GOP: Romney secures strong start in state
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has established an organizational advantage over his rival candidates in Iowa, according to GOP officials in some of the leadoff caucus state’s most populous counties.
But no one in the crowded Republican field has sparked the kind of buzz that early front-runners in past races have generated, the sample of uncommitted party chairmen and influential Republicans said.
Nine candidates tried to ignite that kind of interest in their campaigns Saturday night when they appeared at a party fundraiser in Des Moines.
The race for the 2008 caucuses is fluid, with Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, having laid the most groundwork, followed closely by Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Romney has had field staff in place around the state longer than his rivals, and has been busy making contacts and recruiting supporters.
“There really isn’t a frontrunner in Iowa right now,” former state GOP Chairman Mike Mahaffey said. “The polls say it’s Rudy Giuliani. But organizationally, I’d have to say Romney and McCain are doing more of the hard slogging.”
Giuliani, the former New York mayor, has done little compared with Romney, McCain and others to begin building an Iowa campaign network.
However, Giuliani has continued to rank at the top of polls in Iowa.
The phenomenon is a factor of the ex-mayor’s national name recognition, not measurable support among Iowa’s GOP activists, Mahaffey and others said.
Those same polls show Romney running behind Giuliani and McCain, as do national surveys of Republican preference. But Romney has raised more money than any of his rivals and has been aggressively soliciting support for the Ames straw poll, an early test of strength in Iowa.
The straw poll, a state Republican Party fundraiser, is scheduled for Aug. 11.
Pottawattamie County Republican Chairman David Overholtzer said Romney has also been to western and southwest Iowa more often than his fellow candidates, which could give him a leg up in that GOP-rich part of Iowa.
“If you were taking a snapshot right now, Governor Romney has got the most momentum in southwest Iowa,” Overholtzer said.
Romney worked to project enthusiasm Saturday at the Polk County Convention Complex as one of nine Republican candidates who spoke at the state party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines.
The event was an opening bell of sorts for the 2008 campaign, where nine candidates made direct appeals to about 1,000 of the most influential Republicans in the state.
Besides the three better-known candidates, also hoping to leave an impression on party activists Saturday were Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, Illinois businessman John Cox, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.
No one stole the show, marking a clear difference between the early 2008 campaign and eight years ago, when then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush had emerged as the likely nominee before even entering the race.
Polk County GOP Chairman Ted Sporer said Brownback, Huckabee and Thompson were building impressive organizations in the state’s most populous county, although Romney and McCain were “very strong.”
Sporer expected Giuliani to catch up quickly, given his second-best fundraising effort behind Romney in the year’s first quarter.
No candidate has begun to establish organizational dominance in the Des Moines area or ignite the kind of enthusiasm Bush did in 1999 en route to his 2000 caucus victory.
“We have a large number of undecided voters and those who have decided have done so without a lot of conviction,” Sporer said. “We’ve got a race more fluid than we’ve had in a long time.”
With nine months remaining until the caucuses, there is plenty of time for one of the lesser-known candidates to break into the top tier, especially given the unease some conservative Republicans in Iowa express about Giuliani, McCain and Romney, GOP insiders say.
Romney’s early organizational advantage comes with potential pitfalls, Black Hawk County GOP Chairman Steve Schmitt said.
Romney has had staff in the Waterloo area longer than anyone, Schmitt said.
Giuliani also served himself well among rank-and-file Black Hawk Republicans by hiring former U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle, who represented the area in Congress.
“I still say Romney’s got more what I would call momentum up here,” Schmitt said. “But there’s a long way to go, and people might have had enough of him come January.”
