January 23, 2008

Two weeks ago, Rudy Giuliani’s campaign was humiliated when we learned that it was so broke, senior campaign aides would not get paid for the month of January. Now, Giuliani isn’t the only one suffering from serious financial difficulties.

Some of Mike Huckabee’s top advisers are working without pay and some field directors have been let go entirely, the campaign said today, as money woes have taken hold.

The campaign also announced it would no longer provide transportation for reporters covering the candidate, saying it could not afford (or justify) a full bus or larger plane when many of the seats went empty. (Media pay their own way, but there aren’t enough reporters with Huckabee to make the economics work.)

The campaign’s media narratives and conventional wisdom have gotten plenty of angles wrong the past several months, but Huckabee’s trajectory doesn’t appear to be one of them. All signs suggested that the former Arkansas governor could appeal to religious right activists and score a big win in Iowa, but would lack the resources and organization to replicate that success elsewhere. Huckabee would need to see a huge boost in fundraising, immediately, in order to remain a credible challenger.

And by all appearances, the narrative on Huckabee was right. South Carolina was his last big chance to prove he could win, and demonstrate to donors that he’s a serious player, and he came up short.

I don’t want to say Huckabee is toast, but it’s hardly an overstatement to say he’ll have trouble clearing the hurdles in front of him.

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