By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Chris Cillizza
Sunday, July 9, 2006; A04

To most people, all the national Democrats beating a path to Iowa this month look an awful lot like presidential candidates. But to the state Democratic Party, they look like something else: revenue enhancers.

Showing its entrepreneurial spirit, the state party is offering potential candidates access to its detailed voter database -- for a price. Specifically, they can mine the valuable data for $50,000 (act now, urges the party, and get a discount from the usual fee of $75,000). The details were reported by the political newsletter the Hotline and the Des Moines Register.

For an additional $50,000 next year, candidates can secure access to a database buttressed by information derived from the 2006 primary and general elections. Or campaigns can ignore the current offer and purchase the full database next year for $85,000.

Candidates have until Saturday to decide whether to take advantage of the discount.

Eighteen months before the often-pivotal Iowa caucuses, potential candidates are already swarming the Hawkeye State.

This weekend, Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.) was to honor a state representative at a coffee shop in Muscatine, while former senator John Edwards (N.C.), the 2004 vice presidential nominee, planned to attend a barbecue for party faithful in Indianola, among other events.

Edwards and Bayh have made the biggest splashes in Iowa since the 2004 election. But they are being joined in Iowa this month by the 2004 presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), and former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner.

Also active in Iowa is Tom Vilsack, who will retire from the governorship at the end of his term as he ponders a 2008 bid. He and Bayh are the only two potential candidates to have political staff workers already on the ground, according to the Register.

A poll last month by the Register showed Edwards leading other potential Democratic contenders, with 30 percent of the vote of people likely to participate in the caucuses. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who has not made a priority of visiting Iowa, came in second, followed by Kerry and Vilsack.

Two years ago, Kerry won the Iowa caucuses.

Faced with the prospect of a primary fight over her support for the war in Iraq, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is working behind the scenes to assure antiwar activists that she is no Joe Lieberman.

Michael Meehan, Cantwell's chief of staff, was in Seattle last week to huddle with Dal LaMagna and Mark Wilson, vocal opponents of the Iraq war who have floated the idea of running themselves, giving her an intraparty battle of the sort Sen. Lieberman (D) is facing from antiwar candidate Ned Lamont in Connecticut. Cantwell, who voted for the 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, has also held more than a dozen meetings with antiwar constituents.

That legwork appears to be paying off.

LaMagna announced Thursday that he would not run and instead would serve as a co-chairman of Cantwell's campaign. Cantwell sources were optimistic that Wilson would follow LaMagna's lead. But one Iraq war critic, Seattle attorney Hong Tran, is a declared candidate in the Democratic primary.

Cantwell was recently endorsed by the King County Democratic Party, which takes in the city of Seattle and has a reputation as the state's most liberal enclave.

Meehan said, "Cantwell is not in the same boat as Lieberman," noting she supported a recent amendment by Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) calling on President Bush to set a timeline for troop withdrawal.

Lieberman, who until recently had been assumed to have an easy reelection, voted against the amendment, which the Senate defeated, and has been vigorous in his support of the war, if not always the Bush administration's handling of it.

Cantwell won her seat in 2000 by 2,229 votes, upsetting Sen. Slade Gorton (R). She is likely to face former Safeco Insurance Co. CEO Mike McGavick (R) in the fall.

A coach is supposed to cheer his team after a big loss. But in this case, it's the team that's cheering on the coach.

Rep. Tom Osborne (R-Neb.), who gained fame as head coach of the state university's triumphant Cornhuskers football team, was coasting toward the GOP's gubernatorial nomination. But when President Bush snapped up Gov. Mike Johanns for a Cabinet position and Lt. Gov. Dave Heineman became governor and declared he would run to keep his job, the primary turned into a hard fight.

In May, Osborne lost that fight.

Undeterred, Osborne supporters Johnny Rodgers, 1972 winner of the Heisman Trophy and one of the best players in Cornhusker history, and football trainer Doak Ostergard hoped to launch a campaign to write in Osborne's name this November.

But Nebraska law prohibits a candidate defeated in a primary election from being a write-in candidate in a general election. Rodgers and Ostergard sued last week to overturn the law.

"Tom really believes he can do some good things for Nebraska, and we do, too," said Rodgers, who played under Osborne when he was the team's offensive coordinator. "It's a grass-roots effort."

Osborne said in a statement: "As nice as it is of my former players and associates to be concerned about my future, none of their efforts have involved consultation with me."