By Bob Eschliman
Editor
Republican presidential candidate former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum completed “The Full Grassley” earlier this week, stopping in Lyon County in extreme northwest Iowa to celebrate hitting all 99 counties.
The fete, named for Iowa’s senior U.S. Senator, who has been traveling to all 99 counties of Iowa since his first election campaign, is the mark of a well-organized, grassroots-level campaign. And while not all 99 counties were traditional campaign stops — some were book signings, others were tours of small Iowa businesses followed by discussions with captive-audience workers, and at least one was admittedly little more than a gas stop on the way to another event — being the first to stop in every Iowa county is probably expected to give Santorum’s campaign a little added boost (he currently sits at 14th in The Iowa Statesman’s Presidential Polling Power Rankings) ahead of the Iowa Republican Caucus in February.
But how many of the GOP candidates are even trying to attempt “The Full Grassley” this cycle? A look at the numbers, as of Thursday morning, reveals some interesting campaign tactics:
Counties Reached
1. Rick Santorum 99
2. Mike Huckabee 51
3. Bobby Jindal 36
4. Rick Perry 35
5. Carly Fiorina 29
6. Scott Walker 28
7. Ben Carson 24
Lindsey Graham 24
9. Rand Paul 22
10. Donald Trump 14
11. Ted Cruz 13
12. Jeb Bush 12
Marco Rubio 12
14. Chris Christie 11
15. John Kasich 2
George Pataki 2
17. Jim Gilmore 1
Total Stops
1. Santorum 144
2. Jindal 81
3. Huckabee 76
4. Fiorina 57
5. Walker 52
6. Perry 51
7. Graham 46
8. Carson 42
9. Paul 35
10. Cruz 32
11. Christie 26
Rubio 26
13. Trump 22
14. Bush 21
15. Kasich 10
Pataki 10
17. Gilmore 1
Red vs. Blue
Iowa has 75 “red” counties and 24 “blue” counties, based on active voter registrations. The average percentage of stops in red counties versus blue counties (Polk County, which has had nearly a third of all stops, is blue) is 49%. The following are the percentages of stops in red counties for each of the campaigns.
1. Santorum 65
2. Huckabee 62
3. Perry 59
4. Jindal 53
5. Carson 50
6. Paul 49
7. Walker 48
8. Fiorina 46
9. Bush 43
10. Trump 41
11. Cruz 34
12. Rubio 31
13. Graham 24
14. Christie 19
15. Kasich 10
Pataki 10
17. Gilmore 0
Top 10 Counties Visited
1. Polk 208
2. Dallas 30
3. Scott 26
Story 26
5. Linn 25
6. Black Hawk 20
7. Dubuque 19
Pottawattamie 19
9. Sioux 13
10. Johnson 12
Counties only Santorum has visited
There are 12 counties in Iowa where only Rick Santorum has visited, so far. They are: Grundy, Howard, Humboldt, Kossuth, Mitchell, Monroe, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Sac, Taylor, Winnebago, Worth.
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