Denise O'Brien Gets It

Back in September I thought to myself that, if all races were of equal importance, I would want Denise O'Brien to win the most out of any Democratic candidate. I couldn't really put my finger on the reason why. There are a lot of other good Democrats running for office (and a few not so good ones), but there is something about O'Brien that makes her stand out above everyone else.

Yesterday in the Des Moines Register Rekha Basu sums up my thoughts in a great article about O'Brien and explains how O'Brien just "gets it" about Iowa's future. The article begins with Basu retelling how she thought when she moved to Iowa, she would be living in a country house where milk was delivered and you were able to buy food from a roadside stand. Basu goes on to add...

We hadn't completely grasped that Des Moines was city and not country, or that Iowa agriculture was almost strictly about corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs, produced on an exceptionally large scale, then shipped elsewhere.

That would explain why the corn at the grocery store came from Missouri, and the pork was no fresher or choicer than anywhere else. And despite being a soybean state, there was no Iowa tofu to be found; soybeans went to feed the livestock. It also explained why there were few full-time farmers, and why people scratched their heads when I asked about visiting a working family farm.

Iowa wasn't "farm" country culturally or economically. It was corporate-agriculture country, interests well represented by the Farm Bureau and the big producers' and growers' associations.

The mystery was why we, as a state, accepted this model as best despite the costs to small farmers and the environment, and though rural communities were dying.

Basu closes by saying that there are Iowans that want to farm and Iowans that want to buy fresh food locally. O'Brien understands this and wants to make this a reality. This is a great chance for our rural communties to grow, it is a great chance for Iowa to grow. O'Brien gets it. I hope many other Iowans get it too and elect Denise O'Brien as the next Secretary of Agriculture.

Election 2006 Posts

I thought I would go through the posts that I have written on the candidates and put them in one post to make it easier for people to find.

Governor
Quad City Times Endorses Culver
Watch out Chet, the Boogeyman is Catching Up! - recommended
Report from the Johnson County Democratic BBQ -recommended
Lamberti Attacks Nussle's budget record
Nussle Scams Teachers, Children, and Future with NCLB
Iowa Teachers Endorse Culver

1st District
Braley Endorsed by the Dubuque Telegraph Herald
Meet the Real Bruce Braley
Braley Profiled on FireDogLake

2nd District
New Poll in 2nd District...Leach 50%, Loebsack 48%
Comments on Leach and Loebsack Debate - recommended
My Meeting With Dave Loebsack - recommended
Report from the Johnson County Democratic BBQ - recommended
Centrism is for Suckers (or the Sierra Club and NEA get swindled) - recommended
Leach Votes to Give Rich Another Tax Break and Hurt Working Iowans
2nd District Convention Report -recommended

4th District
Message from Selden Spencer
Spencer Endorsed by the Mason City Globe Gazette
Wes Clark Raising Money for Selden Spencer - recommended
Spencer's TV Ad Up and Ready To Go
Notes from Spencer's Campaign Stop -recommended
Latham Criticized for Negative Attack
Not Very Many People Like Tom Latham
Spencer's Speech at the Harkin Steak Fry - recommended
Selden Spencer Media Day
Selden Spencer Blogging from Afghanistan - recommended
Spencer Gets Props on MyDD - recommended
Latham Better Watch Out
Spencer Barnstorming the 4th District
4th District Convention Report

Sec. of Agriculture
Meeting Denise O'Brien - recommended
Met Denise O'Brien Over the Weekend

The Most Negative Campaign Award

The Republican responsible for the most negative campaigning award goes to Danny Carroll, if Danny Carroll is actually his real name.

It seems like every couple weeks, I hear about some crazy story Republican Danny Carroll is fabricating or flat out making up about his opponent Eric Palmer in Iowa House District 75. 

At the beginning of the summer, Carroll conducted some push polls against Palmer. Then Carroll claimed that Palmer didn't pay his property taxes and cited records from a county office that doesn't even exist. Finally, Carroll sent out some attack mailings that mischaracterized Palmer's stance on emminent domain.

If you are in Iowa House District 75, vote for Eric Palmer for a positive vision for Iowa. And here's Palmer's TV ad...

New Polls from the Des Moines Register

The Des Moines Register has a bunch of new polls out. Here's a quick rundown...

Governor: Culver 52% - Nussle 43%
1st District: Braley 56% - Whalen 35%
Sec. of Ag: Northey 43% - O'Brien 42%
Sec. of State: Mauro 43% - Hanusa 33%

The only race that I am surprised about is for Sec of Agriculture. 2 weeks ago in the same poll, O'Brien was up 40% to 26%. So over the last 2 weeks her opponet gained 17% while O'Brien went up just 2%. It looks like the race will be real close.

This is the 2nd straight poll that has Culver over 50%. It seems Nussle can't get more than in the low 40's. Here is where the candidates are getting their support from...

Culver runs stronger than Nussle in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd congressional districts, which cover most of eastern Iowa. They run nearly neck-and-neck in the 4th District.

Nussle has the advantage in western Iowa's 5th District, a vote-rich area for Republicans that could give him a big boost if he's able to turn out the vote in that part of the state.

In the 2nd District, I wonder if Loebsack can follow Culver's coatails to pick up a couple % points.

Message from Selden Spencer

Here is a message from Selden Spencer that outlines the theme of his campaign one more time. Dr. Spencer wants to change Washington. He wants to bring back honesty and integrity to the government and the only way to do that is with new leadership. A vote for Tom Latham is a vote to continue the mess we are in.

Hostile Takeover...Unions

Chapter 9 of Hostile Takeover is about Unions.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain (R) flew around on a corporate jets owned by companies wiht business before the Senate committee he chaired. It was a gross display of how Corporate America owns our elections. Yet while McCain did acknowledge the generally corrosive influence of money on politics, he went out of his way to single out "the labor bosses [who] go down with the big checks" as the prime culprits ruining our democracy - not the corporate cronies who were flying him al over the country.

Read more from Hostile Takeover...
Introduction
Jobs
Wages
Debt
Pensions
Health Care
Prescription Drugs
Energy

Liberal Media Blasts Bush and Defends Kerry, Oh Wait

Here is a clip from CNN that blasts Bush and defends Kerry's remarks. The wingnuts, such as the Cornbelt Wacko Boys, might think this is just the so called Liberal media at work again, except that 2 pundits attacking Bush, the Iraq occupation, and defending Kerry are conservatives Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan. Both Hitchens and Sullivan were for the Iraq War at the beginning and were Republicans. Neither is true today. Here is Hitchens' take...

ZAHN: Do you think they're (Cheney and Rumsfield) both doing a fantastic job, as the president said?

HITCHENS: Well, the word fantastic relates to fantasy, doesn't it? I mean, to say that's something is fantastic or fabulous is to say that it's imaginary.

ZAHN: So, is that you're saying it is?

HITCHENS: I think it is in the president's mind. Yes, just as he's imagined that John Kerry insulted men and women in uniform when he was trying to make a joke at the president's expense. As I said, it's been a weird and grotesque week, not the least rhetorically.

And here is some of what Sullivan said...

ZAHN: Andrew Sullivan, did the president make a mistake and will that drive some of these voters away from Republicans in a tight contest?

ANDREW SULLIVAN, AUTHOR, "THE CONSERVATIVE SOUL": Well, look, here's a president who said that Michael Brown was doing a heck of a job with Katrina. And now he's the president saying that Donald Rumsfeld has done a fantastic job in Iraq. It's the same denial. If you believe that Michael Brown did a heck of a job with Katrina, then you maybe believe that Donald Rumsfeld has done a great job in Iraq.

It's unhinged. In my view, it suggests this man has lost his mind. I mean, no one objectively can look at the way this war has been conducted, whether you were for it, as I was, or against, and see that it's been done well. It's a disaster. And for him to say it's a fantastic job, suggests that this president really has lost it. I'm sorry. There is no other way to say it.

And here's to all those Republicans still living in Bush's fantasy world.

Hostile Takeover...Energy

After a little break, I am back to reading Hostile Takeover by David Sirota and just have a few chapter left (which means I should finish it over the weekend).

Chapter 8 is about the influence the energy industry has on our government.

Between 2000 and 2004, America's oil stuck consumers with abotu $250 billion in price increases and increased oil industry profits by up to $80 billion. In 2004 alone, oil executives used massinve price increases to double their annual compensation packages to an average of roughly $16 million a year - by far the highest median for any industry in America. And remember this the next time you fill up and get gouged at the gas pump: a nice chunk of what you just paid is being used to buy complicity from the political leaders who are supposed to be protection you from beind fleeced. Between 2000 and 2004, for instance, the oil and gas industry gave the Republican Party $67 million - that's $1,900 an hour, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for four straight years - all to make sure that government looks the other way when you get ripped off.

Read more from Hostile Takeover...
Introduction
Jobs
Wages
Debt
Pensions
Health Care
Prescription Drugs

Obama Coming to Iowa City on Sunday

I missed Obama at the Harkin Steak Fry, but hopefully I can make it to Iowa City for this event on Sunday. From the Iowa City Press Citizen...

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will appear Sunday night on the pedestrian mall in downtown Iowa City.

The Democrat, a freshman senator and a possible presidential candidate in 2008, will headline a rally for Democratic candidates at 8 p.m.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Gov. Tom Vilsack and first lady Christie Vilsack, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver, Democratic Congressional candidate Dave Loebsack and other state candidates are expected to speak at the event, which is open to the public and free of charge.

Wes Clark: "Because of Iraq."

I am becoming more and more of a Wes Clark fan the more I learn about him. He has put out a great TV ad about the Iraq War that features 3 veterans that fought in Iraq. The ad gets straight to the point and shows how our national security is weakened because we are in Iraq.

Braley Endorsed by the Dubuque Telegraph Herald

I haven't written much about the race in the 1st District, mainly because I haven't had the chance to meet the candidates and don't have many ties to the area. However, a lot of the little tidbits that I do hear are about the importance of Dubuque. Most say that whatever candidate wins Dubuque had a great shot at winning the District.

Over the weekend, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald endorsed Democrat Bruce Braley in the race. Now, endorsements can be overrated, but it can't hurt Braley to be getting the support from the Telegraph Herald.

The Telegraph Hearld (Registration required) cites the situation in Iraq in their decision about the race...

Braley stands out as an effective communicator who gives specifics. He talks about real solutions, not just pie-in-the-sky ideas. ... Whalen's opinion on the war in Iraq is troubling ... Braley's call to develop an exit strategy, with a timetable for withdrawal of troops, is exactly what most Americans expect.

Mason City Globe Gazette Endorses Selden Spencer

The Mason City Globe Gazette has endorsed Selden Spencer in the race for US Congress in the 4th District. Here's part of their endorsement...

But it’s time for a change. In the last six years, Republican leadership has buried this country under a mountain of debt while entangling it in two wars that seem to have no clear-cut objectives and offer no road home. We believe the war in Iraq has become the motivator for more terrorism in the world, not the solution to it.

The administration and Congress have fared little better with domestic matters such as immigration and health care reform, and the partisanship and rancor exhibited by this group of Republicans are tearing this nation apart.

For the sake of our country, this state of affairs must change. It won’t change unless the Democratic Party has the strength needed to oppose the White House.

“We must hold the other party accountable. We have a president, a Senate and a House of Representatives that have failed us,” said Spencer in a story published in the Globe Gazette on Oct. 19.