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Sen. Grassley, who’s still considering reelection run, urges bipartisanship to keep Iowa caucuses first-in-the-nation

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley has been doing annual tours across all 99 Iowa counties since he was first elected in 1981.

Forty years later, Grassley is set to have finished visiting 71 counties by the end of this week, including Johnson County on Wednesday, where he spoke privately with Iowa City High School students. A common question for him nowadays is whether he's made a decision to run for re-election in 2022.

"September, October, November," Grassley continues to say of when he'll make his final call this fall, "because one year is long enough to campaign."

More:'There's nothing that I'm not considering': Iowa's potential 2022 candidates are taking their time to announce, while they prepare

Grassley, the most senior Republican in the Senate, said he hasn't thought about any potential opponents in 2022. Dave Muhlbauer, a farmer and former county supervisor was the first Democrat who announced his intent to run.


"Whether it's a Democrat or a Republican, anybody can run for this office and I haven't concentrated on who might be an opponent until I make my mind up (on) what I'm going to do." Grassley told reporters in Iowa City. "In the meantime, I've got a full-time job representing the people of Iowa in Washington, trying to get drug prices down, trying to get a fair price for our cattle producers and visiting the 99 counties when we aren't in session.

"The thing that would lead to defeat if I were running again, or when I decide to run again, whatever the case might be. If you thought you could be re-elected without campaigning, you'd be defeated. People in Iowa don't want to be taken for granted."

On Monday, Nevada lawmakers passed a bill transforming its caucuses into primary elections and setting the date early in the year in an effort to supersede Iowa and New Hampshire as first-in-the-nation spots.​


"I imagine Iowa will be first if we have to hold it before Christmas," Grassley said, partly joking. "I'm being a little facetious when I say that, but we've had other states — I don't know whether it's four years ago or eight years ago, who tried to get ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire, and both Iowa and New Hampshire took control of the ball — and as long as they're bipartisan in Iowa, and they're bipartisan in New Hampshire, which they have always been ... I think we can both maintain our first-in-the-nation status."

presidential nominating process

Grassley had a message of bipartisanship, urging Democrats in Iowa to not fold to the pressure of the DNC to do away with the caucus, pointing to successful campaigns of presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, who both can trace their paths to the Oval Office back to the Hawkeye State.

"If Iowa Democrats went along with that, it'd make it much more difficult for Iowa to be the first in the nation. That's why I hope they don't. As long as the two parties stick together in both states, I think we'll be first-in-the-nation caucus (in Iowa), first-in-the-nation primary (in New Hampshire)."

 
Note how Chuck marks off his Johnson County visit by privately meeting with high school students. No pesky journalists or average citizens, just high school students a little awed by the office, and fully aware that if they ask a dick question that Chuck can't answer the teacher and principal will be embarrassed, and, well, s*** rolls downhill.
 
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