Aide: Conlin will run against Grassley for Senate seat

An aide said Friday that lawyer Roxanne Conlin intends to seek the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2010 and the right to oppose Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, who is trying for his sixth Senate term.

"She'll be entering the race for the U.S. Senate next week," said a senior adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Conlin doesn't plan to make a formal announcement for several days.

The 65-year-old Conlin was the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 1982 and has served as the Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman. She was a U.S. attorney in the 1970s and was the first woman elected president of the National Trial Lawyers Association.

Conlin said last month that she was considering running for Senate, and the aide said she had made the decision to do so.

The filing “moves her from more than likely to definitely,” Conlin spokesman Mark Daley said.

She will join two other Democrats seeking the nomination, former state legislators Tom Fiegen and Bob Krause. Both announced months ago that they would run for Senate but have raised little money and so far haven't generated broad grassroots backing.

FEC reports showed Fiegen had $518 in reserves as of September, and Krause had $3,492.

Conlin would enter the race with far greater name recognition than the other Democrats.

A key issue Conlin will face is money. Grassley is the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and is a proven fundraiser. Federal Election Commission reports through the end of September showed Grassley had $4.4 million in campaign reserves.

The filing, however, indicates that Conlin has been moving on the financial front. Generally, one is considered a candidate and an organizational filing is required when $5,000 is raised or spent.

“It's safe to say we're within this window,” Daley said.

Conlin, who is personally wealthy, has said it will take $5 million to $6 million to run a competitive campaign. Other news reports have said she plans to raise $10 million.

Grassley reported having $4.4 million in the bank at the end of September.

Conlin has said she won't take political action committee contributions, but she is a prominent lawyer with personal wealth and connections to lawyers throughout the nation.

"I know I won't be able to match his fundraising," Conlin said in a recent interview. "I hope to be competitive."

If she wins her party's nomination, Conlin would face off against one of Iowa's most successful politicians in history. The 76-year-old Grassley has held public office since 1958. He was in the state Legislature from 1958 to 1974, and then served three terms in the U.S. House before ousting Democratic Sen. John Culver in 1980.

Grassley won his last election in 2004 with 70 percent of the vote. His poll numbers have slipped recently as he has been in the spotlight during the Senate Finance Committee's health care wrangling, but they remain higher than Iowa's other statewide politicians.

The Conlin aide said she would file a formal declaration of candidacy with the FEC next week, allowing her to begin assembling the resources to seek the nomination in June's Democratic primary.

It's not clear yet when Conlin will hit the campaign trail. Daley said she plans to do so “soon,” but a schedule hasn't been drafted.

In her race for governor in 1982, Conlin cruised to the Democratic nomination but lost to Republican Terry Branstad after a campaign that frequently dwelled on how much she and her husband - a prominent real estate developer - had paid in taxes.

Iowa and Mississippi are the only two states that have never elected a woman governor or sent a woman to Congress.

-- Associated Press

Ed Tibbets of the Quad-City Times also contributed to this article.