Candidate Watch: Elesha Gayman – Iowa House District 84
by Caroline Vernon Elesha Gayman is an outstanding candidate for Iowa House
District 84. She is a breath of fresh air, and exemplifies the kind of
down home values that will help to promote and preserve what it means
to be an Iowan. Elesha will ensure that Iowa is a better place to live,
work, and raise a family. What else could we ask for?
[Click here for a map of Iowa House District 84 in Scott County.]
Elesha
Gayman was born in Davenport, Iowa. Her great, great grandparents were
one of the original 13 families that settled in Davenport during the
mid 1840's before Iowa became a state in 1846. In fact, the Gayman
homestead is still in the family and their name can be found on the
monument at the Scott County museum and pioneer village.
Initially
inspired by former Republican State Representative, Neil Harrison,
Elesha first became involved in politics at the age of thirteen when
she became a member of the Davenport Youth City Council. Feeling a
little rebellious at the time, Elesha advocated against youth curfews.
Although she shared she was unsuccessful in changing anyone’s mind, the
experience with the DYCC did much to enhance her confidence levels.
During
her senior year in high school, Elesha helped to plan voter
registration drives and engaged many of her peers in the process. Upon
graduating in 1997, she recalls that Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with
America” was in full swing. It was at that time that she started paying
closer attention to the different platform issues and became more
selective of who she would support and why. Although she was previously
involved with the Republican Party throughout the 90's, their message
at that time discouraged women from becoming involved in the political
process as well as the workforce. As a result, Elesha said the last
thing she wanted to hear was someone telling her what she couldn’t do.
This got her more fired up than ever.
Click here to visit Elesha Gayman's website.
After
attending one year at St. Ambrose University, Elesha attended the first
semester of her sophomore year in Rome, Italy, majoring in Political
Science with an emphasis in International Relations. Elesha shared with
me that this experience imparted a deep sense of history. Many of the
cobblestone roads still bore the deep grooves made by the wheels of
ancient chariots. In addition to her political science classes, she
also took advantage of taking classes in Catholicism, Art, and
Philosophy.
Elesha
arrived in Rome just two days after the embassy bombings in Africa and
the Kosovo situation was also exploding over there at the time. These
issues prompted her interest in law and military affairs, so she took as
many military classes as she could in college. It was at that time that
she became very interested in the career of General Wesley Clark. She
later became part of the Draft Clark campaign for President although
she ultimately went to the Democratic National Convention as a Howard
Dean delegate.
Upon
returning home, Elesha finished her education at the University of
Iowa, graduating in May of 2001 with a BA in Political Science and
International Relations. Having also lived in DC for a while as well as
Washington State, Elesha said she realized that Iowa is one of the last
great places in this country that still reflects the old Americana
values. She says this makes her feel so proud to be from Iowa and is
one of the reasons she came back to stay. Having quit her job to work
for John Kerry during the last campaign, she decided at that time that
even if we didn’t win, she was committed to staying here in order to make
sure Iowa stayed on the right track.
Wanting
to learn more, Elesha began to ask many of our seniors to share what
issues were most important to them and was surprised to find that one
of their greatest concerns was the lack of young people who stayed in
Iowa after completing their education. They wanted to know where
their children and grandchildren were going. This inspired Elesha to
look at this problem of Iowa Brain Drain and address it in the best way
possible. One way to do so is to support and advance what it is to be
an Iowan. Iowa ranks second in the nation in volunteer hours. That says
a lot about the people here.
Elesha
believes that innovative and on-going economic development is necessary
in order to attract new businesses to Iowa, yet the question remains,
who will be the workforce? She is concerned that if we are unable to
offer a new generation of an educated workforce, it’s going to be
difficult recruiting the kinds of socially responsible companies to
Iowa that will continue to re-invest in our communities. At a time when
our economy is rapidly changing, our manufacturing jobs continue to
disappear, and with CAFTA in place to only exacerbate the problem, it
is more important than ever to establish innovative ways of developing
effective and sound relationships with the business community. In
Elesha’s opinion, this does not necessarily mean giving them huge tax
breaks.
The
state of the family farm also concerns Elesha. It is estimated that
approximately 70% of family farms will turnover within the next 15
years due to retirement, etc. Rather than see these farms bought up by
large corporations, Elesha’s hope is to be able to encourage young
people to continue in their family traditions and she believes we
should focus on ways to make it lucrative for them to do so. Providing
new opportunities for our youth is also what is means to be an Iowan.
Elesha
would like to see more incentives for ethanol development, as well as
wind farms. She suggested that rather than continuing to subsidize oil
companies, we should be investing in alternative forms of energy. In
Europe, although the cost of gasoline is much higher, people were aware
of the fact that the governments were not subsidizing the oil industry
so you only paid once at the pump. In America, we actually pay twice,
once at the pump and again through our taxes.
Elesha
believes America should concentrate on being a “world leader” rather
than a “super-power.” We need to lead in environmental conservation,
economics, and ethics as well as maintaining a strong military. But as
Elesha says, “a good leader doesn’t always need to speak loudly and be
the center of attention…. There are times where you need to scale
back
and let other members of your team (which is the global community) step
in and apply their level of expertise in certain circumstances in
order to work together as a team. That’s what it means to be a good
leader. It’s not to say “screw you” to the rest of the world.”
I shared
with Elesha my concern about progressives being able to get our message
“out there” when the mainstream media fails to report on the issues
that really matter. She believes we will continue to see a shift in how
the news is delivered. She was very excited about the prospect of Al
Gore’s new independent cable network. Elesha believes this will
begin to revolutionize television. We’ll see more news in the form of
little vignettes – Independent people from across the nation will be
able to cement 8 minute time slots. This will attract a wide variety of
independent and alternative news sources. Elesha believes it is very
important to explore diverse viewpoints across the political spectrum
in order to continue to educate yourself and better understand what is
in the hearts and minds of all Americans.
I asked
Elesha how she expects to fare against long time incumbent, Jim Van
Fossen, and how she proposes to differentiate herself. She told me that
she is eager to go “toe-to-toe” with Jim on the issues. Elesha believes
they actually agree on many issues as Jim used to be a Democrat but
feels he has not led on issues such as the environment and education.
She looks forward to a spirited campaign against him but feels it’s
time for a fresh face with fresh ideas. She says she’s certainly “tough
enough”. Elesha’s mother taught her, “nobody is ever any better than
you are but you’re never any better than anyone else”. Elesha said this
has helped to keep her grounded but at the same time give her the
courage to stand up for what she believes.
Elesha
shared with me how much she has enjoyed working with Senator Schoenjahn
this past year. She has expressed her gratitude for the ongoing support
of many people who have been willing to help with her campaign. She
also made special mention of Gordon Fisher. Elesha says Gordon, as
chair of her campaign, has been a phenomenal resource for her given his
level of expertise. Elesha is the third woman candidate that he has
helped who has run for a house seat. The others have been successful
and Elesha hopes her campaign follows suit, citing that there has been
a serious lack of women leadership in this country, particularly in
Iowa. On a national level women represent about 13% of government yet
approximately 52% of the populace. The ratio is even less in Iowa. That
needs to change.
When
asked what she believes Democrats must do in order to win in 2006,
Elesha indicated we should continue to follow Howard Dean’s example of
utilizing the Internet as a fund-raising tool as well as a powerful
means to connect people. Making these connections, she believes, makes
people feel like they’re part of community which is very important. She
also believes, what will be key for progressives, is encouraging the
next generation of young people to invest in learning more about
computers. That’s going to do for the Democratic party in this decade,
what talk radio did for the Republicans since the 80's. Elesha wants to
inspire hope in people that have never been involved in politics before
as well as reach voters who have been involved but not happy with the
direction this country has been heading.
In my
opinion, Elesha Gayman is an outstanding candidate for Iowa House
District 84. She is a breath of fresh air, and exemplifies the kind of
down home values that will help to promote and preserve what it means
to be an Iowan. Elesha will ensure that Iowa is a better place to live,
work, and raise a family. What else could we ask for?
Click here for a map of Iowa House District 84 in Scott County.
Click here to visit Elesha Gayman's website.
Blog For Iowa 
Good luck in your run for state rep. I'm originally from Rock Island/Moline. I live in Cedar Rapids now. Show 'em that Mississippi River spirit.
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Go Elesha Go!
You will make a great candidate as well as a super member of the Iowa House. The campaign website is great! I wish you all the best.
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