Huckabee: New leader of Christian right

WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is being touted as the leader of a new generation of Christian conservative voters.

With Huckabee's campaign for the Republican Party nomination for president apparently drawing to an end, supporters say he is the perfect person to re-establish the Christian right, The Washington Times reported Monday.

"There is nobody else you can identify outside of Mike Huckabee as a leading person to take on that role," Rex Nelson, who served as communications director when Huckabee was governor of Arkansas, told the Times.

Nelson says evangelicals are entering a new era, one in which they care about things such as the environment and working with the poor.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, Huckabee's close advisers told the Times the former governor isn't interested in a Cabinet position or a run for the U.S. Senate.

However, they say he would be interested in being the running mate of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is nearing the number of pledged delegates needed to secure the party's nomination for president, the newspaper said.