House Democrats name Elesha Gayman Assistant Majority Leader

Iowa House Democrats named their leaders for the upcoming legislative session yesterday.  One of the Representitives named as an Assistant Majority Leader was Elesha Gayman (D-Democrat). 

Elesha, the youngest woman ever elected to the Statehouse in Iowa's history, was one of the Representives that was featured on the Iowa Bloggers ActBlue page and I have written about her often over the past two years.  She was one of the top targets by Republicans this past election.  It was thought that she had lost no election, but won by 800 votes after absentee ballots.

Speaker of the House Pat Murphy, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and House Pro Tem Polly Butka all kept their positions, as well as Assistant Majority Leaders Mike Reasnor and John Whitaker.  Rep. Gayman and Rep. Abdul Ako Samad were newly elected to the positions of Assistant Majority Leader.

42% of Votes Cast in Scott Co,. Were by Early Voters

I wrote last week about how absentee ballots gave Elesha Gayman (D-Davenport) victory in her race in House District 84.

Absentee ballots played a key role in many races in Scott Co. It also propelled Phyllis Thiede (D-Bettendorf) to upset incumbent Jamie Van Fossen in House District 81.

Early voters so dominated the election landscape in the Iowa Quad-Cities this year that political leaders on both sides say candidates and their parties are going to have to shift strategies.

For the most part, it’s the Republicans who will have to do the shifting. But even Democrats — who have driven early voting in the state since 2002 — were amazed at the turnout among early voters in the Quad-Cities this year.

Forty-two percent of voters cast early or absentee ballots, according to unofficial figures from the Scott County Auditor’s Office. That’s 37,000 out of 87,000 votes cast. Total turnout was 71.8 percent.

The previous high for absentees was 26,000 out of 83,000 votes cast, or 32 percent.

The Iowa Democratic Party is far better at getting people to vote early throughout the state thanks to their summer canvass program where they get people to sign absentee ballot request forms. Then the absentee ballots are mailed out to people before the election.

HD 84: Absentee Ballots Give Gayman Victory

At 11:00 last night the numbers didn't look good for incumbent Elesha Gayman D-Davenport in House District 84.  She was losing to Republican Ross Paustin 53.6% to 46.4% and all the precincts were reported to be in.  

I had donated to Gayman a few times throughout the campaign, so I was disapointed that she was defeated. So I turned from watching election results and went to hang out with the local candidates, who all had won.

When I got back home, I quick checked the results befor heading to bed and was shocked to see that Elesha had won by 800 votes thanks to the absentee ballots.

Rep. Elesha Gayman, D-Davenport, was losing to Republican rival Ross Paustian by more than 600 votes but ended up winning when all the absentee and early votes were reported about 1 a.m.

Iowa House Election Recap

**Update #2**

Democrats lost the race in HD 36. Nick Wagner defeated Gretchen Lawyer and will replace Swati Dandekar, who was elected to the State Senate.

**Update #1**

I failed to notice that Kerry Burt defeated incumbent Tami Wiencek in HD 21, so I have added that.

Democrats held a 53-47 lead in the Iowa House coming into the election. They ended up picking up 6 seats. Sharon Steckman (HD 13), John Beard (HD 16), and Larry Marek (HD 89) won in open seats. Gene Ficken knocked off incumbent Dan Rassmussen in HD 23, Phyllis Theide beat incumbent Jamie Van Fossen, and Kerry Burt beat incumbent Tami Wiencek in Waterloo by 147 votes, 50.6% to 49.4%.

Democrats failed to protect 3 seats. The surprise of the election was the news that Mark Davitt lost in HD 75 by just 69 votes. There are some conflicting vote totals in this race, so we might not know who won until the official canvass is completed.

In HD Art Staed lost by only 33 votes. We can hope there are enough absentee ballots still to come in to over turn these results. They failed to protect Dandekar's seat, who won her State Senate race.

There were 2 House incumbents that were thought to have been defeated that ended up winning. At around 11:00, I saw Elesha Gayman was done 53% to 47% with all of the precincts reporting. However, she ended up winning by 800 votes! In Sioux City, Wes Whitehead was losing, but with all of the numbers in he is up by a mere 6 votes.

Iowa House
Democrats Picked up 5 seats

HD 13 Steckman - Tornquist
Steckman has won 57%-43%

HD 16 Beard - Schissel
Beard won with 56% of the vote.

HD 23 Ficken - Rasmussen
Ficken won 52.6% to 47.4%.

HD 81 Thiede - Van Fossen
Theide won big with that final precinct reporting to claim a 55.6% - 44.4% victory.

HD 89 Marek - Klein
All precincts in and Marek's up 160 votes, 50.6% - 49.4%.

Democrats Failed to pick up

HD 39 Hertle - Pettengill
Pettengill, who switched parties in 2007, won 54.6% - 46.4%.

HD 44 Hoy -Sweeney
Sweeney won 54% to 46%.

HD 59 Sullivan - Hagenow
With all precincts reporting Sullivan is down by 141 votes. Possible recount maybe.

Incumbents who lost

HD 37 - Art Staed
Final numbers show Staed has lost, but it is by a narrow margin (33 votes) and there may be enough absentee ballots still coming in to overcome it.

Incumbents that won tight races

HD 1 - Wes Whitehead
Rumors were swirling that Whitehead was beaten, but the final numbers show him up by 6 votes. A recount is a definite possibility.

HD 75 - Eric Palmer
Palmer won with 54%.

HD 84 - Elesha Gayman
Elesha has lost 53.6% to 46.4% Hold on here, now the Register is showing Elesha up by 800 votes! Go Elesha!

HD 100 - Paul Shomshor
Shomshor was being targetted by the American Future Fund during the final weeks of the election and he won 52.2% to 47.8%.

Iowa House total as of now: Democrats 56-44

Elesha Gayman: 40 Days Until Election Day

I received this message from Elesha Gayman's campaign today and would like to encourage people to donate to her campaign through the Iowa Blogs: Expanding the Majority page on Act Blue.

We have forty days until the polls close and the ballots are counted. I am asking you to pledge $40 or 40 hours to the campaign between now and election day! If you can even do $4 or 4 hours your help will make the difference! (www.eleshagayman.com)

We have a lot of money left to raise and we have everything from knocking doors, making phone calls, placing yard signs, and helping with data entry. The Republicans are throwing everything and the kitchen sink my way and the negative attacks have begun.

Please send an email to my campaign manager, Matt Singer, at msinger@iowademocrats.org or call 734-846-0302 if you can help!

You can make donations online by visiting my website at www.eleshagayman.com and clicking on contribute. Or you can mail donations to: Elesha Gayman for Iowa, PO Box 2567 - Davenport, IA 52809.

Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated!

Elesha

Expanding the Majority: Hoy Creating an Environment That Encourages Young People to Call Iowa Home

One issue that I have blogged about extensively is Iowa's brain drain. Tim Hoy understands this issue and how it effects rural Iowa. He is running to create an environment that encourages our young generations to view Iowa as a place to call home.

To create an environment that encourages young Iowans to call Iowa home, something must be done about the amount of student loan debt our college graduates accumulate, there must high wage jobs, and there must be ample recreation opportunities in the state (which means we must have clean waterways).

If you want to create this kind of environment in Iowa, please donate to Tim Hoy's campaign.

The 2nd fundraising period ends on Tuesday, July 15th. We have a goal of 15 donors by the 15th and are currently at 10 donors. Since my post asking for donations last Thursday, we have raised $540, but are still short of our goal of 15 donors.

Please help expand the majority in the Iowa House by donating to Tim Hoy or these other great candidates we have featured in the past few months: Elesha Gayman, Eric Palmer, McKinley Bailey, Jerry Sullivan, and Nate Willems.

Counter Corporate Attacks and Donate to Iowa Democratic Blogger Approved Candidates

The end of the first fundraising quarter is Monday, March 31st and I thought I'd ask my readers to consider donating to one of the candidates on the Iowa Democratic Bloggers ActBlue page.

The candidates that I would like to ask you to consider donating to are Elesha Gayman, McKinley Bailey, and Eric Palmer. These three candidates have been targeted by a group funded by RJ Reynolds, Mid American Energy, and other corporations. Negative ads have been running throughout their districts on the issues of property tax relief and fair share.

These candidates are all serving in their first term in the Iowa House and are top targets by state Republicans. Please chip in to help these great candidates counter the corporate funded attacks and win re-election this November.

Click here to donate.

RJ Reynolds, Mid American Energy, and other Corporations Target Democrats

A group funded by RJ Reynolds, Mid American Energy, and other corporations is running TV and radio ads that target a handful of incumbent House Democrats that includes Elesha Gayman, Eric Palmer, McKinley Bailey, Bob Kressig, and Art Staed. The ads attack the candidates on the issues of property tax relief and fair share (which isn't even being debated this year).

The ads have run on cable TV and are paid for by the Iowa Leadership Council, a group organized under the Internal Revenue Code that allows it to raise unlimited contributions.

The council raised $214,550 in the last six months of 2007, according to IRS records, with the largest donors the Reynolds American tobacco company, which gave $40,000, and MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which donated $25,000.

These ads are applauded by Cyclone Conservative who goes searching for a slogan Republicans can spin in the election. He says that Republicans need to start the attacks now and repeat a slogan over and over again.

The slogan that he comes up with is that Democrats are against property tax relief and against keeping jobs in the state. This is absolutely ridiculous. He makes it sound like Democrats want all Iowans to be unemployed and want to force them to hand over all of their money in property taxes.

After running on slogans like "God, Gays, and Guns" for years now, Republicans should realize by now that they no longer are working. Republicans need to forget the slogans and focus on ideas. All of their ideas have run there course and now what is left, is an empty party that is only able to push wedge issues, while they attempt to come up with more meaningless slogans.

Generation Iowa Commission Signed by Culver

The Generation Iowa Commission was signed in to law by Gov. Chet Culver yesterday. The Generation Iowa Commission has the goal to stop Iowa's brain drain and keep young adults in the state.

The author of the bill is Rep. Elesha Gayman, who is from rural Scott Co. She writes about the bill on her blog for the Quad City times, where she asks..

But why should the common Iowan care?

I am glad she asks for my opinion. Currently, Iowa's biggest export is our well educated youth. We are investing in providing a high quality education to our children through public education, then we let the product of that bolt out the door at the first chance they get. To keep Iowa growing, we need to keep the product of our quality education system in the state, so that we can reap the benefits.

Rep. Gayman says...

If keeping your family and friends nearby is not a good enough reason, may I suggest that it is in your best financial interest? As the population continues to age and our tax base erodes, who is going to pay for schools, healthcare, roads, public safety and prisons? Why would a company even consider coming to Iowa if there aren’t enough workers?

I’m sure many folks wish I would stop talking about it, but I think we are finally starting to make progress. At a time when our workforce is aging and baby boomers are approaching retirement, it has become clear that we don’t have enough people to fill the ranks. Iowans are starting to wake up and realize our state ranks near last in retaining college graduates.

Rep. Gayman explains the details of the bill..

Our Generation Iowa bill was signed by the Governor today. It creates a Generation Iowa Commission comprised of 15, 18 to 35 year olds from diverse backgrounds who will be charged with three tasks: make recommendations to the legislature on how to keep and retain young people; promote and market Iowa to help recruit business, new industry, and young people; and create best practices for employers who are looking to keep and retain young talent.

Generation Iowa will be the needed foundation to an issue that is the single biggest challenge to our state’s successful economic future.

This is good start on reversing the trend of Iowa's brain drain. It will be interesting to follow what comes out of the Generation Iowa Commission.

Elesha Gayman Ready to Get to Work

One of the biggest upsets on November 7th in the state was Elesha Gayman's win in Iowa House District 84 in Scott County. Gayman defeated a long time incumbant and did so without much help from the state party. The Quad Cities Times have a story about Gayman and her plans in the Iowa House.

Come January, the 28-year-old Gayman gets another chance to impress: in Des Moines, with the opening of the 2007 Iowa legislative session.

Friends say they are confident of her success.

“She’s smart, she’s motivated. She wants to do a good job,” says Bev Strayhall, a veteran Davenport activist and supporter. “I think she’ll be a star.”

Gayman, whose family has deep roots in west Davenport, is the youngest Quad-Citian to be elected to the Iowa Legislature in a decade, and she’ll be among eight legislators younger than 30 who will take seats there. That is a change for a governing body whose members’ average age is 52.

Gayman campaigned on the idea that the capitol was lacking in a young person’s point of view, and she’s eager to take her ideas to the Statehouse to try to stanch the flow of young people out of Iowa, a major problem for the state.

I met Elesha last April at a Democracy for America training in the Quad Cities. I am not surprised at all that she won. She is intelligent, outgoing, and most importantly, is willing to listen and learn. It is great to have her heading to Des Moines to represent Iowans of all ages.

Young Candidates Ready to Take Office

One topic that I have written a lot about is how to stop brain drain and keep young Iowans in Iowa. After the November elections, one answer might be to have them run for office. From the Gazette Online (which requires a subscription, so no link)...

Young freshman welcomed into Iowa Legislature: This year, voters elected eight state representatives who are 30 or younger. According to party officials, that includes Republicans Pat Grassley of New Hartford, Steve Lukan of New Vienna and Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley, and Democrats McKinley Bailey of Webster City, Andrew Wenthe of Hawkeye, Tyler Olson of Cedar Rapids, Elesha Gayman of Davenport and Ray Zirkelbach of Anamosa. Some of these young legislators left Iowa to pursue opportunities out of state, but returned because of the people and quality of life.

Congratulations on these 8 for winning and it is good to get some new perspectives out there.

Big Win for Elesha Gayman in House District 84

I want to congratulate Elesha Gayman out in House District 84 in Scott for beating a long time incumbant. I believe Elesha will be the youngest woman ever elected to the Iowa House. I will update tomorrow with more about Elehsa.