Category: Living in Society

281 masked delegates to the Johnson County Democrats special convention to nominate a candidate for the board of supervisors after the resignation of Supervisor Janelle Rettig had a clear message.

We don’t want the kind of experience that comes from working for the county.

The convention picked Jon Green of Lone Tree over Meghann Foster of Coralville 139 to 137 in the third round of voting.

While Susan Vileta was well qualified to be a supervisor based on her work in the county public health department, her campaign flew under the radar and wasn’t noticed until many delegates had made up their mind. She got nine votes in the first round and was eliminated.

Scott Finlayson was also well qualified to be a supervisor with 14 years working for the county as an attorney and deputy treasurer. He is also a U.S. Navy veteran. In a tight race for second place he couldn’t best Coralville City Councilor Meghann Foster in the first or second round of voting and was eliminated. When he lost, a majority of his voters migrated to the Foster column in round three.

“Jon Green, who was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, ranked first through all three rounds of voting at the special nominating convention, beating Meghann Foster, who was the choice of establishment Democrats,” posted Cedar Rapids Gazette columnist Adam B. Sullivan on Twitter.

Well that’s the easy analysis and I’d argue there are no “establishment Democrats” in Johnson County the way Sullivan’s characterization suggests. It’s more complicated than that, given the precinct caucuses since 2008, and the active division among Democrats they promoted.

I wouldn’t make too much of the vote counts. Last night’s convention took place at the Johnson County fairgrounds. Johnson County Democrats have been divided ever since a prominent slate of speakers, including Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, George McGovern (for Clinton), Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd and a surrogate for Barack Obama all spoke there on Oct. 6, 2007.

My analysis is Jon Green has become the establishment candidate for supervisor. The cigarette-smoking, whisky-drinking, old-hat-wearing, wood-burning IT guy, former journalist, and former mayor of Lone Tree represents county activists as well as anyone. That makes him the establishment candidate.

The key question in this race is will registered voters cast a ballot? After the disaster that was the March 5, 2013 special election, in which a former Democratic party county chair lost to Republican John Etheredge in a low turnout election, they might. Because of the constant turnover in the county seat, Democrats tend to have a short memory. If Green is smart — and I believe he is — he’ll take nothing for granted in the run up to the June 8 election.

I’ll be working for him in my Republican-dominated corner of the most liberal county in Iowa.

It rained overnight, just as the man at the fertilizer place in Monticello predicted yesterday. We had a long conversation about rain, as rural folk often do. It’s something to talk about, something to which we can all relate. I asked him to load the two bags of fertilizer in the back seat so he wouldn’t notice my Biden for president bumper sticker that read “Build Back Better.” I went there for fertilizer and for weather talk, not for a political conversation.

The other kind of rain is figurative. It’s raining Republican legislation to suppress voters going forward. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 47 states have filed more than 361 bills to restrict access to voting. Any state that signs such a bill into law will be sued, Democratic attorney Marc E. Elias said. Lawsuits are already pending in Iowa, Georgia, Montana and Florida. Republicans have determined they can’t win elections at the ballot box and are rigging the system to retain power anyway.

It was bad enough President Trump was impeached for fanning the flames of insurrection when the Congress was tallying electoral votes from the November election. Under normal circumstances, a president with as poor a record as Trump would be fading from view. Democrats gained control of both chambers of the legislature and the presidency on his watch. He is not fading. Republicans have a different agenda, though. It has to do with gaining and retaining power, no matter what. Any jamoke with autocratic tendencies will do, I suppose.

It’s not just me who thinks this. Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney had this to say:

Trump is seeking to unravel… confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this. The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution. History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process.

Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, May 5, 2021.

Cheney voted with Trump 93 percent of the time, so she is no liberal. Her punishment for making such statements and mounting a campaign for a return to law and order centered on the U.S. Constitution is expected to be removing her from her Republican leadership position in the House of Representatives. She’s in a minority of Republican colleagues regarding the future of the party.

The days after my retirement from outside work were supposed to be a time to take it easy. When it’s raining voter suppression, how could I? America is in dangerous times, with our Democracy at stake. Every person will be needed for the struggle against taking away the right to vote from so many.

I’d rather talk about the weather and our need for literal rain. That’s not the task that presents itself.

A special election for Johnson County Supervisor is the epitome of insider political baseball. Both Republicans and Democrats must call a special convention to nominate their candidate for the June 8, 2021 election. Democrats meet on May 11, Republicans May 8. Individuals can also get nominated by petition.

Our county is heavily Democratic so the likely winner of the special election will be the Democratic nominee. There are at least three candidates, although we won’t know the final number until we get to the convention where floor nominations have been popular and relatively frequent. Recently, a Democratic nominee lost the special election, so anything is possible.

I’m supporting Coralville City Councilor Meghann Foster as the Democratic nominee. She’s solid, and the best of the announced candidates. Learn more about her here and decide for yourself.

I am an alternate delegate and will work to get seated as a delegate. Since the convention is in person this time, all delegate slots are not expected to be filled. Like the caucuses, getting to a specific place at a specific time excludes people. That’s how it’s done, however. It’s insider-oriented, like it or not.

When Jim Leach and Dave Loebsack were our congressmen we didn’t have to lookout for daily zany stuff from our congressional office. Now that Mariannette Miller-Meeks is in the Congress, we do.

Her latest caper was in the April 30 Iowa City Press-Citizen. She sported a mask with a “6” to let folks know she won the district by six votes. She also threw out alternative facts in the article:

“Miller-Meeks said she felt former President Donald Trump wasn’t receiving enough credit for the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly Operation Warp Speed, which she said, “’miraculously gave us three safe and effective vaccines in just nine months.’”

As a physician, Miller-Meeks should know that creating a vaccine takes anywhere from 5-10 years. The scientific industry began testing a decade ago when SARS ravaged China. That is the reason we “miraculously” have three vaccines. Further, Pfizer did not join the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.  The pharmaceutical company self-funded. (AP Fact Check, 3/13/20, “Trump wrongly takes full credit for vaccine”).

Saying Trump should be credited for getting three vaccines rolled out in nine months is disingenuous and wrong.  Her misinformation can confuse folks.

We need better from Congress.

~ Published in the Iowa City Press Citizen on May 5, 2021.