Des Moines Register: Bob Dole became so well known to Iowans after crisscrossing the state during three presidential campaigns that he was sometimes referred to as Iowa’s “third senator.” Dole, 98, died early Sunday morning in his sleep. A U.S. senator for Kansas from 1969 to 1996, Dole campaigned for president in 1980, 1988 and 1996, and was best known for the 1996 campaign, when he won the Republican nomination but lost in the general election to incumbent Bill Clinton. Because of Iowa’s close proximity to Kansas, the states’ shared agricultural interests and the countless hands Dole shook in every county in Iowa over those three campaigns, Dole became known almost as well to Iowans as to his constituents in the Sunflower State. Dole mentored U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley after Grassley was elected to the Senate in 1980, said David Oman, a former press secretary and chief of staff for former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray.