Republican super stars like Mary Matalin and Rudy Guilianni are coming into the state today, aiming to steal some of the thunder from the Democrats. Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie. Gillespie says Iowa’s a “very important battleground state” in November’s election. Bush narrowly lost Iowa — by two votes per precinct — in 2000. Some Iowa Republicans had hoped the G-O-P and the Bush campaign would be more active in Iowa the past few months as the Democratic presidential candidates canvassed the state, criticizing the President. Gillespie says the democrats “pumped a lot of poison in the well” but he says Republicans and the President will get their message out before the November election. President Bush will step into the spotlight tomorrow night when he delivers the State of the Union message in Washington. Some Democrats have suggested Bush’s trying to take the limelight away from the Democrat who wins Iowa’s Caucuses tonight.Gillespie says the “State of the Union” speech is always held in the third week of January, and the conspiracy theories are “off the mark.”
Iowa's Radio News Network
