OTTUMWA – Jon Pedersen walked into Bridge View Center, paused, and raised his Huckabee for president sign with both arms.

It was a bit of a joke. Pedersen supports Huckabee, but he thought people might get a kick out of an extroverted entrance.

“We just want to show support for Mike Huckabee. He represents a lot of the values we like to see in a candidate,” Pedersen said with a grin.

Huckabee’s surge to the top of the polls took a lot of people by surprise. Pedersen said he landed in Huckabee’s camp this past summer, during one of the campaign visits in which it was Huckabee, a couple staff members and little else. He liked what Huckabee said.

Sons Jonathan and Sam stood by, grinning, while Pedersen talked. Friday was one of their first chances to see their family’s candidate in person. The family considered rivals Mitt Romney and John McCain, but settled on Huckabee.

“We’re not super opposed to them, we just prefer Huckabee,” Pedersen said.

New Hampshire polls have not mirrored Huckabee’s Iowa rise. He still trails there. Pedersen said he hopes Huckabee can gain the kind of bounce the Iowa caucuses gave John Kerry four years ago, when Kerry vaulted to a New Hampshire win on the strength of his Iowa performance.

The Pedersens joined several hundred supporters in the theater at Bridge View for an evening speech. The campaign seemed surprised at the size of the audience. Large signs initially blocked off the upper one-third of the seating. They came down when it became clear the audience needed additional seats.

Huckabee entered to an enthusiastic crowd. He thanked people for coming out, saying Arkansas will “close everything” if it sees anything like the snow on the ground outside. His opening remarks were sprinkled with jokes. The near-constant political ads on television were an early target.

“After watching some of these ads about me, I’m not sure I’d vote for myself. It’s pretty brutal. People ask me if it hurts my feelings,” he said.

“That’s where Arkansas politics was good training. You have to realize politics is a contact sport. If you can’t stand the sight of your own blood, you’d be better off buying a ticket.”

Huckabee decried the recent attack ads, saying they just make it harder for Republicans to win in 2008. He struck some basic conservative themes, calling for people to reject socialized health care and cutting back the Internal Revenue Service.

But Huckabee also took swipes at rival Mitt Romney, saying Romney has his own weak spots. He contrasted what he called improvements to Arkansas’ road network with the condition of Massachusetts roads.

“[Romney] probably doesn’t want you to look at what kind of shape the roads were in in Massachusetts when he left,” he said.

Huckabee blasted Romney on tax policy.