Iowa Democratic lawyer Roxanne Conlin is saying that she is “more likely than not” going to challenge Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley in 2010.

Conlin, the party’s losing nominee for governor in 1982 and a former president of the trial lawyers’ national association, on Thursday told the Des Moines Register, “I don’t know how this is going to come together, but I have reached the point where I would like to do it.”

Democratic leaders are promising a vigorous challenger for Grassley, who has won all four of his Senate re-election bids with at least 66 percent of the vote against weak opposition. The party’s field currently includes a pair of little-known former state legislators, Tom Fiegen and Bob Krause, who have raised very little money.