Kansas Senator Sam Brownback was back in Iowa Monday, hoping to build name recognition as he runs for the GOP presidential nomination. He knows he doesn’t have the name recognition of some of the other candidates, but Brownback says he’s hoping voters get to know him.
Brownback says the Republican base "is built around a series of principles, not personalities." He says it’s centered on a series of ideas and he says as the campaign goes on, those principles will guide the way people choose candidates they’ll vote for. A test of candidate strength comes this weekend, when they’ll all file their quarterly fundraising reports.
Brownback predicts he’ll have raised far less than some other Republican candidates like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, but says that’s to be expected. "Candidates should not be discounted because in their first reporting period or two they don’t have the same amount of numbers as somebody that’s been a national candidate for some time," Brownback says. While he’s not as well-known as some of his rivals, Brownback says his conservative credentials will eventually take hold with Iowa voters.
Brownback says whether you have Republicans or Democrats in control of Congress, "the system is built to spend — and it does spend." He says he’s put together a proposal to take the same process used by the BRAC, the Base Closing and Realignment system charged with cutting military costs, and put it into place for the rest of government. Brownback says that system closed military bases that saved the government 45-Million dollars and says if the same system was applied to the federal budget, it could save billions.