"Invincible Grassley" Under Pressure In Iowa Senate Race

A new Selzer poll for the Des Moines Register has suggested that veteran Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) may be in for his “toughest re-election fight in 40 years.”

• The poll shows Grassley with a 3 percentage-point lead (46%-43%) over Democrat candidate Mike Frankin.
• Pollster J. Ann Selzer said: “It says to me that Franken is running a competent campaign and has a shot to defeat the seemingly invincible Chuck Grassley — previously perceived to be invincible.”
• Washington Post: "[Grassley] has a 3-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Navy admiral Mike Franken — a margin safely described as a toss-up. This is for an incumbent senator who has won reelection six times by an average margin of 35 percentage points."
• According to the polling report, six in 10 Iowans see 89-year-old Grassley’s age as a concern; only a third see it as an asset. Among independents, twice as many Iowans view it as a concern as an asset.
• FiveThirtyEight shows Grassley with an aggregated polling lead of 7.4% but Selzer has a strong reputation in Iowa with pundits pointing to a trend in the state away from partisanship working against Grassley.