I’m running for Congress against Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks. In a moment I’ll ask you to endorse my campaign, but first I want to tell you why I’m running for Congress:
When I think about why I want to represent Iowa’s 1st district, I think of my dad. Dad worked construction – and I can’t think of anyone who worked harder. But when my dad got sick, we almost lost everything, staying afloat thanks to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
My dad isn’t alone. The Iowans I know value hard work, but they’re struggling under the weight of rising health care costs and lower pay. I’m running because Iowans like my dad deserve dignity.
My opponent, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks, puts her extremist agenda above everyday Iowans. She blames rising health care costs on seniors using their hard-earned Medicare benefits, she supports a national abortion ban with no exceptions, and she stands with the big pharmaceutical companies over Iowa’s working families who are struggling to afford drugs. That’s unacceptable.
In 2022, we came just short of what we needed to win this race, but my dad didn’t raise me to back down – not when our communities are at stake.
President Joe Biden at the signing ceremony for creation of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni national monument.
On Tuesday, Aug. 8, President Joe Biden created Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, a national monument encompassing almost a million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon. At the signing ceremony, Biden said,
America’s natural wonders are our nation’s heart and soul. That’s not hyperbole; that’s a fact. They unite us. They inspire us. A birthright we pass down from generation to generation.
In part, the three-state trip to Arizona, New Mexico and Utah was to promote the Inflation Reduction Act, a piece of necessary campaign work.
On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, marking the most significant action Congress has taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s history. With the stroke of his pen, the President redefined American leadership in confronting the existential threat of the climate crisis and set forth a new era of American innovation and ingenuity to lower consumer costs and drive the global clean energy economy forward.
We, as a society, must act to address the human causes of the climate crisis, and Joe Biden is doing the work.
The risk we have in establishing this national monument is another president with differing views could undo this work as Donald J. Trump did with Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, created by President Obama a year prior to Trump assuming office. Fact is there is no consensus about creating national monuments which in turn, steers the rudder toward partisanship. Biden’s lofty remarks on Aug. 8 sound universal, yet are not commonly enough believed for Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni to endure when political seas shift.
There are characteristics of the new national monument that make them ripe to be overturned, at least in part. The first is grazing rights on public lands. According to the White House, “(The) monument designation protects these sacred places for cultural and spiritual uses, while respecting existing livestock grazing permits and preserving access for hunting and fishing.” It seems clear that won’t be good enough for ranchers and herders who rely on public lands to feed their livestock at low or no cost.
More significantly, the new national monument is home to some of the most easily accessible deposits of uranium in the country.
The Grand Canyon is too important to not protect. And yet there are hundreds of mining claims, and several active uranium mines in the proposed monument area that threaten to poison the landscape and destroy this sacred land. We know from firsthand experience the damage that can be caused by yellow dirt contaminating our water and poisoning our animals and our children. We are thankful to President Biden and the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition for their efforts in pushing this initiative to protect our people from the adverse effects of uranium mining.
Navajo Nation President Nygren, Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Celebrates Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument Designation Aug. 8, 2023
The hope among tribal leaders is the national monument designation is permanent. It is hard to believe that mining interests won’t exploit their political power to gain access to uranium deposits there. They have already begun framing arguments that uranium will be needed to power the displacement of fossil fuels in our energy grid. As I’ve written on several occasions, nuclear power is not the answer to addressing climate change.
We should celebrate the moment of creating this national monument. Local groups have been working on its designation for decades and we should stop, take a breath, and appreciate what determined, long-range political action can accomplish. We must also be vigilant of those who would undo Biden’s work.
Johnson County Democrats at the Solon Beef Days parade, July 2022.
In an email exchange with a friend, I asked whether they would attend the Iowa State Fair on Saturday when the two Democratic candidates other than Joe Biden were scheduled to appear at the Des Moines Register Soapbox. They said yes, and would bird dog some of the Republicans as well.
Had I known Semafor journalist Dave Weigel would be there, I might have driven to the state capitol for a chance to meet him.
Thursday, on their way to the state fair, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz stopped by Iowa Press to record the following episode.
In my last two posts, I wrote about whether the abortion dog would hunt in Iowa. The topic came up when Stephen Gruber-Miller of the Register had this question:
Stephen Gruber-Miller: Iowa republicans this summer passed a ban on abortion at about six weeks into a pregnancy.
I’m curious, as you’re talking to members of the Democratic Party around the state who are recruiting candidates, who are trying to encourage people to run for office, is that something that comes up as a motivator for people to run for office?
Hart: Well, absolutely.
I think always when you are recruiting for candidates and as people are considering running for office, it’s the issues that often drive them.
And this is an issue that is a great motivator not only because of the fact that this law is unpopular, that people recognize that it’s not very workable, that to have a law where decisions are made at six weeks where most women don’t even know they’re pregnant, that that just does not work.
And so, issues are really important to people and they will step up accordingly because it’s far reaching.
It affects how many OBGYNs are attracted to work in this state when we already have a shortage.
It affects women’s health care in general.
And so, these are issues that are important to people and motivate them to run.
Iowa Press Transcript Aug. 11, 2023.
Whenever our Democratic leaders appear on Iowa Press, we should tune in. Not because it’s great television (it often isn’t) but because if we ever want to dig out from Republican dominance in the state we have to have a common platform from which to make our campaigns. Watching the party leader, and a Democratic governor in Iowa to stump for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is the kind of boilerplate information we must assimilate.
Make sure you caffeinate before watching this program.
This video is a bit dated, but still relevant: (6:38)
Kim Reynolds is wasting a good chunk of your money sending Iowa troops to the Texas-Mexico border to support Greg Abbott’s murderous razor wire in the Rio Grande. After the Fair ends we will see yet another of Reynolds really unpopular agenda. That will be funneling your money to religious private schools and taking that money in turn from public schools.
Reynolds and her cohorts will tell you that this is a matter of giving families a choice and a better education. That is in an old Iowa term hog shit. If Iowa’s schools were in such bad shape the state’s leaders thought the best choice was to abandon them then they are pretty poor leaders. Instead there should have been a movement to fix what they felt was wrong.
Of course what Reynold’s privatization of Iowa’s school system is to take public money and funnel it to private hands, much like her Medicaid scam. It is also in a very underhanded way a method to support a religion in opposition to what the first amendment says. That religion is Christianity. Since most of Iowa’s private schools are Christian guess where the money will go. Do you want to have the state support Christianity? I don’t.
Funneling tax money to religious schools totally obliterates the separation of church and state. Remember that ‘private’ schools do not have public school boards by a private Board of Directors, so if you don’t like the curriculum the school is teaching, good luck trying to give some input.
But of course one of the real driving forces behind the dismantling of the public school system is the desire by the extreme right wing party of Reynolds to cripple Teacher’s unions. Guess what private schools don’t have? Teachers’ Unions. Teachers also have lower pay, fewer benefits and little job security.
The amount of money that the state will take from the public school system is rather astounding. According to iowastartingline.com, almost $150 million will be taken from public schools and transferred to private schools. This will translate into bigger class sizes, fewer teachers, less maintenance and upkeep in the public schools.
The Iowa Department of Education has approved $142 million in taxpayer dollars to go towards K-12 private school tuition for the 2023-24 school, and nearly $100 million of that amount will go to applicants in just 15 Iowa counties.
New data from the department released Monday showed that 18,627 applications have been approved for Gov. Kim Reynolds’ new voucher program—called Students First Education Savings Accounts—and each applicant is slated to receive $7,635 in taxpayer funds toward a private school education.
But Iowa Democrats were quick to point out that this is a very unpopular program:
Iowa House Democrats panned the latest news.
“Governor Reynolds gave the special interests and private schools a huge bonus today. It’s just the first installment of her promise to shift over $1 billion of our tax dollars from public schools to private schools instead,” said Rep. Sharon Steckman (D-Mason City).
“It’s bad news for over 90% of the Iowa kids in public schools who will have fewer opportunities and it’s even worse for those public school kids in rural areas,” Steckman added. ” Iowans are overwhelmingly opposed to vouchers because public money is for public schools, and Iowans do not want more of their public schools to close.”
The Des Moines Register also noted that 60% of the families getting a voucher are already in a private school. So for them it is Christmasthey just got $7,635 they didn’t have last year. {Sorry I do not have a citation for this as I do not currently have subscription to the DMR. The note is from the google description of the article}
Now more than ever Iowa’s public schools will be depending on bake sales and magazine sales. No wonder this is a really unpopular policy.
Remember next year when you vote – Republicans gave us two of the most unpopular policies in Iowa history: A near total ban on abortions in Iowa and school vouchers that will dismantle the public school system. Remember also that Republicans have been choking the public schools for a decade. Also don’t forget that at the time we needed leadership the most, during the covid crisis, Kim Reynolds and her cohorts essentially were only responding to Iowa’s wealthy.
Next year you can’t vote Reynolds out, but you sure can vote out extremist Republican legislators.
“I didn’t think I wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice but the lifestyle sounds amazing” Alexandra Petri
What lifestyle, you ask? Why, this lifestyle (10:02): And he ain’t the only one, is he Sammy Alito?
Methinks this is what the founders were concerned about when they divided power into three branches. This seems like a perfect example of why the legislative branch should be able to make rules for the judicial branch. The Chief Justice doesn’t seem to want to ado anything – maybe because he’s getting a little of the grift?
Clarence Thomas went on 38 billionaire-funded vacations
Alito went to Rome funded by religious donors who hated Roe
Gorsuch sold his home to a lawyer with 22 cases before him
Roberts’s wife made $10 million recruiting lawyers with SCOTUS cases
These crooks police OUR vaginas. – Lindy Li
Remember that when someone gets gifts, there are gift taxes to pay. Tax evasion is what put Al Capone in jail.
And to think this was only one of many HUGE stories last week.
A) What was the biggest story last week? Maybe the resounding defeat of a Republican move to change the requirements to pass a constitutional amendment in what state on Tuesday?
B) Maybe the second biggest story was a raging inferno on what island paradise in the Pacific Ocean?
C) Friday what defendant was given the word from the Judge’s bench: Tamper with witnesses and you can go to jail?
D) Let’s switch gears here. What Greatest of all Time (GOAT) returned to gymnastics competition last Sunday winning the all arounds in a meet in suburban Chicago?
E) Claiming “WOKE EQUALS FAILURE” Trump cheered the loss of what American team last Sunday?
F) Finding a small remnant of a backbone what Republican presidential hopeful responded to a question on MSNBC by saying that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election?
G) In the science world several big stories the last 2 weeks. One involved scientist repeating an experiment that created more power than it used by using what atomic combining method?
H) A second was reports of experiments from South Korea where electricity was moved along a medium where no power was lost also known as what holy grail of physics?
I) In San Francisco regulators gave approval for two taxis services to operate what kind of cabs 24 hours a day despite virulent opposition from first responders?
J) Big news in Iowa last week was the bankruptcy of what major hospital in Iowa City and the offer to buy it out by the U of Iowa Hospitals?
K) A skull unearthed in China in 2015 but just reported on last week was really big news because it was so unlike other fossils of what species?
L) Going in to the school year, teachers in Florida must written parental permission to call students by anything but what?
M) Consumer credit card debt in the US passed what magic number Thursday morning?
N) In an article on the ESPN website the writer – a professional gambler –identified what professional golfer as having bet over $1 billion in their 30 year acquaintance?
O) A man in Salt Lake City Utah was killed Wednesday by the FBI following several threats against who?
P) What Democratic US senator said he is mulling becoming an ‘independent’?
Q) Wednesday Michigan arraigned nine of sixteen people who attempted to fraudulently pose as what during the post 2020 presidential elections?
R) Another death in the rock ’n’ roll world. What leader of “The Band” that backed Bob Dylan died Wednesday in Los Angeles?
S) What Alabama senator who is currently stopping all military promotions and moves has been found to actually be living in Florida?
T) What is EG.5 and why should I care?
If Bill Clinton’s deposition about his sex life was made public as evidence of a “crime,” then you better be damn sure the American public has the right to watch the trial of the man who tried to defraud the U.S. government and end American democracy. – adgirlMM tweet
Tip of the hat to EarlG on democraticunderground.com
Answers:
A) Ohio – the proposal lost 58 to 42%
B) Maui
C) Donald Trump
D) Simone Biles
E) The US Women’s National Soccer Team. Trump blamed the loss on President Biden and wokeness
F) Ron DeSantis
G) fusion
H) super conductivity
I) driverless. Public safety personnel are really concerned.
J) Mercy Hospital
K) Hominid. The skull was 300,000 years old
L) Their given name. I am not sure if that is also a law in Iowa
M) $1 Trillion
N) Phil Mickelson
O) President Biden
P) Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Q) electors
R) Robbie Robertson
S) Tommy Tuberville
T) The fastest spreading variation of covid currently. May want to put that mask back on.
If y’all think “wokeness” is the reason our team lost at the World Cup, just wait till you learn about the country that beat us. – Justin Meeks tweet
from democraticunderground.com
Someone at Iowa State Fair has told Pence he was “glad they didn’t hang you.”In the world of 2023, this probably passes for political civility. – Michael Beschloss
I ran into this video while looking for something else. Like many my attention span seems to be short these day.
This video fascinated me with its short and very pointed analysis of a potential major player in future geopolitics. In looking for information on Peter Ziehan I find he is purported to be an expert on geopolitics.Please make your own judgment.
I offer this just to let you know that as we in the US are drowning in the media circus created by Donald Trump, the rest of the world goes on. And there are some real major movements going on. Please pay attention (dare I say wake up?) 7:50:
What can you say? A raging fire on one of the most beautiful and isolated spots on earth (Maui) should be getting much attention and spurring people to action on the climate. Yet even as ever higher temperature records are being set around the world in both the northern and Southern Hemisphere and fires rage on three continents, the MAGA Party is plotting to end any climate related action by the US government.
Let’s not forget that ocean temperatures are at an all time high in the Atlantic especially near Florida. This portends an extremely active hurricane season.
From the Guardian we get a brief look at policy recommendations from the Heritage Foundation, an extremist right wing “think tank” geared to greatly choke any government action on climate at a time it is most greatly needed.
An alliance of rightwing groups has crafted an extensive presidential proposal to bolster the planet-heating oil and gas industry and hamstring the energy transition, it has emerged.
Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22m endeavor, Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch.
Called the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, it is meant to guide the first 180 days of presidency for an incoming Republican president. Climate experts and advocates criticized planning that would dismantle US climate policy.
{{ skip }}
The guide’s chapter on the US Department of Energy proposes eliminating three agency offices that are crucial for the energy transition, and also calls to slash funding to the agency’s grid deployment office in an effort to stymie renewable energy deployment, E&E News reported this week.
The plan, which would hugely expand gas infrastructure, was authored by Bernard McNamee, a former official at the agency. McNamee was also a Trump appointee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He previously led the far-right Texas Public Policy Foundation, which fights environmental regulation, and served as a senior adviser to the Republican senator Ted Cruz.
Another chapter focuses on gutting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and moving it away from its focus on the climate crisis. It proposes cutting the agency’s environmental justice and public engagement functions, while shrinking it as a whole by terminating new hires in “low-value programs”, E&E News reported. The proposal was written Mandy Gunasekara, who was the former chief of staff at the EPA under Trump.
As the nation gears up for the 2024 election the attention of the country is being diverted by the various trials of Donald Trump. Because of this diversion and the media frenzy surrounding the circus and its sideshows the country is not giving serious consideration to real issues.
The top issues are simply this. The MAGA Party will do nothing to stop climate change and will do all they can to make it worse and make it happen faster and harder. Their belief is that wealthy people will be able to withstand the horrors that Mother Earth may hit us with. As for you and me, the poor and middle class and much the poor countries of the world, we deserve to suffer the consequences.
The second top issue is ending democracy in the US. Part of the expectations in putting together this country the Founders expected that all parties to the governance of this country would support democracy. We now have a Party that does not support democracy. Over the years through exploiting loopholes in democracy they have imposed oligarchies in some states. From persuasion.community:
James Madison in particular, with his dim view of people’s ability to govern themselves on a lasting basis, was obsessed with the need to build protections against mob rule into the United States Constitution. For a popular demagogue to lead a conspiracy to defraud the United States in an attempt to obstruct the lawful results of a presidential election was the stuff of Madison’s nightmares.
Plato had first identified the democracy doom-loop in his Republic 2100 years earlier. In his view, tyranny is implicit in the internal logic of any democracy: by putting power in the hands of those best able to rile up the majority, democracy builds huge incentives for aspiring demagogues to try their luck at manipulating the masses.
The appeals such men use are always the same: riling up the good, downtrodden people against an elite portrayed as corrupt. Given the huge numerical advantage the poor have over the rich in society, democratic decision-making would always be vulnerable to the populist playbook. Aspiring demagogues would continually come forward to try to unleash the mob against the institutions of the republic. Eventually one would succeed, and make himself tyrant.
The appeals such men use are always the same: riling up the good, downtrodden people against an elite portrayed as corrupt. Given the huge numerical advantage the poor have over the rich in society, democratic decision-making would always be vulnerable to the populist playbook. Aspiring demagogues would continually come forward to try to unleash the mob against the institutions of the republic. Eventually one would succeed, and make himself tyrant.
As the circus (and the diversion the MAGA Party will create) takes our attention we need to let people know that the planet and our form of government are the real issues. We have little time left.
Betty McMahon Photo from email from the Muscatine County Democrats
On July 29th, 2023 the Muscatine County Democrats lost a great and longtime leader when Betty McMahon died at the age of 91. Betty was working at the county fair, manning the Democratic tent when she fell ill. She then passed a couple of weeks later in the hospital.
Betty knew pretty much every Democratic presidential candidate from Jack Kennedy on. When a national Democrat came through the area, they would go out of their way to see Betty. One that really impressed McMahon early on was Jimmy Carter.
When Carter entered hospice care earlier this year the Muscatine Journal interviewed McMahon on her memories of President Carter. Here is a short excerpt:
She had heard from her husband that he strongly supported the growing civil rights movement in the Democratic Party, which left many segregationists in the party feeling betrayed. He had served in the Georgia State Senate and then as governor. Still, in the Iowa caucus, he was competing against 16 other candidates, most of whom had greater name recognition than did he. It led to Carter putting an emphasis on his name, which he did as he entered the room.
“Hi! My name is Jimmy Carter,” he said with his pleasant southern drawl. “I’m running for president.”
At that moment, he had McMahon’s vote. Plenty of other people’s as well, as he swept the Iowa Caucus of 1976 and went on to gain the Democratic nomination. He would narrowly beat incumbent President Gerald Ford and become the 39th president of the United States.
McMahon and her friend Mary Ann Schepers were active in the Muscatine County Democrats at the time. They remember Carter visiting Muscatine many times during the caucus. During that time they became friends with the Carters, having many discussions about things ranging from current events to what was happening in the community.
It was after the campaign was over they got their biggest surprise. As part of a promise to Iowans made during the caucus for Iowa’s support, he invited 35 people from Iowa to his first State of the Union Address on Jan. 19, 1978. McMahon and Schepers were on the guest list.
We got to know Betty when we became politically active in the early 2000s. Betty was the county co-chair. Both of us were taken by Betty’s enthusiasm, knowledge and her warm friendliness. We immediately felt like we were longtime friends.
As the years went on we spent much time at rallies and campaigning with Betty and the core of the activists in Muscatine County. Betty was almost always there leading the way. Few could match her spirit and determination to put Democrats in office.
The pre-caucus would always find Democratic candidates seeking her out to say “Hi.” That included Bill and Hillary Clinton, President Biden and President Obama.
Betty was a bundle of energy and a very unique personality. On a personal note I loved to remind her every year that she shared a birthday with George W. Bush on July 5th. That would give her a chance to let loose with about a year’s worth of cuss words on me .
Let’s close with the tribute to Betty from her long time co-chair of the Muscatine Democrats Don Paulsen ( from the email from the Muscatine County Democrats):
A tribute to Betty
We recently lost an icon in Muscatine County Democratic politics. This is a tribute to Betty McMahon, who spent sixty years volunteering to make her community, state, and country a better place. She was the “Grand Dame” of the Muscatine County Democrats.
She started getting interested in the Democratic Party during the John F. Kennedy Administration. I was only ten years old at the time!
By then she had been married to Robert, or Bud as most people called him, since 1955. Bud served in the United States Air Force and was stationed in Alaska. Eventually, he became a rural mail carrier. One of his hobbies was raising and showing poultry and pigeons. He was especially fond of tumbler pigeons. Both he and Betty loved to dance, travel, and talk about their Charolais cattle.
The first time Iowa held the first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses was in 1972. In 1976 my wife Debbie and I were living in a rental house on Tipton Road, and the Bloomington Township caucus was in a farmhouse kitchen. I don’t know if there were even a dozen people in attendance. I don’t think I was a delegate to the county convention at that time, but eventually, I was in later years and noticed Betty, Ruth Webb, Marlyn Schepers, John Scott, and Peggy Dean in leadership roles. President Carter was one of Betty’s favorites. She said that once he flashed that smile she was hooked. Plus his honesty was another selling point. A lot of you probably saw the write-up in the Journal recently about Betty and Mary Ann Schepers talking about President Carter after he went into hospice care.
In the early 1990’s the County Chair resigned and at the following month’s meeting I was elected the new Muscatine County Democratic Party Chair. Soon afterward Betty and I were Co-Chairs and spent the next twenty years serving together.
In 1988 and 2004 Betty was really gung-ho on Dick Gephardt from Missouri for President.
Betty attended an untold number of County, District, and State Conventions through the years. And maybe even more candidate events and fundraisers. Sometimes Betty and I would go to an event at a local restaurant and some of her friends would be there. With a twinkle in her eye, she would say the gossip going around was that she was being seen with a younger man!
Bud and Betty donated a hayrack to the County Democratic Party to be used as a parade float. I helped Bud customize it so that it had sideboards on both sides. He did most of the work, of course! Back then there was a parade in Atalissa, Muscatine (4th of July), West Liberty, Nichols, Muscatine again (Great River Days), Conesville, and Wilton. And it’s still going strong today!
In 2010, I ran for a seat on the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors. We had an event at Tom and Becky Furlong’s cabin on the Mississippi River north of town on Highway 22. After giving a stump speech I opened it up for questions, and Betty made some encouraging comments. I excitedly replied, “Thanks, Mom!”
And she was like a Mom, to all of us. Rest in peace, Betty.
Don Paulsen, Past Chair, Muscatine County Democratic Party
Rest In Peace, Betty and thanks for what you did for your country and state.
First district Democratic congressional candidate Christina Bohannan
One of the worst kept secrets in Iowa’s First Congressional District is that Christina Bohannan intends to run against Mariannette Miller-Meeks again in the 2024 general election.
All Spring and Summer I’ve been pointing out at in-person political meetings there was no declared candidate for the Congress. Half a dozen different times I was rebuffed, with folks saying there was a candidate. Finally, at a July 6 event at a Mexican restaurant in Solon, someone named Bohannan as a candidate.
The soft launch of her campaign was confirmed Wednesday, Aug. 9, at 1:31 p.m., when they sent an email request to sign a petition with the following footer:
So Bohannan is in and one presumes there will be an official and more formal launch this month.
The response received from fellow Democrats when I asked, “Why Bohannan?” was, “Who else is going to run?” I point out that Miller-Meeks ran multiple times before being elected. and then won only when Dave Loebsack announced retirement.
Iowa is trending Republican right now, so whoever Democrats nominate to run against Miller-Meeks will be fighting a headwind. I make no judgement about whether Bohannan 2.0 can defeat her. Obviously Bohannan needs to do things differently to be successful this time. One hopes she will hire completely new staff members with new ideas for the second effort.
The subject of the email from the Bohannan campaign was abortion. Likewise, the Bohannan X account became active again recently, with a retweet about the Ohio special election on modifying their state constitution. The special election has been described as a referendum on abortion rights by news media and prominent Democrats. I talk to Iowa voters on a regular basis and from what I’m hearing, the abortion dog won’t hunt in Iowa. I could have a minority opinion, yet I don’t think so.
Now begins the primary campaign for a Democratic First District Congressperson. If there is a lack of interest among talented people to run, the nominee could well be Bohannan. Despite all the blabbermouths in the district, we’ll just have to wait until she makes it official.
Somewhere in Iowa during the 2004 election campaign.
In 2006 I drove from work in Cedar Rapids to the Democratic campaign office in Iowa City once a week to make phone calls for Dave Loebsack. Staffer Tyler Wilson had a stack of papers with the names of people for me to call. That was a time when people would take a phone call from a political canvasser and have a discussion. I fondly recall the flip phone I used to make those campaign calls.
During the calls, I found Democrats had voted for Republican Jim Leach. They had had it after his support for the George W. Bush administration and would vote Democratic in 2006. By doing so, Dave Loebsack was elected to the U.S. Congress where he served from 2007 until 2021. It was a win: clean, pure and simple.
Chet Culver was elected governor that year but it was anything but a clean win. There was dissatisfaction among Democrats over the conservative selection he and lieutenant governor candidate Patty Judge represented. The vast geography, sparsely sprinkled with Democratic voters, had spoken in the primary. They didn’t want some lefty like Mike Blouin, Sal Mohammad, or Ed Fallon as chief executive officer of the state.
The run up to the 2006 election was a heady time for Iowa Democrats. The feeling culminated in 2008 with Barack Obama winning the nomination for president and carrying Iowa in the general election. The sparkle went off those years quickly. Loebsack won reelection. Culver did not when Terry Branstad re-emerged as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2010. Obama’s margin eroded by the time of his re-election in 2012. Since then, it has been all Republican in Iowa, culminating in the trifecta they won in the 2016 general election. Since then, they added to their majority.
What lesson does the ten-year period between 2006 and 2016 have to teach us? I’m sure many people have thought about this and have opinions. Here’s mine.
There is no returning to 2006 or 2008. With the rise in campaign technology beginning with the Howard Dean campaign in 2004, how campaigns were conducted changed. Obama brought the technology of campaigns together and we had an edge on Republicans. That didn’t last long.
In the 2012 campaign for Iowa House District 73, I used what I had learned from Obama about targeting voters. I soon discovered our opponent was targeting the exact same voters during canvasses. I noticed Jeff Kaufmann driving his canvassers around Mechanicsville and in other places on multiple occasions during the campaign. Sometimes I waited until the Kaufmann canvasser finished before making my pitch to the same voter. They seemed to get there first.
Technology is no longer an edge for Democrats. If one reads how the Trump campaign used data aggregation during their elections, and how they micro-targeted voters, they surpassed whatever Obama did in that regard. That may be because they viewed campaigns as a money-generating operation more than a traditional political campaign.
The effect of the pandemic is clear: it created isolation as we dodged COVID-19. Isolation served Republican interests. It unified them like never before and people I had known for years as inactive voters now activated as Republicans.
Working a campaign’s voter database is important. The luster of it faded into a drudgery of making calls and knocking doors. It seems like the wrong direction to perpetuate the idea of year-around calling and door knocking. I agree, there are no off years. I don’t agree using the same crooked sawhorse to build an obsolete operation. Democrats must focus on winning the next election instead.
Leadership is important. Jennifer Konfrst, Zach Wahls, Sarah Trone Garriott, J.D. Scholten, and others represent the future of Iowa Democrats. Yeah, I know Wahls rubbed his fellow elected officials the wrong way while minority leader. That happened yet Wahls retains excellent prospects for leadership. If the future of the party is based on doing known things only, Democrats have no hope. Who else besides younger members of the elected cohort will lead? The correct answer is no one: we’ll get lost in the wilderness. For the Israelites, that was forty years. There is no promised land of politics today.
The electorate has changed and is changing. People are losing interest in politics. Young Iowans appear to be trending conservative. I see a lot of DeSantis support among Iowa Republicans. The open question is whether Iowa will be a decider in their primary contest. We’ll see what happens in 2024, but if it’s a rematch between Biden and Trump, I predict voters won’t turn out like they did in 2020.
The path forward for Democrats is engagement in society. I don’t mean in politics. Being seen on the library board, at K-12 functions, at the town festival planning committee, and other public spaces is exceedingly important. It is where people of differing political views meet and discuss our politics. For me, that is the path forward few are discussing in August 2023.
Would love to hear your thoughts about the path forward for Iowa Democrats. Leave a brief comment on this post if so inclined.
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
Blog For Iowa 