Huckabee hits O.C.

NEWPORT BEACH — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee spoke at the home of an avid supporter Wednesday morning, reportedly raising more than $100,000 hours before he planned to appear in a televised debate.

Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, told a backyard crowd of about 100 people that he planned to keep taxes low, seek to end dependence on foreign oil and reach out to low-income Americans who he believed were “invisible” to many candidates. Buck and Colleen Johns hosted the event at their home on Mesa Drive.

The candidate had planned to play music with a band after his speech, but he ended up leaving right afterward, apologizing to the crowd that he needed to prepare for the evening’s debate. During the speech, he drew applause as he talked about his tax plan and explained that he wanted to be “the president who puts the ‘out of business’ sign on the IRS building.”

“In my 10½ years as governor of Arkansas, taxes went up two-tenths of a percent,” Huckabee said, before adding a thinly veiled critique of opponent Mitt Romney: “In the four years of another governor’s tenure, the tax burden went up 4% over four years.”

Huckabee criticized another Republican as well when he described President Bush’s economic stimulus plan as a “government handout.” The rebates, he said, essentially amounted to borrowing money from China so American consumers could buy more Chinese-made products.

“Whose economy, exactly, are we trying to stimulate here?” Huckabee said.

The candidate touched on the issue of fossil fuel, saying America would have to seek alternative fuels to avoid polluting the environment. He also urged the country to invest in its own infrastructure and end its dependence on foreign oil.

Huckabee supporter Stacy Harp said that, while not a fan of the country music and themes Huckabee has made central to his persona, she found his Christian background particularly compelling.

“I thought it was great, of course,” she said of the speech. “A lot of what he talked about regarding strengthening the American family [appealed to me]. He’s absolutely right when he says when we strengthen American families, we strengthen our culture.”

Johns, who had hosted Huckabee to a much larger crowd earlier last year, said that he had a different reason for supporting the governor — the two are good friends who have known each other since Huckabee was the lieutenant governor of Arkansas.

“That’s the best reason [to support him] — I know him and like him,” he said. “I do think, too, he brings a lot to the equation: a certain skill level that we haven’t seen since the Great Communicator himself was around I always enjoy his speeches, and while some of those are tried and tested stump speech kind of things, I did like the fact that he mentioned energy independence and included fighting terrorism among his central themes.”

Johns said that some of his ideas — like closing the IRS in favor of a national sales tax — might be hard to implement in practice, but certainly reflect the values he’d like to see in a presidential candidate.

Newport Beach Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Daigle, who performed the Pledge of Allegiance before Huckabee’s speech, said she was “personally touched” by the governor’s praise of the Back Bay trails, which he traversed during his morning jog before the event.

“He told me that he got to do a run of the Back Bay trails, and thought they were great,” she said. Daigle declined to identify the candidate she was supporting in the Feb. 5 primary.

Following the Newport event, Huckabee went to an event in West Lake and later participated in the Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at chriscaesar@latimes.com. MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.