KCII was able to speak with U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley about his 99-county Iowa tour. “Well, first of all, I started them the first year I was in the United States Senate, and I’ve been to each of the 99 counties every year, with a Q & A with my constituents. Because I believe in the principle of representative government, if you’re going to represent people, you gotta know what’s on their minds. Now, actually, over the course of twelve months, I only see face-to-face a few thousand Iowans, and that wouldn’t really be enough to draw conclusions about what people want their representatives to do to represent them. So we rely a lot on email, and when people call in and leave their name and address, we’ll answer them on paper. The bottom line of it is, I’m one half of the process of representative government, my three million constituents are the other half, and you gotta know what’s on their mind if you want to represent them.” This was his 43rd year completing the tour. Grassley completed his 99 County tour in Ida County on August 29th.