MANCHESTER, N.H. — As the Mike Huckabee campaign prepared to air a television advertisement attacking Mitt Romney in the last days before the Iowa caucuses, one crucial player argued strenuously against the spot. Her name was Janet Huckabee.
Mike Huckabee would eventually announce at a news conference that he was overruling most of his advisors and would not air the ad. He described this as an act of conscience, but he was also bowing to the wishes of his wife of 33 years.
"I told him, 'I don't feel comfortable with you doing this,' " she said in an interview. "I kind of always knew he'd come to his senses."
In the Republican presidential contest, Janet Huckabee is at once the least-known of the candidates' wives, and perhaps the most politically experienced. She and President Clinton, the husband of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, share the distinction of being the only spouses on either side of the race who have run for office themselves.
Janet Huckabee lost a bid to be Arkansas secretary of state in 2002, even as her husband, on the same ticket, won reelection. She and her opponent engaged in negative attacks, and the campaign left scars, by her own account. She says she learned from the experience, and now appears to be applying those lessons behind the scenes.
Aides say she is one of the most effective and determined fundraisers in a campaign that is short of money. Her husband has described her, along with national chairman Ed Rollins and campaign manager Chip Saltsman, as his closest advisors in a campaign that has fewer executive staff than its rival camps.
Her role on the campaign trail, while small, has been growing. Janet Huckabee, who is on leave from an emergency-management job at the American Red Cross, has begun introducing her husband at campaign events, and at one Des Moines rally, even danced with Saltsman while her husband played with a band. When Mike Huckabee jetted to California to appear on "The Tonight Show" hours before the Iowa caucuses, Janet Huckabee filled in for him at campaign events.
About 2 inches taller than her husband and more athletic, Janet Huckabee cuts a nontraditional figure. When Mike Huckabee works crowds, she sometimes helps clear a path. She speaks with a stronger Arkansas twang than her husband, and more colloquially. At one rally, she described the prospect of becoming first lady as "too cool."
