GOP star power coming to King’s aid

DES MOINES - U.S. Rep. Steve King is enlisting some Republican star power to close out his 2014 re-election bid.

King's campaign announced Thursday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, will participate in the northwest Iowa congressman's annual Col. Bud Day Pheasant Hunt on the weekend of Oct. 25-26 at the Hole ‘N the Wall Lodge north of Akron.

Christie will attend the Saturday luncheon fundraiser for King for Congress but won't participate in Sunday's hunt with King and Gohmert, according to King's campaign. The weekend event previously drew Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Santorum, who won the 2012 Republican precinct caucuses in Iowa, will aid King's re-election effort next week by headlining a fundraiser for the congressman at the home of Mike and Shannon Persaud in Dakota Dunes in nearby South Dakota.

King also will get some help from New York entrepreneur Donald Trump who will be in Iowa on Saturday to headline a fundraiser at a private residence in West Des Moines.

'I look forward to having Donald J. Trump again visit Iowa,” King said in a statement. 'It's good to have another outspoken fiscal conservative support my re-election campaign.”

King is a six-term incumbent from Kiron first elected to Congress in 2002 who is facing a challenge from Jim Mowrer, an Iraq War veteran from Boone making his first bid for political office in the 4th District, which covers northwest quadrant of Iowa stretching from Sioux City to New Hampton and from Okoboji to Ames.