poor diet and lack of exercise for too many citizens. What role would your administration play in encouraging and supporting fitness and improved American diets?”

Huckabee: “We need to get serious about preventive health care instead of chasing more dollars to treat chronic diseases that are avoidable.

“The obesity epidemic is a real threat and represents the greatest single economic threat we face. While I don’t think we should penalize people for making unhealthy choices, we shouldn’t reward it. We should create incentives and rewards for those who make responsible and healthy decisions.

“I’ll work with Congress, health-care providers and the private sector to completely overhaul our health-care system, not more of the same paid by Uncle Sam.

“Our health-care system is broken because it’s only a “health-care” system and not a “health” system. We don’t need universal health care mandated or funded through higher taxes.”

• Des Moines attorney Steve Zumbach: “What would you do to ensure separation of church and state, including ensuring that the interests of all beliefs; including agnostics and atheists, are respected?”

Huckabee: “The First Amendment requires that expressions of faith be neither prohibited nor preferred. We shouldn’t banish religion from the public square, but we should guarantee access to all voices and views. That’s the position I’ve taken throughout my public and personal life.

“My faith is my life, and it defines me. It doesn’t influence my decisions; it drives them. We can share and debate our faith, but never impose it. I have more respect for an honest atheist than a disingenuous believer.”

Though Huckabee still isn’t equaling the huge crowds drawn by the leading Democratic candidates – Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards – or even fellow Republican Mitt Romney, Iowans like his true social conservative message and eminently likable personality.

Huckabee believes in creationist theories, a national sales tax to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service, the appointment of strict-constructionist judges (i.e. anti-abortion) and get-tough immigration laws.

With all the media attention the Straw Poll bestowed on Huckabee, Woolson says the next big job for the campaign is to drill down to the precinct level.

“Our mission in the Straw Poll was to get 2,000 to 3,000 people to appear in one place on a hot August afternoon, and now it’s to get many thousands of Iowans to get to 2,131 places (precinct caucuses) on a cold January night,” said Woolson.

So long as the guy with the bass guitar and weird name continues strumming the same conservative message and raises enough money to compete, Mike Huckabee could win one of the top three tickets out of the Iowa caucuses.