Overtaken by Mike Huckabee in the Iowa polls despite vastly outspending him, Mitt Romney is launching today the first side-by-side contrast television ad in the state's GOP presidential campaign, a spot that directly criticizes Huckabee's record on illegal immigration.
The ad features stark piano music, photos of Romney and Huckabee, and a voiceover calling them "two former governors, two good family men, both pro-life, both support a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage."
Then the message shifts.
"The difference?" the announcer asks.
As Massachusetts governor, Romney had vetoed in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants and opposed giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses, the ad says.
It says Huckabee, on the other hand, supported giving in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants and making children of illegal immigrants eligible for merit scholarships while he was governor of Arkansas.
"On immigration, the choice matters," the announcer in the ad says.
The ad does not mention that Romney is a relatively recent convert to the antiabortion cause and had struck a more moderate stance on gay rights during his run for governor in 2002.
Yesterday, Huckabee started his own TV ad on illegal immigration that, along with a plan he unveiled on Friday, seeks to toughen his stand.
The ad - airing in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina - emphasizes building a fence on the Mexico border and shows him saying no to amnesty and to "sanctuary cities."
MICHAEL LEVENSON
