DES MOINES, Iowa, July 9, 2007
Romney Has Early Edge In Iowa
Rest Of GOP Field Mulling How To Compete, If At All, Against Former Governor
-
Play CBS Video Video Candidate Romney Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has gone from being a long shot to a top candidate. Romney speaks with Hannah Storm about the controversy surrounding his faith and his stands on abortion and Iraq.
-
Video Candidates Flock To Iowa Seven presidential candidates from both parties flocked to Iowa on the Fourth of July to drum up support for the upcoming caucus. Jim Axelrod explains why the state is so important to the hopefuls.
-
Video Hill And Bill Woo Iowa Bill Clinton joined Hillary Clinton on a campaign trip through Iowa, where the couple charmed Democrats. But will Hillary's husband help or hurt her campaign? Jim Axelrod reports.
-
Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters during a Fourth of July parade Wednesday, July 4, 2007, in Clear Lake, Iowa. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
So for now it's Romney and then everyone else here.
He has divided Iowa up into 10 regions based upon past caucus turnout.
There is a field director in each place along with a handful of part-time regional field managers — or "super volunteers" — who are getting paid a few hundred dollars each month to make calls and knock on the doors of possible straw poll attendees and likely caucus participants. The effort, directed by Iowa native Gentry Collins, is lauded by most every neutral observer as superior.
Romney's Iowa effort began before most.
"They started early — Mitt spoke at our county convention two years ago — and they have some young staffers who worked in our county on other campaigns last election and are highly regarded," said Steve Schmitt, chairman of the Black Hawk County GOP.
Romney made 13 visits to the state in 2006, holding fundraisers for state and local candidates and collecting chits along the way. He's been back a dozen more times already this year.
On Air
Romney has also done what no other candidates have to date — broadcast radio and television commercials.
While costly, the ads, on the airwaves since late February, have boosted him to the lead of every recent Iowa poll and made a largely unknown one-term governor from the East Coast a recognizable figure to even non-political types.
For Romney, the plan had long been to go all-out in Iowa, starting with a big showing at the traditional test-of-strength in Ames on August 11 and then followed by a victory at the caucuses in January.
But McCain and Giuliani backed out of the straw poll in June and Thompson sources indicate that he won't make a showing there either, leaving Romney alone among the GOP frontrunners at the quadrennial political extravaganza.
Romney has sought to use the absence of the other Republican hopefuls to play on activist heartstrings, intimating strongly that to nominate anybody but him would endanger the state’s first in the nation tradition.
“The parades, the forums, the town meetings, the straw polls, the caucus, it’s all part of selecting the nominee for each party, and I’m 100% part of it,” he pledged to a local reporter while sweating his way through one of those parades in suburban Des Moines last week.
“Win or lose,” he reiterated, in case the point wasn’t clear, “I’m going to be part of it.”
Picking A Winner
For all Romney's organization, however, many Iowans are holding out, reserving judgment until later in the year.
Like political activists everywhere, they've become a more pragmatic bunch, inclined to think as much with their head as their heart when deciding on a candidate.
Lundberg, the Sioux County chairman, said he "likes the second-tier candidates a lot," but quickly adds that, "ultimately, people want to support a winner."
And that goes for any of the candidates. Worried about President Bush's basement approval ratings and frightened by the prospect of another President Clinton, Iowa GOP activists want to make sure they pick the right horse.
"There are still a number of conservatives who are looking for somebody that they can rally behind," Lundberg said. "At some point, you'll make a decision to back somebody and you're going to put time and effort into it - and it's tough to put time and effort in a losing cause."
By Jonathan Martin
© 2007 The Politico & Politico.com, a division of Allbritton Communications Company
| We cover politics with enterprise, style, and impact. |
More From Politico
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 31 CommentsPosted by fredgrad2000 at 09:43 PM : Jul 09, 2007
You are right. Kind of unreal. Well said. But it will be interesting to watch a real businessman and politician MR. ROMNEY take on Hillary. He is a perfect MR.CLEAN image and she is a tawdry attorney who cannot find her billing records or explain the technique for pulling 100 successful future trades against all odds, nor has she fully explained her relationship with the late Vince Foster, who was said to be fond of her.
Obama nor Hillary ARE qualified; Obama has done what, 2 years in the Senate (most of it campaigning), and Hillary one term in the Senate and 2 terms as the hostess-in-chief (that's all a first lady is)...now I dislike Romney too, but both these dam* parties drive me nuts - they both seem to live to discard their most qualfied, knowledgeable candidates!! Please...tell me you believe Hillary or Obama hold a candle in experience or knowledge to either Richardson or Biden (yet both are at best "2nd tier") or that Romney is even close to McCain (4 or 6 terms in the Senate and a war hero) or even Giuliani (2 good terms as mayor - chief executive - of a city larger than 30 of our states and long time as US Attorney) or Duncan Hunter (16 terms as rep, chairman of armed services comm., son serving in Iraq, military veteran in Vietnam). With these candidates, the parties choose Romney and Hillary!? Unreal...
Posted by gitreal
The best--at what? Sucking blood from little children? Sucking the souls of men out through their ***?
The evil undead succubus needs to have a silver stake driven through her heart with an iron hammer.
Too bad you'll never get from Coulter what Clinton got from Monica! But every time you jerk off to the TV image of her face, Satan gets a little more of your soul.
Hope you like your trip to Hell!
Posted by JackSteen1 at 06:54 PM : Jul 09, 2007
.......Yeah Jackass1, and Mitt wouldn't have a chance to be elected to Governor of the "bluest" US State either would he??
Jackass1 you probalby don't know it but your liberal feathers are showing and it sounds like you are highly contaminated.
I have to laugh at GunOwnerDan and Perception's posts about Obama and Hillary not being 'qualified,' and how Ron Paul is going to save us - and the world. As if the idiots they support have a fiddler's chance in Hell to win. I still chide a friend about her wasted vote for John Anderson years ago - a nice symbolic act, but totally worthless. Get real, people.
This mormon serial-marriage practitioner hasn't a white salamander's chance on a sunny day in the Utah sun.
No matter how much of his cult's money he squanders with his nefarious lying advertisements.
He's a cultist. Do some serious study of the gang of loons he belongs to.
Both voted AGAINST funding for American troops overseas.
How can they expect to be "Commander-in-Chief" and vote agaisnt American troop funding?? For Political Reasons no less.........................really sad.
FYI- America almost never elects "Senators" as President's. So elimate all the Senators running from both parties and you will find our NEW PRESIDENT in the remaining candidates.
That's why the corporate-owned media will hardly mention his name.
ronpaul2008.com
Posted by Smirk5
When he says he believes in the fight, he means the poor man's fight. Don't forget the righty slogan: War... feeds the rich and burries the poor.
COMMENTS ARE CLOSED FOR THIS STORY
MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-----
DNC NEWS UPDATE
Jesse Jackson arrives in Pelosi's hometown of SF and denounces black on black violence.
Poses for photo op with victims' surviving family members.
Unity of the oppressed speech draws crowd of angry queers.
Cindy Sheehan participates by conference call, says some of Casey's best friends were negros.
Barak claims he's just as much a feminist as Hillary is a negro.
Hillary says you can't invalidate her feelings.
Gore promises race neutral, gender neutral, feminist rap concert next year to benefit both negros and queers who use compact flourescent bulbs, scheduled to coincide with Pelosi's bill to protect farm goats.
- 2008 Campaign to Save the Planet! -
-----
www.ronpaul2008.com
I'm confused. I keep watching "Big Love" on HBO and it scares me to think the idiot neocon compassionate evangelical christian Rush-loving Fox News lemmings will put Mitt Romney in the White House.
Of course, it couldn't be any worse than W.
Posted by doctorwho4 at 02:08 PM : Jul 09, 2007
With all respect, I think you better wake up. No mormon will ever gain the whitehouse.
Fred Thompson - An old lobbist turned actor;
McCain - a guy that thinks urban warfare is a peaceful place to shop;
Rudy Giuliani - A guy married to a chick that can't count the times she's been married;
Mitt Romney - A mormon that doesn't think like one.
Gotta love the republican party.
Bring it on.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 31 Comments