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Iowa GOP chair to N.H. tomorrow

The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, Matt Strawn, is coming to New Hampshire tomorrow – and he won’t be wearing a tinfoil hat.

The relationship between the first-in-the-nation caucus state and the first-in-the-nation primary state has generally been a friendly one. But recently, several Granite Staters have been taking their digs at the Hawkeye State.

There was Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Party chairman, who argued in an op-ed in the Des Moines Register that the Iowa caucus is losing its relevance.

He noted that nearly three-quarters of Iowa Republicans in a recent poll questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States.

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“It’s hard to talk about real issues when three-quarters of the audience wears tinfoil hats,’’ Cullen wrote, referring to a popular image of conspiracy theorists.

Then there was another former New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman – former Governor John H. Sununu –who told Real Clear Politics that the Iowa caucuses are becoming “more of a commercial operation’’ compared to New Hampshire’s low-key retail politics.

To combat that image, Strawn is coming to Concord, N.H., to talk up the relationship between the two states.

Strawn will hold a media availability at New Hampshire’s Legislative Office Building to discuss Iowa’s caucus and “the relationship and bond between Iowa and its ‘First-In-the-Nation’ counterpart New Hampshire,’’ according to a release from the Iowa Republican Party.

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He will also be meeting with current New Hampshire Republican Party chairman, Jack Kimball, who is perhaps the only recent party chairman who hasn’t dissed the Iowans.

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