DES MOINES – For the field of hard-driving presidential candidates and the Iowa Republicans they pursue, the finish line is in sight. Months of stump speeches, hand clasps and other trappings of retail politicking will culminate Tuesday night when the leading vote-getters at 1,774 precincts have ...

You think you’re busy: The presidential hopefuls like to tell us the Iowa precinct caucus campaign is not a sprint, but a marathon, Call it what you will, the 2012ers, or at least some of them, have traded their walking shows for running spikes. With 18 ...

  Swing state blues: Looks like Iowa will maintain its battleground state status in the 2012 general election. A University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll, which found Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney 30 percent to 20 percent, also included questions about the 2012 general election. Answers from about ...

  DES MOINES – After some toe-to-toe battles on an Iowa debate stage, Republican presidential contenders were expected to take their fight to the trenches in hopes to capturing crucial support heading into the state’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses Jan. 3. “My guess would be that from now ...

  UPDATED WITH COMMENTS FROM DEMOCRATIC CHAIRWOMAN SUE DVORSY: CEDAR RAPIDS – Making his first campaign appearance in Linn County in more than six months, Mitt Romney said he is the candidate with “the best ideas for the nation” and is the Republican best able to defeat ...

It’s probably too late in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucus campaign to catch up to the record spending by candidates just four years ago. Still, the campaign ad buys this week by Mitt Romney and Rick Perry will warm the year-end balance sheets of Iowa media companies. A ...

  CEDAR RAPIDS — As the “one, true conservative” in the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said she’s best positioned to challenge President Obama. “I am the best candidate to take on Barack Obama because I will defeat him,” Bachmann said ...

  From Adams to Zollinger, presidential hopefuls have the waterfront, or the alphabet, covered. Oh, there are a few familiar names – Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry, for example, as well as Tim Pawlenty and ...

  Not since Avis has No. 2 tried harder. Most candidates and campaigns avoid acknowledging polls unless they are on top. No campaign more than Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s goes out of the way to publicize its second-place — or sometimes lower — standing in polls. “Ron Paul ...

To fill that slow time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, President Obama’s re-election campaign will host more than 50 house parties this week with volunteers across Iowa. Already more than 1,500 Obama for America volunteers are signed up to attend a caucus party this week, the campaign ...