Hoping that his Wisconsin roots and populist style sell just as well in neighboring Iowa, former Gov. Tommy Thompson launched his Republican presidential campaign in both states Wednesday, calling himself a "reliable conservative" with "common-sense" solutions.
"It's a long way for this boy from Elroy to the grand white home on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.," said Thompson, who faces difficult odds in a crowded but unpredictable GOP field.
In Milwaukee, Thompson drew more than 1,000 people, most of them students, to a Messmer High School gymnasium that was named after him in recognition of his signature support for private school choice.
In a suburb of Des Moines, Thompson drew about 300 people, a solid crowd for a Republican -especially a perceived dark horse - at this early stage in a very fast-starting campaign.
Presenting himself as an innovator and problem-solver, Thompson touted his record in Wisconsin on welfare reform, education, taxes and jobs, and his tenure as U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush.
"From Madison to Washington, D.C., this is a record of a reliable conservative, one who puts principle into practice. It's a record driven by our shared Midwestern work ethic," Thompson said.
He also vowed to take a creative approach to the nation's problems.
His platform now includes a flat income tax; "healing" America's broken relationships in the world through a kind of medical Peace Corps; and decentralizing Iraq along not just Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish lines but through the establishment of 18 largely self-governing provinces.
Thompson also is proposing that the Iraqi parliament be asked to approve the U.S. military presence there. If it ratifies the American presence, as Thompson predicts, then the U.S. mission would be legitimized, he said.
But "if they vote no, that we shouldn't be there, then we shouldn't be there," Thompson told reporters in Iowa.
Family with candidate
The 65-year-old former cabinet secretary was joined in Wisconsin and Iowa by his wife Sue Ann, his son, his two daughters and two grandchildren. In introducing his family, he recounted the story of his wife's and daughter Tommi's bouts with cancer. He talked about the decision of his other daughter Kelli to serve as a surrogate mother for her sister, who was unable to have a child because of her cancer treatments.
Thompson, who opposes abortion, concluded the story by saying that "our nation's bedrock culture of life is essential."
In Iowa, Thompson repeatedly invoked what he said were similarities between the Hawkeye and Badger states, presenting himself as someone who understands and relates to Iowa issues better than others in the field.
Thompson was introduced in Iowa as a "guy I've fished with and motorcycled with" by a former GOP governor in that state, Terry Branstad, who is staying neutral in the campaign because of his role as president of Des Moines University.
For its theme music, his campaign played John Mellencamp's "Small Town," a song also used by Democrat John Edwards in the 2004 campaign.
Thompson also was joined in Iowa by a coterie of former staff members, old friends and motorcycle buddies, some of whom are planning a bike ride and rally from Madison to Iowa in August to coincide with the Iowa GOP straw poll in Ames.
That event looms as a huge self-imposed test for Thompson's low-budget underdog campaign. Thompson on Wednesday repeated his statement that to be a viable candidate in the Iowa caucuses in January, he must finish first or second in the Aug. 11 Iowa straw poll, a contest that could attract 15,000 or more GOP voters.
Iowa is do-or-die
Thompson is focusing his campaign almost entirely in Iowa. That strategy is based both on a recognition that he will lack the national profile and finances that some better-known rivals have and on a belief that the Iowa caucuses still can be won through personal campaigning and organization, rather than money and ads.
"It's not money spent in Iowa that wins. And once you win Iowa, you have the big momentum. And if I win the poll on Aug. 11, the money comes," Thompson said. "I'm going to be the survivor," after the straw poll, he vowed.
Thompson has not said how much money he raised in the first quarter of this year but has indicated that the amount will be small. Talking to reporters, he shrugged off the hefty sums that some other candidates have reported, such as Mitt Romney's $23 million.
Thompson compared the size of his Iowa crowd in Clive on Wednesday afternoon, in the middle of the day, with the after-work audience that "one of the front-runners" - former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani - drew Tuesday night outside Des Moines for his first big Iowa rally since Giuliani announced his campaign. The crowds were roughly similar in size.
Thompson jetted off to New Hampshire after his Iowa rally for additional events.
In his announcement speech, Thompson said his own party deserved some blame for problems such as the size of the federal budget. "I believe Republicans went to Washington to change Washington, but we lost our way, and I think Washington changed us," he said, echoing a common refrain among the GOP candidates. "We tried to spend money as foolishly as the Democrats, and voters saw through the act."
Thompson devoted part of his speech to health care, stressing preventive medicine and using information technology to cut costs. He talked in general terms about using the public and private sector to "require health insurance for all" in a way that avoids a "heavy-handed mandate."
In Milwaukee, Thompson was preceded at the podium by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Brother Bob Smith, president of Messmer Catholic Schools.
