Iowans Come to Expect Face Time With Presidential Wannabes

There’s really something to this whole "shaking hands and kissing babies" deal when it comes toStraw Poll time in Iowa.

The 2012 presidential wannabees? They’re everywhere you turn in the Hawkeye State. And all the time. Like more than a dozen of them, hundreds of times.

We've heard Michele Bachmann speak in an exhaust-filled machine shed in Dexter (fumes courtesy of the Bachmann tour bus), Tim Pawlenty chatting it up on the Otter Creek Golf Course in Ankeny and Newt Gingrich at the Nordic Fest Pancake Breakfast in Decorah. Rick Santorum moved through the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, and we've lost count of all the candidates rolling in to various Pizza Ranch restaurants, seemingly located on every street corner in the state.

But that's been par for the course. And the candidates began teeing off in 2009. Since then, Bachmann, Herman Cain, Thaddeus McCotter, Ron Paul, Pawlenty, Santorum, Gingrich, Jon Hunstman, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Buddy Roemer and Gary Johnson have criss-crossed the state in hopes of making friends who could help them crash the Oval Office.

Iowans have come to expect this sort of face-to-face contact as a given during campaign times.

Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines, said the expectations of the Iowa voter to get face time with the candidates has weaved a colorful yarn.

“What’s interesting, and it’s the same in New Hampshire, is that in these smaller states, people have grown accustomed to talking to the candidates either individually or in small groups,” he said. “There’s this sort of joke, ‘Do you support candidate X? I don’t know, I’ve only met him four or five times.’”

But the many candidate visits, almost 460 to date in Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register, are no joke to those presidential hopefuls hoping to reap the rewards of a successful Straw Poll. Thousands of potential voters are expected to converge on Ames with a willingness to stand by their candidate.

"I think for any candidate, the more people you can be in front of, the more it will bolster your crediblity," said Chad Airhart, Dallas County Iowa Recorder and steering committee member for Pawlenty’s presidential campaign. "And the more often they can be out there, the better."

This is where the shaking hands part comes in. Goldford says that while, yes, candidates may be canvassing the state, that doesn’t always translate into big numbers when it comes time to vote.

“Look at Santorum,” said Goldford of the former Pennsylvania senator’s 129 Iowa visits in 50 days. “He’s been all over and he’s barely registering single digits. He's hoping that he'll surprise people and do better than expected. “

Still, there’s hope to be had if you’re betting on a particular horse to win the race. In recent Straw Poll history, the overall winner has finished first or second in the Iowa caucuses. The caucus winner has become the Republican party nominee twice  (George W. Bush and Bob Dole) and president only once (George W. Bush).

With the Straw Poll coming up fast this Saturday, don’t be surprised if you run into the candidates even yet this week. They’re still buzzing around Iowa trying to woo potential voters.