Hillary Clinton(Photo: Mark Marturello/The Register)Buy Photo
When former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell's husband died in 2010, the first condolence phone call she received was from Bill Clinton. The second came from Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons checked in on Ed Campbell every few weeks as he battled a long illness, Bonnie Campbell recalled in an interview last week, serving if only over the phone as a shoulder to lean on.
"They have many more friends than just me, and closer friends," Campbell said of the former president and perhaps future president. "But when I hear people say Hillary seems cool and distant that's just not right. She's one of the warmest, most genuine people I know."
When Hillary and Bill Clinton arrive in Indianola this afternoon for the 37th Harkin Steak Fry, they'll rekindle relationships in the nation's leadoff presidential voting state that go back three decades and perhaps begin forming new ones as she deliberates another run at the presidency.
HARKIN STEAK FRY: More on the Clintons and the event
Campbell, a veteran of Bill Clinton's Department of Justice whom he later nominated (unsuccessfully) for a federal judgeship, is just one of many Iowans sharing a long history with the powerful couple.
A 2016 campaign in Iowa would almost certainly combine members of that trusted network with a new generation of campaign talent, many of whom came up over the past seven years in the Obama campaign machine, Iowa politicos said last week.
Beyond Campbell, the loyalists include Jerry Crawford, an Iowa fixer dating to Bill Clinton's presidency, and former Gov. Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie. The new crew will skew younger, and comes with resumes mentioning President Barack Obama's victorious Iowa campaigns and Ready for Hillary, the independent pro-Clinton group active in the state.
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Hillary Clinton: Looking back, and forward