Category: Living in Society

Last night Johnson County Democrats nominated Iowa City resident Royceann Porter for the Dec. 18 special election for county supervisor. I support her candidacy for two reasons. She is a Democrat who won the nomination in an open process, and many people whose judgement I respect support her. Before last night, I wouldn’t have recognized her if I saw her walking on the street. I’m rapidly getting to like Porter and have already reached out to congratulate her and offer help in her campaign.

The other nominee, Pat Harney, had been elected county supervisor four times yet convention delegates rejected him by a vote of 109 to 42. In his three-minute speech Harney focused on the challenges of winning the special election, something of which delegates seemed cognizant. Unspoken at the convention was the challenge a black woman would face among quietly racist voters in the county who would prefer the white male Republicans are expected to nominate. Porter’s campaign is about moving the county forward and that’s another reason I support her.

“I have been a leader in this community for many years,” Porter wrote in a Nov. 19 campaign email. “I will use my commitment and experience to make sure that Johnson County works for all of us. And, I know I can win against the Republican nominee in the December 18 special election.”

In a county where 48,758 people voted for Democrat Fred Hubbell for governor Porter should easily win the election over any nominee Republicans put forward at their upcoming convention. It’s not a given as the 2013 special election that made Republican John Etheredge a supervisor reminds us. It’s up to delegates at last night’s convention to get the word out about Porter’s candidacy and make sure voter turnout is sufficient for her to win.

I plan to do my part to elect Royceann Porter county supervisor and look forward to the campaign.

Part of me wants to get outside my wheelhouse and talk about the Iowa Democratic Party’s performance during the just finished midterm elections. Part of me does not.

After the last presidential election I had some specific ideas about how the Iowa Democratic Party should be blown up and re-built: eliminate Iowa’s first in the nation presidential caucus, reduce staffing, work toward better communications, and so on. Under Andy McGuire’s leadership the party drifted and Republicans eclipsed Democrats in Iowa by their support of the current president and their down ballot candidates. The sorry times will continue in the 88th Iowa General Assembly as they retained control of both chambers of the legislature and Terrace Hill.

I have just a few points to make.

I met IDP chair Troy Price, during the Obama campaign. I’ve always liked Price although I don’t know him personally. Democrats didn’t want for resources during the midterms and that’s attributable to him. Price made a worthy effort to be inclusive, appearing across the state in a multitude of events and meet ups. He worked to let the grassroots organization in counties lead. We’ve had diverse chairs and Price is the kind I like to see. Unlike McGuire, he knew the grassroots issues with IDP and worked to address them in his leadership.

In Janice Rottenberg the party hired an experienced political consultant to lead Campaign for Iowa and, from my perspective, the effort was solid, laser focused on very specific objectives proven during the Obama campaigns: identify and turn out infrequent voters and expand voter registrations. It was a little annoying to be asked to “volunteer” up to a half dozen times each time I entered a local CFI office. When I did offer to volunteer, in my precinct, or at the office, such offers didn’t fit the very specific niche they were trying to fill, walk and call shifts. Rottenberg was largely unseen during the midterms but her fingerprints were on everything. Strict and focused discipline is what IDP needed to get us back to being competitive in the state. Janice Rottenberg delivered.

The majority of my volunteer work during the midterms was writing walk and call lists for the House District 73 campaign of Jodi Clemens. Clemens decided to use Vote Builder to track our canvass effort. My first experience with Vote Builder was in 2004 and it’s come a long way. The tool is user friendly and useful to campaigns operating on a shoestring budget. Once we got through the getting to know each other phase of our relationship, I worked well with IDP information technology staff and we had reasonably accurate information with which to work. This technology contributed significantly to Clemens’ achievement of winning 6,330 votes, a 57 percent increase over the performance of the last Democratic candidate to run for the seat in 2014. Vote Builder is something IDP does well.

During the Democratic primary candidate John Norris repeatedly said the process of Democrats regaining strength in Iowa would be a multi-cycle effort even if we won the governorship or one of the legislative chambers. That remains true. Were the midterms a success for Democrats? How responsible is IDP for the results? It’s hard to call them successful with Republicans maintaining their trifecta of control. All the same, statewide voter turnout at 61.0 percent, according to the Iowa Secretary of State, is much better than the 53.3 percent in 2014, the last midterm election. Increased voter turnout is partly attributable to reactions to politics in Washington D.C. and in Des Moines. The Democratic part of it is due to a concentrated, focused effort on the part of the Iowa Democratic Party under Troy Price.

If Iowa Democrats will get more control of our government, the work of specific campaigns like Campaign for Iowa will remain important. However, there is a broader, cultural picture here. One that is beyond the scope of a political party. I continue to believe the best thing Iowa Democrats could do would be deny Republicans their key organizing tool and eliminate the presidential caucus. It’s not a popular position, but I believe it is a substantial part of the remedy Democrats need to regain political control of Iowa. And no, I’m not deleting my account as some have recommended after hearing my position.

Well done in the midterms Troy Price and the Iowa Democratic Party.

There was only one new face at the Democratic election night call center for Big Grove and Solon Precincts. Five of the six of us are regulars at this biennial event.

Six people doesn’t seem like many but between us we finished every phone call needed an hour before the polls closed. Experience pays, leaving more time for refreshments while waiting for results.

While the group wanted to know the night’s winners, my question was whether Big Grove Precinct would swing back after Joni Ernst and Donald Trump won here in 2014 and 2016. The answer is yes.

Fred Hubbell won the precinct by two votes over Kim Reynolds in the governor’s race. Of 1,107 votes cast, Hubbell won 545 to Reynolds 543. Libertarian Jake Porter got 11 and Communist Workers Party candidate Gary Siegwarth got 8. Democrat Zach Wahls won 650 of 918 votes cast over Libertarian Carl Krambeck with 264. These wins were expected.

Of the four general elections since redistricting after the 2010 U.S. Census, two baselines measure Big Grove Precinct’s performance: Democrat Dave Loebsack (IA-02) and Republican Bobby Kaufmann (HD73), who won seven of eight races against different opponents. Here are some numbers indicating votes cast in their specific races:

Loebsack’s results:

2012: 1,123 votes cast, Loebsack 588 to John Archer 496.
2014: 948 votes cast, Loebsack 484 to Mariannette Miller-Meeks 463.
2016: 1,147 votes cast, Loebsack 576 to Christopher Peters 571.
2018: 1,099 votes cast, Loebsack 592 to Christopher Peters 480.

Kaufmann’s results:

2012: 1,089 votes cast, Kaufmann 528 to Dick Schwab 561.
2014: 937 votes cast, Kaufmann 611 to David Johnson 325.
2016: 866 votes cast, Kaufmann 837 to Write-Ins of 29.
2018: 1,091 votes cast, Kaufmann 591 to Jodi Clemens 500.

2014 was a midterm election and overall votes cast in these races dropped from 2012 and in Loebsack’s case regained in 2016. Kaufmann ran unopposed in 2016 and many voters skipped the race rather than fill in the oval for a Republican. 2018 was also a midterm election although turnout was roughly 16 percent higher than in 2014. The political climates in Washington, D.C. and Des Moines motivated Democrats to get to the polls as indicated by Loebsack’s midterm increase from 484 to 591 votes (22%). Republicans best year was 2016 when Trump won the presidency, Christopher Peters lost to Loebsack by only five votes, and Kaufmann had his highest vote total ever. Based on this analysis, 2018 marked a return to normal voting patterns in Big Grove Precinct. Including the Kaufmann win, voters swung back.

Democrats had competitive races for House District 73 in 2012 and 2018. In 2012, Dick Schwab was well known in the precinct where a couple of us encouraged him to run for the open seat. His involvement in the community provided a deep base of support, especially his work for Dollars for Scholars, the Bur Oak Land Trust, and his contributions to building the Solon Public Library. Subsequent Democratic candidates had to work harder for votes here. David Johnson hitched his wagon to the politics of Bernie Sanders in 2014 and hardly campaigned in the precinct. His efforts helped precinct swing voters get used to voting for Kaufmann. When Democrats failed to nominate a candidate in 2016, Kaufmann found additional voters willing to fill in the oval for him, yielding the high water mark of his appeal in the district. Jodi Clemens found herself in a position of having to persuade Kaufmann voters to switch back to Democratic and she didn’t get to enough of them to win the precinct. Clemens did the work of a campaign, but damage was already done in 2014 and 2016 as Kaufmann gained support equaling that of Dave Loebsack. 2018 results are likely the new norm going into 2020, the last election before re-districting. If a Democrat runs and wins House District 73 in 2020, it will again be a tough row to hoe.

After the aberrations of 2014 and 2016, Big Grove Precinct swung back to normal. Democrats don’t like the new normal with Bobby Kaufmann as our state representative. It’s hard to fathom how Governor Kim Reynolds garnered so many votes given the failure of privatized Medicaid and the egregious bills she and Terry Branstad signed during the 87th Iowa General Assembly. The almost identical number of votes for Dave Loebsack and Bobby Kaufmann indicates a belief among voters that both are less partisan, can work across the aisle, and perhaps are unbeatable here. Such belief belies the reality of the candidates. In order to create an environment that recognizes the partisan reality it will take a lot more cultural support than knocking doors and making phone calls from phone banks will ever provide.

Eventually the septuagenarians among us at the call center will take the path of our octogenarian friend who first campaigned for Aldai Stevenson. She didn’t make any calls this cycle but talked the election up among friends and baked a pie for election day. Hopefully new people will step up and get involved in local Democratic politics in 2020 and beyond. I’m reasonably confident they will.

Note: 2018 vote totals had not been canvassed by the county auditor at the time of this writing. They may change once the canvass is completed.

According to a screen time app my mobile device addiction moved from obsessed to habitual after the election. That sounds somewhat better, although I am not fully recovered now that voting is done.

I was coughing like a fiend during the days leading up to Nov. 6 and could hardly speak. Because of this, my role on election day was to knock doors of people I know who hadn’t voted Tuesday morning, drive people who needed a ride to the polls, and run between our call center and the two nearby polling places for Solon and Big Grove precincts.

An hour before the polls closed our team gathered and determined every call that needed to be made had been.

I’m waiting for the canvassed results of the election before analyzing my precinct but wanted to mention the campaign to which I devoted many hours this cycle. 5,265 Johnson County voters cast ballots in the House District 73 race between incumbent Bobby Kaufmann and challenger Jodi Clemens. This compares with 3,821 ballots cast in 2016 when Kaufmann ran unopposed and many voters, presumably Democrats or Democratic leaning no party voters, skipped the race. Clemens won Johnson County 2,832 to 2,430. Sadly she lost the district 6,330 to Kaufmann’s 7,992. For now I’ll say we fought the good fight with Jodi Clemens.

The Iowa Secretary of State lists all the race results here until the official canvass. I have a couple of comments before getting ready for my shift at the home, farm and auto supply store.

Iowa flipped two congressional districts electing Democrat Abby Finkenauer in the first, and Democrat Cindy Axne in the third. Democrat Dave Loebsack was elected for a seventh term in the second as well. At the same time voters picked three Democrats in four races for the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat Fred Hubbell lost his race for governor. On the surface, this doesn’t make sense. My reaction is that voters delivered a nuanced message, repudiating the 45th president by helping Democrats take control of the House, while maintaining much of the outlook that turned Iowa into a red state in 2016. Like many first impressions, I may change my mind about this after a deeper dive. I may not. There is a difference between “swing voters” and a “nuanced message.” The more I engage in politics, the latter looks like the future of politics, especially at the local level.

Iowa Republicans maintained control of the statehouse. The mix of senators and representatives changed but Republicans will write the agenda. I expect the 88th Iowa General Assembly to be another barn burner. However, one has to believe they got many of the major tasks on their agenda accomplished in the 87th. Our district elected an outstanding new senator in Zach Wahls. I’m confident he will work with colleagues in the general assembly, including Mr. Kaufmann, to accomplish what good we can and hold back extremism Republicans demonstrated last session. We knew the consequences before the election. Failure to win the governor’s office or one of the two legislative chambers will make life more difficult in the coming two years.

Our work will continue.

There are countless analyses of the election available. Thanks for stopping by On Our Own for mine.

On the Sunday before the 2018 midterm elections all I have left to say is vote. I mean it the way JFK did when he made this video.

Just vote.

I’m ready to accept the election results and move on to important matters that have been too long neglected. Issues of social justice, hunger, poverty, discrimination, education, equal opportunity, and civic responsibilities are all important. So are the overarching, existential threats to humanity of climate change and use of nuclear weapons. There’s a lot to work on and we are the people to do this work.

I understand the dynamics of political campaigns as well as anyone in my community. In every race there will be a winner and losers. It may seem like a zero sum game, but this cycle it must be something else. Too much is at stake for it not to be. The work requires all hands on deck regardless of our politics. It means reaching out for people to join us.

It may be easier to work on issues with government on our side. There are better prospects with Democrats controlling our government but that is impossible in Washington, D.C. until the 2020 election, and unlikely in Des Moines when the new legislature is sworn in next year. We must work together to find meaningful solutions for the problems that face us, at least partly by breaking gridlock in government even if it doesn’t seem a likely outcome.

Community-based solutions are a necessary part of our effort to move the needle toward social justice. That means working with everyone in the community to drive injustice from society. If we persuade anyone to do anything, it will be to join our efforts to the extent they are capable. I don’t know if that’s possible, but it is worth a try. That’s what I’ll be doing when the polls close on Tuesday.

For now, just vote.

People are edgy about the election.

I live on the fringe of a blue island in a sea of red politics that was Iowa in 2016. This election may be the only chance to turn the tide to a more comfortable shade of purple for a long, long time.

The stakes are high.

Based on my hundreds of voter contacts this cycle it seems like people have had enough of Republican excesses and are ready for sensible change in the right direction. Or, as our gubernatorial candidate Fred Hubbell said, “change, the right way.” The polls show a tight race between Hubbell and Governor Kim Reynolds.

Republican Governor Terry Branstad gave Democrats a gift when he privatized Iowa Medicaid. The entire operation was so poorly run patients couldn’t get needed services and treatment, providers couldn’t get paid, and administrative costs soared. An unseen story is of families trying to place patients in nursing homes who wouldn’t take them if they were on Medicaid or if they had certain types of diseases. There are other unseen stories like this. Whether there is a role for private insurance companies in managing Medicaid is an open question. The way Branstad did it was an utter disaster. His successor, Kim Reynolds, did not correct the problems. As I’ve written elsewhere, if Democrats can’t win the midterms on this, they had better just fold up the tent and go home.

What about voters?

Others have had more voter contact than I have but I see two simultaneous effects of the negative public environment that has characterized the 87th Iowa General Assembly and the first term of President Trump. Some are motivated to resist the policies of Republican rule and have. Some have withdrawn into a tight circle of friends and family, church and work, and volunteer only in roles where politics is not a topic of discussion. In the latter is the seed of a new style of politics where people can find more to connect them than separates them. That is hopeful.

It is easier for people to connect via social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter particularly) than it was during the 2006 election cycle, the recent Democratic surge election. To some extent we can become isolated at home, and in cells, because of our addiction to computers. I believe social media has created some divisions yet the physical proximity we have in our communities will prevail in the election of government representatives. Much of my community work is with people who register to vote differently. We can easily agree about many topics — things like the Republican grave digger is probably a good choice to work as a township trustee where the board manages two cemeteries. Social media is influential, but person-to person relationships trump it.

It is good to be on edge just before the election. People who have been outspoken about problems with the Democratic party have pretty much clammed up… for now. Local writer Jeff Cox, in the Fall 2018 edition of the Prairie Progressive, asked, “What is the Democratic agenda for Iowa?” The better question is who are we as a society? Answering my question is more likely to bring people together to work on common issues. A lot depends upon what questions we ask after the election. First priority is to make sure our friends and neighbors vote on or before Nov. 6.