Conservative ad rips Huckabee on taxes

A prominent conservative group will launch a six-figure ad buy in two early-voting states attacking Mike Huckabee’s (R) record on taxes, one day after the former Arkansas governor is expected to launch his bid for the White House.

The Club for Growth is spending $100,000 on a 60-second ad that will run in Iowa and South Carolina, two early-voting states that will be critical to Huckabee’s presidential ambitions.

Huckabee is expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in his hometown of Hope, Ark., on Tuesday.

“Why do conservatives oppose Mike Huckabee?” the narrator asks in the ad.

It plays clips from political shows in which news anchors challenge the former governor on his fiscal record and claim he raised taxes by 65 percent, or about $500 million.

The ad closes by stamping Huckabee’s name over Hillary Clinton’s (D) presidential campaign logo, and asks viewers if they’re “ready for Huckabee.”

He has strong support from social conservatives in the Republican Party, but he’s long warred with fiscally conservative groups.

During Huckabee’s 2008 run for president, in which he finished second to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Club for Growth ran similar ads that slammed him as a “liberal.” Some from the fiscally conservative wing of the party have dubbed him “Tax-Hike Mike.”

A Huckabee representative did not respond to a request for comment.

The former Arkansas governor has in the past called the ads “disgusting” and questioned the group’s motives.