More Help For Huckabee: Pastors Conferences Planned For Early States

Sources say that the Renewal Project, whose organizers are partial to Mike Huckabee, is planning three pastors conferences in Florida, one conference in New Hampshire (scheduled for Dec. 13 and 14) two in South Carolina and at least on in Michigan.

Huckabee's opponents suspect the Project is a campaign adjunct in disguise. Its backers are wealthy and anonymous. Last week in Des Moines, they paid for 350 pastors to stay at downtown hotels, fed them good meals and paid Newt Gingrich's speakers fee.

And only Mike Huckabee was invited to speak.

(The project's organizers insisted that all the other candidates were invited, but, funnily enough, no other candidate seems to have gotten the invitation.)

How will these pastors help Huckabee? T

They can't legally endorse him from the pulpits.

They can, however, distribute voter guides. Problem is: because other candidates have answered questions the same way Huckabee has, for the guides to be effective in moving votes toward Huckabee, they'll have to be revised somehow.

When combined with TrustHuckabee, a 527 that serves as a surrogate paid voter identification and contact effort, Huckabee has the makings of a complete field campaign. And his campaign is paying for none of it.

And short of proof of coordination, it's all legal.

A side note: Yesterday, Pastor Rick Scarborough's "Patriot Pastors" tour was supposed to begin its sojourn through Iowa, although a snowstorm may have postponed the kick-off.

Comments

Look, I don't mind him setting up a surrogate network instead of him having the money to build an organization. It's good politics to tap into existing social netowrks. The issue I have is how obvious it is that these groups are motivated solely on religion. You know these guys are saying behind closed doors that they can only support a "Christian" candidate and they're mobilizing forces with the language of bigotry. Either way, Huck just isn't the candidate they're making him out to be. He's a good retail politician but he has an awfully suspect record and the Fair Tax thing would sink him in a general election. Not to mention how emotional the DuMond case is going to become. There is no question that Romney has far greater political credentials but he's being passed over by these people for what to me are totally illegitimate reasons. Evangelicals, if you want to show how powerful you are and that you can still influence politics, don't do it by giving Giuliani a yellow brick road to the nomination. You're setting yourself up.

Posted by Mike | December 7, 2007 11:09 AM

pretty shady. how can they do this and keep their tax exemption. amazing.

Posted by Galt | December 7, 2007 11:28 AM

Every individual in the United states that votes for a candidate is motivated by something. The issue is not what they are motivated by but is the candidate good for the nation. I am not a religious fundamentalist but I think Huckabee is a good man that can lead this nation forward. Let him use all the unique resources available to him just like all the other candidates are using thiers. Romney planned to use these same set of people and his speech yesterday was pandering to them , however it seems it's backfiring on him now that they are choosing someone else.

Posted by Greg | December 7, 2007 12:08 PM

I cannot understand why folks are alarmed about the agenda of religious folks; these are people that subscribe to notions of faith based upon love, not jihad. Sure, they might disagree with some of your ideas, but so do many that are not religious.

And please, let's stop with the soft-touch for Romney; he doesn't need to be handled with kid gloves. There is nothing wrong with folks not voting for him because they don't agree with his faith; everyone decides not to vote for someone for SOME reason...what's the difference? Get over it. The same folks that cry about this certainly wouldn't be lined up to vote a scientologist or muslim into office.

Posted by seriously | December 7, 2007 1:27 PM

Having been on the inside of such events and promoted them for years.....you can rest assured that such events are candidate and party specific.

Of those 350 pastors who were there how do you think "won't" vote for Huckabee? When asked by parishioners about who to vote for they will say (wink wink) well I can't legally tell you who to vote for but I would vote for the man who has the same theology and values as us. And remember Mormons are a cult" :)

Those outside of Evangelicalism would be shocked to find out how much overt political pandering goes on. We have a special language we use to convey who to vote for without violating our 501c3 status.

When you see names like Don Wildmon attached to any event yo ucan be assured it is a partisan event and that Hillary of Barak, etal were not invited.

Bruce

Posted by Bruce Gerencser | December 7, 2007 2:38 PM

Thank you Bruce....integrity matters

Posted by Kay | December 7, 2007 11:38 PM

I am a CPA and deal with NPO's (Non-Profit Organizations) regularly. Almost all religions NPO's (churches) are granted non-profit status under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3), and the regulations thereunder. These provisions require extreme care to be taken by the qualified religious organization to stay out of political campaigns. Specifically, IRC Sec. 501(c)(3) states, in part, "and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."

This provision in the code appears to be, among other things, how Congress and the Treasury have interpreted Article VI of the US Constitution prohibiting a religious test of candidates for public office--as it applies to tax law. Otherwise qualified churches that violate this requirement are subject to retroactive revocation of their NPO status.

I hereby call upon the IRS to enforce the law and investigate and revoke NPO status of any qualified religions organization that may be in violation of this provision—including the church of any pastor participating in the Renewal Project Conference.

Posted by David | December 14, 2007 5:20 PM