Iowans of Another Stripe Talked Too

DES MOINES —  With all the hullabaloo accompanying the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, it was easy to forget about those other Iowans -- the Republicans.

There are more than 600,000 registered Republicans statewide, and a fraction of them also caucused Monday night, drawing about a dozen GOP luminaries to the state to seek support for the party -- and for President Bush.

The Republican leaders descending on Iowa this week, including Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, are here to remind voters that “while the Democrats believe that Iowa’s important in January, we believe Iowa’s important in November,” said Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Santorum met with state Republican leaders and spoke to caucus-goers in Dubuque on Monday.

“This is a swing state ... that the president narrowly lost in 2000; this is one that we have no intention of losing this time,” Santorum said.

Bush’s victory in the caucuses was a foregone conclusion, but Republicans who took part allotted delegates to the county conventions, threw support behind candidates in local races and discussed platform planks to be debated there.

This year’s Republican caucuses might not have been as exciting as in other years, when the GOP nomination was up for grabs, but the gatherings are still important for the party, said Kristin Scuderi, communications director for the Republican Party of Iowa.

“One thing that really motivates [Iowans to attend the caucuses]

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and House Majority Leader Tom Delay of Texas also came to Iowa to try to keep party morale high amid the Democratic candidates’ attacks on Bush.

Iowa Republicans “are tired of hearing the man they like getting beat up as badly as he has been by the other side,” Santorum said.

Nick Lantinga, Sioux County chairman of the Republican Party agreed. “We’ve had to withstand a lot of negative advertising,” Lantinga said. “We [in Iowa] hear a tremendous amount of negative comments about Bush’s policies. This is a nice and welcome break from that, from our side.”