Brownback hires IA pro-life activist

Update: TPM’s Election Central notes that Lehman’s statement included an attack against the other candidates and speculates that that means Mitt Romney more than anyone else.

Sam Brownback announced an important hire:

Republican presidential prospect Sen. Sam Brownback said today he has received the support of Kim Lehman, executive director of Iowa Right to Life.

Remember that the Iowa caucuses tend to be dominated by the activists. RTL is one of those groups. Krusty discussed this the other day as part of his discussion of Romney’s announcement:

Romney lacks a social konservative grassroots organizer on his Iowa Team. The problem for Romney is there is not an abundance of them in the state, so they are difficult to get. There are basically three of these people who carry significant weight with Iowa social konservatives: Marlys Popma, Steve Scheffler, and Chuck Laudner.

Popma signed on with McCain which has given heartburn to some social konservatives in the state. Scheffler was kourted hard by both McCain and Romney, but he refused their offers and will instead kontinue to run the Iowa Christian Alliance. Laudner is available but it seems that he is more interested in helping turn around the state party than working for a 08er. This is an area where Romney will have to be kreative and find someone with the right konnections to make inroads with Iowa’s social konservatives. Romney will have to aggressively kourt them if he wants to win the caucus.

Interesting. Brownback is working on a breakout in Iowa. As Chuck Todd said:

Thanks in part to the lack of attention on outgoing Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback’s bandwagon appears to be one worth jumping on for social conservatives. His schtick is tailor-made for the Iowa caucuses, and while it’s hard to imagine a scenario that puts Brownback on top in Iowa or New Hampshire, it’s fairly easy to see how he could become the surprising second- or third-place finisher in one of the two early states, guaranteeing him some role in the determination of who gets the nomination. Look for Brownback to be treated very kindly by all three GOP front-runners, because McCain, Romney and Giuliani will not want to alienate someone who could become a kingmaker.

Interesting.