Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Monday that he no longer wants to quarantine AIDS patients.

The former Arkansas governor, in Dallas to raise money for his campaign, said the position he took in 1992, as he was running for Senate, reflected what he called the uncertainty about the disease.

"Obviously, I said it," Mr. Huckabee said in a news conference. "I wouldn't say it today."

Mr. Huckabee is enjoying a surge in the polls and is now running first in Iowa and second place nationally behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Mr. Huckabee said he has enjoyed coming from behind and into contention but looked forward to front-runner status. "It's nice to read a story and not have an asterisk by your name," he said.