Pawlenty seeks to capture some Huckabee magic

Presidential aspirant Tim Pawlenty gives remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington last week. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

By James Oliphant

July 5, 2011, 12:41 p.m.

Tim Pawlenty's lookin' for some Huck Luck.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Huckabee’s daughter and an architect of the former Arkansas governor’s shocking win in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, is joining Pawlenty’s campaign as a strategist.

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Sanders, who has always been her father’s closest political adviser, fits with Pawlenty’s current all-Iowa, all-the-time strategy. Mike Huckabee won Iowa by mounting a strong retail campaign, scoring well with Christian conservatives, and branding himself a straight-talking populist.

Pawlenty’s campaign said she will focus her efforts on the Iowa Straw Poll in August, viewed as a looming test of Pawlenty’s viability, and in building a greater grassroots operation in the state.

“Sarah is a results-oriented person with a great track record in Iowa and around the country,” Pawlenty said in a statement. “We are very excited Sarah is joining our team just as we are hitting our stride in Iowa.”

"It’s clear to me that Gov. Pawlenty has what it takes to unite the party, unite the country and beat President Obama,” said Sanders, who also masterminded former Rep. John Boozman's win over incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas last November.

While Pawlenty says he is hitting his "stride" in Iowa, a recent Des Moines Register poll disagreed, showing the candidate, who was among the first to launch a presidential campaign this year, trailing front-running Mitt Romney by 17 points. Fittingly, his campaign compared him to Huckabee, who was similarly behind in 2007.News...