Edge in Iowa Rests in Senator’s Hands

He’s counseled the Democratic presidential candidates on all things Iowan, from the politics of ethanol to the value of hunting for rural votes in an expansive state sandwiched between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

He’s grilled them in public and private, praised those who are competing in Iowa’s Jan. 19 caucuses and rapped the two who are skipping the nation’s first nominating contest. Now Sen. Tom Harkin has to make up his mind. Will he take sides? And if he endorses: whom?

The 64-year-old Harkin, by far the state’s most influential Democrat, is torn on a decision that could help tip the balance in the highly competitive caucus race. He said he plans to deliberate until early next week, and then announce his decision.

Like many prominent Democrats around the country, Harkin appears drawn to Howard Dean’s take-no-prisoners attacks on President Bush and impressed by the former Vermont governor’s formidable fundraising and innovative use of the Internet to build support for his candidacy.

“I happen to like Gov. Dean,” Harkin said in a telephone interview Friday. “I like his combativeness. I like the fact that he seems to be bringing a lot of new people into the party.”

But despite persistent rumors that he would endorse Dean, if anyone, Harkin stopped well short of tipping his hand as he spoke from a vacation spot in the Bahamas.

He said he wants someone who can “generate enthusiasm and bring new people into the party,” comments that would apply to Dean. But Harkin also said he would like the Democratic nominee to be “someone who comes from a working-class background, someone who’s had life experiences that most normal people might have had.”

That would better describe Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, whose father, among other jobs, drove a milk truck, than Dean, son of a Wall Street financier.

Recent polls have shown Dean and Gephardt in a close fight for first-place in Iowa. And as a longtime ally of labor, Harkin faces heavy pressure from the 21 unions that back Gephardt to take no steps that would hurt his bid for the White House.

Harkin’s stamp of approval would be no ordinary endorsement. He is a staunch liberal whose word is valued among the party leaders and others likely to attend the caucuses. His endorsement of Al Gore on Labor Day in 1999 helped the then-vice president stem momentum that was building for former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey. Gore went on to win the 2000 caucuses and easily capture the presidential nomination.

Harkin, first elected to the Senate in 1994 after 10 years as a House member, “obviously has real loyalists among activist Democrats,” said James M. McCormick, a political scientist at Iowa State University. “That’s why he can make a difference.”

He said a Harkin endorsement of Dean could put the former Vermont governor “over the top. ... It would clearly make it difficult for Gephardt to win.”

For the last year, all nine Democratic contenders -- even the two who decided to take a pass on Iowa, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark of Arkansas -- have sought Harkin’s political advice.

“There’s things I like about each one of them,” Harkin said. “Each one of them I think has some unique characteristics and abilities.”

Harkin hosted public forums in Iowa for each of the candidates last year to help them raise their visibility. And he has praise even for the longshots in the race, like the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“I think it’s a foregone conclusion that Al Sharpton will probably not get the nomination,” Harkin said, “but whoever does ought to hire him for their speechwriter. This guy’s got some of the best lines, and I like the guy.... I was quite taken by him.”

Gephardt, as he campaigned Friday in Iowa, acknowledged the senator’s clout. “He’s a very, very, very respected figure,” he said after an event at a public library in Fairfield. “There isn’t a candidate who wouldn’t want his help and endorsement.”

Three of the contenders serve with Harkin in the Senate -- John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina and Lieberman. Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio also met Harkin on Capitol Hill. Gephardt served with him in the House.

Most of the candidates have hastened to support causes dear to Harkin. Those range from the parochial, like subsidies to help produce ethanol fuel from corn, to the national, like a move in Congress to stop the Bush administration from denying overtime pay to many workers across the country.

In turn, Harkin has political affinities with several of the major candidates.

Like Gephardt, Kerry, Edwards and Lieberman, he voted for the October 2002 resolution authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq. But he now believes that vote was a mistake and says Bush misled Congress about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime -- a position that puts him close to Dean and other opponents of the war.

On global commerce, another controversial issue among Democrats, Harkin voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. But he now says the agreement with Mexico and Canada should be renegotiated to include stronger safeguards for labor and the environment -- a position shared by most of the field.

Another leading Iowa Democrat, Gov. Tom Vilsack, has announced his neutrality in the race. Whether Harkin will do the same remains anybody’s guess.

Jeff Link, who managed Harkin’s recent Senate campaigns and led Gore’s winning Iowa operation here in 2000, said the senator’s advisors have gamed out every option and scenario for him. If Harkin jumps in with an endorsement, Link predicted he would go all-out to help his choice win in Iowa and elsewhere.

Yet Harkin remains torn. “He thinks this is such a close call on all sides,” Link said. “He’s got a lot of close friends on all sides of this debate.”

Without doubt, he is watching the candidates closely.

On Monday, Gephardt gave an address on disability rights at the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. Harkin has been a leader in Congress on that issue, and he took note of Gephardt’s remarks.

“Tell Dick I said, ‘Hi,’ ” Harkin said. “Tell him I liked his speech the other day on disabilities.”