Thoughts on the Primary

This is actually the 3rd time I am writing this because Blogspot has been down today. Hopefully it works this time.

From my posting the past couple weeks, it wasn't hard to tell that I was voting for Ed Fallon. I have been volunteering in Marshall County for the campaign. I helped organize a group of volunteers and we knocked on over 700 doors the past 3 weeks. This was the first time I had done something of this sort. I learned a great deal and met a lot of people. We were disappointed with the results in Marshall County, as Culver got just over 50%, Blouin 28%, and Fallon 21%. The UAW support really helped Culver here.

Chris at Political Forecast wrote about Fallon winning Polk County and about their grassroots organization.

...Fallon’s winning of the county (Polk) show just how critical a grassroots strategy that focuses on volunteerism and activism, particularly with regards to some of Fallon’s key issues, can change the tide in a district one would expect establishment candidates like Blouin or Culver to win.

Another county where the grassroots strategy was out in full force was Story County. Fallon won Story County with 44% of the vote with Blouin getting 28% and Culver 26%. Merlin, Marcia, Gavin, Susie, David, and a host of others did a great job on the ground in Ames.

Besides Polk and Story, Fallon won Adair, Decatur, Jefferson, Poweshiek, and Winneshiek counties. He got 2nd in 17 other counties. The farther away you get from Des Moines, the support went down, especially in the larger Eastern Iowa counties. He got a strong 2nd in Johnson County, but that was one county that many thought he should win. Here is the analysis from a volunteer for Fallon in Iowa City...

The "take away" I get tonight from looking at the early numbers from the Sec of State site is that Linn County, Scott, Dubuque and the smaller, more rural counties killed us. Ed was generally competitive, but in smaller, rural, and eastern-most counties, we were hammered.

State 29 writes about a piece from Todd Dorman that pretty much nails the primary and the Culver/Nussle matchup. Here is what Dorman wrote about Fallon:

Ed Fallon – Not bad for a guy who ran his campaign out of a minivan. Fallon struck a nerve when he talked about Iowans being sick and tired of politicians bought and paid for by special interests. Culver needs to bring Fallon’s disaffected supporters into the fold if he wants to win.

Another thing Culver needs to do is build upon Fallon's grassroots support. To beat Nussle, Democrats need to do more than just vote...they need to hit the pavement and knock on doors. Nussle will have money coming out of his ears. We won't outspend them, so we will need to out work them.

I want to finish by congratulating Culver on the victory. Even though I voted for Fallon, I didn't see anything that really turned me off on Culver (I just liked Fallon better). After a couple weeks of rest I will be ready to get behind Culver. With the thought of Nussle as Governor, I am pretty sure that other Fallon (and Blouin) supporters will feel the same.

I am off to read Marley and Me.