Senator Charles Grassley was first elected to the United States Senate in 1980, and he is the projected winner of a fifth term tonight. Grassley served in Congress before being elected to the Senate, and has now served 30 years in Washington. Grassley’s opponent in this race was Democrat Art Small of Iowa City, a former state legislator. Small raised less than $100,000 compared to Grassley’s sizeable multi-million dollar campaign fund, fueled in large part because Grassley sits as chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee — the panel that writes tax policy. Grassley, who is 71, is Iowa’s most popular republican. He had a hand in writing the legislation that will provide a prescription drug benefit to elderly Americans on Medicare, starting in 2006. Grassley also shepharded the tax cuts President Bush sought through a sharply-divided U-S Senate. Some of Grassley’s re-election campaign commercials featured the Senator mowing his own lawn and driving an ancient car around Iowa to visit voters. His opponent, Art Small, sang a song he wrote himself (titled “How do you chuck Chuck back to the farm when he’s been in D.C.”) — in a radio commercial.
