It sounds like Christie Vilsack may have been the mystery candidate who was poised to give Chuck Grassley the race of his life. Vilsack, wife to former Governor and current Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, told WHO-TV that she’s strongly considering the race, although not fully committed yet:
“I am honored that people would think of me in that way and would talk to me about running for any office and I think I’m well-qualified to run,” Vilsack said. “I think I’m qualified to serve, so time will tell.”
Vilsack isn’t ready to jump in the race just yet – and she’s giving herself enough room to decide not to run.
Although Vilsack hasn’t held office herself before, she’d bring name recognition and Beltway connections to the race, putting it squarely on the map for next year — especially in view of the nosedive in Grassley’s approvals in the wake of his health care obstructionism. (H/t Taegan.)
RaceTracker Wiki: IA-Sen
…. was she a decoy or is she running (or possiblity running) also?
What is Christie Vilsack’s bio, other than Iowa First Lady?
please let her run. That would be awesome.
It would have been really nice though to see Bruce Braley run against Grassley, now that would have been a race, as Braley is a fantastic campaigner with a solid NE Iowa base and deep pockets of his own. With Grassley’s sinking approvals I could have seen that becoming a race.
I mean sure, her husband may be popular, but you know Hilary barely won her senate seat in New York in 2000 (for such a high profile candidate in such a blue state I guess I should say).
I’m skeptical, but hey, is she can beat Grassley, she can certainly be my huckleberry.
Good luck, but i think the correct challenger is Tom.
With KBH running in Texas without resign in senate…
Chuck Grassley win the right of have the race of his life. Hi really deserve the race of his life.
He’s never been re-elected with less than 66 percent of the vote. Last time around he got 70 percent. The federal races are at the top of the ticket, and Iowa has party-line voting.
A strong, well-known candidate against Grassley should increase the straight-ticket D voting next year, with benefits to Governor Culver and our state legislative candidates.
In my opinion, holding Grassley to, say, 55 percent would be extremely valuable.
As a fellow Iowan I would like to say that desmoinesdem is dead on about developing strong candidates up and down the ticket as opposed to merely just defeating Grassley. People must remember that we had a very old pharmaceutical lobbyist in Art Small running against Grassley last time so any of the candidates who have been discussed will certainly be a stiffer challenge to Grassley in comparison to the one he got last time. I actually encouraged people to vote for the Green candidate back in 2004 because Art Small was seemingly so lacking in many ways.
People also need to realize as they probably do that Bruce Braley’s congressional district is not as blue as we would like it to be, of course we have some capable state legislators who could run for the seat.