Despite the fact that President Obama carried Iowa with 54 percent of the vote last year, and that Democrats control one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats, three of the five congressional districts, the Governor’s office and both chambers of the state legislature, the party does not seem especially enthusiastic about taking on five-term GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley.
It may be because Grassley, who lists his profession as farmer, is a good fit for a state with a populist streak, or because he hasn’t had a tough race since 1974 when he won a seat in the U.S. House with 51 percent. In 1980, he defeated then-Democratic Sen. John Culver with 54 percent of the vote, and hasn’t gotten less than 66 percent in any of his four re-election bids. That Grassley finished the first quarter with nearly $3.1 million in the bank provides further disincentive to take him on.
The incumbent’s poll numbers make the prospect of mounting a serious challenge even more daunting. A Des Moines Register survey (March 30-April 1 of 802 adults) put Grassley’s job
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