By Mitch McAndrew | [email protected]

Early last month, Patty Judge announced she would challenge Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, touting herself as the Judge who Grassley can’t ignore.

In the two months since, the former Iowa lieutenant governor has been noticeably quiet on the campaign trail, which Iowa Republicans and her Democratic primary opponents are attempting to capitalize on.

Apart from larger public appearances at the Democratic county conventions, a stump in Ottumwa, a visit to the University of Iowa’s chapter of College and Young Democrats of Iowa, and a visit with the Ankeny Area Democrats, Judge has remained under the radar in Iowa.

“Since she’s announced, she’s only had a handful of appearances,” said Robert Haus, Grassley’s campaign manager. “She’s kept herself away from voters.”

In early April, Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, called for Judge to release a schedule of her campaign events during the months of March. Kaufmann said in a prepared statement that it was “unprecedented for the supposed front-runner for a major party nomination to up and vanish like she has.”

To date, Judge has not released the schedule, and her campaign refused to release the documents to The Daily Iowan.

Taylor Mason, the communications director for the Republican Party of Iowa, said Judge’s lack of appearances is hypocritical and condemning when compared with Grassley’s constituency services.

“For somebody who is criticizing Sen. Grassley for not doing his job, she seems to not be allowing the people of Iowa to ask her the questions that Sen. Grassley makes himself available for,” he said.

Mason said Judge’s candidacy relies heavily on her statewide name recognition, and she has been lax on meeting with voters. Judge has won statewide elections three times: twice to become the Iowa secretary of Agriculture, and once as lieutenant governor in 2006.

“She wants to try to win this thing off of the name ID without actually having to talk to a single person or answer a single question,” Mason said.

Tom Fiegen, a former Iowa lawmaker seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Iowa after a failed attempt at the same in 2010, said Judge’s shortage of public appearances is an attempt to distance herself from the Culver-Judge administration.

Fiegen claimed many Iowa voters were still sour on Judge for her perceived role in former Gov. Chet Culver’s controversial 2008 veto of a bill that would have increased public-employee unions’ power in contract negotiation, as well as his 10 percent across-the-board budget cuts in 2009.

“I don’t think she wants to have to come back and apologize or explain all of the bad things that happened on her watch as lieutenant governor,” Fiegen said. “Iowans have great memories.”

Sam Roecker, Judge’s campaign manager, dismissed the attack on Judge’s schedule as evidence of the tough race Grassley has ahead of him.

“They’re starting to realize that this is going to be a very competitive race,” he said. “He’s never faced someone in an election who has won statewide in Iowa before.”

Entering the race at such a late moment also presented challenges to Judge’s campaign, Roecker said.

“It compresses the whole timeline,” he said. “Instead of playing this out for a year or more, and thinking about our campaign structure and staff, she announced, and we had to start right away.”

As the campaign becomes more organized, Roecker said, Judge will make more public appearances.

Those appearances will take the form of forums and televised debates. The Daily Iowan has confirmed Iowa Public Television will host a Democratic debate in Johnston on May 26. KCCI and the Des Moines Register will also host a debate in Des Moines on June 1.

Four forums have also been scheduled in the first two weeks of May for the Democratic candidates. All four candidates will attend a forum in Winterset on May 3 and another on May 4 at the Northwest Community Center in Des Moines. Political-action committee STAR-PAC will hold a forum at First Christian Church in Des Moines on May 15.

Judge will not attend an additional May 12 forum at Grinnell’s Drake Community Library because of a scheduling conflict.

The former secretary of Agriculture visited Washington, D.C., to meet with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other U.S. Senate Democrats the week after her announcement, prompting Iowa Republicans and Democrats to claim that Patty is Washington’s candidate.

“Her campaign is a figment of the imagination of Harry Reid and the Democratic establishment in Washington,” Haus said.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s support of Judge, which was fully realized when the committee endorsed her last week, has caused opponents from both parties to cast her as the Washington Democrats’ candidate, not Iowa’s.

“It’s an unprecedented step to weigh in to a four-way primary and put down their marker that they’re for Patty,” Haus said. “It signals to all the groups that have already been active to try and salvage Patty’s campaign.”

The Campaign Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Judge’s campaign does not dispute the national interest in Iowa’s senate race, but staffers cast it as a good thing.

“It really shows just how important this race is going to be,” Roecker said.

Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, the state senator who was widely considered the front-runner in the Democratic primary before Judge’s announcement, said Judge’s candidacy is one commissioned by U.S. Senate Democrats, citing media coverage as a chief indicator.

“When I announced I was a candidate, the news appeared in Iowa papers,” he said. “When Patty Judge announced she was a candidate, it appeared first in the New York Times.”

Hogg, who secured more than 60 endorsements from Iowa lawmakers, emphasized his grass-roots support as a sharp contrast with Judge.

“We’re going to be calling people, knocking on doors, writing people and talking to people individually, one by one,” he said. “That’s how you win elections.”