CLEVELAND _ At political conventions, it's nice to be from Iowa.
From their hotel in one of Cleveland's toniest suburbs, Iowa's small delegation to the Republican convention exerts a powerful attraction on aspiring politicians out of all proportion to their numbers. The reason, of course, is the state's position on the political calendar _ the first contest of the nominating season every four years.
"That's what Iowa receives because Iowa is first in the nation," the state party chairman, Jeff Kaufmann, told delegates gathered Monday morning at a breakfast featuring Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who ran for the GOP nomination this time around and clearly has not ruled out doing so again.
"In 20 years, I'll still be younger than Hillary," Walker told reporters (and he will be, albeit by a week), suggesting that he has many years in which to grab for the brass ring once more.
He's not necessarily going to wait that long, however.
Walker said he leaned toward running for election to a third term as governor in 2018, and that if he did so, he wouldn't seek the nomination in 2020. "I would fulfill my term," he said, adding that he had learned from this past year the difficulty of running for one office while holding another.
Notably, however, he didn't say that he had made up his mind. "For the future, we'll have to see," he said after speaking to about 80 delegates and guests.
Saying much more would clearly be impolitic, because talk of a 2020 run largely presupposes that a Republican will not be in the White House seeking re-election.
Walker is far from the only aspiring Republican paying court to the Iowans. This week, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is scheduled to host the delegates on a boat cruise. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucus in 2012 but barely registered there this year, plans a visit to their hotel. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas may visit as well. The delegation ranks with New Hampshire's _ scene of the first primary _ as a destination.
