Who Will Our Congressmen Endorse?
January 27th, 2007 at 04:21pm Chase Martyn
In Iowa, presidential candidates are no doubt already scrambling for high-profile endorsements. Since Tom Harkin took the relatively safe route and endorsed the home team very early, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at our Democratic Congressmen in Iowa to see who they might pick.
Of course, the decision of whether to make an endorsement at all is relevant to the discussion. During the 2004 campaign, Leonard Boswell (IA-03) did not make any endorsement, instead remaining neutral and showing up at any major candidate’s campaign stops that he could get to for a bit of extra face time. This year, he might be planning to do the same. He already showed up at Hillary’s event in Des Moines:
Mrs. Clinton was introduced by Representative Leonard Boswell, who drew a huge ovation when he called her “a great first lady,” and then noted that the day had meaning for women in his family and, surely, many women in the audience.
I don’t blame Boswell for remaining neutral, because it may well be in his political interest. But with questions about whether he even plans to run for reelection, it remains to be seen whether he will pick a horse.
In 2004, Bruce Braley (IA-01) was an Edwards activist, as his biography on the DCCC’s site points out. Perhaps he will endorse the fellow trial lawyer again, but so far he seems not to have announced one way or the other. Getting elected to Congress can sometimes change your allegiances, after all.
Dave Loebsack (IA-02), somewhat predictably, was a Deaniac in 04. The bottom of his online CV at Cornell College notes that he was “one of the Linn County coordinators for Howard Dean for President,” and other sources tell us he was a precinct captain. (It’s also worth noting that Loebsack was a Bill Bradley activist in 2000, for whatever that’s worth.) Since Dean isn’t running again, of course, it isn’t clear how this will impact his decision this time around. Either way, if he endorses a candidate, it is likely that it will be someone on the left.
And while I could opine about how Steve King might endorse Tom Tancredo’s TEAM AMERICA, I’m certainly not an expert on such things, so I’ll leave it at the Democrats.
Related Posts
- Loebsack Possibly Endorses Obama
- Press-Citizen Endorses Fallon
- Hillary’s First Day
- John Edwards, Iowa’s Official Frontrunner
- Nick Ryan in Denial
Entry Filed under: State Politics, President 2008, Republican Party, John Edwards, Tom Vilsack, Hillary Clinton, Republicans
Related Searches: representative leonard boswell, howard dean for president, bruce braley, leonard boswell, democratic congressmen
4 Comments Add your own
1. John Deeth | January 27th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Dave Loebsack was very early and very solid for Bradley in 1999 - which was worth a LOT since there was a great deal of pressure from DC and Des Moines to get behind Gore.
2. Iowa Progress » Hil&hellip | January 27th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
[…] at East High School in Des Moines range from 1500 to nearly 3000. She got an introduction from Leonard Boswell and has had an interview with David Yepsen that’s as close to a puff piece as Yepsen would […]
3. Nathan | January 30th, 2007 at 2:00 am
I think that the real race to talk about is who Iowa labor will endorse. Lately, Iowa labor has tended to landslide toward one candidate in primaries (Culver, Braley, Kerry) and any set of key early labor pickups could mean far more than a liberal Congressman’s endorsement.
Iowa labor offers commited labor activists, especially in their core urban Democratic precincts, that can deliver real results come caucus night and work very hard up to that point.
Plus, remember damage done by the poorly produced robocall by Tom Harkin endorsing Howard Dean repeatedly sent to Democratic households? Such overtly political moves like one politician’s endorsement of another, unless that politician is highly popular, are far less helpful than a consequential party mover and shaker like a chief of staff (ahem, JoDee Winterhoff).
Unless (like Loebsack) the politician can provide actual organizational assistance in the form of advice or volunteers, candidates should look for the support of those with real resources.
4. Chase Martyn | January 30th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Nathan,
I think your characterization of the role of organized labor is a little off. For one thing, the IFL endorsed Blouin during the 06 primaries. Chet had support from the UAW, but Blouin had the other big ones, at least in name.
Similarly, while Kerry had support from Firefighters and maybe a few other unions in 2003-2004, Gephardt was generally considered the labor candidate, and Dean got AFSCME and SEIU.
If anything, I think the losses of Blouin, Gephardt, and Dean lead to questions about how important union endorsements really are during primary contests in Iowa. I think they are still important, but it isn’t clear that they are as relevant as they used to be.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed