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A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article profiling Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, Hamilton College class of 1972, reports:

The rising path from Squirrel Hill to Terrace Hill, Iowa's landmark Victorian governor's mansion, is one that no one could have predicted for Tom Vilsack.

... For months, the Iowa governor has been among the most frequently mentioned names on the short list of candidates to be Sen. John Kerry's running mate on the Democratic ticket. ... Vilsack, like most of the other rumored contenders, has avoided comment on his prospects. But whatever Kerry eventually decides, the headlines and whispers about the potential choice have raised the Democrat's national profile while injecting a new undercurrent to the internal politics of the Hawkeye state.

...The governor's Pittsburgh connections are memorialized in a cramped room adjacent to his office on Terrace Hill's second floor. It's filled with souvenirs ranging from Iron City Beer cans to inscribed Pirates and Steelers pictures, black and gold jerseys, bats and autographs.

... The adopted son adopted Iowa as his adult home after meeting and marrying Christie Bell, whose roots were in the small southeastern Iowa town of Mt. Pleasant, while he was an undergraduate at Hamilton College in New York. ... In 1998, he scored an upset in a hard-fought Democratic primary, then another in the general election to become the first Democratic governor of Iowa in more than three decades. ... Now the governor is part of an informal fraternity defined in the past perfect -- those "who have been mentioned' as potential nominees for the second spot on Kerry's ticket. ... David Yepsen, an influential political columnist for the Des Moines Register, said of the local reaction to the Vilsack speculation, "It's a mixed bag. I don't think most people think it's going to happen. We're used to national politicians coming through here and stroking the locals ... With others, there's also, I think, some pride -- this is flattering, this is nice, this hasn't happened before. I think most of the Democratic politicians you talk to think he might be more likely to end up in the Cabinet.'

Vilsack has said that, whatever happens, he will not run for a third term as governor. Of life after Terrace Hill, he said, "In a sense, that's a long time from now, a lot can happen. ... A lot can change, and you never know where life is going to take you. If you just focus on the job you're doing and do it well, things happen.'

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