His and Hers District 2 Convention Reports

The 2nd Congressional District Democratic Convention was held at the Danville, Iowa, High School on Saturday, April 24, 2004.  The convention was off to a rocky start since the official convention call did not reach the delegates until the day before, and the official convention booklets were handed out at the convention.  That meant we could not pass along credentials to alternates before the convention and turnout was down because of it.  Of the 653 authorized delegates, 457 were in attendance, and the Dean caucus had 98 initially.  This was the best turnout percentage of the viable groups and would have given us 2 delegates to the national convention, but the Kucinich delegates once again went with a pro-Iraq-war candidate, Edwards, in exchange for being allowed to select their own delegate.  Since their intent was to vote for Kucinich on the first ballot in Boston, we were not interested in helping them.  The final numbers were Kerry 3, Edwards 2 and Dean 1, with Kerry getting the 1 alternate.

The Dean caucus elected David Leshtz of Iowa City as the national delegate.  David was a U of I employee who quit his job to work as a Dean staffer.  I've heard he's related to Phil Lesch of the Grateful Dead.  What a long strange trip, indeed.

We are looking forward to the State convention in Des Moines, assuming the party can find a location there, on June 26.  There will be additional delegates at stake there, so we intend to keep turnout high.

Dick Stater, Lisbon, Iowa

Eastern Iowans went to tiny Danville, Iowa, for the District 2 Democratic Convention on Saturday, April 24.  Thanks to a great turnout, the Dean Delegation was viable and able to elect one person to represent us at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this summer.  The slate of candidates for national delegate was impressive, and represented the broad appeal of the issues that characterized Governor Dean's campaign.  The slate of candidates for delegate included a high school student, a college student, a union member, a college professor, and a small business owner.  We were very proud to elect David Leshtz, a Johnson County human rights advocate who resigned his job at the University of Iowa to join the Dean Campaign in early 2003.  Dave will ably represent the progressive values of the 2nd District Dean Delegation at the convention in Boston.
 
One of the candidates for the 2nd District national delegate slot was [my husband] Dick Stater, a DFIA founding member.  His candidate speech, part of which is reprinted below, expresses some of the reasons why it is important that we continue to fight hard for progressive values in Iowa and the country.
 
From Dick's speech:

“Well the last year and a half working for the campaign of Howard Dean has been an education.  An education in politics, an education in hope, and an education in defeat.  I'd like you all to remember how you felt on the evening of January 19 this year, as the news of Howard Dean's defeat was trumpeted on television and radio.  I felt sad, disappointed, angry, bewildered and exhausted.  And it didn't go away in a day or two.  Week after week, defeat after defeat, it just got worse, until the inevitable end.  Well, it's not the first time, is it, for those of us old enough to remember Robert Kennedy, Gene McCarthy, George McGovern, Alan Cranston, and Bill Bradley?  Every election cycle a shining knight appears to carry the progressive Democratic banner, only to be vanquished – by a gun, by indifference, by an incompetent campaign, by a hostile press, and sometimes by a hostile Democratic Party.    I'm tired of it and I don't want to feel like that again.  Do you?
 
If not, that means we can't go to sleep again for the next four years.  To succeed we must continue to build a progressive Democratic Party.  A Democratic Party that includes those who are alienated from politics, a Democratic Party that stands FOR progressive values and is not afraid to say to it aloud, in front of people. A Democratic Party not afraid to ask the difficult questions, and not afraid of the answers.  Howard Dean asked some of those questions, and I STILL want to know why so many Democrats are supporting Bush's war.  I still want to know why so many Democrats support No Child Left Behind.” 
 
Of course, Dick's speech ended with a plea to send him to Boston to represent a progressive agenda at the Democratic National Convention in July.  But this speech is also a more general call to action on behalf of Democracy for Iowa.  We all must continue the fight for social justice and a more rational foreign policy, and DFIA allows us a way to do so in our great state. 
 
Sue Astley, Lisbon, IA