Lieutenant Governor won’t run for Senate, not decided on Governor

Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson says she ruled out a race against Chuck Grassley this year and hasn’t decided whether she’ll run for governor in 2006. Pederson, who is 54 years old, says neither she nor the governor are on the ballot this November, and the focus should be on this year’s races. Pederson says she’s “trying to do a good job at the job I’ve been elected to do.” She says there’s three years “to speculate on the ’06 election.” Pederson’s not sharing many details about her decision not to run for the U.S. Senate, either. Pederson says she “looked”at running against Grassley, but “made a determination” that she needed to “focus on the job at hand.” Pederson’s been Iowa’s Lieutenant Governor since 1999, gaining office as Governor Tom Vilsack’s running mate. She’s a native of Vinton and was senior food editor at Better Homes and Gardens magazine before leaving that career behind to devote time to her son, who is autistic. Back in 1998, Vilsack said one of the primary reasons he chose Pederson as his running mate was because she wasn’t a politician and because of her work in community service organizations.