Aides to Christian radio personality James Dobson are denying a report that the influential Focus on the Family founder is planning to endorse Mike Huckabee.
“Dr. Dobson isn’t close to an endorsement of anyone in the 2008 race,” Focus on the Family senior vice president Tom Minnery told The American Spectator in an email this afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the magazine’s Washington Prowler blog, citing a Huckabee campaign source and an unidentified Dobson “advisor” in Colorado, reported that Dobson has decided to back the former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor and plans to announce his endorsement at a campaign event in Iowa within the next ten days.
After updating its online report to include Minnery’s denial, the magazine added this:

Contacted again by The American Spectator, those who initially spoke on background about the Dobson endorsement insisted that as of last night, plans were being put in place by the Huckabee campaign for an announcement and endorsement tour, and stood by their account.

Getting Dobson’s support would be huge for Huckabee, and God-o-Meter isn’t convinced it won’t happen. What, after all, in Minnery’s words, constitutes being “close to an endorsement”? An announcement less than a week away? In GOM’s view, Dobson relishes the role of king maker far too much to pass up an opportunity to shake up the GOP race.

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