WASHINGTON — In a sign of the rapidly shifting dynamics of the Republican presidential contest, Mitt Romney on Monday became the first candidate to run a TV attack ad, slamming Mike Huckabee on immigration in a bid to brake his rival's sharp rise in the polls.
Romney's assault comes amid new polls suggesting that white evangelicals -- a major Republican voting bloc -- have started rallying strongly behind Huckabee after months of wavering among candidates across the field.
Huckabee's surge is especially threatening to Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who has long hoped his rightward tilt would appeal to evangelicals despite their often skeptical view of his Mormon faith.
Romney's new ad, which began airing in Iowa, describes him and Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist preacher, as "two good family men."
"Both pro-life, both support a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage," an announcer says.
"The difference? Mitt Romney stood up and vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens, opposed driver's licenses for illegals. Mike Huckabee? Supported in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants. Huckabee even supported taxpayer-funded scholarships for illegal aliens."
Responding to a similar Romney attack last week in a Florida debate, Huckabee defended his Arkansas policies on college aid for students whose parents were illegal immigrants. "In all due respect, we're a better country than to punish children for what their parents did," Huckabee said.
Huckabee has also tried to bolster his conservative credentials on immigration with a new ad of his own, along with a new plan to toughen border enforcement. "Our government has failed us," Huckabee says in the ad. "Build a border fence. Secure the border, and do it now."
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom called the ad a fair comparison of the candidates' records:
"I think what happens whenever a candidate moves up in the polls is that they attract more attention to their record, and what people will find with Mike Huckabee is someone who is soft on illegals and hard on the American taxpayer."
Huckabee presided over both tax cuts and increases as governor. An offshoot of the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group, has been running television ads criticizing him for raising taxes.
Even with attacks on Huckabee mounting, two polls released Monday found that he had rocketed into the top tier of Republican candidates -- not only in Iowa, which holds the nation's first nominating contest on Jan. 3, but nationwide.
