Draft Biden staffs up in Iowa

The group urging Vice President Joe Biden to launch a 2016 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination announced Friday that two longtime backers of Biden have signed on as co-chairs in the early-voting state of Iowa. 

Former Iowa House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D) and Teri Hawks Goodmann, a Democratic activist and another longtime Biden ally, will lead the group’s efforts in the Hawkeye State. 

{mosads}McCarthy, who served as Biden’s state chairman for his 2008 bid, said in a statement that Biden “is the real deal” and “would bring an unmatched combination of authenticity and electability” to the race.

Draft Biden also announced on Friday that around a dozen Iowa elected officials have signed on to the effort as committee members, as well as a pair of political operatives, to direct organizing efforts in the state.

The staff moves lend new credibility to the budding effort to convince the vice president to run against former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the party’s front-runner.

Biden, who is still mourning the loss of his elder son Beau to cancer in May, said Thursday that the most important factor in weighing his decision is whether he and his family “have the emotional energy to run.”

“Some might think that’s not appropriate. Unless I can go to my party and the American people and say I’m able to devote my whole heart and my whole soul to this endeavor, it would not be appropriate,” he added.

The Draft Biden announcement on Friday also came on the same day that news emerged that Clinton’s campaign would spend $4 million in ads in Iowa and New Hampshire over the next two months.

Clinton’s lead in the state has fallen amid a surge of support for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and an uptick recently in interest for a Biden run, based on the RealClearPolitics polling average.