RNC Chairman won’t change stance on Iowa Caucuses

The chairman of the Republican National committee is traveling Iowa by bus today with a man he feuded with this summer. In late July, Iowa Republican Party chairman Kayne Robinson was miffed Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson failed to back Iowa’s Caucuses in the fight over the 2004 election calendar. During an interview with Radio Iowa Thursday, Nicholson refused to say Iowa’s Caucuses should be first-in-the-nation. He says that’s because it’s done by tradition and not by rule. He says doing it by rule would create a big debate and not benefit Iowa.Nicholson, who is a northwest Iowa native, will only say there are “benefits” to having the Iowa Caucuses go first in the presidential race. He says it makes aspiring candidates cut their teeth with retail politics.Bush campaign officials intervened at the last moment this summer and helped junk the 2004 election calendar Nicholson supported. Nicholson and Robinson have set their feud aside and are now traveling from city to city in Iowa, drumming up support for republican candidates.