I mentioned briefly yesterday that Tom Harkin managed to get (and announced yesterday) Bill and Hillary Clinton for his 37th and last annual Steak Fry, long the preeminent Democratic event in Iowa aside from the Caucuses themselves. This makes perfect sense: Harkin (who is retiring at the end of the year) wants to go out with a bang; Hillary hasn’t set foot in Iowa since losing there in 2008; and her husband is a pretty good draw on his own.
The Steak Fry appearance by HRC will be one of five big fall fundraisers she’s doing, which should tamp down talk she’s too inactive:
Sources say she will likely do fundraisers for all four major Democratic Party committees next month, including one for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s Women’s Senate Network. There will also be events for the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, including an October fundraising appearance with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in California, the sources said.
Iowa gets its own big event, of course. You can expect a show of force at the Steak Fry–logistical and rhetorical–that should indicate HRC is “Ready for Iowa” as much as Iowa is “Ready for Hillary.”
