Home-schoolers a plus for Huckabee

DES MOINES, Iowa, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's Republican presidential campaign is getting a boost from a cadre of evangelical volunteers from home-school families.

Children in those families have flexible schedules. A majority are evangelical Christians who identify with Huckabee, a former Baptist minister.

Many of the families are also large. Justin LaVan, a Des Moines lawyer and member of the board of the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators, is a father of five.

"You get a family where there's eight or nine children . . . you have a team right there," LaVan told the Los Angeles Times. "Put several of those out helping, and doing it for free, and that does a lot."

Iowa political observers believe that home-school families make up about one-quarter of Huckabee's volunteers in the state, an enthusiastic group that have helped him move ahead of the Republican pack. But the campaign is reluctant to talk about them.

"All I've heard the last week is pastors, pastors, pastors, evangelicals, evangelicals, evangelicals," Eric Woolson, in charge of the Huckabee campaign in Iowa, told the Times.