Romney ad takes aim at Huckabee

DES MOINES, Iowa, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney, trying to stop Mike Huckabee's rise in the Republican presidential polls, released a 30-second TV ad on immigration Tuesday in Iowa.

The ad hit the airwaves the day before a Republican debate and a month before the Iowa caucuses, the first test of the candidates with the voters, McClatchy Newspapers reported.

The commercial starts out with praise of Huckabee, saying he and Romney are both "good family men" and that Huckabee opposes abortion, The New York Times said. But it then goes on to attack Huckabee for supporting tuition benefits and scholarships for illegal immigrants while he was governor of Arkansas.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has invested a lot of time and money in Iowa. But a Rasmussen Poll released Tuesday gave Huckabee 39 percent of the vote at caucuses, with Romney trailing by 16 points. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is a distant third with 8 percent.