Categories
Living in Society

Farewell Gift to the Iowa Caucuses

Rural Polling Place

Note: This passage was cut from my current autobiographical work, so I am posting it here. It is a bit dated.

I wrote about Father’s political work and before I close, I want to write about mine. I functioned at the lowest levels of politics and got elected one time to be a Township Trustee. The word “grassroots” is overly used, but that is where I functioned.

In the political world, so many people want to be strategists and speak at a high level about what is or isn’t the best thing to do in the elements of a campaign. It is the source of the increased swarm of media pundits and poobahs. It is the lifeblood of political bloggers. Political campaigns are not only about strategy.

The tactics of a campaign matter: messaging, voter contact, fundraising and public relations. Where strategy trumps tactics in importance is in defining the playing field. Strategies are too often based on false assumptions, and ragged history. The mistake is to take the external features of campaigning as the playing field. Avoiding mistaken strategy is the key to winning elections, something I hope my candidate will do no matter upon which election I am working.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee voted to advance a series of first in the nation states for the 2024 presidential nominating calendar. Iowa was not one of them. The plan includes South Carolina first, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada the following week, then Georgia, then Michigan. The plan is expected to be approved by the DNC early the next year.

If one didn’t know Iowa were to be booted from the early states, they had not been paying attention.

Iowa and New Hampshire, both of which have state laws requiring them to go first, are considering next steps. If either state chooses to disregard DNC and changes the schedule, there are penalties, including losing delegates at the Democratic National Convention. Delegates are the whole point of the nominating process. There may be state penalties for failure to go first, but let’s face it, any state could pass such a law and who would enforce it? What will happen next in Iowa is presently unknown.

In 1968, the Democratic National Convention was a disaster in several ways.

Outside the convention hall, anti-war demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War roamed Chicago streets. The Chicago police department, under the direction of Mayor Richard J. Daly, used force in an attempt to maintain control.

During the evening of Aug. 28, 1968, with the police riot in full swing on Michigan Avenue in front of the Democratic party’s convention headquarters, the Conrad Hilton hotel, television networks broadcast live as the anti-war protesters began the now-iconic chant “The whole world is watching.”

At home, I saw televised news reports from Michigan Avenue. A friend was inside the Conrad Hilton with Harold Hughes who ran for president that year. Bill hoped the nomination of Hubert Humphrey, in a smoke filled room away from the convention, was something that would never again happen. South Dakota Senator George McGovern was assigned the task of re-designing the nominating calendar and process, which he did. We have been operating under the McGovern plan ever since.

Most Americans of voting age participate in presidential politics. Here is a brief summary of my memories. Consider it my farewell gift to the Iowa caucus.

Harry Truman: I was 13 months old when Harry Truman left office. I have no living memories of his administration.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Our family didn’t like having a Republican president yet were thankful for his plan to build the Interstate Highway System. I recall talking about how it was designed so that military vehicles hauling missiles could travel under the roads and bridges that crossed the Interstates. We didn’t like Eisenhower yet accepted his credentials during World War II yielded a competent chief executive.

John F. Kennedy: Father worked on the Kennedy campaign and shared some of that with me. If there was a Camelot, I’m over that now. I wrote previously about this. Click here to read that post.

Lyndon Baines Johnson: I stuffed envelopes for the 1964 Johnson campaign at the Democratic office in downtown Davenport. I came to expect that all elections would be like the Johnson landslide. I was young.

Hubert Humphrey: Based on conversations with my father, I felt the Humphrey nomination was tainted. Partly, I didn’t understand how the convention got so out of hand. I resented the corruption evident in Chicago Mayor Daly. Richard Nixon won in 1968.

George McGovern: My main memory of McGovern’s campaign was a rally before election day at the University of Iowa Pentacrest. I don’t remember if I voted. I wrote more extensively about the 1972 election here. Richard Nixon won reelection.

Jimmy Carter: I was in between finishing Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia and traveling to my first assignment in Mainz, Germany during the 1976 presidential election. After Nixon’s resignation in disgrace, I literally didn’t care who was elected president that year.

Ted Kennedy: Turns out I didn’t care for Jimmy Carter enough to support him for a second term. I caucused for Ted Kennedy in Davenport and he wasn’t viable. I declined to join my union friends with the Carter group and went home.

George McGovern: My spouse and I caucused for George McGovern in 1984. We attended a forum in Des Moines where he, Walter Mondale, Jesse Jackson, Fritz Hollings, and others appeared. At the precinct caucus, I joined the platform committee and was selected to go to the county convention as a McGovern delegate. It was my first taste of Johnson County politics.

Michael Dukakis: We lived in Lake County, Indiana in 1988. I remember saying to myself during the June primary election, “Who’s bright idea was running Dukakis?” He lost to George H.W. Bush.

Bill Clinton: Still in Indiana in 1992, I supported Bill Clinton. I took our three-year-old daughter into the voting booth so she could press Clinton’s name on the touch-screen voting device for me. I didn’t devote a lot of time to Clinton’s campaign or to politics. Back in Iowa for the 1996 election, I continued to be inactive in politics. I judged Clinton could be nominated without my help and didn’t attend the precinct caucus. Clinton won Iowa 50.26 percent to Robert Dole’s 39.92 percent.

Al Gore: I skipped the caucuses in 1996 as I believed Al Gore would win the nomination without me. He did, and as we know, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped ballot counting in Florida during the general election, giving the win to George W. Bush.

John Kerry: I quickly came to believe the George W. Bush administration was the worst. In the first days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, I rallied around the president. It didn’t last long. I wrote about my transition here. All three of us attended the 2004 precinct caucuses in Big Grove Precinct together and caucused for John Kerry. I helped run the caucus as secretary that cycle. I joined the Democratic central committee again and worked on the Kerry campaign. I also decided that after his performance in the White Water controversy, long-time U.S. representative Jim Leach had to go. In 2006 we elected Dave Loebsack to the Congress.

John Edwards: Despite all the negativity that came out about John Edwards after his last presidential campaign, I have no regrets having worked to make him the Democratic nominee in 2008. I spent time with him, his wife Elizabeth, and their children. This precinct caucus was the best attended in my almost 30 years living in Big Grove Township — about 260 people. I served as caucus secretary again and it was challenging to make a count. There wasn’t enough room in the school cafeteria and some of the voters stretched out into the hallway. I recall Edwards had a contingent from the care center in wheelchairs and on gurneys. In the end, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards tied and Clinton won the coin toss. Barack Obama got the most delegates and won the general election.

Barack Obama: During the 2012 precinct caucuses I led two precincts other than my own: Cedar and Graham. The caucus began with live video of Obama, then we broke into precinct groups. There wasn’t anyone willing to lead the caucus among the eight people in each group. I convinced a friend to be secretary. Obama’s reelection was not a given yet his campaign was thorough enough to win a second term.

Hillary Clinton: I led the Clinton delegation to the 2016 precinct caucus. We had so many delegates we could send some to the Martin O’Malley group to make them viable and deprive Bernie Sanders of a delegate. I decided being a Clinton leader took precedence over running the caucus. It was a good decision. As we know now, Clinton won the nomination and lost the general.

Elizabeth Warren: I led my own caucus for the second time in 2020, supporting Elizabeth Warren for the nomination. I was well organized and the process proceeded smoothly. We split our four delegates with one each to Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden. Biden placed fourth in Iowa. It wasn’t until South Carolina that the Biden train started to roll out of the station. Buttigieg won Iowa by a small margin yet any momentum was halted by a computer failure in the application we used to report our results. This disaster was likely a prime catalyst for removing Iowa from early in the nominating process this week.

Joe Biden: Joe Biden hasn’t announced whether he will run for president in 2024. One assumes he is in good health and will live long enough to serve a second term. If the DNC is successful in removing Iowa from the early states, as it appears they will be, presidential politics will be a lot different in Iowa. I hope it will be better.

It is recent enough as I type, we all know what happened next. I supported Kamala Harris for president.

Categories
Writing

Poetry Project Format

Poetry shelf.

Following is an example of the format I’m using in the project mentioned yesterday. I modify it slightly as I get the experience.

March 1, 2026
Closed eyes and picked a book.
Poem: Elsewheres
Author: Donald Justice
Source: Selected Poems, p. 63
Line: "The drip of something - is it water?-
Reaction: There is a presence in this poem. I seek to replicate.
Category: Resonance
Acquired new after seeing Justice at the UPS Store in Coralville. Don't recall when, but he was moving to Chapel Hill, N.C.
Would read more.
Categories
Writing

Nine Shelves of Poetry

Poetry

I have nine shelves of poetry, close to 600 books. When I want poetry, I walk over and grab a book. I haven’t read them all, and may not. They serve as a spring of imagery from which to refresh myself from time to time.

Roughly a fifth of them were purchased deliberately when I searched for a specific book of poetry. The rest are from remainder piles, used book stores, Goodwill, the Salvation Army, yard sales, and the community library used book sale. There was intent behind each selection based on what was available. The shelves are not as random as one may think.

When I encounter the 25 or so poems I once wrote, the words on the page come from a place of magic. I don’t know how I wrote them and couldn’t write them again. Words transcend the author. I’m better off leaving them where they are and writing something new.

To that end, I started a project of reading poetry. Each day I walk over to the shelves with eyes closed and pick a random book. Then I flip it open and read the first poem that appears. I select one line and write it down in a spiral notebook along with details of the encounter and my reaction. The notebook has 70 pages, so we’ll see where filling it takes me.

A septuagenarian is aware of the remaining viable days in a life. If I can restart writing poetry, it would be a productive use of some of mine. A person has to do something in life. For me, this is one thing.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Local Food Renewal

Three trays of seedlings on Feb. 28, 2026.

After five planting sessions, there are seven trays of seedlings between the heat pad, grow light and table in the dining area. This year, indoor planting is proceeding well.

My foundational experience in gardening improved dramatically during the period 2013-2020 when I worked on area farms. 2026 is the year I introduced artificial intelligence into the process.

The results of ai have been surprisingly good. Because the large language model has so much information in its database, without hesitation, it can give me planting schedule adjustments, ways to use two spots on the heating pad, and two more under LED grow lights. The rest of my process from seed to seedling to greenhouse to planting has fewer uncertainties this year compared to last. Optimizing use of the heating pad has been a boon to productivity.

On the second day of March, I am of to a good start.

Categories
Writing

Iowa Weekend Politics

Canada Geese finding open water as the lake re-freezes on Feb. 25, 2026.

When I began writing for Blog for Iowa in 2009, I covered individual political events like the state hall of fame ceremonies and the special election of Curt Hanson. In reading those old posts, I remembered I also wrote advocacy for nuclear weapons abolition and for improvement in the environment. Those kinds of posts remain viable and while I’m covering for Dave Bradley the next couple of months, I will revisit them from time to time.

At the same time there is a new politics around Iowans. So much of what we get from Republicans is vindictive. We feel that particularly well in Johnson County where I live. I mean, we need a law to force counties to follow the governor’s orders about flying the United States flag at half staff? HSB 634 does that and it cleared the first legislative funnel. The bill was in reaction to Johnson County Supervisor Jon Green defying the governor’s order to lower flags to half staff after the death of a conservative podcaster. Defending against Republican vindictiveness is a slippery slope. I, for one, decline to go there. Why slide down into the mud with them?

What is worth writing about? For me it is the several conversations I have each day with actual people about actual issues, regardless of our politics. Things like the ungodly amount of money our county spends transporting prisoners because there has not been public support enough to build a new jail. The presence of blue-green algae in the state park lake near where I live. The odor of concentrated animal feeding operations wafting over our homes on warm summer evenings. The covert work of fossil fuel money to kill one of the shining examples of what is good in Iowa: our support for electricity generated from wind turbines and solar arrays. These are things I hear from actual people and they will carry weight in how I pick my topics.

In a time of instant access to public media, the national news plays a role here. I wish it were buffered by distance, yet it clearly is not. We have a president and national media geared to dominating what we hear and see in public media. It would be dishonest to ignore all of those stories. So I will pick some.

I hope readers will stick with me. I hope to provide reasons why you should.

Categories
Living in Society

Letters To Elected Officials

Iowa State Capitol

Dishes don’t wash themselves, so I went to the kitchen and started cleaning up. Each of us in the household does their share of work, and I like nothing better than clean plates and silverware waiting for supper. Being a blogger is a lot like living with a family. Between now and the primary I will fill in for Dave Bradley on weekends while he takes care of family stuff.

My plan is simple: on Saturdays, write about my personal political activity the previous week, and on Sundays write about Iowa politics more broadly. Campaign season already started with competitive June 2, Democratic primaries for governor, U.S. Senate, and other races.

Veterans of Iowa politics, going back to our 2004 defeat, feel frustrated about how to approach organizing and activism in today’s world. It is no longer enough to harp about knocking doors, making phone calls, and sending mailings based on a central organizing principle. Most of the people I see on a daily basis are not Democrats. Even so, we have meaningful conversations about important things. How do we transition ourselves and our party to be more relevant?

I believe we must write letters to elected officials. Letters to newspapers remain important because political staff do read them. I had three active letters this week:

I received a response from U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley to this email message from Jan. 26, 2026:

I watched the videos of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Major news media verified what I saw are real footage that depicts the killing of two U.S. Citizens who were no threat to federal agents. Good and Pretti were exercising their constitutional rights when federal agents killed them.

This can’t go on.

As our U.S. Senator I expect you to do something to prevent additional killings like this. I don’t presume to tell you how to go about that. The measure of whether you succeed will be the de-escalation of tension in states where federal agents have landed to address the administration’s concerns about immigration, including Minnesota and Maine.

As a U.S. Army veteran I am appalled by the apparent lack of training and control of these federal agents. Now is the time to put your experience in politics to work and do something most everyone can agree is the right thing to de-escalate these tensions.

Thank you for your service and for reading my note.

Senator Grassley’s response is here.

I reached out to elected officials twice. The emails are self-explanatory.

Vote No on Senate File 2293 – Feb. 21, 2026

Dear Senator Driscoll,

I live in your district and urge you to vote no on SF 2293 which is scheduled for debate in the full senate next week.. The bill changes Iowa Code to remove the requirement for a state history research center in Iowa City

My reasons are the same as when I wrote you Feb. 11: When I studied at the University of Iowa, I took advantage of the State Historical Society research center in Iowa City. It provided a different type of resource than what was available to me at the university. The availability of the staff, artifacts, books, microfilm, and other materials were important to my education and should remain in Iowa City for future students to use like I did.

That said, I am open to alternative solutions, such as incorporating the materials into the University of Iowa Libraries, in effect, making them the research center. I would be ready to have that discussion. 

Please vote no on SF 2293 should it come up for a vote this week.

Thanks, Paul

Impeach the president

Rep. Miller-Meeks

It is time to impeach President Trump and I ask you to take a leadership role in this effort.

The president seeks to usurp the power of the Congress in multiple areas, yet his claims about his authority to impose tariffs is so far out of line, even the U.S. Supreme Court overruled him. As you are aware, immediately after the Supreme Court ruled against the tariffs he imposed, he initiated new ones, and then revised those in a way that created chaos in international markets and among our allies.

Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 1.6 percent in reaction to the president’s tariff vacillation. This is no way for a government to run, hence my request the U.S. House draft articles of impeachment, approve them, and send them to the U.S. Senate for trial. Thank you for reading my message.

The congresswoman replied with a form message within an hour. That tells me someone is reading these missives, even if I don’t like the answer.

I don’t know if I will change any minds, yet we have to do something. We’ll see what else I come up with between now and the June 2 primary.

Categories
Living in Society Writing

Talk to Iran

Talk to Iran.

Those following the president’s public statements about Iran knew trouble was brewing when on Thursday, Feb. 26, after a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland between U.S. and Iranian envoys, mediated by Oman, and with the International Atomic Energy Agency present, the administration provided no readout to members of the press.

“The U.S. reticence is likely in order to give US President Trump maximum space to decide if he wants to continue pursuing diplomacy or, as a massive U.S. military buildup in the region portends, strike Iran in order to try to get a better deal,” wrote Laura Rozen from Diplomatic.

This morning, Israel and the United States bombed Iran.

On Feb. 20, the Arms Control Association issued this statement:

Another U.S. aerial military strike on Iran, as President Trump said on Friday he is considering, would not advance the goal of blocking Iran’s potential pathways to acquire nuclear weapons if its leaders were to decide to do so. Rather, a U.S. attack would undermine ongoing diplomacy between Iran and the United States and damage efforts to secure return international inspectors to sensitive sites that were bombed in 2025 by Israel and the United States. Even a “limited” U.S. military strike runs a serious risk of igniting a wider, more intense, and prolonged regional conflict, and such an attack would be inconsistent with the U.S. and international law.

This came from our local chapter of Veterans For Peace on Tuesday:

The U.S. is on the cusp of a war on Iran. Although the U.S. stands on the brink of what may be the most consequential military action in over two decades, there has been no public debate nor congressional briefing, let alone a vote to authorize it. What can peacemakers do? As of now, Feb 24th, war has not broken out.  There is a Massie-Khanna effort in the House, and a Kaine-Paul effort in the Senate which would prohibit military action against Iran unless there is a declaration of war or specific authorization from Congress.  So, #1, we need to encourage Iowa members and other members of Congress to support those resolutions.  (Congress’ switchboard #  202 224-3121).  #2 we need to bear witness before war breaks out.  Will that stop war from breaking out? – most likely not.  But I would submit that silence is not an option.  SO, what shall we do?  

Hit the streets with local activists to demand No War and Hands Off Iran.  Where?  When?  Please, let us “reply to all” with suggestions and advice by Saturday, Feb 28th.    Peace, Ed Flaherty 

When will the Congress reign in the president on matters of war? Talks with Iran should continue before more combat.

Categories
Living in Society

A Church Gloms On

Soybean Field

A front-page headline in the Feb. 26, edition of the Solon Economist read, “City Council Debates with Jordan Creek Church Over Water and Sewer Services.” You didn’t need to be Jeane Dixon to see that one coming. The city made it clear a year ago that for the church to glom onto city infrastructure, the property must be annexed. No application for annexation has been submitted, according to the article. The 11.23 acres in question sits in the Solon “fringe area.”

Can’t we just hook on to the line you ran right past us to Gallery Acres West, a church representative suggested. The city is not having any of it. City council would have to approve connection to the Gallery Acres West line, something they would not consider without annexation. “We’re not in the business of just providing water and sewer for people who don’t want to be in city limits,” Mayor Dan O’Neil said.

Actually, the city is in that business to an extent. On Dec. 20, 2017, city council voted 4-1 to provide public water service to a subdivision called Gallery Acres West located west of Solon on Highway 382. The difference between Gallery Acres West and Jordan Creek Church is the houses were already built in the former, then the standards for arsenic contamination in public water systems changed and they did not own sufficient land to install a treatment facility. Running a water line to Solon was the best solution they could come up with. The site for the new Jordan Creek Church is presently a vacant field. The subdivision invoked “moral arguments” for the hook-up, yet there are no reasonable moral arguments for the church that hasn’t been built.

In June last year, the Solon Economist reported, “The city’s support for the Jordan Creek Church and their desire to build was stated by Mayor Dan O’Neil who noted the City’s concerns aren’t with the proposed church but rather to maintain “orderly growth and expansion of the city” while avoiding burdening the taxpayers by providing infrastructure the development (church) should fund itself.” The key word here is “orderly.” Implied is “who pays for infrastructure?”

Some members of council changed in the last election, but overall, council’s position has not. It is right for Mayor O’Neil to call for an orderly process in resolving infrastructure needs of the church. The city is open to receiving Jordan Creek Church’s request for annexation.

I spent more than 30 years dealing with small community public water and wastewater systems. When I saw the sign announcing the future home of the church, the first question I asked was about water and sewer. It seems clear from the news story, church leaders did not, and there’s the problem.

Categories
Writing

At a Pivot Point

Sunrise as the lake re-freezes on Feb. 25, 2026.

The portion of my autobiography after leaving a transportation and logistics career looks a lot like the ice in this photograph. Parts of it are smooth, yet thin, because only recently it was open water. Parts have frozen and thawed so many times it is difficult to determine where the surface could support a human. This morning, I stood on the bridge to where the boat docks will go this summer and felt I didn’t know what I was writing.

I haven’t given up. I’m deep in 2010, which was a pivotal year across my life in writing, politics, home ownership, work, and family life changes. I felt economic pressure from leaving a regular paycheck combined with depletion of savings. In my life, however, money was never anything to fret about.

The backlash to the election of Barack Obama was severe that year. It took less than a year, yet Republicans demonstrated they viewed little about Obama’s election as permanent, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which was signed into law that year. They reorganized themselves around right-wing figures while blocking and undoing the good things Obama did. That struggle continues.

I held a job trying to get U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s vote for the New START treaty, something D.C. lobbyists for nuclear abolition thought possible. When the Senate ratified the treaty on Dec. 22, 2010, we had not won Grassley’s vote.

There was a long automobile trip west to the high plains with a lifelong friend. Upon my return, I helped organize a 40th year high school class reunion which put me in touch with people I hadn’t thought of for decades. These were both positive and re-established my roots. I had a lot of material originating in 2010 and crammed as much as I could into a single draft chapter. Perhaps that was not a wise tactic.

The best approach to this revision may be to not work at all. Let everything sit for a few days. Focus on other projects and forget about writing. For this book to be any good, there is no deadline, even if I still want to finish by the end of this year.

I set it aside, thinking, maybe I could use a nap. I read in David Morrell’s book about writing, shaved, showered and re-started my day. I already feel the better for it.

Categories
Creative Life

Embers of a Forgotten Fire

Remains of a brush fire.

Some days we feel spent. Our wood burned while leaving embers to warm us only for a while.

There is so much going on with writing this week it has taken most of my energy. Partly, the resolution is knowing when to set it aside and let the stories breathe within us.

On the plus side, celeriac is up. It’s tray partner celery is not. There will be arugula in a few weeks. The ground is frozen, yet the garden springs indoors.

A couple of photos for today.

2010 garden space.