James Pinkerton Joins Huckabee Campaign

Conservative columnist joins Huckabee
By: Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin

James P. Pinkerton, a well-known conservative commentator and veteran of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, has joined Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, a campaign official tells Politico.

Pinkerton resigned as a Fox News contributor and gave up the column he has written for Newsday and other newspapers since 1993.

"I went from one thing I loved doing to something else that I felt called to do,” Pinkerton said.

Pinkerton started Thursday, with the title of senior adviser. The campaign official said he will work at the intersection of policy and strategic messaging. In other words, he will help beef up Huckabee’s policy proposals, which until now have been less detailed than those of some of his rivals.

Pinkerton was lured to the Huckabee team by Ed Rollins, the campaign’s national chairman. Both men are Massachusetts natives. In 1982 and 1983, Pinkerton worked for Rollins when he was President Ronald Reagan’s director of political affairs.

Rollins sold the job to him as a chance to help “restore the Reagan coalition,” Pinkerton recalled. “I thought, ‘I’m not going to turn THAT down,’" he said.

The addition of Pinkerton is the latest sign that Huckabee’s once-shoestring campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is moving into the big time.