Tipsheet

The Great Ames Shakedown?

This WaPost item caught my attention this morning:

Last year, when (Dave Roeder -- McCain's Iowa chairman) was deciding whose campaign to join, he met with Giuliani, who was aghast at the practice of campaigns paying the state party for the $35 tickets that voters need to enter the poll.

"In New York, we call that a shakedown. What do you call it here?' " Roederer recalls Giuliani asking. "And I said, 'Well, I guess we call it a fundraiser."