George Helmy’s anticipated appointment to the U.S. Senate reunites him with Cory Booker, who was his boss from 2014 to 2019.
The transition of an ex-Senate staffer to United States Senator – he’ll be the eighth sitting senator to have once worked for a senator – and one of fifteen former staffers to be serving in the Senate – brings back memories of a classic American political story: the path Richard Clark took to win a Senate seat in Iowa in 1972 is a permanent inspiration to staffers and political operatives everywhere.
Clark traded in his job as a professor at Upper Iowa University in the 1960s to become administrative assistant (the post is now known as chief of staff) to Democratic rising star John Culver, who ousted a two-term Republican congressman in 1964, at age 32, after playing football with Ted Kennedy at Harvard and later working on his Senate staff.
Together, Clark spent most of 1971 crisscrossing Iowa, setting up Culver’s challenge to Republican Jack Miller, the state’s 56-year-old two-term U.S. Senator.
But when Culver decided not to run for Senate in early 1972, the 43-year-old Clark figured that since he’d laid the groundwork for the campaign against Miller, he might as well run himself.
Few believed Clark could win. The Iowa Poll gave Miller a 57%-20% lead in May, with the GOP Senator’s approval ratings at 54%-12%. By August, Miller’s lead was 54%-34%,
Among other things, Clark embarked on a 1,300-mile walk across the state to discuss Miller’s record and a mysterious $200,000 campaign contribution that arrived just before the nation’s first campaign finance law became effective.
While Miller, a tax attorney, often had trouble connecting with voters, Clark seemed to do well on the campaign trail.
Clark was also hoping for a boost from young voters in the first election since the voting age went from 21 to 18. During that time, about 55,000 college students in Iowa suddenly became pivotal voters. A poll gave Clark a 16-point lead among students.
Still, the Iowa Poll had Miller ahead 58%-35% on October 1. But Miller’s lead was down to seven points by November 5, two days before the election.
President Richard Nixon carried Iowa by 17 points, and GOP Gov. Robert Ray was re-elected by 18 points, but the Senate race went in a different direction.
Clark defeated Miller by 132,112 votes, 55%-44%.
In an election night phone call, Nixon explained the results of the Iowa Senate race to his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger.
“We lost Jack Miller because he’s a jackass,” Nixon said.
When Clark took his seat in the United States Senate in January, his former boss, Culver, was still in the House.
Culver ran for an open Senate seat in 1974—Democratic incumbent Harold Hughes was retiring—and won, making Clark the senior senator.
Clark lost in 1978.
In 1980, Culver lost his seat to Republican Chuck Grassley.
Click PLAY to listen to Nixon’s election night phone call with Kissinger: