Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and his campaign team have not decided yet whether Giuliani will participate in the Iowa Republican Party Straw Poll in Ames this August.
Over a month ago Giuliani’s Iowa campaign advisor, Jim Nussle, described the Straw Poll as a "circus" — prompting rival candidate Mitt Romney to counter that he looks forward to participating in the Straw Poll and wants to be its "ringmaster."
Mark Campbell, Giuliani’s national political director, says the campaign will decide in the next 20 days whether to enter the Straw Poll ring. Campbell also dismisses media reports that Giuliani may skip competing for support in Iowa’s Caucuses and focus on the big states like Florida and California which will be having primaries shortly after Iowa.
"Iowa is a historically important state. The Caucuses really kick-off the campaign season and while we are doing very well around the country we are also doing very well here in Iowa," Campbell says. "The campaign for president starts here and we’re going to be here." Campbell is in Iowa this week and he says the Giuliani campaign plans to ramp up its efforts here.
"We have opened a campaign office. We are staffing the campaign office," Campbell says. "We expect to have representatives and volunteers in every county in Iowa and expect to participate and compete in all the caucuses all across the state." Campbell made his comments during a telephone interview with Radio Iowa.