Although Tom Vilsack may have been the Mayor of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (population 8,751), he doesn’t have the support of the entire town. Not because he did something wrong as Mayor, as State Senator or even as Governor but because Barack Obama’s political director is also from Mt. Pleasant. When Obama hired former Senate Caucus Director Emily Parcell as political director, he hired another Mount Pleasantonian. This means that one small Iowa town will be very much in the thick of things during the caucus. Although Henry County may only be the 40th most important county in terms of delegates, it certainly seems to be more important when it comes to who makes the decisions on Presidential campaigns.
The Quad City Times reported today that Republican attempts to smear Bruce Braley in the 2006 election did not work at all. Although Braley’s 12 point win provided strong circumstantial evidence to this effect, a recent poll showed that two thirds of all voters who had heard a lot about Bruce Braley being a “greedy trial lawyer” still supported him over Mike Whalen on issues like the economy and health care. The same percentage thought that the attack ads against Braley that claimed his “ ‘lawsuit abuse’ made things worse for expectant mothers” were unfair as well. The Republicans slung a lot of mud during the last election and it’s reassuring to know that all their smears directed against Bruce Braley, as well as Leonard Boswell and other Democratic candidates across the country, didn’t work.
Chet Culver announced a major initiative yesterday to provide $12.5 million in state funds for embryonic stem cell research. Stem cell research was a major talking point of Chet’s during the campaign and it’s not at all a surprise that he’s following through with it. Although Iowa will still be far behind other states like California, which has allocated up to $3 billion over the next ten years for embryonic stem cell research and our neighbors in Illinois who have allocated $15 million, it’s still a good start. Hopefully, with Democratic majorities in both Houses, legislation to make state funding of embryonic stem cell research legal will breeze through the legislature along with the necessary appropriations.
However, Chet did draw some criticism. Betty DeBoef, the Danny Carroll clone with spelling issues, doesn’t see the need for stem cell research. In fact, she thinks “it’s more about abortion rights than it is about finding cures for people.” This is reassuring to know. I always thought that Michael J. Fox was merely motivated by self interest. Frankly, Betty DeBoef wasn’t much good at smearing Eric Palmer during the election and she’s even worse at trying to attack Chet Culver’s attempt to make sure that the hundreds of thousands of Iowans suffering dieases and ailments ranging from paralysis to Parkinson’s might one day be cured. In fact, maybe stem cell research might even help Betty one day, provided that it could help doctors find a cure for Foot In Mouth Disease.
On the same day that Hillary Clinton is having her rally in Des Moines, Tom Vilsack is having one of his community gatherings in Fort Dodge. The difference in attendance between a major rally organized by a team of advance people and a community gathering in Fort Dodge will be staggering, to say the least. Although the events are not comparable at all, the fact that they are held on the same day will be enough for plenty of people to make comparisions. But none of those comparisions will be flattering to Vilsack. In fact, I’d bet that David Yepsen is already drooling over the possibilities to mock Vilsack that this provides. It’s not fair to Vilsack but that doesn’t matter. It’s just going to be too tempting a cheap shot for many people to avoid.
It’s been an exciting time for third tier Republican candidates. Duncan Hunter officially declared his candidacy for President today. Hunter doesn’t have much money, name recognition or support but he does have Chuck Yeager’s endorsement for his quixotic quest for the Presidency. Hunter and his rather Orwellianly monikered PAC, Peace Through Strength, are leading the fight on the most important issue facing our country today, the evilness of China (to be precise, Red China).
However, he’s not alone in the fight against China. Tom Tancredo recently introduced a bill “To require additional tariffs be imposed on products of any nonmarket economy country” until that country has a market economy. This bill not only helps protect Americans from the Chinese threat but also helps defend Americans from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. It’s good to see that Tom Tancredo is not just interested in protecting America from illegal immigrants but is also committed to leading the fight against Albania as well.
Finally, it seems that one other Republican candidate, Michael Jesus Archangel (website here, blurb here) hasn’t yet visited Iowa, which is not the sign of a serious candidate. However, he hasn’t engaged in Albania bashing either so it’s too soon to tell
In the already short period that Congress has been in session, one of Iowa’s two newly elected Democrats, Dave Loebsack, has been carving out a distinct niche for himself on the left wing of the House Democratic Caucus. He’s signed as a cosponsor, not just of John Murtha’s resolution to withdraw from Iraq at the earliest practicable date, but also Lynn Woolsey’s much more extreme resolution that requires all U.S. troops to be withdrawn within six months. In addition, he’s also signed to John Conyers’s universal health care bill. For all this talk about newly elected Democrats who are trying to keep in touch with their moderate districts, Loebsack is doing almost the complete opposite and clearly identifying himself as a liberal. But then again, very few other newly elected Democrats represent districts that John Kerry won with 55% of the vote. It’s a sign not only that Loebsack is feeling very comfortable in his ideological skin and but also that he feels very confident that he’ll be in Congress for a long time to come.
Now that John Kerry has decided he isn’t running again for President, it’s worth exploring who stands to gain and what impact it will make on the caucuses. One poll done nationally shows relatively little impact for any candidate. However, among donors, there’s a clear shift from Kerry to Obama. As the New York Times notes, a lot of his big donors are already getting behind Obama and Chris Cilizza sees Obama as a big winner as well.
However, in Iowa, it’s curious to see what happens to the pockets of support that the Senator still had, such as among the Hawkeye Labor Council in Cedar Rapids. It would be curious to see where those people go, especially since if one still supported Senator Kerry now, they were a real hardcore supporter. But it’s also worth remembering what was perhaps the high point of Kerry’s abortive 2008 campaign, his speech here in Grinnell in May which drew nearly 1000 people. It may not have drawn as much media attention as his low point but it’s still worth remembering.
As former Eric Palmer campaign manager, Mark Langgin, notes over at Bleeding Heartland. Iowa House Democrats have passed an increase in minimum wage yesterday. One of the first of many pieces of important legislation that Iowa State House will pass now that it has a Democratic majority. It looks like one of the next bills to be passed is one to that will restrict loan companies from offer car title loans at usurious rates of interest. These loans victimize working people without easy access to credit and charge interest rates as high as 360% a year. The bill would cap interest rates on these loans at 21% a year. This is the type of pragmatic and progressive legislation that makes a real difference in the lives of working people. Eric Palmer and the rest of the Iowa House Democrats have had a great start and I expect that they’ll pass more important and progressive legislation over the next few months.
Where does the Red Flag wave highest in Iowa? According to the results of the last election, it’s in Ladora, Iowa where Helen Meyers, the candidate of the Socialist Workers Party received 5% of the vote. I know you’re thinking two things. First, that the Socialist Workers Party isn’t Socialist at all, instead it’s a Trotskyite group that adheres to the Pathfinder Tendency and second, Ladora, Iowa? Ignoring the first point as niggling (after all, Ladora, Iowa, Stronghold of Trotskyism isn’t a very good headline), why Ladora? Well, Iowa County itself was Helen Meyers’ strongest county in 2006, she pulled over 3% of vote? But what made Ladora particularly Socialist or rather Trotskyite. Looking at the results, the clear and unexciting answer is a mathmatical fluke. After all, 10 votes out of 207 isn’t terribly statistically significant. But it’s worth noting that Meyers did much better in the rural areas than in Polk County (Des Moines). She got 2% outside of Polk and 1.3% in Polk. Although Boswell’s a relatively moderate Democrat, the 3% obviously wasn’t a liberal protest vote. If there was such a thing, it wouldn’t have been in Iowa County which isn’t that liberal, it would have been in Polk, which contains some of the most liberal parts of the 3rd District. So what’s going on?
The answer as best I can piece together is pretty simple. There was a decent number of people in rural areas tired of what was happening in Washington who didn’t want to vote for an incumbent-even a Democratic one-but sure didn’t want to vote for Jeff Lamberti. So, instead, they voted randomly for the Socialist candidate at the spur of the moment. (It’s noteworthy that Meyers did significantly better on Election Day than on absentee ballots) It wasn’t a lot of people but enough to be noticed. I suppose this is probably bad news for those who looked forward to Ladora being the cradle for Iowa’s dictatorship of the proletariat but, not to worry, Helen Meyers didn’t do too badly in North English either.
You might have noticed that a few weeks ago I stopped posting to this site very often, and it might have reminded you of the time I stopped blogging for several months to work for the IDP during the general election. Well, I have been doing campaign work again, this time over in Dallas County, on Democrat Dan Brickner’s campaign for Sheriff.
Tomorrow is election day there, and Dallas County voters will have the opportunity to elect a replacement for former Sheriff Brian Gilbert, who was forced to resign after “allegedly” stealing $120,000 from a drug bust. We have also learned since then that there were a lot of other problems in the department, as indicated by this report by the state auditor (big PDF). The report is fun to read, unless you depend on the Dallas County Sheriff to protect you and your family. Then it’s pretty scary.
Dan has 28 years of law enforcement experience, and has spent 20 years as police chief in Albia and then in Perry. He has overseen a large budget, and he has managed a large staff. His opponent has never managed a department with more than one full-time employee, and has ties to the current Sheriff’s department. Dan has no personal connections to the department, so he’ll come in without any favors to pay back or friends to protect. In this race, it is black and white: Dan is the only candidate with the experience and the integrity to fix what needs to be fixed, and I knew it within five minutes of meeting him.
If you live in Dallas County (and that includes much of West Des Moines and Urbandale, among other more rural communities and small towns), please don’t forget to make it to the polls. The Brickner campaign has a significant lead in absentee ballots, but the cliche still holds true: every vote counts.
So tomorrow, get out and vote for Dan Brickner if you’re in Dallas County. Thanks.
