Who is Leonard Boswell?

Leonard Boswell is not Ron Dellums. He can't be
counted on to represent the views of most progressives in Iowa who staunchly favor a woman's right to choose, oppose an amendment banning flag burning, oppose unbridled NAFTA-like South American free trade and, probably, favor gay marriages.

In fact, according to On The Issues, Boswell is a

dead-solid “centrist.”   Most progressives would

scoff at some of his more controversial votes:

no to so-called “partial-birth abortions,” yes to

allowing prayer in public schools, yes to a

constitutional amendment banning flag burning, yes

to free trade with Chile, yes to the war in Iraq.

But Boswell is far from a right winger. He also voted
against making it a federal crime to harm a fetus
during commission of a another crime, for the Equal
Rights Amendment, against prohibiting D.C. from
banning medical marijuana, against oil drilling in the
Alaska wilderness, against capping medical malpractice
damages and others.

Best of all, Boswell is no Stan Thompson. The Des
Moines attorney, who again is opposing Boswell in Iowa
Congressional District 3 after losing to him two years
ago, seems to have no other agenda than doing whatever the Republican National Committee says he should.

On his website, Thompson is paper-thin when it comes

to education (he's for it, folks); parrots the GOP line
on abolishing the inheritance tax that affects far
less than 5 percent of estates each year; would allow
the president, not Congress, to negotiate foreign
agriculture agreements; advocates biotechnology, but
mentions nothing about regulating its safety; and
approves of the recent Medicare giveaway to the
pharmaceutical and insurance industries.  The
Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa, the people who believe that union construction workers are vermin, supported him with issue ads in 2002.

Progressives would much rather have someone younger, hipper and more representative of their interests. But remember what happened when Democrats were sanguine about Neal Smith? The only reason a Democrat ever regained that seat — Boswell in 2002 — was because Greg Ganske, who snatched the seat from Smith in the 1994 elections, quit the House to run against Sen. Tom Harkin, and lost.

So hold your nose if you must. But let's fall in line
here, too.

P.S. If you live in Des Moines, you can cast a
progressive vote today for Ruth Anne Gaines for City Council!

Contact Ira Lacher here.