Mike Huckabee‘s presidential campaign is making extraordinary efforts to improve relations with the press. To that end, top communications advisors and a pollster for Huckabee made the rounds in Washington Thursday and paid visits to at least 12 news organizations.
And they weren’t all right leaning, assured Hogan Gidley, Huckabee’s senior communications advisor during a visit to The Daily Caller offices along with Alice Stewart and Bob Wickers.
“They get it right every once in awhile,” said Hogan with a sharp southern twang, referring to members of the so-called liberal press. “We gotta give ’em something.”
Huckabee aides said they have a no-whining philosophy about dealing with the press.
But perhaps this is a brand new philosophy since Huckabee recently complained about Donald Trump sucking up all the media’s attention. Last month Huckabee appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and reasoned that he’d be winning if he got the media attention that Trump receives.
“You give me 10 times the coverage that any other candidate gets, and I’ll be leading,” he said.
But you’ve got to hand it to his aides. If Hogan were in a job interview, he’d get high marks for the confident pitch he makes about his boss. A brief note about his attire: He looked very un-Washington in blue jeans, a blue and white checkered button-down shirt and a tie that may or may not have been orange. His fashion sense has previously been highlighted in GQ.
“When all this stuff hits a crescendo what beats the clutter…what matters is organization,” he said. “We cannot stress enough how important that’s going to be. …This isn’t a selfie campaign. He [Huckabee] wants a guy that’s going to come up and vote for him.”
Hogan insists Huckabee is “preparing for a meteoric rise” and trying to do things differently from last time around.
Stewart said Huckabee understandably doesn’t get as much press attention as others in the race.
“They say things that the governor is not going to say,” she said, pointing out that what they are hoping for is happening. “We are organizing our ground game. …Lets get him on the debate stage…he doesn’t have to go cut somebody’s head off. We want people to say ‘Yeah, that’s the guy I remember.'”
Hogan chimed in, “It’s never always the way you want. No one is pleased with the coverage you get.
The media is inherently liberal we all know that, but that’s the rule. That’s the game so what’s the use of complaining about it? There’s no reason to whine about it because you all you do is sound like a whiner. So roll up your sleeves. [Mitt] Romney came off like a whiner lots o f time. That’s just part of the deal. We’re not going to get a fair shake. No Republican will.”
In case any reporters want to find them, the trio are flying out of Washington tonight at 7 p.m.