Sen. Grassley joins rare company

By Jerry Harrington

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When Iowans elected Chuck Grassley to his sixth U.S. Senate term on Nov. 2, they elevated the New Hartford Republican into the rare stratosphere of long-serving senators from the state. He joins the only other Iowan who has been elected to six Senate terms: the historical dean of Iowa politicians, William Boyd Allison of Dubuque.

Like Grassley, Allison was a Republican. He was first elected in 1872 and represented Iowa in the Senate for more than 35 years until his death in 1908.

A moderate-to-conservative politician, Allison began his tenure as senator during Reconstruction, serving through the raging debates over populism and ending it as the United States began to stretch its influence around the globe.

Not one to make waves or stir controversy, Allison was a Washington insider, doing his work in the cloak rooms and conference rooms of the nation's capital.

Across a century of time, Allison and Grassley have several things in common. Like Grassley, who was elected to the first of three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974, Allison began his national political career with several House terms, begun in the midst of the Civil War in 1862.

Both rose to the Senate by challenging sitting senators. In 1872, the young Allison defeated incumbent Sen. James Harlan of Mount Pleasant, who suffered from scandal stemming from his days as interior secretary. In 1980, Grassley won a victory over Democrat John Culver of Cedar Rapids, who fell along with many other liberal senators in the Reagan landslide election.

Allison and Grassley also served as chairmen of influential Senate committees. Allison headed the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee from 1881–93 and again from 1895 to 1908. Grassley has twice chaired the Senate Finance Committee, from January to June 2001 and from January 2003 to December 2006.

Unlike Grassley, however, Allison did not directly face Iowa voters in any of his six elections to the Senate. Before the 17th Amendment of the Constitution, which provided direct election of senators, members of the Senate were selected by each state legislature. Rather than seeking votes of individual Iowans, Allison waged successful campaigns among Iowa legislators in his election and re-election bids.

Another difference is that Allison's ambitions included the presidency. Allison was a serious candidate at the Republican presidential nominating convention of 1888, but lost to Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. Allison staged another campaign in 1896, losing the nomination to William McKinley of Ohio.

Publicly at least, a presidential run has never been on Grassley's agenda.

In the final year of his life, Allison did face one obstacle Grassley never has: a serious challenge to the Republican senatorial nomination. In 1908, the Iowa Legislature introduced the first party primary in anticipation of direct election of senators. Iowa's governor, Albert Baird Cummins, the leader of the “Progressive” wing of the Republican Party, decided to take on the aging Allison in a statewide vote.

Allison, though in ill-health, was persuaded by those in the “Standpatter,” or conservative wing, of the Republican Party to make one last run for what would be a seventh term. The veteran senator showed he could win the popular vote, defeating Cummins, 105,891 to 95,256.

Winning that primary proved to be Allison's last political hurrah. Two months later, before the actual Senate election, Allison died.

On one last point of connection, Grassley and Allison are linked by geography. The county seat of Butler County, home of Grassley's home and farm, is Allison, Iowa. It is named after Iowa's longest-serving - so far - U.S. senator.

Jerry Harrington, of Iowa City, is a writer and works in public relations and has a mater's degree in history from the University of Iowa. Comments:

jerry.harrington@

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