Giuliani Woos Skeptical Iowans — With Some Success

For much of the pre-caucus season, it seemed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was not really playing to win in Iowa. He made waves when he announced he was skipping the Ames Straw Poll and most commentators seemed to agree that Giuliani’s support for abortion rights would doom him in a state where social conservatives dominate the Republican Party.

But after spending Wednesday and today campaigning across the state, Giuliani seems to have erased some of those doubts.

The Des Moines Register’s David Yepsen wrote a laudatory piece on Giuliani. “It’s a sign he and his people finally get it,” he said. “They get they can win Iowa.  And they get they’ve got to spend time in the state to do it. Until now, there’s been doubt the former New York mayor understood those things.”

And the New York Times reports (accompanied by a picture of a jolly Giuliani) his trip “reflects the campaign’s confidence that he now has a shot to win in the state, after Mr. McCain cut his Iowa staff by half.”

Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for Giuliani’s Iowa campaign, said Giuliani is “taking Iowa very seriously.” Agen said that in addition to the eight already scheduled stops, Giuliani took part in a parade in Sioux City on Wednesday; today he visited the eastern part of the state, including an ethanol plant. Agen said Giuliani would be returning to Iowa more frequently. “We’ll be back in a couple weeks,” he said, referring to the presidential debate on Aug. 5 in Des Moines. “He’s committed to Iowa.”

Agen said Giuliani had 10 staff members working in the state, which is now twice as many as Arizona Sen. John McCain, but only half of the staff for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has dominated the state so far. Agen said that the campaign had not picked up any of the McCain staffers who have departed; Tim Albrecht, a spokesman for Romney, said the same.

Agen said the campaign had not suffered since former Congressman Jim Nussle, one of Giuliani’s top Iowa advisers, left the campaign after being nominated by President Bush to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. “We were pleased with the help that Congressman Nussle gave us in setting up our operation,” he said. “We feel we have a good strong team that will win the caucuses [and will] build on what Congressman Nussle helped start.”

Giuliani’s support for abortion rights and record of social liberalism as mayor of New York will almost certainly be an obstacle for his candidacy. But it might not be quite the barrier many had predicted. On Wednesday, Giuliani declared he would appoint “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court in the mold of justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and there is reason to believe social conservatives will be pacified by that promise.

Agen deflected a question on whether Giuliani’s support for abortion rights would harm his candidacy. “He made 12 commitments to the American people, and one of them is to reform the justice system,” he said. “He is a strong proponent of those who will interpret the Constitution and not legislate from the bench and that includes a number of issues and it’s something he feels very passionate about.”

In pushing Giuliani’s candidacy, Agen highlighted Giuliani’s leadership during these “difficult times.” He also seemed to take a page from Romney’s playbook. “Mayor Giuliani feels there are two [core] issues," Agen said. “One of them is staying on offense against terrorism. The other is growing the economy.” Romney regularly likes to say that there are three legs to the Republican stool: strong defense, strong economy and strong family. It seems Giuliani is gambling that he can stand on a two-legged stool. He might be right.