Speed Dating the Candidates

Now that I live in a house district that includes Iowa County, I participate in some Iowa County Democrats’ activities, including yesterday’s Cupcakes, Cookies and Candidates event in Amana. It was a good time for people interested in politics.

The idea of the event was to divide attendees into table groups and have the candidates rotate between tables and answer questions posed by each person. I would prefer to hear all of the answers in the room, yet the format proved to be a success. I enjoyed the efficiency of short answers to many questions. The small groups facilitated getting to know candidates and their personality. The dynamic made it easy to tell who knew their policy, who was full of political malarkey, and who wasn’t ready for prime time.

Democratic candidates present were:

• Deidre DeJear, Governor
• Michael Franken, U.S. Senate
• Glenn Hurst, U.S. Senate
• Christina Bohannan, U.S. Congress
• John Norwood, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture
• Kevin Kinney, Iowa Senate District 46
• Elle Wyant, Iowa House District 91
• Kristie Wetjen, Iowa County Board of Supervisors

Of these, only Franken and Hurst have a primary contest on the June 7 ballot. The third U.S. Senate candidate, Abby Finkenauer, was invited to the Amana event and did not attend. This is the time for counties to get organized for the general election. Events like this kick off the process.

When I returned home, I cancelled my registration to participate in a Zoom event with the three U.S. Senate candidates. One can take only so much of politics in a weekend. I would have preferred to be working in the garden. There was standing water there Sunday morning so I went to this event. What else would I do?