O'Rourke ramps up in Iowa

Beto O’Rourke is beginning to staff up in Iowa and has been in talks about visiting the first-in-the-nation caucus state as early as this week.

Democrats organizing a rally for Eric Giddens, a Democratic state Senate candidate, in Iowa on Saturday have told prospective attendees that they expect O’Rourke to appear at the event, a source familiar with the plans told POLITICO.

Norm Sterzenbach, a former executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party, is assisting O’Rourke in the state and was reviewing resumes from potential staffers as recently as last week, according to two sources familiar with O’Rourke’s Iowa operation. Paul Tewes, who ran Obama’s 2008 operation in the state, is also helping O’Rourke. So is Margaret Jarosz, who was working for Sen. Sherrod Brown in Iowa before he elected not to run for president, the sources said.