Judge calls ‘Where’s Patty?’ meme ‘absurd’

CEDAR RAPIDS — Almost as soon as Patty Judge joined the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, Republicans began asking 'Where's Patty?'

Rather than campaign in Iowa, the GOP has been suggesting the former Iowa legislator, state agriculture secretary, lieutenant governor and latecomer to the race to unseat Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley has been busier working the phones and flying to Washington to raise money than campaigning in Iowa.

'She's not even putting on a facade of reaching out to people,' charged Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann. 'If you're running against someone who for the last several decades has prided himself on going to every county every year, you've got to at least pretend to do that.' The incumbent's annual 'Full Grassley' tour of Iowa's 99 counties is part of his legend.

Despite the high stakes, Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt said Judge's campaign 'may be the lowest key Senate race in the U.S.'

Judge campaign manager Sam Roecker calls the GOP's 'Where's Patty' meme an 'absolutely absurd argument.'

'She's actually been out there doing a lot of work, trying to put together a really strong campaign in a short amount of time,' he said.

Judge has participated in three joint forums with her rivals — former state lawmakers Bob Krause and Tom Fiegen and State Sen. Rob Hogg — and plans to participate in the Iowa Public Television debate May 26 and a Des Moines Register-KCCI-TV debate June 1 — both broadcast statewide. She missed the lower-profile debates this month in Grinnell and Davenport.

In the first days of her campaign 'she did everything from a cattlemen's dinner to an LGBT happy hour,' Roecker said. In recent days, Judge campaigned from Sioux City — where she spoke to about 17 people for 45 minutes Thursday — to Davenport with stops in between.

'The thing about getting into the race when we did, you still have to do everything every other campaign does, but it's a compressed timeline,' Roecker said.

The appearance of a lack of campaign activity may be that 'she hasn't really gotten a campaign plan set and is hoping for a relatively easy primary,' Tim Hagle, associate professor of political science at University of Iowa said. That would be an unconventional approach because 'in Iowa, voters like to see the candidates.'

'But this seems to be an unconventional campaign year,' said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at ISU, so relying on name recognition and support of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee rather than face-to-face appearances may work.

However, if she's uncomfortable doing the 'grass roots thing,' University of Northern Iowa associate professor of political science Chris Larimer said that only will be magnified against Grassley 'who is the master at such campaigning.'

Judge seems to have a robust social media effort, Bystrom said, and as the best-financed candidate in the race is able to run an aggressive television advertising campaign before the June 7 primary. That gives her the 'opportunity to convince voters that she is the best Democratic candidate to challenge Sen. Grassley.'

Judge is well aware that the Democratic nominee 'has to be someone who can go toe-to-toe with Grassley,' Roecker said.

'This is going to be one tough race,' Judge said at the 1st District Democratic convention. 'I can do it with your help (because) I have the name identification across this state … a network of people both in the state and nationally who can help.'

Although she hasn't been on the ballot since 2010, Roecker thinks 'Iowans have a good idea of who she is and I think in the next three weeks they'll continue to be able to talk to her.'

If they can find her, Kaufmann said.

'You have to have noticed if you tried to catch up to Patty Judge and ask her a question, it's hard to find her,' he said.

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