The Johnson County Democrats and OFA-Iowa celebrated the 50th birthday of President Obama Sunday at City Park in Iowa City.  Burgers, brats and birthday cake were on the menu and the crowd was sizable enough to both fill shelter #6 and run out of food.

Speeches were made by the Dvorskys, (state party chair Sue and state senator Bob), and Terry Dahm, JC Dems chair.  1st JCDem vice chair Mike Carberry was MC and introduced the electeds present.

IDP Chair Sue Dvorsky

As usual, chairwoman Dvorsky’s remarks were the highlight of the event.  The primary message to the faithful was that the most important thing for Iowa Democrats to do is re-elect a Senate majority in the state house.  No one present needed reminding that we are just two votes away from being Wisconsin.  But national politics was also on the agenda.  Here’s an excerpt from her speech today:

“In the fourth district Steve King can be beat. And he can be beat because he is now in a district with much more parity in registrations…Cerro Gordo county, Fort Dodge, Ames – he’s not going to win there.  He’s not going to be able to do a Tom Latham thing… moderate independents are not going to vote for Steve King.

Here in Johnson County the job is always margin..alot is asked of this county and that is why 2011 is crucial because it sets us up for 2012…

I started out by saying to the young people here, and there are a lot of them…it was amazing at the event on Friday night [2011 Democratic Hall of Fame Dinner in Des Moines], people were constantly remarking on how many young people were in the room.  Don’t believe for a moment that we lost those young people, we did not.

It is all about planning to work and working the plan. Do not be discouraged. This system is not designed to be done in 140 characters on Twitter.  This is a long haul and a long game… all over the state the county parties are energized and they’re ready. They saw what happened in 2010; they’re not prepared for that – people in the 4th district are not prepared to be represented by Steve King for 10 more years.

All of our partners have staff on the ground across the state  right now – AFSCME, One Iowa, Planned Parenthood, ISEA, us, we’re all gonna be there because that’s how we’re gonna do it – up and down the ticket.  This election really is White House to Court House. That’s how we’ll do it.  That’s how we’ve always done it.

There’s no secret weapon to this. It’s a ground game, a house party, one to one at a time, a precinct at a time – that’s what it always is. It’s what we do best. We will do it again.

And we will have our friends and neighbors with us who were sold a bill of goods in 2010.  This isn’t what they bought.  This craziness is not what they bought. It isn’t what people want in their government. It’s not Iowa.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the other 49 states but I know what’s going to happen here.  I guarantee when he comes back here after the caucuses we are going to give him the six electoral votes. We are going to do this. “

So how about we all chip in and get President Obama a brand new Democratic congress for his 51st?