New York Senator Hillary Clinton will meet privately with Democratic lawmakers at the statehouse today. Clinton flew to Dubuque Sunday evening after participating in ceremonies in Alabama to mark the 42nd anniversary of civil rights protestors being attracted in Selma on "Bloody Sunday." Two other presidential candidates were in Iowa over the weekend.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, called himself a "grassroots" candidate who will not have the "resources" that others like Clinton will have. "The voters decide this race. There’s this emphasis out of Washington, D.C. that the way you become president is you raise a lot of money or you’re a rock star. I’m neither," Richardson says. "But I’m going to be respectable in raising money and I’m going to go directly to the people on issues."
Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, a Republican presidential candidate, was back in Iowa this weekend, too, sounding a similar anti-Washington theme."They hate each other out there. It’s terrible. I mean the Democrats hate Republicans and Republicans hate Democrats and everybody hates everybody," Thompson says. "All they want to do is get on the six o’clock news and they don’t give a damn for what gets done." Thompson did not attend a major gathering of conservatives over the weekend in Washington, D.C.
While Thompson’s chief Iowa aide has called the former governor a "reliable conservative," Thompson himself offers a different label. "I’m a moderate conservative. I don’t get hung up on ideology like so many candidates," Thompson says. "I look at an issue and try and come up with a solution." Thompson has said he intends to make weekly visits to Iowa in hopes of building support for the Iowa Caucuses, which are scheduled for next January.