At a recent campaign stop in Pella, Iowa, Mitt Romney was joined by Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

Will Iowans be familiar with him? In 2005, Time named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in the country. Romney pointed him out to the crowd, initially calling him a jurist, then correcting himself and declaring him a lawyer who fights for conservative interests.

UPDATE: In the aftermath of his Pella appearance (from Saturday, I believe), Romney is asked by a woman about “your negative ads” – “They’re not negative ads, they’re contrast ads,” Romney responds. “We had a debate, and that’s what governor Huckabee said about illegal immigrants.” Contrast this with the woman who thanked Huckabee for his positive ads below.

I could be wrong, but I think that women voters, who traditionally recoil from negative ads, will shift away from Romney and towards Huckabee, for his ostentatious “I’m too good a person to show the negative ad that I’m about to show you” display yesterday. I note from this Pew Center study of Iowa Republicans from early December: “There is also a gender gap among Iowa Republican voters. Romney holds a 31% to 22% lead over Huckabee among women, while the race is much tighter among men.”

Over at the Corner, Mark Hemingway thinks Iowa is shifting to Romney…