Celebrities Are Coming to Iowa

It looks like the oft-maligned practice of shipping celebrity endorsers from out of state into Iowa is starting up again for this campaign cycle. This weekend, “sexy plumber” and Desperate Housewives star James Denton will make a two-day trip through Iowa with former Sen. John Edwards’s daughter Cate.

They will tailgate at the University of Iowa’s homecoming game and host several other young-people-oriented events, mostly on other college campuses.

I think the first celebrity trip through Iowa this cycle was singer-songwriter Paul Simon’s campaign swing for Sen. Chris Dodd a couple months ago, but Simon is decidedly more tame than Denton. It will be interesting to see how campaigns use their celebrity surrogates in Iowa this time around.