by Josh Drobnyk

Few Pennsylvanians may have heard of GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Pat Toomey wants to keep it that way.

Toomey, the former Lehigh Valley congressman who now heads the anti-tax group Club for Growth, has been on a relentless campaign to undermine the former Arkansas governor's bid for the White House, which has gathered steam after a strong performance in the Iowa straw poll in August.

The Club for Growth has unleashed almost daily diatribes against Huckabee in recent weeks, criticizing him for hiking taxes during his tenure in the Arkansas state house, including a boost in the gas tax to help fix the state's roads. Huckabee counters that his record has been distorted and the gas tax increase was widely popular with the state's voters.

''Mike Huckabee is a unique candidate in this Republican field in that he is clearly a committed social conservative, but he is economically very liberal,'' Toomey said in an interview. ''And he is the only economic liberal in the field.''

Huckabee has seen his presidential stock rise since he placed second to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the influential straw poll. And while three other GOP presidential contenders -- former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Arizona Sen. John McCain -- didn't participate in the poll, the showing has led to a significant boost in Huckabee's popularity.

Recent polls in Iowa, which is set to kick off the primary calendar with a caucus on Jan. 3, show Huckabee trailing only Romney in the state. Nationally, he has more work to do; he polls fifth in most nationwide surveys.

But even in Pennsylvania, a state whose primary is scheduled for late April and that has received scant attention from the candidates, Huckabee is gaining momentum. He received 6 percent in a November Quinnipiac University poll, up from 2 percent in October.

''He has proven to be a very credible candidate,'' said Harrisburg-based GOP consultant Charlie Gerow, who is not affiliated with any of the White House hopefuls.

A former Baptist preacher, Huckabee has strong support from the religious base of the Republican Party in a race that has social conservatives less than ecstatic about the GOP field. He opposes abortion rights and federal funding for stem cell research. He supports a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

His name has often been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice should he lose the nomination.

And that's precisely what worries Toomey, who has sought to steer the GOP toward a more fiscally conservative mantle.

The Club for Growth, which Toomey joined soon after leaving Congress in 2005, has not shied away from going after fellow Republicans. It was Toomey, after all, who was aided by the group in his unsuccessful Republican primary race against Sen. Arlen Specter in 2004.

''Republicans have to lead with a consistent message of free markets and fiscal conservatism and Mike Huckabee would completely ruin an effort to try to re-establish that brand,'' Toomey said.

Huckabee's office didn't return a call for comment. The former governor has defended his fiscal record by pointing to an array of tax cuts he signed into law during his tenure, from 1996 to this year. On the gas and diesel tax boost, which he signed into law in 1999, Huckabee has repeatedly argued the measure was a ballot initiative that won widespread support.

''Did we raise taxes on fuel? Yes. But 80 percent of the people voted on it because it was on the ballot,'' he said earlier this year on NBC's ''Meet the Press.'' ''So it wasn't that I raised it. I joined with 80 percent of the people in my state to improve what was the worst road system in the country.''

That argument has infuriated the Club for Growth, prompting continuous jabs in recent days from the group that Huckabee was ''fibbing'' about his record. The group noted in a video it posted on YouTube.com that Huckabee signed the fuel tax hike two months before a $547 million bond issue for road improvement was approved in a referendum.

Toomey's tough rhetoric hasn't been equally shared among other prominent fiscal conservatives. Huckabee has signed the Americans for Tax Reform's pledge to fight future tax increases, a factor welcomed by the organization's president, Grover Norquist.

''He has a troublesome history in supporting tax increases as governor, as did Ronald Reagan,'' Norquist told the National Review magazine for a September profile. ''But in running for president, he has made a written commitment that he would oppose tax increases.''

Huckabee isn't the only GOP candidate to draw Toomey's ire. Earlier this year, Toomey wrote a scathing review of McCain's fiscal bona fides, prompting a short-lived spat between the pair.

''We think part of our role is to make clear what these guys stand for,'' Toomey said. He said he's unsure if he'll endorse a candidate before the primary is over, although he has written generally positive reviews of Giuliani, Thompson and Romney.

Toomey is considered an influential voice among conservatives and his assault on Huckabee's tax record has not gone unnoticed. After he penned a critique in National Review in late October, headlined ''Dump the Huck,'' CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Huckabee about the diatribe.

''As long as you're getting kicked in the rear, you're still out front,'' Huckabee said. ''I'm kind of enjoying…the fact that all of these attacks are coming. It proves…that I'm flying.''

Gerow agreed. But the key for Huckabee, he noted, is surviving the onslaught.

''When you start getting this kind of incoming fire you know that you are a real player,'' Gerow said. ''The question is whether Huckabee is able to deflect this criticism.''