We are at the point of summer where if I see you in person, I’m likely to give you a cucumber. Two if you’ll take them. Last night at a meeting of mostly grey-haired friends, the box of cucumbers was empty when I left. Those who took one seemed to want and like the vegetable.
There is always something to do in the county where I live. In part, that was why I moved here in 1980. I attended three gatherings in the last 30 days. When I reflect upon them, I noticed there was little age difference between most participants. To the extent we can discuss new ideas and avoid worn out tropes, I am okay with being with members of my cohort. All of these meet ups were initiated because of politics.
In part, we get political news at these gatherings unavailable elsewhere. In part, people are working to organize for the 2024 general election campaign. The fallacy in this is while I enjoy being with people who work together on politics, unless we get some new ideas and new people involved, Democrats will remain the minority party in Iowa for years to come. The common denominator has been that we are all in the same U.S. Congressional District, Iowa-01.
Iowa Democrats have a long history of difficulty finding candidates for congressional elections, and winning races. The sawhorse I drag out when describing this is the Art Small U.S. Senate race against Chuck Grassley in 2004. Small and former Davenport mayor Bill Gluba were both elected to the Iowa legislature in 1970. I remember chatting with Art at the county central committee meeting where he announced his candidacy for the Senate. He showed me a letter from Gluba which said that somebody had to run against Grassley, and it was down to Gluba or Small. Art agreed to fill the ballot and lost.
When my congressional district paired us with Cedar Rapids, prominent Linn County Democrats “took turns” running against long-time incumbent Jim Leach. By the time the 2004 election came along, the party had pretty much given up on beating Leach, and ran Dave Franker who had no money, no following, and no chance against the popular Republican. Franker got only 38.7 percent of the vote.
No one has announced for U.S. Congress in Iowa-01. There was agreement at the meetings that the talent pool is shallow. It was also noted that each year our current congresswoman serves she becomes a stronger incumbent. We are at about the place Art Small and Bill Gluba were in 2004. I’m sure someone will run. In the current political environment I’m hoping the candidate is doing more than filling the ballot or taking their turn as we used to say.
If the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t happened, it seems likely Democrat Rita Hart would have won the 2020 congressional race when Dave Loebsack retired. The pandemic motivated Republicans like I’ve never seen before and they swept. 2020 was a precursor to 2022 when Republicans took all statewide offices except auditor and gained a super-majority in the Iowa legislature. Rebuilding from here won’t be possible without good candidates, starting with the Congress. We’ll see who steps forward. I don’t think it will be Rita Hart since she took a role as chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. Christina Bohannan is said to be kicking the tires on another run. She lost every county in the district except for Johnson, where she lives, with 46.6 percent of the vote. I doubt there will be enough Democratic interest for there to be a competitive primary.
Three gatherings in a month seems close to the right amount. I want to be with people more although I avoid the county seat and stick to events closer to home. For one event I drove across the lakes to North Liberty. It was a stretch of my distance requirements, yet truth be told, I had excess cucumbers needing distribution and a potential outlet. It worked out well.
Journey Home 
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