There’s not much to add to the national conversation about politics.
Our politics is broken, there’s a constitutional crisis, we have a do-nothing but bolster the richest people Congress, we spend money on defense like we have it, we’re pushing the envelope of livability in our environment, and the sodden features of elected officials are anything but endearing.
We could all use a break.
In Iowa the presidential candidates have been relentless with visits, events and policy proposals. I attended two events, Julián Castro and Elizabeth Warren, and it’s been more than enough. It’s not like there is an earth-shaking personal decision Iowans are required to make any time soon. The better question is who is inspiring enough to garner some of our hard-earned money and volunteer time? I’m drawing a blank. Spring’s slight window would be better spent on activities other than politics.
The allure of spring draws me toward nature… what’s left of it. Thankfully I’m not allergic and can build something in our home and local community. In such work I hope to find inspiration to support a better national political discussion again. Maybe in the fall.
For now, I’ll cultivate the life we’ve chosen in Big Grove, recognizing our connections with the broader world, but placing them on mute for the time being. I’ll write about an occasional political event but there’s plenty to talk about without them.
At least those are my thoughts this spring morning before the dawn.
Brad Kunkel (right) Formally Announcing Campaign for County Sheriff
Big Grove Precinct has two voters elected to the Johnson County Democratic central committee, Brad Kunkel and me.
At the central committee meeting on Thursday, May 2, Kunkel formally announced his campaign to become sheriff when Lonny Pulkrabek retires at the end of his 16 years in office. Here’s a link to the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s coverage of his announcement.
I’ve known and followed Brad’s law enforcement career and work in the community for a long time. Kunkel has 18 years with the Johnson County Sheriff’s office where he is a detective sergeant. He participated when he could when we held political events in town, and was a Solon city councilor before moving to our rural precinct.
Having a sheriff’s race during the run up to the 2020 general election creates a different and welcome dynamic. By nature of the position, a candidate for sheriff must reach out to a broad slice of the electorate. Many voters who don’t normally participate in politics become active, increasing overall turnout. In addition, a sheriff’s campaign cuts across party lines to create its own electorate, different from races further up the ticket. Brad Kunkel is a solid candidate who has been active in Democratic politics.
The primary election is June 2, 2020 with the filing period opening March 2 for county offices.
In 2000, the year the U.S. Supreme Court stopped vote counting in Florida and made George W. Bush our 43rd president, measles was declared eliminated.
Not so fast.
“From January 1 to April 26, 2019, 704 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 22 states,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week. “This is an increase of 78 cases from the previous week. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1994.”
Our political leaders are not solely responsible for a preventable disease outbreak that mostly affects children younger than 18. Concurrently, measles outbreaks are a sign of our political times. Vaccine-preventable diseases belong in history books not in 22 U.S. states.
My interest in the measles outbreak is driven by two terms I served on the county board of health. CDC was politicized under president Bush, whose administration censored its director, Dr. Julie Gerberding. However, if CDC’s army of health professionals reports an outbreak, we should take it seriously. As an Iowa Democrat that means picking smart leadership in the 2020 general election from township trustee to the White House. We have to change a political climate which produces social phenomena like communicable disease outbreaks.
20 Democratic candidates are running for president, with the incumbent the presumed Republican nominee. It’s hard to say who will emerge from the July 2020 Democratic National Convention as the nominee, but know this: there aren’t as many choices as one would think.
Joe Biden is making his third attempt for the nomination, Bernie Sanders his second. A squad of U.S. Senators has announced, as well as current and former mayors and U.S. representatives. There are even outliers like best-selling author Marianne Williamson, businessman Andrew Yang who supports a universal income, and second time aspirant Mike Gravel. With nine months to go until the Iowa Caucuses, most people I know planning to attend have it narrowed down to a few options.
This summer’s Democratic debates should clear some non-viable candidates from the field. The Democratic National Committee set criteria for participation on June 26-27 in Miami and July 30-31 in Detroit as follows:
Receiving at least 1 percent support in three DNC-approved polls. Those could be in early state polls — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada — or in national polls between the beginning of January 2019 and the two-week mark before the first debate (a candidate could fall short but then qualify for the second debate if they meet the polling threshold two weeks before the July debate).
Receiving donations from at least 65,000 unique donors with a minimum of 200 donors in at least 20 different states.
Say what you will about the criteria, they are straight-forward and concise. If a presidential candidate can’t get one percent in the polls or raise money, why would they receive further consideration? That makes July 31 the drop dead date for Democratic presidential candidates.
The challenge in our district is bandwidth. In addition to selecting delegates to the county, district and state conventions by presidential preference groups Feb. 2, 2020, Democrats do not have a stand-out candidate to run against Senator Joni Ernst in her first re-election. We need to find one because without a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, any Democratic president’s agenda would be hamstrung out the gate on inauguration day. In addition, Congressman Dave Loebsack announced his retirement at the end of his term. Multiple candidates are expected to announce for congress this spring and summer. Between announcement and the June 2, 2020 primary, name recognition and winning over primary voters will be essential for viable candidates. Even former State Senator Rita Hart, who ran as our 2018 lieutenant governor nominee in the state-wide race is hardly a household name. There is a lot to do to keep this seat in congress Democratic. How does one work on all of that at the same time?
Managing bandwidth is about staying focused on voters in my precinct. I seek to contribute to a welcoming environment at the caucus where I seem likely to be selected as acting chair. If that’s the case, I may not make a pick for president before the caucus. I can even see me throwing my support to a preference group that needs one more member to become viable. As long as the candidate has a “D” after their name, and is selected by the party, I don’t see the relevance of my personal preference. Digging into a shallow pool of colloquialisms, “we have bigger fish to fry.” There are also other, more populous, and impactful states to vote or caucus by Super Tuesday on March 3, 2020.
The number of views on this blog surged when I announced my pick of Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Iowa caucuses. While I’m tempted to try to make a splash again this year, Democrats seem resolute about replacing the incumbent president. It would be foolish to let personality, individualism, or my interest in clicks get in the way of that momentum. If I’m lucky, the party will find someone else to run the caucus and I can work for a presidential campaign during the run up. I’m not holding my breath.
The measles outbreak is unfortunate and we can’t deny the science of communicable disease unless we want to put everything we hold dear at risk. So it is with our politics. The country appears to be under a spell, and the most obvious person is not the witch. It’s time to do what we know is right to recruit and vote for viable candidates to take on the Republicans. We may lose but won’t get anywhere toward a more just society unless we engage and put our best energy to work.
As Hillary Clinton said, “We are stronger together.”
Elizabeth Warren Meet and Greet in Tipton, Iowa. April 26, 2019
TIPTON, Iowa — 125 to 150 people showed for an Elizabeth Warren meet and greet at the Tipton Family Restaurant today.
The side dining room selected for the event usually seats about 25 diners. Staff cleared the tables and most chairs, and we crammed in like the crowded stateroom in the Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera. Not everyone fit and after the event I saw about 35 people in an overflow area waiting for their moment with Warren.
It was comfortable inside once everyone settled in place. I worked my way to the back of the room where my 6-foot, 1-inch height enabled me to see the proceedings.
Warren gave a 25-minute stump speech, which Robin Kash with Neighborhood Network News captured here. She took two questions outside before her speech and another four inside afterward. She used a microphone so we could hear all six. The demand for answers was much greater than allotted time. I’m a bit spoiled after hearing Hillary Clinton take 13 unrehearsed questions in Coralville back in 2015. Warren did well with her answers.
My impression of the event was as follows:
I’ve been to political events where there is a lot of excitement and this wasn’t one of them. The air was filled with resolve more than excitement, as if attendees felt we have to do something about the current president and events like this are the path. I knew at least a dozen non-staff people there and they either a). already support Warren, b). represent a constituency and are making candidate rounds asking specific questions, or c). people who want to participate in the caucus process. One attendee characterized her interaction as “dating” before the caucus.
Plenty of Warren staff and volunteers were on hand to register people and put colored identification stickers on our clothing. Except for the potential fire code violation the event was well organized. The Cedar County Democrats, under the leadership of party chair Larry Hodgden, should be proud of their work before and at the event.
Lots of folks wore media badges. I don’t know which outlets, but it was likely the candidate’s press pool. I didn’t see the reporter for the local paper, the Tipton Conservative, although he may have been there. The only blogger I knew was Dave Bradley of Blog for Iowa.
My question, while driving to the event along a gravel road running next to the Cedar River, was whether Warren is in or out for further consideration. I know Warren through her service in the U.S. Senate, and from her involvement in TARP and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her policy positions are strong and she’s smart. I was concerned more with her current age (69) and whether she displayed evidence of cognitive degeneration in such things as conceptual reasoning, memory and decline in processing speed. I’m not a physician, but I’m satisfied she’s fit to be president after hearing her give a speech and handle questions. In politics this is Kentucky windage more than a medical condition.
The only piece of news that came out of the event pertained to Newman Abuissa, a resident construction engineer with Iowa DOT, who told me he’s running for the Democratic nomination for the open congressional seat in the second district. I asked him, “Are you sure you want me to put this out there now?” He said yes. We scheduled time for an interview next week.
I did the same Gmail search for Abuissa I did for Veronica Tessler, and there were a lot more hits for Abuissa because he has been very active in Democratic politics ever since I’ve known him. I believe he’s the only person to date who said he’s actually running for Dave Loebsack’s seat, although Tessler formed a committee with the Federal Elections Commission and is giving it serious consideration as are Rita Hart, Kevin Kinney, Zach Wahls and others.
As I turned right at the cemetery onto Solon Road, and went past the Suchomel barn, I felt glad I had been to the event and hoped I could get back to a gas station before running out of fuel.
If you’d like to read my typo-laden twitter feed with more photos from the event, click here.
My political fate was determined when I was very young.
My grandfather was a socialist, union coal miner who believed the means of production should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. The very definition of a modern day socialist.
Easter Sunday I telephoned Mother who told me this story.
Grandfather, who had been divorced by Grandmother, came to Davenport to visit one weekend when I was about seven months old.
Holding me, he asked Mother, “Is he a socialist?”
Mother responded, “No Pa, he’s a Democrat like the rest of us.”
At the time I said nothing because I had not learned to speak English. My political future was thus determined without comment. It stuck: A Democrat, not a socialist.
I had coffee with a young reporter yesterday who asked my thoughts about what “socialism” meant to the 2020 election. The idea is that Republicans will hammer Democrats, right or wrong, for being socialists as much as they can, thus gaining traction among unwitting voters. I don’t think people who use the term “socialist” today understand what it means.
Socialism is a system of government like that in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which was dissolved in 1991. Most people in the USSR were poor compared to the United States and Europe. Artists and writers were sent to the gulags described by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, provisions were rationed, housing was inexpensive but derelict, abortion was encouraged as a method of social planning, and society was described as austere. What American in their right mind wants that?
Karl Marx noted a continuing struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, class warfare. Another way of describing it today is the difference between those who control the majority of our wealth and means of production, the one percent, and the rest of us. To describe Democrats as socialists is a distraction from the real problem of growing financial inequality. Maybe to distract is the Republican point.
Government working on common problems is a feature, not a bug of it. By the introduction of more money into our politics and elections, the wealthy have been able to control our government. We hope the duration of such control will be short.
Before I could talk, without my input, I was determined to be a Democrat and remained one. Make no mistake. The answer to Grandfather’s question is I am not a socialist, nor are the vast majority of Americans. To say otherwise is part of the problem with our politics: the truth doesn’t matter, and political rhetoric has strayed far from any reasonable form of veracity.
We don’t know anything new about the 45th president after Thursday’s release of the 448-page Mueller Report. I haven’t taken the time to read it, you?
There may never be time to read the report as it is expected to confirm what we already know: Donald J. Trump and associates are crooked as a three dollar bill.
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed a copy of the unredacted report within hours of Attorney General William Barr’s Thursday press conference. In Washington, the move was expected.
In July 1974, a high school friend was interning in Washington, D.C. when the U.S. House filed articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. He brought a copy of the documents back to Iowa to show us. Key Republicans met with Nixon and convinced him to resign before he was impeached. The difference between 1974 and today is Republican leaders Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) seem unlikely to call for Trump’s resignation. If the U.S. House of Representatives impeaches President Trump, as long as McConnell is Senate Majority Leader there will be no conviction, even if there is a trial as there was with President Bill Clinton.
The American people will determine the fate of the president at the polls during the Nov. 3, 2020 general election if he’s not removed from office before then. Despite his shady activities and transgressions of political norms he could be re-elected.
What’s a gardener to do? Make sure the Congress follows the constitutional process.
What makes this tough is the likelihood the process won’t reach the desired result of removing the president and everyone knows it. What does make sense is following the constitutional process, which begins with hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Much as I dislike it, I need to refresh my memory on the constitution.
Congressman Dave Loebsack in the Solon Beef Days parade
On Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008, this note came:
Paul:
Dave is interested in stopping by the Fish Fry at the Legion on Friday.
Would you be interested and available to introduce him to a few folks that night?
If you can’t, can you think of someone else who might like to? Probably around 6:00.
Thanks-
David Leshtz
District Representative
Congressman Dave Loebsack
I worked on Dave’s campaign in 2006. During the summer, after the office was first open, I was often the only volunteer making phone calls. There were a lot of calls to make and often the recipient of the call said “Dave who?” The night of the election, I was able to work through the crowd after Dave’s acceptance speech and shake his hand before he went with the press. He said “I’ll be back to talk later.” That night was something else and I guess tonight is later.
Dinner was just Dave and me talking about stuff: the weather, Joensy’s restaurant, RAGBRAI coming through Solon, the Big Grove Caucus and the Minneapolis airport. I introduced Dave to one of our neighbors who ran the 4-H club our daughter joined. She was there with her son. Jean Stinocher stopped by with a 3 by 5 card asking what questions were on the immigration test. She was researching the topic for a presentation. Dave passed it to Dave Leshtz for follow-up. Jean’s husband’s uncle is the person after whom the Stinocher American Legion Post is named. He was among the first in the area to be killed in WWI. We talked about John Edwards and Barack Obama and the hope that if Obama is elected, he could do for the Democrats what Reagan did for the Republicans: go over Congress’ head to the American people and get things done. We hope a Democrat is elected President in November. Jean caucused for John Edwards in Big Grove. Dave supported Obama at his caucus.
I asked Dave why Congress was choosing to spend resources on prosecuting the contempt citations against Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten. He said he favored holding them in contempt and that a lot of Democrats wanted to hold the Bush administration accountable. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she has given the Judiciary Committee authority to file a lawsuit against Bolten and Miers in federal court. I expressed my concern that there were other, more important areas where the Bush administration could be held accountable.
I finally asked Dave who was running his campaign. He said he was still trying to get things done in Washington and that most of the activity is fundraising. With three Republican opponents, he would let them fight it out for now. I told him I would contact Melanie to help.
And that’s that. One of the good thing about life in Big Grove: dinner with your Congressman.
~ First published on Feb. 29, 2008 in an earlier version of this blog.
The worst kept secret in Johnson County is Veronica Tessler is running for the open seat in Iowa’s Second Congressional District in the June 2, 2020 Democratic Primary.
Six distinct sources have told me as much… and there are public Facebook posts, one of which includes a date for her announcement.
On April 12, incumbent Dave Loebsack announced his retirement, making this an open seat. My interest in Tessler began March 17, when I asked a friend, “Who is the progressive woman raising money and recruiting staff for a primary challenge to Dave Loebsack? I don’t see an entry on the FEC website.”
I found out it was Veronica Tessler.
If I met her, I don’t remember it. It turns out she has been on periphery of my life for more than ten years and I didn’t know it. This post is about what I found while searching for her on Google and in my email files.
I was an early adopter of Gmail, and still maintain records back to 2006. A search for Veronica Tessler yielded a couple dozen hits, all of them items where she was mentioned but not the author or recipient.
The earliest hit was the 2008 Second District Delegate list where Tessler was for Obama. She also ran for national delegate, according to the April 26, 2008 email from the Iowa Independent. I don’t know if she made it as I was in the Edwards camp at the convention, where we sent Dave Redlawsk and Ro Foege. I re-circulated this delegate list to various campaigns over the years, so there are other hits as well.
After that, my emails about Tessler are related to her work at the Stanley Foundation. I don’t remember her, even if I met her. When I reached out to David Shorr at Stanley, to help with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ratification campaign, there was no suggestion or mention of her. She did write an Op-Ed to the Des Moines Register advocating for ratification of the CTBT on Feb. 21, 2010, according to an email from our public relations firm.
We were to bring Tessler in to a monthly meeting of Physicians for Social Responsibility in February 2011 to address nuclear proliferation. She was still at the Stanley Foundation and I don’t recall if I attended. In this case, Dunbar’s Number is likely coming into play as I met so many people when I was active with PSR it’s hard to remember.
In the March 22, 2015 issue of the Washington Post Tessler indicated she was politically inactive between 2008 and 2015.
In the basement of the Cedar County courthouse in Tipton, where (Martin) O’Malley spoke to about 40 Democrats, two young women offered Warren signs, buttons and stickers at a “Run Warren Run” table at the back of the room.
One of them, Veronica Tessler, 29, didn’t recognize O’Malley when he arrived but said he gave a decent presentation. Asked if she could see herself supporting him if Warren doesn’t run, she demurred.
“I think it’s way too early to be talking about that,” said Tessler, who owns a frozen yogurt shop in Iowa City. “Right now, we’re 100 percent focused on getting Senator Warren to run. I haven’t seen anyone who inspires me the way Senator Warren does. She’s real. She’s authentic. She’s powerful.”
Tessler said she had not been politically active since Obama’s run for president in 2008 and was drawn back in only because of Warren.
There are multiple news articles where Tessler was quoted about Johnson County’s minimum wage ordinance.
“I agree a raise is the right way to go,” she said. “The challenge for small businesses like mine is that all my employees are part-time and mostly dependent on their parents and don’t have the same financial demands on them as people with children have.”
Tessler said she supports a livable wage, but a higher minimum wage is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
“I am the only full time employee at my shop,” Tessler said. “All of my employees are full time students and part time workers.”
Tessler said her ten employees do rely on paychecks to help pay tuition and bills, but are still dependent on their parents.
“It’s different than an employee with dependents or children, that are looking to make a living wage and really support themselves,” Tessler said. “The difference being they’re still on their parents’ health care.”
Whatever equivocation might appear in the two press statements about minimum wage, Tessler later addressed minimum wage in her frozen yogurt shop in a YouTube video. When you look at everything, it’s clear she supported or came to support the Johnson County increased minimum wage.
Here’s what Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan wrote on Dec. 21, 2016 when he awarded a Salvos Salute to Tessler:
Veronica Tessler: Johnson County has a fantastic group of young professionals on the rise. I am anxious to see what they will do when they take charge! When that happens, I expect Veronica Tessler to be in the center of it all. As the owner of Yotopia, Veronica has put her beliefs into action as a key part of her work. As an activist, Veronica has organized many successful events in Iowa City. Keep your eye on Ms. Tessler; her future is bright!
Tessler launched an Iowa City door knocking event for 2018 gubernatorial primary candidate John Norris from her apartment according to an invitation I received. She was quoted in a below the fold article in the March 31 Cedar Rapids Gazette about the teen gun protest in Iowa City.
On Wednesday, April 3, she lobbied in Des Moines with a group of young farmers. They had a photo taken, including her, Mary Mascher and Bobby Kaufmann. They also met with members of the Iowa Senate. This lobby trip was about the bill to re-write state law regarding who’s eligible for the ag exemption. I had to ask who the person was as I didn’t recognize her. “Someone trying to help,” said a farmer who named her.
So that’s what I found in my files. I recently posted,” To find our way, we need something different, and better. Our hope lies with the thirty-somethings who have arrived — like it or not.” I was thinking in part about her.
If Veronica Tessler does run for congress, she will be doing so against seasoned political veterans in the primary and in the general election. I didn’t see any serious appetite to replace Dave in 2020, but he announced retirement. Given the leaky bucket of rumors this county has become, the surprise will be if Tessler doesn’t announce for congress this month.
After reading Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future I’m not sure South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg should be the 46th U.S. president. I learned something different from his book.
My cohort, the baby boomer generation, should let go the reins of power, stop clutching our torches of freedom and snub them out.
As next generations take up leadership in our country — something that’s already going on, like it or not — we may fear younger citizens will become excessively tattooed vaping addicts. It’s not about us and that’s the hardest part of letting go.
The famous American torch speech was made Jan. 20, 1961 by John F. Kennedy.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans–born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage–and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Mayor Pete is no Kennedy, even as he was a summer intern for Senator Ted Kennedy in Washington, D.C. while attending Harvard. If there is a torch, or a race at all, the relay broke down and the transition became anything but smooth or noble. America today seems less committed to the vision JFK elegantly espoused in his inaugural address. We are getting to the point in our history where young people don’t remember the politics of the late 1950s and 1960s.
Buttigieg’s book is well written, the narrative easily understandable. Shortest Way Home is a story to which almost anyone can relate. While reading I thought of Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming. I wrote about Obama’s book,
What surprised me was the clarity with which Obama depicted a life on the South Side of Chicago and how it influenced her both while coming up and once she had means to be on her own. The first two sections of the book are by far the strongest. That’s partly because as First Lady events in the third part got plenty of previous play in the media creating a background noise that interfered somewhat with her meticulous and thoughtful narrative.
What makes Buttigieg’s book different is Iowans saw little public history of his work in South Bend, even those of us who spent time there before he came up. Unlike Michelle Obama, about whom we know a lot from her time as First Lady, what you see is what you get with Pete Buttigieg. I don’t doubt the veracity of the facts in his memoir. What worries me about picking him as our next president is there is nothing else there.
There are few things Americans can come together to support any more. We are increasingly on our own as regions, as communities, and as individuals, concerned with making our way as best we can. All the inter-generational torch-passing seems so 1960s.
My advice about Shortest Way Home is read it. Not because Buttigieg should be president but because he illuminates the example of South Bend and what’s possible in creating a more sustainable life in urban centers. If we are to build a new vision of what life here could be, stories of places like South Bend represent something positive. At the same time Buttigieg holds up a torch in his memoir, it is not bright enough to lead us out of the darkness of the post-Obama era by itself.
Yesterday afternoon, when Congressman Dave Loebsack announced his retirement beginning at the end of the 116th Congress, the reality of it hit home.
Dave and I briefly discussed retirement, his and mine, over the last couple of years. He talked with everyone he met about almost anything. Last summer it became clear his days as a U.S. Congressman were numbered. I posted about it here. To put the date Jan. 3, 2021 on it brings to a conclusion an important part of my political life.
Few political events changed me as much as the Nov. 7, 2006 general election which repudiated the George W. Bush administration, changed the tone in Washington and Iowa, and paved the way for Democrats to elect Barack Obama president two years later.
That’s not to say Republicans didn’t become energized. With losses in 2006 and 2008, and after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law March 23, 2010, they came back. Republicans successfully pushed back the Democratic tide and re-elected Terry Branstad who went on to become the longest-serving governor in U.S. history. Under the leadership of Jeff Kaufmann, who became chair of the Republican Party of Iowa in June 2014, Republicans built a political machine that’s proven hard to beat. Through all of this, Dave Loebsack persisted, continued to win re-election, and remains undefeated.
So what’s next?
Within hours of the press release, people were thanking Loebsack on social media, with some already moving on to the topic of the horse race to replace him. Four names raised yesterday are worth discussing.
Rita Hart (D-Wheatland)
If Rita Hart is interested in running for Congress, she could likely win the June 2, 2020 Democratic primary election. As our candidate for lieutenant governor in 2018, she campaigned throughout the state, including the second congressional district. This experience, and her contact list of district Democrats with whom she has worked, gives her a leg up in fund raising, gaining support, and experience to focus on what matters most in a campaign. She served as state senator in Senate District 49 before accepting a position as Fred Hubbell’s running mate.
Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton)
I asked my state representative, Bobby Kaufmann, whether he would challenge Loebsack during the 2016 and 2018 election cycles. He told me he wouldn’t. Yesterday he told Erin Murphy of Lee Enterprises,
“I’ll look at it, but I’m in middle of legislative session and my first responsibility is to my House district,” the Cedar County farmer and business owner said. “It definitely changes the landscape.”
The Republican Party of Iowa will need new blood if they hope to be competitive in the district, rated a toss up by the Cook Political Report without Loebsack in the race. Three-time loser Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Ottumwa) went on to become a state senator in District 41. When contacted by Murphy, she said she would give the matter of running consideration. Murphy also contacted two-time loser Christopher Peters (D-Coralville) on vacation in Italy. Peters deferred comment until he returns to Iowa. In an open seat, Republicans would be foolish to run one of these two repeat candidates. The other non-Jim Leach opponent over the years? I met John Archer (R-Bettendorf) in Tipton in 2012 and felt creepy for a couple of days afterward. I doubt he’s interested, and Jeff Kaufmann would likely stop him from running again if he were.
Zach Wahls (D-Coralville)
My state senator Zach Wahls gets mentioned a lot as a potential replacement for Loebsack. Few politicians have as bright a future ahead of them as Wahls appears to. I’m not privy to his plans, although I spend a little time with him at political events like I did with his predecessor, Bob Dvorsky. If one follows Wahls via legislative newsletter, on Medium, on Facebook and Twitter, it is clear he is learning the ropes of being a politician. He has political credibility, beating three opponents in the June 5, 2018 Democratic primary election with 63 percent of votes cast. Janice Weiner ran a serious primary campaign against Wahls, garnering 32 percent. Eric Dirth and Imad Youssif were on the ballot, but not competitive.
Veronica Tessler (D-Iowa City)
Tom Carsner, Group Representative for Our Revolution Johnson County, posted the following on Facebook yesterday: “Veronica Tessler would be a great congresswoman for the Second District.”
I know Tessler only by name and that because of watching her North Liberty operation of Yotopia, Iowa City’s Original Froyo, open then shutter on Pacha Parkway as I drove by to retail jobs in Coralville over the last few years. The Iowa City location has been successful, having opened in 2011. The single time I stopped at the Clinton Street location, I had a frozen yogurt with Carsner. The snack was efficiently delivered and tasty.
Congressman Dave Loebsack chatting with constituents at Dodge Street Coffee, Iowa City on March 9, 2019.
I was an early adopter of Gmail with records going back to 2006. I searched for Veronica Tessler and came back with 23 distinct hits dating back to when she was a delegate to the 2008 Second District Convention. A google search shows plenty of activity, including support for an Iowa City gun violence protest where she was quoted in a March 31 Cedar Rapids Gazette article. If she announces for Congress, some of that may become relevant.
Other potential candidates have been mentioned in social media since Loebsack’s announcement. Right now, I’m processing what Dave’s departure from the Congress will mean personally and to the district. Loebsack did constituents a favor by timing retirement so there would be an open seat. I expect that if the four mentioned candidates jump into the race, more will follow.
Dave Loebsack has been a dependable part of my life since I first started our dialogue via email in 2005. Seems like I should be saying something besides Woody Guthrie’s line, “So long it’s been good to know ya,” but that’s what I have for now.
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