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Political junkee
From Iowa to the nation - Gentry Collins runs gubertorial
campaign.
- Think about this for a moment.
It was just four years ago that Gentry Collins was traipsing across the
state running Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Gross' campaign
to unseat Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. They lost.
But Collins stuck with politics and in 2004 he helped President Bush to
an electoral victory in Iowa.
Now in 2006, Collins is the political director for the Republican Governors
Association (RGA) where he spent most of the fall sizing up 36 governors'
races including hot spots like California, New York, Massachusetts and
Florida.
Here's the part you should really think about. Gentry Collins graduated
from Iowa State with a degree in political science in 1998.
"This is a great opportunity personally and a lot of fun," Collins
said. "I'm not the go-to guy in just one state."
And right now in his professional career that's OK for Collins. He says
it's very different running one campaign for governor as opposed to helping
direct 36 different contests.
"I enjoyed running the Gross campaign especially because it was a
campaign that I believed in. It was very rewarding," he said.
On the other hand…
"It was a thrill that just four years out of college I was running
a gubernatorial campaign," Collins continued. "But it's hard
work. You're putting in 90- to 100-hour workweeks. You have to catnap
at your desk. It's hard to be in that line of business all the time."
That doesn't mean Collins isn't putting in the hours in his new job. The
Ames native still lives in Iowa but travels to Washington, D.C. every
week to work out of the RGA's office.
And there is still a lot of travel as he goes from one campaign to another
virtually every week.
"But I'm not responsible for everything in the campaign," he
said.
When Collins ran the Gross for Governor campaign in 2002 that was the
case. He spent hours reviewing and editing "every little piece of
campaign literature."
These days he gets to work with the RGA's media message, pollsters, focus
groups and fundraising. He also works on overall strategy for candidates.
"I can have a meaningful impact doing these type of things on not
just one race but several," he said.
And it's an impact he's making at a young age.
"I've been very fortunate to have a number of opportunities in politics
very quickly," Collins said. "I had some doubts if I could succeed
however. It's one thing to go out and make decisions when you've only
have to win in one state. It's a different story when it's your job to
win elections in 36 states."
"At the end of the day this is not rocket science. It's just plain
hard work," he said.
"Fortunately for me not that many people are willing to work that
hard and that has become a real opportunity for me."
An opportunity he may take to the next level. The chair of the RGA is
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has frequently been named as a possible
Republican Presidential candidate.
Collins doesn't hide his support for Romney if he decides to attempt a
run at the White House.
"If he chooses to run for President I hope to play a significant
role for him in Iowa," Collins said. "And elsewhere."
With the experience Gentry Collins has gotten this year with the RGA,
it's a good bet that more than Iowa is in his future campaigning.
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Gentry Collins
Political Science Today
Fall 2006
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