Rudy Giuliani signs youth’s tee shirt at Iowa State Fair. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.
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by Rick Pearson
While former New York Mayor Rudy Giulilani is stepping up his presence in Iowa, his campaign manager says the strategy is to, at the very least, stay competitive for the Republican presidential nomination in the early caucus and primary states heading into the “Super Duper Tuesday” states on Feb. 5.
Michael DuHaime, Giuliani’s national campaign manager, said the frontloading of the 2008 caucus and primary calendar with big, delegate-rich states on the first Tuesday of February means that some old-school thinking –“that if you win Iowa, New Hampshire, it’s over”–no longer applies.
. “We believe that you just have to be competitive and do well in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida,” DuHaime said. Then, he said, on Feb. 5 there will be nominating contests in Illinois, California, New York and other states.
“They want their chance. That’s why they moved up,” he said. “And they’re not just going to kind of ratify the decisions of the early states. They’re going to want to have their own say in it.” DuHaime, a former political director of the Republican National Committee, was in the western Chicago suburb of Lisle, Ill., for the opening of the Giuliani campaign’s Illinois headquarters inside a strip mall on the community’s Main Street. The laptop-laden office’s neighbors include a “Curves” exercise salon, a Chinese restaurant and a liquor store.
At the headquarters’ opening, DuHaime repeatedly contended that Giuliani was the only Republican contender “who can make (Illinois) competitive in the general election.” Illinois, which used to be considered a bellwether, has voted for the Democratic candidate for president in every election after 1988.
With favorite-son U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois a contender for the Democratic nomination, and likely to take a solid majority of the state’s Democratic delegates, Republicans have been gradually focusing on the delegate contest in Illinois.
With Giuliani’s socially moderate position in support of abortion rights an issue among some of the traditionally conservative voters who take part in primary and caucuses, the former mayor is thought to benefit in large-state contests with an ideologically broader GOP turnout.
But DuHaime maintained “the primary election is not going to be decided on any one single issue in terms of looking at whether he’s a moderate on this issue, conservative on another issue.”
“There are a number of single-issue voters and those voters are probably not going to vote for Rudy if they don’t agree on that single issue,” he said. “But there are far fewer single-issue voters then most people would think there are and especially, after now that terrorism being as big of an issue as it is, it’s dramatically less than it was just eight years ago.”
Still, supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney contend that Giuliani is not the only candidate that can make Illinois competitive in a general election. They note Romney’s Republican victory as governor in a very Democratic state.