Northwest Iowa is a key focus for Republicans heading into Tuesday’s election. President Bush will be in Le Mars tomorrow (Friday) to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle.

Tonight (Thursday), one of Nussle’s political mentors, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, will be in Sioux City and Sioux Center to rally Republican voters. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee was in Sioux City yesterday, debunking the theory that there’ll be a Democratic tide at the polls.

“We’re going to maintain the United States Senate — absolutely for sure. I believe we can maintain Republican control of the House…if we get out with that economic message here and let it break through a lot of the other sort of clouds that are in the air right now, that we can win the House as well,” Frist says.

Frist says his recent visits to Iraq and Afghanistan illustrated for him the power of voting. “It is so clear that our right to vote is so powerful. It is what people bled for and have fought for in those countries. They finally had women voting for the first time,” Frist says. “So everybody needs to get out and vote.”