Financial Profile Friday: Mike Huckabee

This is our last Financial Profile Friday of a single candidate for the primaries. We’ve covered everybody else in the race, although we’ll continue to touch base with how campaigns are spending money. As the primaries draw nearer, the FEC has candidates reporting on a monthly basis, rather than a quarterly basis, so we’ll have more information to look at.

Mike Huckabee is turning into the little train that could — despite lagging in funding from the start, he’s still in the race. Huckabee says that he’s going to stay in the running until the Republicans hold their nominating convention. He doesn’t seem to be in it to win, but to keep certain issues under discussion. So far, he’s raised $12.9 million, compared to John McCain’s $53.7 million. Even Ron Paul, who’s getting a lot less press than Huckabee, has raised $32.6 million.

Huckabee’s ‘big donors’ aren’t individuals associated with banks or industries, like the other candidates. His third biggest is Kenneth Copeland Ministries — individuals associated with this religious nonprofit have donate $18,320. Keep in mind that while individuals associated with non-profits like churches can make donations, they cannot make endorsements — see Taxgirl’s post earlier this week for more information. Huckabee is also getting backing from plenty of individuals who work for the State of Arkansas, his current employer. That pushes the State of Arkansas to his 5th largest donor group, with $12,150.

Huckabee’s campaign spending is pretty lean by necessity. He’s spent just over $12 million, but has managed to keep his administrative costs down to 31 percent of his spending. Most campaigns seem to hover at about 50 percent for administrative expenses (McCain is at 52 percent, Hillary Clinton is at 53 percent). Huckabee is making an effort to direct all of his spending into buying media time: $1.4 million alone has gone for buying broadcast spots.

Whether or not I agree with Huckabee’s politics, I have to say that his use of campaign funds has been amazingly effective, even when he made early missteps.