Loebsack Event Draws Energized Crowd
by Trish Nelson
[photo by Paul Deaton]
A Sunday evening fundraising event for Representative Dave Loebsack (D-02) was well attended for an off-presidential election year and served as a welcome oasis of sanity juxtaposed to the media circus surrounding the current GOP primary campaign. (For a fun read lampooning that subject, I suggest Donald Kaul's column in Sunday's Des Moines Register, A Slideshow Candidate.)
Congressman Loebsack and staff said they were energized going into the new counties in our newly formed District 2. By the way, new counties in the 2nd District are: Marion, Scott, Jasper, Decatur, Clinton and Clarke. You can help re-elect Rep. Loebsack by contacting your county Democratic party.
The congressman's talk last night centered around the challenges and rewards of working across the aisle to get things done in a Republican-controlled congress. During the event, Loebsack expressed his support for re-electing President Obama, without equivocation. Below are a few of his remarks before a standing room only crowd of supporters.
All is not lost. When we lost the House last fall, I said at the time it would be very difficult to get things accomplished other than the great work that we do on a regular basis for folks in the district…. fighting the bureaucracy, whatever it is that people need help with.. which is really, really important…a lot of people don't realize how important that work is for a member of congress to do for their constituents…
But in terms of policy issues, I realized it's going to be very important to get stuff through during the lame duck session because it's going to be difficult if not impossible to get anything accomplished for the next 2 years until such time as we're able to take back the house, keep the senate and get the president re-elected as well….and we are going to get the president re-elected… (applause)
We did get some things through during the lame duck session. All of the Iowa National Guard who are engaged in Homeland Security missions overseas now are part of the post 9/11 GI bill. The Title 32 folks, who do domestic Homeland Security missions in the guard and reserve were not included in the original post-9/11 GI bill, and there are 1500-1800 Iowans who are now eligible for the post 9/11 GI bill – that was my legislation, and we got it through.” (applause)
Other things I've been able to get through, on the jobs front in particular since we've been in the minority…you all know that I serve on the Armed Services Committee, and the Education and Labor Committee.. Recently, I reached across the aisle to Bobby Shilling who represents Rock Island…there's a lot of concern about the RI Arsenal, the biggest employer in the Quad Cities. As we begin to draw back in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the sooner the better, (applause) the RI arsenal will be making less howlitzers and other things they make when we're engaged overseas. So, I worked with Bobby Shillling to get legislation that will [help protect jobs at the Rock Island arsenal]…”
The congressman mentioned that so far there appear to be three GOP challengers for the 2nd District congressional seat.
To folks in the new counties, please take the time to get to know your new congressman. Your concerns are of utmost importance to him. He truly strives to be a representative of the people, all of the people in the district, not just the Democratic constituents, but Republican constituents as well.
We chatted briefly with the congressman after the event. He brought up a time during the campaign of 2006, before he was a congressman, that my husband and I accompanied him on a leg of his campaign walk/bike ride across the district to meet and talk with voters. Everyone was invited to come along but on that particular day, we were the only ones who showed up. He never fails to mention it when we see him, even after 3 terms in congress. That is the kind of congressman he is.
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