Archive for the 'Fallon, Ed' Category

Raise your VOICE!

Published by
Chris Woods
March 26, 2007 in Democrats, Fallon, Ed, Iowa Legislature, Iowa politics, VOICE, Vilsack, Tom and Voting. 2 Comments

Ed. Note: Cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland.

Today, we need action at the grassroots and netroots level to the bring Voter-Owned Iowa Clean Elections law out of subcommittee, to the full House Appropriations Committee, and then to the floor for debate in the Iowa House. Ed Fallon (and his group I’m For Iowa) and former Governor Tom Vilsack both support HF 805 and right now the bill is in an appropriations subcommittee with instructions to kill the bill.

Members of that subcommittee include:

  • Rep. Dave Jacoby (D)
    House District 30 — Johnson County
    David.Jacoby@legis.state.ia.us
  • Rep. Jo Oldson (D)
    House District 61 — Polk County
    Jo.Oldson@legis.state.ia.us
  • Rep. Dwayne Alons (R)
    House District 4 — Sioux County
    Dwayne.Alons@legis.state.ia.us

Please email them or call the House Switchboard at (515) 281-3221 to get a hold of them and ask them to support HF 805, the VOICE legislation. The subcommittee is expected to meet either tomorrow or Wednesday — without large citizen support and efforts to communicate that support to them, they’ll kill the bill. We cannot allow that to happen. If the bill comes out of the subcommittee, it essentially becomes “funnel-proof” and must then be considered before the full House Appropriations Committee and would likely make it to the floor of the House for consideration.

When you contact your legislators, use this email from T.M. Lindsey as an example — and remember, be POLITE! Also, include in your email if they plan on voting for the bill or against the bill, both in subcommittee and in further debate. If they email you back, please post the response in the comments section and we can work to further inquire about the bill and where its going. From these responses, we’ll start to put a list together of where each Representative stands and we can put the pressure on them.

Fallon for Mayor?

Published by
Chris Woods
January 30, 2007 in Democrats, Des Moines, Fallon, Ed and Iowa politics. 4 Comments

While reading this snipehunter diary over at Bleeding Heartland, I was quite fascinated to see this little tid-bit when talking about the IA-03 race in 2008:

“That gives Boswell the opportunity to tour around with all of the “rock stars,” speak to thousands of Iowans in the 3rd district almost without lifting a finger at event planning. Pretty nice deal for him. With rumors that Ed Fallon is running for Mayor of Des Moines, Boswell’s main primary competition would be Geri Huser.”

Now, I’ve known for a while that Geri Huser has been thinking about a primary challenge. And from what I’ve heard from Boswell campaign remnants and staffers, there is no way that Boswell retires/gives up the seat unless he dies or is close to death, essentially. This basically forces Huser to wait or challenge him in the primary — either way, an uncomfortable position for those who like Boswell, but want someone younger and maybe less moderate (and Huser isn’t exactly loved by certain parts of the Democratic party).

Anyway, the big story coming from that little graf is the fact that Ed Fallon is considering a run for mayor of Des Moines. To the best of my knowledge, Frank Cownie’s term as Mayor of Des Moines ends on January 1, 2008, essentially meaning that the race for mayor of Des Moines will probably launch this fall (and would be the kind of cheap, grassroots campaign Fallon is looking for). It is also a non-partisan position, even though the previous mayor (Preston Daniels) and Cownie are both Democrats, just as Fallon would be if elected.

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this rumor, but it mainly has been more a whisper I had heard that wasn’t to be repeated. Clearly, someone else is hearing the same stuff and now the rumor has made it out into the open. What do you think?

2008: Beyond the candidates at the Iowa caucuses

Published by
Chris Woods
December 31, 2006 in 2008 Elections, Caucuses, Democrats, Edwards, Fallon, Ed, Iowa politics, Obama and Vilsack, Tom. 1 Comment

If you’re interested at all in the behind the scenes action in the caucuses and knowing the names behind the candidates, then you better start keeping track now. Beyond the simple visits and events with candidates, the staffs work hard to get things going and to make these things work. Building off of Geraldine’s post, as well as this one at TPM Cafe, and the list provided over at GW’s Democracy in Action Iowa Caucus page, I’ll try and give you the names of the people you’re going to need to know who are working for particular candidates, both official and unofficial campaigns.

    Iowa Democratic Party

  • Scott Brennan — IDP Chairman (will remain neutral)
  • Mike Milligan — Executive Director of the IDP, with past experience for years in Iowa politics and managed the 2006 Trifecta victory for Iowa Democrats.
  • Norm Sturzenbach — Political and Caucus Director, past deputy campaign manager and political director of Chet Culver’s gubernatorial campaign, as well as past work with Bill Bradley’s 2000 Iowa campaign and AARP in 2004.

    • John Edwards

  • No Iowa-specific staff that I know of, yet. However, having Ed Fallon as a volunteer/early endorsement, he might be able to offer a bit of Iowa insight that might be helpful for the caucuses. Rob Tully, past IDP Chairman, also offers a wealth of experience and strategy.

    • Barack Obama

  • Jordan Oster — Director of Iowa DraftObama.org, previously worked for Chet Culver’s gubernatorial campaign and is currently a Drake University student.
  • Steve Hildebrand — unofficial campaign manager/pusher for Obama. He has been reaching out to potential staff behind the scenes, was Sen. Tom Daschle’s campaign manager in 2004 and Sen. Tim Johnson’s in 2002. He ran the Iowa caucuses for Gore in ‘00 and knows Iowa quite well.

    • Tom Vilsack
    **Note: His campaign will be based in Des Moines, but I’ll just be listing the Iowa-specific people who’ll be working the caucuses.**

  • Dusky Terry — Iowa State Director, former Secretary of Agriculture candidate for Iowa, former staffer for Vilsack’s Heartland PAC, and former policy advisor for Vilsack.
  • Jesse Harris — Iowa Field Director, previously was the IDP Coordinated Campaign Field Director and Field Director for Chet Culver’s gubernatorial campaign. Previously was a field staffer for John Edwards in 2004.
  • Jeff Link — Communications Strategist. Link is an Iowa boy through and through, just like Dusky and Jesse, and he’ll likely be contributing to the caucus communication strategy with experience from his previous work for Senator Harkin and Gore-Lieberman 2000 in Iowa.
  • Gordon Fischer — activist/strategist/consultant? Gordon is a past IDP Chairman and knows the caucuses like the back of his hand, so his experience will be very helpful.

    • Hillary Clinton

  • Again, no Iowa-specific staff since there is no official campaign yet, but her early support from Bonnie Campbell is likely to help her in Iowa and help her with caucus strategy.

I know it is still very early to be talking about stuff like this, but this just gives you an idea of who is going where this early on, at least in regards to staff. Tracking endorsements and activist support will be something to definitely keep track of as time goes on. I think by the end of January or February, we’ll start to have a clearer picture of who will be where when it comes to staff and stuff. Part of that is because the whole season has started so early. When it comes to endorsements and big activist support, I’d expect to start seeing emails/releases with names around the start of the summer or the middle of it.

Edwards calls for national sense of responsibility and action

Published by
Chris Woods
December 28, 2006 in 2008 Elections, Blogs, Caucuses, Democrats, Des Moines, Edwards, Fallon, Ed and Iowa politics. 11 Comments

The first thing that struck me when I walked through the doors to the State Historical Building was Ed Fallon volunteering at the door taking sign-up slips of supporters while wearing his One Corps t-shirt and John Edwards for President pin (an unofficial one, not a campaign one). Things change in the few quick months from the primary to the present where he is just a volunteer and activist again, instead of being the familiar face with the candidates. Another former Fallon staffer, Lynn Heuss, was volunteering as well with folks from across the area including Karen Miller and other ladies from the Dallas County Democrats.

In terms of press, it was mostly locals, including Mike Glover and Dave Price. No David Yepsen, oddly enough. Lots of labor folks were here, including health care workers, UFCW, Carpenters Local 106, and Laborers Local 177. I think I saw an AFSCME pin on someone as well.

From there I headed upstairs to the Administration Offices where I met up with other bloggers including Josh Brown from Iowa for Edwards and Patrick from Common Iowan. I had the privilege of meeting a few other political and non-political bloggers as well, including Robert Scoble and Jake Ludington. During that time, Anita Walker, Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs, came and spoke to some of us about the Caucus Iowa project that the State Historical Museum is currently working on and wanted our insight on blogs and how they affect the process currently. She got my email address and I hope she contacts me for communication on the new avenues of political communication online — it would make for a great avenue of exploration in the exhibit.

From there, Senator Edwards stepped out and talked with us for about 10 minutes. I asked him how competitive he will be with Governor Vilsack running here in Iowa as well. He said he was certain that Governor Vilsack had a strong following here in the state, but that it was his “responsibility to make it clear what we stand for to the caucus-goers.” He added, “I think I know the caucus-goers pretty well,” to which we all responded with a chuckle.

The next question was about Russia and it was clear that he knew his foreign affairs and that there were issues coming with Russia and its democracy in the future. The following question was concerning poverty and the economy and Edwards listed off a litany of ideas/issues including: raising the minimum wage, organizing more and stronger unions, encourage families to save, change the US housing policies and offer a million new housing vouchers, college affordability, and examine the societal/structural issues surrounding the nature of poverty in America.

From there, the meeting ended pretty quickly and I hustled downstairs to get a decent spot to watch the launching of the town hall gathering. When I got down there, the crowd had more than doubled in size and people were crowding on the spiral stair well in the building to get a good spot to see the Senator. It was a very enthusiastic crowd as well. I saw the Vice President of the Polk County Dems in attendance as well as the Secretary. Activist Chet Guinn and his wife were also there, along with ISEA President Linda Nelson and former Secretary of Agriculture candidate Denise O’Brien. Rob Tully showed up about halfway through the event, looking like he’d a long day at work.

Edwards took the stage to the tune of the Foo Fighters, I believe, but I’m not sure which song (maybe “Times Like These” — the lyrics are pretty fitting). It was pretty energetic and was a good choice. He immediately takes off his sports coat noting how hot it is up on stage thanks to all of the people there. He then goes into his stump speech and talks about the issues he’ll be running on. You can definitely tell he’s trying to be the progressive candidate for 2008 and can build on that with his continued emphasis on poverty issues, universal health care, and for an immediate 40-50k removal of troops from Iraq and rejection of the so-called “McCain Doctrine” of troop surges.

I won’t go through all of the details of describing the speech since I’m sure the video, or at least highlights of it, will be up on JohnEdwards.com sometime soon. Let’s just say that by making it an interactive event with the live audience and the audience online, it is clear that Edwards is carrying on the populist momentum of 2006 and is trying to be a transformational candidate.

I was impressed with the set up, the demeanor, his genuine compassion, and his calls for national responsibility. There is a reason he is considered one of the frontrunners and after seeing the Iowa reaction to him today, he’s going to continue to be strong in Iowa, but for our sake let’s hope he hasn’t reached his high point a year out from when he really needs it.

Others reporting: Common Iowan, Robert Scoble, Kay Henderson (here and here), Jake Ludington (with video!), Josh Brown (with video!), and Ezra Klein (who I am sorry I didn’t get to meet).

IA-Gov: Fallon writes song urging folks not to write him in

Published by
Chris Woods
October 31, 2006 in 2006 Governor's Race, Culver, Chet, Democrats, Fallon, Ed and Iowa politics. 0 Comments

UPDATE: Todd Dorman has more thoughts in his blog here.

This is odd, but a great move from Ed Fallon. He’s written a song urging his supporters to vote for Chet Culver and not write him in. Common Iowan as more here.

Thanks, Ed.

IA-03: Fallon critical of Boswell’s attack ad

Published by
Chris Woods
September 21, 2006 in 2006 Elections, Boswell, Leonard, Democrats, Fallon, Ed, IA-03, Iowa politics, Lamberti, Jeff and TV. 13 Comments

Here I go to keep earning the reputation as Leonard Boswell’s biggest cheerleader on the blogosphere. Maybe that’s the case, but someone has to do it. We need more Democratic self-identification and Leonard Boswell is a proud Democrat. You may not like his message, but at least he’ll vote for someone other than a Republican for Speaker of the House.

Today, Ed Fallon sent an email out that talked about all the negative advertising going on, particularly on the Republican side of the aisle. But he made sure to make time to criticize Leonard Boswell as well. You can read Fallon’s full letter here at Common Iowan. Coincidently, Kyle posted today explaining how Boswell lost his vote (but Lamberti didn’t gain it) because of Boswell’s attack ad against Lamberti.

John Deeth’s got his thoughts on the issue here and I think he hits on the biggest point: Fallon’s gearing up for a challenge to Boswell in 2008 and he’s setting himself apart; he just happens to be doing it before Boswell’s even been re-elected. Now I’m sure Fallon and others will deny this, but this is the positioning I see and I know others do as well. The biggest problems I have are these two: 1) Fallon doesn’t need to set himself apart from Boswell, the differences are and will become quite clear; and 2) Fallon’s attacking Boswell before the primary season for 2008 even begins. So much for trying to be a team player.

Now maybe I’m being a bit harsh on Fallon. But there’s an expectation in a tough race like this that some of the torch-bearers in your party (and whether people believe it or not, Fallon carries weight with progressive Democrats and those who are unaffiliated) should do what he can to enhance your teammate, in this case Boswell, in a way that affirms the importance of his campaign and calls out the other parties for so virulently attacking Boswell.

Boswell is getting bombed at least three to one everyday by a combined attack from the EFF, the NRCC, and Lamberti. The NRCC and EFF had to change their ads for originally being misleading but Lamberti’s been able to keep his misleading one up (you can find the full release about the NRCC’s required changes below the fold). Boswell’s also getting hit from misleading and smear mailers from the EFF, of which a second one arrived to folks in the district today. And, as Kyle well knows, the EFF is behind the push-polling in the area against Boswell. It’s all in an effort to take this seat for Republicans, which we can’t allow. Kyle says things may not get worse with Lamberti as a representative but he’s dead wrong. Lamberti will stick with the Republican status quo and screw Iowans and Americans over just like they’ve been doing for so many years now.

Look, I don’t want this to be an attack on Ed Fallon or on Kyle. They’re both good people and have added a lot to the Democratic Party in this district and this state. And I think Fallon could do a lot to help in this race as well. He doesn’t like negative ads? Ok, go to the Boswell people and let them know that. Talk with them. Culver has sat down and listened to you, why wouldn’t you expect Boswell’s people to do the same? Fallon could set up an event touting a progressive agenda with Boswell and talk about how Boswell’s re-election will help in the effort to make Nancy Pelosi the highest ranking woman ever in American politics and will make her in charge of the Democratic and progressive mission in the House. Fallon could talk about the importance of taking back the House to bring health care for everyone in America, to protect our environment from deadly polluters, and how taking back the Congress could bring about meaningful discussion on campaign finance reform and voter-owned elections.

Instead, those on his email list get a critical comment about negative advertising when he needs Democratic support the most. Do you know what is worse than negative ads? Losing elections. We can’t let Boswell lose.

IA-HD 66: Ako and Creative Visions

Published by
Chris Woods
August 15, 2006 in 2006 Elections, Democrats, Des Moines, Fallon, Ed, Iowa Legislature and Iowa politics. 11 Comments

UPDATE: The City of Des Moines has frozen the federal grant dispersments it gives to Creative Visions until a follow-up city report has been completed and they can prove their clients exist.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
I’m not sure what to make of the whole deal with Creative Visions and their inability to communicate well or keep good records. I still believe in their work and know its getting done because I’ve seen the results in the community since high school. I’m doing some more investigating on my own to learn more and maybe when I’m done with that I’ll do some more posting on the topic.

Oh, and if the worst folks can do to poke fun at me is to super-impose by head on a bat then I’ve vastly overestimated some folks here in the Iowa blogosphere.

I do have one question though, and I think it is an important one: What does Ed Fallon think of Ako running for the seat he will be vacating? I know that Fallon and Ako both know each other and have worked together in the past, so I think it’d be revealing to see if Fallon finds Ako qualified for the job.

Campaign finance reform forum with Congressman Berkley Bedell

Published by
Chris Woods
July 28, 2006 in Democrats, Fallon, Ed, Fundraising, Iowa politics and Voting. 0 Comments

Ed Fallon sent an email out a bit ago about campaign finance reform. You can find the full email below the fold, but here’s the details of a meeting on campaign finance reform being held by Berk Bedell in Polk County next week:

“Bedell is asking people to get involved in calling for reform at the national level and he knows he needs to do so early. He wants to work with people all over the state of Iowa in order to send a message to local, state and national politicians that “business as usual” is not acceptable. He will be hosting a meeting next Wednesday, August 2, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Polk County Senior Center, 2008 Forest Avenue, to listen to your ideas on how we can make this happen and to share some of his own thoughts. If you’d like to attend, please call Berkley at (712) 336-5070 or e-mail your RSVP to: berk.survey@gmail.com. We hope to see you there!”

I’m not sure what I’m doing next Wednesday, but the Senior Center’s only about a mile and half from where I live so it’d be a nice walk over to the event. It should be quite an interesting forum.
Continue reading ‘Campaign finance reform forum with Congressman Berkley Bedell’

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post doesn’t know shit

Published by
Chris Woods
June 24, 2006 in 2006 Elections, 2006 Governor's Race, Democrats, Fallon, Ed, Iowa politics, Iraq and Media. 5 Comments

Wow, this guy is either really dense, really uninformed, or just plain stupid. I used to think he knew a bit about politics, but I guess he doesn’t like to fact check any of his information or anything like that. In his discussion about the DNC plans to insert one caucus after Iowa and one primary after New Hampshire, he writes:

“Iowa state Sen. Ed Fallon may have been the least known but most important participant. Fallon ran a surprisingly strong primary campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this year, a bid based largely on his opposition to the war in Iraq. Though he came up short, his race showed that antiwar sentiment is running strong in the Hawkeye State. Meanwhile, Edwards’s recent statement confessing that he erred in his 2002 vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq has been showered with praise by the party’s antiwar wing.”

Ok, first of all, he’s supposedly been tracking the gubernatorial primary here in Iowa, at least a bit. Ed Fallon is not a state senator but a state representative. He’s been referred to that numerous times (more than most can count) in just about every poll and piece of information coming out in Iowa about the primary.

Secondly, Fallon’s campaign wasn’t ‘based largely’ on any opposition to the Iraq war (even though I’m pretty sure he is against it). Look here at his site — these are the issues he ran on. They were Iowa issues entirely and Cillizza, if he were to have researched, would’ve known that. There hasn’t even been a news story that I’ve known of here in Iowa or across the country, where Fallon has talked about his opposition to Iraq.

How this shows anything about antiwar sentiment here in Iraq, I don’t know. But I do know that Chris Cillizza is a moron who doesn’t factcheck. At least he didn’t call us the ‘Buckeye’ state.

IA-Gov: Democratic unity post-primary and post-convention?

Published by
Chris Woods
June 20, 2006 in 2006 Governor's Race, 2006 State Convention, Blouin, Mike, Culver, Chet, Democrats, Fallon, Ed, Iowa politics and Primary 2006. 1 Comment

Sorry about yesterday’s lack of posts, I needed some quality time to myself in the evening after a long day of work — as John Deeth calls them, human being days.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled blogging. Speaking of Deeth, he poses a fairly interesting question here:

“The GOP Story is headlined Republicans speak out on tough election issues and focuses on the national pezzonovanti in attendance. But the Dems are labeled with Democrats rally for unity after primary battles and has stuff like:

“Some rank-and-file party activists said the healing in the roughly two weeks since Secretary of State Chet Culver edged his two main rivals in a sometimes heated primary campaign was not complete.”

Bias or reality? There was some great liveblogging from both Political Forecast and the JC Republicans (yes, they deserve the link love), but this is one of those rare cases where some old fashioned mythical Objective Journalism could have helped.”

Let me take this time to step back and look at the convention from a pseudo-objective standpoint and analyze it without my desire to have everything be peachy-keen and have the Democrats entirely united to beat Jim Nussle and maintain a movement of innovation and progress in Iowa.

Was the healing complete? Absolutely not. There are a lot of folks who came to know only their candidate’s politics and fell in love with them, which is completely understandable. As Culver has become the nominee, it will take time for those who did not support him in the primary to come to terms with the issues he stands on and where he will take this state with those issues. It is going to take time and I hope that everyone will come into the fold, but I’m not sure how long that will take or if we can get all of those enthusiastically behind another candidate in the primary to enthusiastically support Chet. At least not in the next couple of weeks.

But that’s why we have these events, to stress the need for unity and the call to a common cause: Democratic and progressive ideals (to different degrees for everyone, admittedly) in a candidate with a plan to lead Iowa against a man who’s been a part of the DC-establishment for a decade and a half and has done a horrible job with the federal budget and other issues. Beating Jim Nussle isn’t the overarching goal of this campaign, but its high on the list. You could feel the disgust towards Nussle and his policies throughout the day, but you could also feel the push towards substantive issues that will be addressed. It’s been almost two weeks since the primary. I recommend reading these two transcripts from Iowa Press. Here is Jim Nussle’s from the Friday after the primary and here is Chet Culver’s from this past Friday, right before the convention. Read the transcripts and learn some about the candidates.

We may not be fully unified yet, but we’re getting their. Compromise and enthusiasm can bring us together, and it can bring the issues to the focus of the campaign. There’s a reason why folks are talking enthusiastically about campaign finance reform in Iowa now. And there’s a reason why folks are talking about saving us from our demographic debacle. And it wasn’t because of Culver, but because of his two great primary opponents, Ed Fallon and Mike Blouin.

And if you’re still looking for some post-primary thoughts or tales, make sure to check out Gavin’s latest entry.

What will happen with the eminent domain veto

Published by
Chris Woods
June 15, 2006 in 2006 Elections, 2006 Governor's Race, Culver, Chet, Democrats, Eminent domain, Fallon, Ed, Iowa Legislature, Iowa politics, Nussle, Jim and Republicans. 6 Comments

I absolutely have not been following the debate over Gov. Vilsack’s veto of the eminent domain legislation that the statehouse overwhelmingly passed this spring. I didn’t follow the debate as it raged in the statehouse. So, I’m probably not the best person to offer commentary on the issue at hand, but as one of Iowa’s leading liberal bloggers, I feel compelled to offer some commentary.

First, let me offer what John Deeth says:

“This thing is going to be overridden and that’s more bad news for Tom Vilsack, last seen quacking and limping in New Hampshire.”

These past few weeks have had very few bright spots for our governor.

David Yepsen tackles the politics at play behind the scenes when considering convening a special session of the state legislature to override the governor’s veto. It is important to keep in mind that should legislators call themselves back for a special session, it will be the first time in Iowa history that they’ve done that. Yepsen seems to be of the impression that the special session isn’t going to happen because Senate Democrats aren’t worried about playing politics with the State Republicans while House Democrats are because of the potential they have for control of the House in the fall (Senate Dems are almost assured control come next session). Yepsen essentially says have the special session and deal with the results.

And I’m pretty sure he’s right. As is State 29, who knows that the Nussle camp and the RPI in general would bash Dems with this stuff across the state. And so is Ed Fallon, who’s calling for a special session in an email he sent out and proposing a resolution for the state convention on Saturday (you can find the text of the letter below the fold).

I agree that there needs to be compromise between the Republicans and the Democrats on the bill. There are somethings that need to be changed, but they should’ve really been addressed more dutifully during the session. While I applaud Gov. Vilsack’s courage and conviction to use the veto in an effort to get change and compromise, I think that Democrats who want to help bring about that change need to get their act together and demand the special session. Whatever happens happens, but at least make the effort for change. This bill (HR 2351) passed overwhelmingly in both houses, so you know there is a lot of merit to the bill.

If Iowa Democrats want to keep issues away from the Republicans for the fall, they had damn well better convene this special session or figure out some kind of compromise quickly. Running as a Democrat who is accused of being “anti-property rights” is going to resonate with a lot of Iowans, even if the accusation is untrue.
Continue reading ‘What will happen with the eminent domain veto’

IA-Gov: Figuring out the Fallon formula

Published by
Chris Woods
June 10, 2006 in 2006 Elections, 2006 Governor's Race, Culver, Chet, Democrats, Fallon, Ed and Iowa politics. 1 Comment

Here’s an interesting piece from Dan Gerino in the Quad-City Times on Democrats and the Fallon Formula — the method and message that got political outsiders and others to join Fallon’s campaign and, quite possibly, helped increase turnout in counties like Polk, where turnout was expected to be low. Can Democrats across the state, particularly the gubernatorial campaign of Chet Culver, continue working with the Fallon folks and get them to support him in November? We shall see. To me, though, it seems like they’ll either turnout for Culver or stay home, which can at least be a bit of a plus if for some reason there isn’t the right kind of or effective reaching out to the Fallon folks. And how much reaching out and adoption of issues will it take? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Primary 2006: Dem turnout much higher than expected

Published by
Chris Woods
June 7, 2006 in 2006 Elections, 2006 Governor's Race, Culver, Chet, Democrats, Des Moines, Fallon, Ed, Iowa politics and Primary 2006. 1 Comment

First, from the Iowa Democratic Party, the criticism and work against Nussle begins today:

“Congressman Nussle – Is He Confused or Is He Someone We Can’t Trust
Nussle Confused About the Numbers in Democrat Primary, Federal Deficit

DES MOINES – Just one day into the general election, Congressman Jim Nussle is already confused about the numbers. Last night, Congressman Nussle told reporters that Democratic turnout was the lowest in a generation. However, the actual voting totals revealed 147,800 Democrats voted in yesterday’s primary, which are over 32,000 more votes than the 1998 total of 115,490.

Congressman Nussle’s confusion with numbers is no surprise. He claims to be a fiscal conservative, but in reality, has racked up the largest federal deficits in America’s history.

“First, Nussle was confused about the record $317 billion federal deficit he created in Congress, and now, he is confused about the record Democratic turnout in the primary,” said Iowa Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Milligan. “Is Congressman Nussle just confused about the numbers, or is he someone we can’t trust?””

Here’s a similar release from last night that also talks about the great Democratic turnout, which was even higher than the Democratic turnout during the contested 1998 primary between Mark McCormick and Tom Vilsack.

While across the state turnout was “middle-of-the-road” at 11%, turnout in Polk County was quite high. From an earlier Register story today:

“Polk County’s turnout exceeded expectations, with 29 percent of Democrats voting and 6 percent of Republicans. “That’s much more than I thought it would be,” Auditor Michael Mauro said.”

I think the overall state Dem turnout numbers and the numbers in Polk County say a couple of things. First of all, statewide it shows that even when Democratic turnout predictions were expecting low numbers at the polls (even in a highly contested primary), Democrats showed just how eager they were to select a nominee and show that they’re ready to turnout and fight against Jim Nussle and his fellow Republicans.

As for Polk County’s numbers, I think the increased turnout and Fallon’s winning of the county show just how critical a grassroots strategy that focuses on volunteerism and activism, particularly with regards to some of Fallon’s key issues, can change the tide in a district one would expect establishment candidates like Blouin or Culver to win. Fallon’s campaign deserves a lot of credit for being able to pull off the upset here in Polk County and grab 26% of the overall vote. Props to the Fallon Campaign and staff for a hard fought campaign — and for helping to get out the Democratic turnout.

Primary 2006: A review of the night’s events

Published by
Chris Woods
June 7, 2006 in 2006 Elections, 2006 Governor's Race, Agriculture, Blouin, Mike, Boswell, Leonard, Culver, Chet, Democrats, Des Moines, Fallon, Ed, IA-01, IA-03, IA-04, IA-05, Iowa Legislature, Iowa politics, Judge, Patty, Mohamed, Sal, Primary 2006 and Republicans. 10 Comments

Let me just say that I appreciate all of you who came and visited the site today (or yesterday now), and those who come everyday, and leave comments and get engaged in the political discussion process. I appreciate all of my readers, even if I don’t agree with you all of the time.

Anyway, tonight was an amazing night for me. This was the first campaign that I’ve really worked hard for that was victorious and let me tell you, it feels amazing. The Register story about the win is here, but I can almost guarantee you that Tom Beaumont will revise it before the actual paper comes out this morning (a few typos and flow problems). Rod Boshart also has his story on the nomination for the Gazette here.

Over in the First Congressional District, there was lots of drama tonight. It looks like Mike Whalen cleaned up decisively on the Republican side, which can’t be pleasing for a lot of conservative bloggers from over in the 1st CD (I’m looking at you Krusty). On the Democratic side, things were the most dramatic as Rick Dickinson and Bruce Braley went back and forth all night in their leads, with Braley ekeing out the win. At one point in time, I believe, the total vote difference was about 50-some votes. Yikes, talk about a nail-biter. So, its Braley vs. Whalen in November in a seat the Dems should pick up. The Register write-up is here and the Gazette write-up is here.

In the 3rd and 4th CDs, Leonard Boswell and Selden Spencer each won their primary races decisively. ;-)

In the 5th CD, Joyce Schulte again picked up the nod (over Bob Chambers) to take on Steve King. Good luck with that. And speaking of the 5th CD, there were a few problems in a precinct or two and the Register has the story here.

For Secretary of State (Republican), it looks like Mike Mauro should have an easy race against foot doctor Chuck Allison who beat the more qualified Bob Dopf.

And in the Secretary of Agriculture race, Democrat Dusky Terry was upset by Denise O’Brien and will be the Democrats’ nominee to take on Republican primary winner Bill Northey, who beat Mark Leonard. The last story the Register had on the SecAg race is a bit outdated, but you can find it and its incorrect lede here.

In some Polk County area results, take note of Julie Haggerty’s win over Tim Brien in the County Recorder’s race. Many were surprised by this result but I wasn’t at all — Julie was everywhere in Polk County over the last few weeks, much more so than Brien. As I mentioned earlier, Ako Abdul-Samad also won the primary to fill Ed Fallon’s seat and State Senator Matt McCoy easily won his primary against an opponent who was just being plain sleazy. And IowaGeek, Doug Halsted, lost his primary race to Larry Noble in Senate District 35.

You can track the Register’s coverage of Primary 2006 here at their site. The folks over at IowaPolitics.com also have a great and easy to read list of who won what tonight and is a great place for review.

I think that about sums things up for me. I’ll have more blogospheric and personal reaction/accounts of last night’s events tomorrow — I mean today — when I get up in 5 hours for work.

Primary 2006: Mohamed in second in Pottawatamie County?!

Published by
Chris Woods
June 6, 2006 in 2006 Elections, 2006 Governor's Race, Blouin, Mike, Culver, Chet, Democrats, Fallon, Ed, Mohamed, Sal and Primary 2006. 2 Comments

Ok, here’s something interesting from Bret Hayworth’s Sioux City Journal blog:

“I’ll interrupt a flurry of primary election writing at 9:50 p.m. to post this as fast as possible. If there is a high point longshot governor candidate Sal Mohamed of Sioux City can look back on years from now it is this — with two-thirds of precincts reporting in Pottawattamie County, the second largest in western Iowa, he is in second place of the four candidates, ahead of Chet Culver, who likely could take the primary.

GOVERNOR
VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN 1
MIKE BLOUIN. . . . . . . . . . 297 29.76
CHET CULVER. . . . . . . . . . 228 22.85
ED FALLON . . . . . . . . . . 203 20.34
SAL MOHAMED. . . . . . . . . . 269 26.95
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 1 .10 “

Maybe that’s a typo but I dunno. Western Iowa can be weird.

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