Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has hired Iowa Congressman Jim Nussle — the 2006 Republican candidate for governor — to help lay the groundwork in Iowa for a "Giuliani for president" campaign.
"People are thirsty for results. They want results from their government. They want results from their leaders…and they want results that aren’t necessarily Republican or Democrat or conservative or liberal. They just want somebody that can deliver and get the job done," Nussle says. "Rudy Giuliani has certainly been able to prove that he can do that."
Giuliani and Nussle do not share the same views on key social issues like abortion. Giuliani favors abortion rights while Nussle is pro-life. Nussle says both, though, are fiscal conservatives. "The rest of the issues I think will take some time to flesh out," Nussle says. "I’ve had an opportunity to talk to the mayor about a number of issues — some of them economic, some of them social — and what I learned in talking to him about the social issues is that he’s not as moderate as some would paint him."
Without offering specific examples, Nussle suggests people will be "surprised" when Giuliani outlines his beliefs. "He’s much more conservative than I think he’s been painted, some by opposition and for that matter sometimes by the media that often likes to put people in compartments," Nussle says.
Nussle describes Giuliani as a "results" conservative. "He wants to move things forward," Nussle says. "Just talking about the perfect philosophy is not what he’s about. He wants to actually accomplish the things that he sets out to do."
Nussle spoke with Radio Iowa this morning in our Des Moines newsroom. The woman who served as Nussle’s press secretary for the campaign for governor recently signed on to work for Giuliani, too. Last week, Nussle joined with one of his former congressional staffers to launch a public relations firm called "Navigating Strategies" with offices in Cedar Rapids and Washington, D.C.