Hello fellow DFIAers,



I'm
Kevin Powell from Strawberry Point in northeastern Iowa and I'm running
for Clayton County Auditor. Y'know, before this election cycle, I
thought of myself as politically active. My wife and I would work three
or four hours each year at a Democratic booth at the county fair. I had
even entertained the thought of running for a school board seat for our
local school district. I became a bit more passionate about that
thought after becoming invested in the Dean campaign in about February
2003; I joined a Yahoo Group and signed up for Meet Up at the same
time. What a great experience! Most of the dedicated Democrats in my
county are either retired or have grandkids, and so the chance to talk
with active people in my own age range (30-something) was really
powerful. The passion that I had for “politics making a difference”
that I used to have (back in college) began to resurface as a result of
going to Meet Ups, first in Cedar Rapids and then in Manchester and
Elkader, talking to John Maycroft, who was a local Dean staffer in
Clayton County, and lurking in places online where Deaniacs were
talking.



At
meetings in Edgewood, Manchester, and Elkader, I was able to personally
meet and speak with Governor Dean. Because of meeting Howard Dean, I
started to believe that I could help to change this country. His
answers were thoughtful, detailed comments that didn't fit neatly into
12 second sound bites, and they had me thinking long after the rallies.
My wife and I joined the Dean Steering Committee in Clayton County. I
got more and more excited as the caucuses approached, sensing that this
was a chance for a grassroots organizer to really make a difference!
The Dean campaign really made me aware of my opportunities and
responsibility in taking this country back. I went to my township
caucus, and then went on to participate in the rules committees at the
county, district, and state level conventions. I got the chance to
speak to people at conventions and this reinforced my commitment to the
Dean charge to 'take this country back!' After the caucuses, I started
contributing to Blog for America, and have continued that idea exchange
onto Blog for Iowa. My wife thinks this is for a combination of
reasons: my need to keep that passion for politics alive and the fact
that I just really enjoy talking to people and sharing ideas.



Much to
my surprise, several weeks ago, I was approached by several people
across the county for a political position – but not the one I had
expected! Instead of filing school board papers, people were asking me
to take on the incumbent county auditor. I thought about it for several
days, talking to my friends, my family, and getting those not-so-subtle
nudges from Democrats across the county in the form of phone calls and
news clippings about our current Clayton County auditor.



I am
running to counter an incumbent who has become ineffective in the
position of county auditor. In the past four years, he has filed state
reports late on at least three separate occasions, the last time
resulting in a loss of $200,000 in state funds for mental health
services. The result will be an increase in property taxes across the
county, as his current proposed budget to the supervisors will cause
the county to borrow at least $390,000. He also has purchased
electronic voting machines which are unverifiable and do not conform to
the federal HAVA (Help America Vote Act) standards which will cause at
least another $100,000 expense for the county in the next 18 months.
The software we are using in the county for taxation is from the 1970s,
and he is consistently reluctant to update to the program used by most
of our counties in Iowa. In brief, he has become short-sighted,
brusque, and convinced of his own invincibility. He has run unopposed
or with minimal opposition for several elections and has become very
insular in his actions, rather than welcoming to his constituents. The
county auditor's office has become a very unfriendly place to visit.



It may
seem that this, the county auditor's office, is a strange place to
start to take back America, but honestly, the experiences people are
telling about in dealing with the micromanagement, rigidity and chronic
lateness of reporting and even bill-paying associated with the
Auditor's office makes people in the county rightly justified in being
cynical, despite the positive changes and online streamlining of
processes going on in the County Treasurer's office next door. And a
cynical electorate means that we have an apathetic electorate. I want
to change that in my county. I want to change that in our state. I want
to change that in our country. If we are to truly change America, we
need to take back more than the White House, more than the state
house—we also need to take back the courthouse and restore the rights
of our citizens to receive service, not excuses, from the county
government.



Thank you!



Kevin Powell

Democratic Candidate for Clayton County Auditor