Huckabee Surge Seen Helping Giuliani

Polls being conducted by GOP candidates appear to show a growing chance that underfunded hopeful Mike Huckabee could win the Iowa caucus, a victory that would upset the race and help Rudy Giuliani, according to Republican political advisers.

"It's not impossible that Huckabee could take the win from Mitt Romney in Iowa and make this thing a race," said one GOP adviser. The Giuliani campaign has some polling data that bear out Huckabee's rise and also show Sen. John McCain moving up as the race tightens.

Giuliani and Romney advisers, however, express little concern with Huckabee since he has mostly focused on New Hampshire and Iowa while they have sprawling organizations in the states that follow those two with primary elections and caucuses. Other GOP polling, however, shows Fred Thompson stalled or dropping, a situation that has some advisers to Romney and Giuliani fretting because each of those candidates had hoped he would rob primary and caucus votes from the other.

"Thompson is dropping too fast for their good," said the adviser.

—Paul Bedard