The likely Republican nominee for president will make his first stop in Iowa today since the January Caucuses. Mitt Romney will be speaking in Des Moines this afternoon. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, says Romney is expected to focus on the president’s handling of the federal debt.
“I don’t think he has to communicate anything other than the economy and job creation and maybe too much regulation,” Grassley says. “He doesn’t have to bring it up, but if he’s asked about it, he’s gotta’ show his sympathy towards agriculture and biofuels.”
Grassley says Iowa is “a battleground state without a doubt,” and he says Romney hasn’t done as much grassroots work here as President Obama. “Now that’s partly Romney’s strategy,” Grassley says.
“He wasn’t going to spend $12-million in Iowa on the caucuses like he did four years ago and not be a winner. He came in and you can say he either won or he had a tie, but he did very well in a short period of time and the amount of money he spent.”
While it’s been more than four months since Romney has campaigned in the Hawkeye State, Grassley predicts we’ll see much more of the former Massachusetts governor in the coming six months prior to the general election. Grassley says, “He’ll have to spend a lot of time in Iowa and I believe he will spend a lot of time in Iowa and I believe we will be able to carry the state for him.”
While there was much discussion after last week’s North Carolina vote against same-sex marriage, including President Obama voicing his support for such unions, Grassley says it’s not likely a topic Iowans will hear addressed by Romney today.
He says, “Social issues might be in the top ten but it’s not in the top five of things that people are interested in that we ought to be working on, I mean, that they expect the president to be working on.” Romney is scheduled to speak at the Hotel Fort Des Moines at 2 P.M.