Krause itching to challenge Grassley in 2016

CEDAR RAPIDS - Bob Krause is scratching his six-year itch.

Just as in 2010, Krause is an early entry into the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination to challenge six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Although Grassley is 'obviously well-respected,” Krause questions whether the octogenarian who handily won re-election in 2010 'votes and represents what Iowans want today.”

'He has been diligent, he shows up, he votes, he goes to all 99 counties every year, he is accessible,” Krause said. However, he's been tone deaf on Krause's priority issues - income security and lack of growth in household incomes - and has been 'absolutely poison” on women's issues by opposing the Lily Ledbetter Act that called for equal pay for equal work and the Violence Against Women Act.

So it's once more into the breach for Krause, 64, a retired National Guard and Army Reserve colonel who is in the process of moving from Des Moines to Fairfield.

Krause is undaunted by the electoral success Grassley has enjoyed since first elected to the U.S. House in 1974. Or by his own lack of success in a three-way primary six years ago and the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

'My whole life, I've been putting my finger in the public meat grinder pretty regularly,” Krause said.

He was a state lawmakers in his twenties, served in the Carter administration, taught at Iowa State University while earning a graduate degree and has run a national transportation think tank, worked for the Iowa Department of Transportation, and written five books on transportation policy.

Krause also worked in state government, as adviser to the United Arab Emirates and currently for a defense contractor in Des Moines. He's been involved in a variety of roles in the veterans' community and serves as president of the Veterans National Recovery Center.

'There's a public service itch that I keep needing to have scratched,” Krause said.

He scratched at it briefly as a candidate for the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He yielded the field to Sen. Jack Hatch in order to concentrate on veterans' issues, Krause said.

Krause believes he could have won the nomination, but conceded that, like Hatch, he would have been underfunded and faced the same uphill battle against Gov. Terry Branstad.

He's not afraid of the uphill battle involved in challenging a Senate incumbent. He fully expects it.

'I come from the school of hard knocks. I take my lumps and I occasionally win,” Krause said.

He'll certainly be at a campaign finance disadvantage, Krause said, but thinks Democrats in Iowa and beyond will support his campaign.

After he meets with voters, Krause said, he believes they will say, 'I'm voting for Bob Krause because Bob Krause is interested in what I have in my pocketbook and I don't think Chuck Grassley is.”

Also, he said, Grassley has been prone to mistakes.

'There's ‘pull the plug on grandma,'” Krause said, as well as forcing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to exercise the Senate's 'nuclear option” of confirming nominees with 51 votes rather than a two-thirds majority, and involvement with a Somalian dictator that resulted in 'almost single-handedly turning the Horn of Africa into a vast terrorist wasteland.”

'The guy sometimes does not know his margins,” Krause said. 'He has had a history of pushing his luck too far.”

Grassley spokeswoman Beth Levine called Krause's charges 'old, misleading talking points that were already revealed as baseless.”

Grassley, Levine said, 'proposed and voted for a stronger Violence Against Women Act than what was eventually passed.” He also supported a 'fair, balanced fix” to the issues addressed in the Ledbetter case.

'In addition, the Senate this year confirmed the most judicial nominees since 1980, so the only new talking point is much ado about nothing,” she said.

In regard to Krause trying to link Grassley to a group known as The Family and its involvement with Somalian Dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, Levine said the senator has never lived at or attended a prayer meeting at the group's C Street house.

'He worships at Prairie Lakes Church in Cedar Falls, and on the rare occasion he's in Washington on a weekend, he worships at Woodlawn Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia,” she said.

There will be competition for the Democratic nomination. Former Cedar County state senator Tom Fiegen is meeting with Democratic groups around the state and Krause expects there will be others.

Krause claims to be an 'opinion leader” who has a following.

'I'm still taken seriously in certain quarters. Not all quarters, but certain quarters,” he said.

'When I talked about the minimum wage and its impact on children, people stopped and thought,” he said. 'That generated that momentum for that to become a fairly major issue with many other candidates around the state. I really focused that. I was the first one to talk about it.”

Grassley follows the general Republican philosophy that 'if you take the taxes off everything the sun will shine,” Krause said.

'Democrats believe government should provide the bootstrap.” Krause said. 'You have to pull that bootstrap, but Democrats will provide it” through education, job training and the social safety net. 'Sure, those things take money, but we believe there is a payback.”

One example, Krause said, is raising the minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25 an hour to help low-wage earners and force other wages higher. Grassley has said he doesn't support an increase at this time.

Krause and his wife, Vicky, operate a small development firm that rents apartments and builds houses.