IA-SEN 2022: Grassley vs Franken

[walleye26]

What are we thinking the odds are that Grassley retires? 50/50?

[walleye26]

Pretty good article today in The Atlantic- given a good broad summary view of the Iowa Senate election.

(The 1 thing i would have liked to hear more analysis on, is the grassroots momentum that has propelled Mile Franken into striking distance... ie How strong is it? ... Is it growing or weakening? etc).

But fairly thorough otherwise.

Here is the link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/10/chuck-grassley-iowa-senate-election-michael-franken/671936/

I also wonder if part of the reason that this is close is that Franken can do some retail politics because this race has flown under the radar-as a result, there haven’t been national Dems bringing attention here and that has maybe made Franken seem above it all? I don’t know.

[walleye26]

I went to college in Sioux County. Franken was born there, but now lives in Sioux City, which is extremely different from Sioux County. Even though it's not a big city by any stretch of the imagination, it is very city-like vs Sioux County. So his being a Dem is not all that shocking.

Also, partly due to the two liberal arts colleges in Sioux County, there is a very active Democratic party in the county, though I would say a majority are from elsewhere who have made the county their home for various reasons (not all are faculty), so a current Sioux County Democrat running for office wouldn't be completely unbelievable, either.

Do you think Franken could narrow the massive GOP edge in the area just a little bit?

[walleye26]

I really wonder if Franken can narrow the margins in places like Sioux County and Northwestern Iowa then this could get interesting, since that was like 85% Trump in 2020.