Former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee courts GOP support in Las Vegas

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told a Las Vegas audience that his record as governor in Arkansas shows his reach across the political spectrum.

Huckabee spoke Thursday night at the Bootlegger Italian Bistro to a crowd of about 200 people. It was Huckabee's first campaign appearance in Las Vegas since he announced in May he's running for the GOP nomination. The former Arkansas governor ran for the GOP nomination in 2008, when Republicans tapped Mitt Romney.

First a lieutenant governor, Huckabee became a governor in 1996, when a scandal forced his predecessor out. He went on to win two terms, leaving in 2007. Huckabee's political fortunes rose in the same state as former President Bill Clinton and current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

"In Bill and Hillary Clinton's Arkansas, there was no accountability; they owned the place and nobody thought a guy like me could get elected," Huckabee said.

Huckabee casts himself as a Republican who could take on the Democratic machine that the Clintons built in Arkansas. He was governor in a state with a Democrat-controlled Legislature, a time when some politicians refused to ride in the same elevator with him.

"The meaner they got, the nicer we get," Huckabee said.

Huckabee called for overhauling the tax system by eliminating the income tax and replacing that with a sales tax. He said that would be more fair, allowing people to keep their whole paycheck and tax consumption rather than productivity.

"When you work hard in this country, you shouldn't be punished," Huckabee said.

Huckabee criticized the deal the Obama administration struck with Iran over that country's nuclear capabilities.

"On my first day, I will say, 'Iranians, we are done with this deal,' " Huckabee said.

Huckabee touts his gubernatorial record of cutting taxes and creating jobs. He's placed sixth among Republican voters with 8 percent support in a poll by Public Policy Polling, falling behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and current frontrunner Donald Trump. But the GOP is field is crowded, and that poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, gave participants 17 choices.

Huckabee took questions from reporters after his speech.

Asked if Yucca Mountain should store nuclear waste, he stopped short of saying Nevada should be able to reject it outright, saying the issue needs to be worked out between the state and federal government.

"Obviously this type of material has to be stored somewhere," Huckabee said. "But there should be something that brings comfort and a sense of, I guess, a feeling that the people of Nevada have had their concerns met."

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1.