3 Days Out: Good Morning Iowa

Good morning from Des Moines. We are three days out from the Iowa caucuses. We here at Good Morning Iowa are always open to news tips, suggestions, and praise…critiques too. Thanks to the other morning notes that this takes much of its inspiration from. We love all the suggestions and tips we have received since we started…and all our new readers! 

Welcome to our Special New Year's Eve Edition. Here's hoping to early deadlines and  timely events so everyone can celebrate a bit tonight. Some of the candidates have somewhat lighter schedules today, but not all and Ron Paul is off the trail in Texas this weekend. Here's the push three days out. Newt Gingrich stops in Council Bluffs and Atlantic before holding a tele-town hall this afternoon. Rick Perry holds events in Ft. Dodge and Boone. The stop in Boone is at The Gigglin' Goat. Perry reporters: please tweet a pic of that. Michele Bachmann is having lunch today at influential Republican fundraiser Becky Beach's house before going to her Urbandale headquarters to make phone calls. She may do some door knocking as well. Rick Santorum has the busiest schedule with five stops today, but they are all packed quite tightly together. He begins at the Indianola Public Library before visiting the National Sprint Car Museum in Knoxville. He then stops in Pella, Oskaloosa, and ends with a New Year's Eve Rally in Ottumwa. Mitt Romney campaigns this morning in New Hampshire then flies back to Iowa this afternoon holding events in Le Mars at the Family Table Restaurant (one of the first stops on Bachmann's 99 county bus tour) before holding a town hall in Sioux City in the early evening. His wife Ann is also campaigning for him, making stops in Burlington and Ottumwa, although a different time than Santorum.

Weather: It's 36 degrees in Des Moines now, but will get up to *wait for it* 55 degrees today! It will rain this evening so Des Moines revelers, bring a brolly.

This is the front page Des Moines residents are waking up to today:   http://bit.ly/s0wS1q

Note: Des Moines Register poll results will be released at 7pm CT this evening. GMI will be watching and tweeting (@shushwalshe) http://dmreg.co/v1haq9

Timmy Talks:  Albrecht's   (@TimAlbrechtIA)  insight and wisdom for the day. Today with a shout out to @mattstrawn

Today is the final day of 2011, and the Iowa caucus has not yet ocurred. As much as anything, this will be a part of Chairman Matt Strawn's legacy as head of the Republican Party of Iowa. Strawn led a national effort to ensure Iowa remains first, and was successful in his effort. As the calendar flips to 2012, all Iowa Republicans benefit from his hard work, and are thankful for his efforts.

What's in The Register? 

Santorum: William Petroski (@WilliamPetroski) is on the front page with a leadership profile of Santorum: A drubbing on election night five years ago still haunts Rick Santorum's bid for the presidency. But relentless campaigning in all 99 Iowa counties and several key endorsements from social conservative leaders signal the Pennyslvania Republican has the potential to make a respectable showing in the 2012 Iowa caucuses…Santorum's friends and Republican activists in Pennsylvania describe the former attorney as brilliant and having a photographic mind - skills that make him a quick study on complex policy issues. He has a master's degree in business administration and a law degree, and he worked as a lawyer and a legislative staffer before running for Congress."He will outwork anybody, maybe with the exception of Donald Trump," said Charlie Artz, a Harrisburg, Pa., lawyer and longtime Santorum pal. Read here:  http://dmreg.co/s4qhct

GMI note: Petroski has been The Register reporter on Santorum since before he was officially a candidate. If anyone is looking for insight on this surge follow (and read) him. He's also a lovely guy. 

Santorum-mentum: GMI was with Santorum yesterday when he was mobbed by press in Ames, Marshalltown, and Johnston: In his stump speech, Santorum has consistently dinged the national media for ignoring his campaign. Thursday that ended. He walked into a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant packed with Iowa State Cyclones fans watching the team take on Rutgers at the Pinstripe Bowl. As he entered, he was completely surrounded by cameras as he walked through the bar area greeting patrons. The cameras  stayed with him while he did an interview with Fox News and then walked through the restaurant to his seat..Supporters were also on hand to sit at his table, shake his hand and take a picture. One brought him an Iowa State jersey, but he instead took his jacket off and put on an Iowa State sweater vest. The vest  is quickly becoming a trademark trail wardrobe for the former Pennsylvania senator. When asked if he was overwhelmed by the change in coverage in such a short amount of time, he noted the small amount of press that usually chase him around the state and explained what his "key to success" is. "We've been out here doing this for a long time, working very hard, and the message began to resonate as people started to focus on having to make that decision," Santorum said to the mass of reporters surrounding him. When asked which early state he would win, he answered, "How about Iowa?" "We have a lot of momentum right now," Santorum said over the wide-screen television sets, the football game blaring. "Third would be great, second would be better, first would be just fine."   http://abcn.ws/thxl9h

More Santorum: And with higher numbers comes more scrutiny: In Marshalltown he was asked about earmarks by a voter and in Johnston he experienced an attempted glitter bombing:   http://abcn.ws/rA8eKk

GMI flashback: Six weeks ago it was just Santorum, GMI, and his daughter Elizabeth in a staffer's car. WATCH here:  http://abcn.ws/rwhxyw

GMI note: Last night in Johnston, Santorum was walking around to supporters and reporters showing them this brilliant New York Times graphic that shows "How the candidates roll." Compare the other candidates' entourages with Santorum who has a Dodge ram pick up (Chuck Laudner's) and a press aide (@mattbeynon) http://nyti.ms/rKVJG6

Gingrich: The Register's Jason Clayworth (@jasonclayworth) was with Gingrich yesterday when he got emotional talking about his mom: Newt Gingrich today wiped away tears and was handed a tissue by an audience member in Des Moines when he became emotional onstage while talking about his mother. "I get teary eyed every time we sing Christmas carols," Gingrich said before his speech was overcome with emotion at an event hosted at Java Joe's Coffee in Des Moines  by  CafeMom.com, a secular, bipartisan organization. The crowd - roughly 100 people in a jam packed room -  expressed a compassionate sigh of emotion. He explained that his mother loved singing in the choir and when he was very young she made him sing in the choir. He then told the crowd that he remembers his mother as happy, enjoying life and her friends but noted that late in her life she was in a long-term care facility and battled with a bipolar disorder. That introduced him to the quality of long-term care and his quest for the nation to advance research on Alzheimer's disease and brain science. He then became emotional again. "It comes directly from dealing directly… with the real problems of real people in my family," Gingrich said as the crowd of mostly women applauded.  http://dmreg.co/tahS5b 

And Clayworth has a front page look at whether the emotion will help or hurt: "If people find it to be sincere, then I think it can be a real boost, particularly for men and particularly because he was talking about his mother and how that changed him as a person," said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.  http://dmreg.co/sfbRtH

More Gingrich: ABC's Elicia Dover (@EliciaDover) has a great dispatch from the Gingrich trail:  Newt Gingrich's tour bus had to pull over Thursday night. The candidate was talking on his cell phone to a tele-town hall meeting with supporters to rebut the barrage of TV ads that have aired across the Hawkeye state for the past month. But the more immediate problem for Gingrich was the lack of cell phone  reception on an Iowa highway. It's an accidental metaphor for Gingrich's entire experience as a presidential candidate. After a couple of months of leading the polls both nationally and in the Hawkeye state, the momentum of the campaign is rolling to a stop. Gingrich is holding out hope that the negative campaigning won't be rewarded in Iowa and his message will resonate Tuesday with undecided caucus goers. "It's obviously up the American people, but I think it's very likely that in the end, you know, this is like the opening two minutes of a Super Bowl, we have a long game to play," Gingrich told ABC's Jonathan Karl on Friday.  http://abcn.ws/w14GCq

And Even More Gingrich: More from ABC's Jonathan Karl's (@jonkarl) interview with Gingrich: "Politics has become a really nasty, vicious, negative business and I think it's disgusting and I think it's dishonest," Gingrich told ABC News aboard his campaign bus in  Iowa."And I think the people who are running the ads know they are dishonest and I think a person who will do that to try to get to be president offers you no hope that they will be any good as president," he said…"We're gradually going to have to figure out how to essentially take apart the negative ads," Gingrich, 68, said. "I mean I am committed to running a positive campaign and we have to find a way to communicate."  http://abcn.ws/tGlmer

Romney: Tony Leys (@tonyleys) was at Romney's (outside) campaign event in West Des Moines yesterday: Hundreds of Iowans braved a damp December wind to hear Mitt Romney speak outside a Hy-Vee grocery store in West Des Moines this morning. "We're out in the cold and the rain and the wind because we care about America," Romney said. The former Massachusetts governor noted that President Barack Obama is vacationing in his home state of Hawaii. "He just finished his 90th round of golf," Romney said to groans from the audience outside a Hy-Vee grocery store. The event was initially supposed to be held in the store's coffee shop, but it was moved outside because the shop was much too small. Romney exaggerated when he crowed that there were 1,000 to 1,5000 people in the audience. But there were roughly 500 people there, which was impressive under the conditions. Many in the audience apparently figured the event would be held inside the store instead of outside in temperatures in the mid-30s. They shivered in sweaters or thin jackets, but almost all of them stayed to watch the candidate's 15 minute event.  http://dmreg.co/tHV8SJ

And New Jersey Gov Chris Christie was there with what Leys calls his "blunt, East Coast style" : He drew laughter with a mock threat: "New Jersey's watching you too. We're watching you real closely. And I want to tell you something. I want to tell you something really clearly. I'm in a good mood this morning. I'm feeling happy and upbeat. I'm happy to be with Mitt and Ann. But let me tell ya, if you people disappoint me Tuesday, if you don't do what you're supposed to do on Tuesday for Mitt Romney. I will back, Jersey-style. I will be back."  http://dmreg.co/s6moE2

More Christie: ABC's Emily Friedman (@EmilyABC) reports on the question Christie will keep getting: Dodging a question he gets everywhere he goes - will he be on the ticket as Romney's running mate - Christie laughed, before responding, "Do I look like the marrying type?" Following Ann Romney's brief remarks about her relationship with Mitt Romney and what it was like raising five sons - they were "naughty," she joked - Christie took over, reminding the Iowans of their important role in the nominating process. "Iowa is going to be so, so important to this process," said Christie. "You know, that's why you're here. You all are really the folks that the rest of America depends on to begin this process in an earnest and fair way to vet the people who care enough to offer themselves for president of the United States, to look at everyone up close and get a feel for them." "You know in New Jersey our primary is June 5. There ain't going to be nobody there at that point," Christie said, laughing. "Nobody at a restaurant in New Jersey like this looking you at the eye going to be getting ready for the conventions."  http://abcn.ws/rFnKCr

Rick vs. Rick: Jason Hafner  (@jasonhafner) reports on Perry's continuing attacks on Santorum now he's in third place singling out his use of earmarks while in Congress: Poll numbers don't mean much to Rick Perry's campaign right now. "The only poll that matters, on caucus day, that's what we're focused on," Perry press secretary Mark Miner said Friday. But with only three days left until the caucuses - and a new poll placing Perry one percentage point shy of third place - they have to be hard to ignore…So who's just one percent ahead of Perry? Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, previously a second-tier candidate whose campaign is showing new signs of life in Iowa. Accordingly, Perry's stump speech on Friday included an expanded attack on Santorum's history with earmarks, a line of criticism the Perry campaign debuted Wednesday…"So, Senator Santorum, just to get a little more specific here," Perry said to a crowd at Doughy Joey's, a pizza shop in Waterloo. "Please tell me why you asked taxpayers to support 'The Bridge to Nowhere' in Alaska? Why did you ask the taxpayers of Iowa to support a teapot museum in North Carolina? An indoor rain forest in Iowa? And the Montana Sheep Institute? Why were those important enough for you to vote for?" Perry was referring to a nearly $400 million abandoned bridge project in Alaska, the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C., the ill-fated $180 million domed rain forest once planned for Coralville and a sheep industry project in Bozeman, Mont. All had financing approved via congressional earmarks in the past decade. Perry also tied Santorum to a heated issue from last summer, debt ceiling increases, saying Santorum voted to raise the federal limit of allowable debt eight times while he served in Congress. "And I've got to ask you," Perry said, "How is that fiscally conservative?"  http://dmreg.co/uqw43p

More Rick vs. Rick: Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson  (@okayhenderson) has the backstory on one of Perry's earmark hits on Santorum. It has Iowa roots:  A $50 million "earmark" Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley secured in 2003 to get federal funding for a controversial Iowa project is again front and center in the closing days of an Iowa campaign. The "EarthPark" project has never gotten off the ground and the federal money had to be returned. John McCain called it the "EarthPork" project four years ago as he crusaded against "pork barrel" projects. …EarthPark was to have been located at Lake Red Rock, near Pella. Plans included a four-acre tropical rainforest and a 60,000 gallon aquarium. 2012 Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is now ridiculing a rival's vote for that EarthPark earmark. Perry, the current governor of Texas, has been blasting Rick Santorum for his support of earmarks when Santorum was in congress. Perry cited Santorum's vote for spending on a teapot museum in North Carolina and the infamous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska as well. "Just yesterday (Santorum) once again defended his prolific pork barrel spending," Perry said today in Waterloo. "Why were those important enough for you to vote for?" Read it all here:  http://bit.ly/toPKTd

Endorsement Watch (Talk Radio Show Host Edition):

Steve Deace backs Gingrich:  http://bit.ly/vEy4n5

Simon Conway backs Perry:  http://bit.ly/sT0L6r

No King Yet: ABC's Arlette Saenz  (@ArletteSaenz) reports that despite stumping with both Perry and Bachmann yesterday Rep. Steve King is noncommittal: Just four days before the Iowa caucuses, Rep. Steve King told reporters he still hasn't made a decision about an endorsement "at this point" while Rick Perry admitted to a voter that he's been quite persistent in courting King's support. "At this point, I just don't know," King told reporters when asked if he would endorse by Tuesday…Appearing at the same Cerro Gordo County GOP Fundraiser as King, Perry told a voter he's asked for the Iowa congressman's endorsement each time they've met. "I told him I've asked him for his endorsement more times than I asked my wife to get married," Perry told the voter. "I told him I'm going to keep asking." Read all here:  http://abcn.ws/voXAsH 

Saenz has this great dispatch from the trail when a voter wanted to know where the Texas Gov's cowboy boots went:   http://abcn.ws/vDFj88

Bachmann: Jason Noble (@jasonnoble1) reports from Bachmann's events yesterday where she saw tiny crowds and disorganization even when appearing with King: Evidence mounted Friday of flagging momentum and organizational deterioration in Michele Bachmann's all-or-nothing run at the Iowa caucuses. The Minnesota congresswoman rolled her tour bus through Sioux City, Early and Fort Dodge, but drew small-to-nonexistent crowds at each stop and faced increasingly difficult questions on the health of her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. With four days remaining before Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses, Bachmann's campaign has been rocked by a staff defection and firing. Recent polls have placed her last among candidates actively campaigning in Iowa. In perhaps the lone bright spot on a cold, damp gray Friday along U.S. Highway 20, Bachmann was joined in the town of Early by Iowa Congressman Steve King, one of her closest friends in Washington and a popular figure in heavily Republican northwest Iowa. King offered effusive praise for his congressional colleague, although he stopped short of a formal endorsement. "This is my great friend," King said of Bachmann. "I have not made a commitment on this presidential race, but I've made a commitment to this great friend …" But even with King by her side, Bachmann's crowd in Early numbered less than a dozen, most of whom were employees of the Crossroads Restaurant and Lounge, where the event was held. A midafternoon stop at the Central Perk coffee shop here drew perhaps 30. Read the whole thing here:  http://dmreg.co/spKMiv

Paul: Mary Stegmeir (@MaryStegmeir) reports on Ron Paul's reaction to the new "dangerous" label his opponents have put on him: "When government gets too big" - that's dangerous, the 76-year-old Texan told a crowd of 200. The congressman returned to the theme later in his speech, saying he had no worries about a foreign government attacking the United States. "There is nobody that even comes close to thinking about touching us," he said. "We have the weaponry. We have the troops. We can defend our country."…During a stop in Sioux Center, he said he'd also do away with the practice of pre-emptive military attacks. The strategy, which the U.S. used in the Iraq war, describes a situation in which one country attacks another based on the belief that hostile actions are forthcoming. "A pre-emptive war means that actually you start the war, and I can't ever conceive of that," said Paul, who also criticized the use of U.S. forces deployed in Libya.  http://dmreg.co/uaWAGQ

More Paul: Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson  (@okayhenderson) has more on the "dangerous" and "scary" label:  Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is responding to critics who call his views "scary." "Those people who say that these ideas that I express are dangerous - it sort of baffles me a whole lot because I think big government is dangerous," Paul said. "I think wars fought endlessly is dangerous. I think printing money and (expanding) government at will - that is what is dangerous."  http://bit.ly/uSsxqR

Even More Paul: Stegmeir also has his response to the newsletter controversy plaguing his campaign:  "It never hurt me politically, and right now I think it is the same case, but people are desperate to find something," the GOP presidential contender said during an in-studio interview at WHO Radio in Des Moines. The newsletters in question were published in the '70s, '80s and '90s under various titles, including The Ron Paul Political Report, The Ron Paul Freedom Report, The Ron Paul Survival Report and The Ron Paul Investment Letter. Since the 1990s, Paul has been questioned about some of the articles that appeared in those mailings. He said Thursday that the incendiary statements amounted to "probably ten sentences out of 10,000 pages for all I know." "It wasn't a reflection of my views at all…I think it was terrible," Paul said. "It was tragic, and I had some responsibility for it, because the name went out in my letter. But I was not an editor. I (was) like a publisher." He later added:  "People who know me best - people in my (Texas congressional) district -- have heard these stories for years and years. And they know they weren't a reflection of anything I believed in."  http://dmreg.co/s9ZWMV

And Even More: ABC's Jason Volack (@JasonVolack) is on the trail with Paul and has this from Sioux City:  Ron Paul told Iowa voters on Friday that he would not launch a preemptive strike on Iran because "they don't threaten our national security." "If some other country thought they had to go to war with them, that is their business," he said, adding there is no proof Iran is building a nuclear weapon. http://abcn.ws/rAbart

TheIowaRepublican's Kevin Hall takes a look at Paul's support in Northwest Iowa:  Ron Paul was not the type of candidate that fit in well with Sioux County voters four years ago. This deeply religious and conservative community rejected his libertarian message. Paul received only three votes out of the 500 or so that were cast by caucus goers in Sioux Center, the county's largest town. Fast forward to Friday. There were more attendees at his stop in Sioux Center than the  137 people who voted for him in the whole county in 2008. Ron Paul's message has not changed, but the country has. So have the minds of Sioux County voters.   http://bit.ly/uECiFf

Occupy: The Register has the latest on the protests including a look at who's leading the group:  http://dmreg.co/vFtu7l

Dems Speak: The DNC is opening a rapid response war room in Des Moines ahead of Tuesday: Democratic surrogates such as DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse, and National Press Secretary Melanie Roussell, will be based out of the war room and will be holding daily press availabilities and doing radio and print interviews from this location.  http://dmreg.co/vI7Pse

TheIowaRepublican's Craig Robinson (@IowaGOPer) has his caucus prediction. Get it while it's hot! He predicts it's Romney, Santorum, and Paul in third:   http://bit.ly/uMkGfq

Robinson also has the ten topics he wishes he had more time to write about. Read for the insight and this morsel:  Mr. Sorenson, Your man card has been revoked.  http://bit.ly/w1xGWj

This is the front page Sioux City residents are waking up to:  http://bit.ly/uzh4ft

What's in the Sioux City Journal? 

Bret Hayworth  (@SCJBretH) takes a look at the history of campaigning here on New Year's Eve:  http://bit.ly/vleoBQ

Hayworth also notes the amazing Iowa access to candidates:  http://bit.ly/v5Mvx4

What's in the Cedar Rapids Gazette? 

This is the front page Cedar Rapids residents are waking up to:  http://bit.ly/vHntaZ

James Q. Lynch reports that PETA activists are going to be at campaign events the next few days:  http://bit.ly/rSN2yT

Lynch also reports that Iowa Sen Chuck Grassley sees four tickets out of Iowa: Sen. Chuck Grassley is predicting as many as four GOP presidential hopefuls could come out of the Iowa precinct caucuses claiming victory. "I would be surprised if there was a clear winner," the Iowa Republican said on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning. With three candidates polling between 16 and 25 percent and the race remaining fluid, he said it's possible three or four candidates could do well enough to claim victory as they head to New Hampshire for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Grassley speculated former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum all have a shot of finishing at or close enough to the top to gain momentum as the nomination race moves to primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina.  http://bit.ly/vaKUel

ABC's Elizabeth Hartfield (@LizHartfield) has an interesting look at the historical importance of the caucuses:  http://abcn.ws/vKN4eg

The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) reports that despite Gingrich's drop in the polls, the barrage of anti-Gingrich mail from the Romney SuperPAC continues: For all the talk about the confidence of Mitt Romney in the days before the Iowa caucuses next week, his campaign continues to relentlessly hammer Mr. Gingrich. While Mr. Gingrich and his advisers concede that the negative messages have damaged his candidacy, not everyone on the receiving end of the mail agrees.  http://nyti.ms/vP0cdf

Perry: Politico's Jonathan Martin (@jmartpolitico) and Maggie Haberman (@maggiepolitico) have the circling firing squad on what went wrong in Perry's campaign: Their explanations for the nosedive come against the backdrop  of a campaign riven by an intense, behind-the-scenes power struggle that took place largely between a group of the governor's longtime advisers and a new cadre of consultants brought on this fall. In the end, the outsiders won out - and ever since have marginalized Perry's longtime chief strategist while crafting a new strategy in which the Texan has portrayed himself as a political outsider and culture warrior. In a series of interviews with POLITICO, sources close to the campaign depict a dysfunctional operation that might be beyond saving because of what they describe as the political equivalent of malpractice by the previous regime. "There has never been a more ineptly orchestrated, just unbelievably subpar campaign for President of the United States than this one," said a senior Perry adviser. Perry's steep plunge from frontrunner to butt of jokes was chiefly the result of his own embarrassing  verbal stumbles, most notably his insta-classic "oops" moment when he couldn't recall the names of the cabinet departments he wants to eliminate. Yet the view of the outsiders who took over Perry's campaign is that the candidate was set up for failure by an insular group led by Dave Carney, the governor's longtime political guru, which thought they could run a presidential campaign like a larger version of a gubernatorial race and didn't take the basic steps needed to professionalize the operation until the candidate was already sinking. "They put the campaign together like all the other Perry campaigns: raise a bunch of money, don't worry about the [media coverage], don't worry about debates and buy the race on TV," said a top Perry official. "You have to be a total rube to think a race for president is the same as a race for governor."  http://bit.ly/vhoCxq

Iowa Fact of the Day:

Currently there are 4 professional minor league teams located in Des Moines - arena football (Iowa Barnstormers - IA GOP Chairman Matt Strawn is part owner), baseball (I-Cubs), soccer (Des Moines Menace) and basketball (Iowa Energy - longtime IA Dem party official).

The Schedule:

NEWT GINGRICH

9:00am CT - Council Bluffs, IA: Bus tour stop at Tish's Restaurant (1207 South 35 th Street, Council Bluffs, IA)

1:30pm CT - Atlantic, IA: Bus tour stop at Atlantic Bottling town hall (4 East 2 nd Street, Atlantic, IA)

3:30pm CT - Tele town hall

RICK PERRY

10:30am CT - Ft. Dodge, IA: Meet and greet at Bloomers at Central Coffee Shop (900 Central Avenue #10, Fort Dodge, IA)

12:45pm CT - Boone, IA: Meet and greet at The Gigglin' Goat - City View Reception Hall (628 Story Street, Boone, IA)

MICHELE BACHMANN

12:00pm CT - Des Moines, IA: KCCI Luncheon with undecided voters at the home of Becky and Charlie Beach (4020 John Lynde Road) *Closed to Press

1:30pm CT - Urbandale, IA: Visits Bachmann for President Campaign Headquarters to make phone calls with volunteers (2775 86 th Street)

RICK SANTORUM

1:00pm CT - Indianola, IA: Meet and Greet at the Indianola Public Library (207 North B Street. Indianola, IA)

2:00pm CT - Knoxville, IA: Visits the National Sprint Car Museum (1 Sprint Capital Place. Knoxville, IA)

3:00pm CT - Pella, IA: Meet and Greet and Pella Public Library (603 Main Street. Pella, IA)

4:00pm CT - Oskaloosa, IA: Meet and Greet at the Smokey Row Coffeehouse (109 South market Street. Oskaloosa, IA)

5:00pm CT - Ottumwa, IA: New Years Eve Rally at the Bridgeview Center (102 Church Street. Ottumwa, IA)

MITT ROMNEY

3:30pm CT - Le Mars, IA: Family Table Restaurant (511 Hawkeye Avenue. Le Mars, IA) Will meet with voters to discuss jobs/economy at TBD location

5:35pm CT - Sioux City, IA: Town Hall Meeting. Stoney Creek Inn (300 3 rd Street. Sioux City, IA)