Mike Huckabee, blue-collar champion, sure does like private jets

As he continues to toy publicly with the possibility of a second presidential campaign in 2016, Huckabee has cut a costly path through the nation’s political battlegrounds, incurring significant costs to Republican candidates and groups in at least nine states, among them the Iowa Republican Party and Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s infamous 2012 campaign. It’s a penchant for aerial luxury that could present a jarring contrast to Huckabee’s homespun shtick should he decide to be a candidate in the future.

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While wealthy and famous politicians often fly in style, Huckabee’s political travel is lavish by any standard. He appears to rely on private flights far more frequently than his potential rivals in the 2016 field. And if fans are often happy to cover the cost, Huckabee’s insistence on chartered planes tends to set him apart from a field of competitors scrambling to amass chits from early-state power brokers.

Former Iowa GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker, whose party spent $15,944 on a Huckabee flight in February 2013, said that “may have been the only time” the Iowa Republican Party chartered a plane to bring in a politician to the pivotal presidential state. It was for a Celebrate Life event at the Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Spiker recalled.

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