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altheakims - Tue 19 Aug 2008 04:28 AM CDT
Richard - Sun 17 Aug 2008 06:57 PM CDT
sspl05 - Sat 02 Aug 2008 07:21 AM CDT
ihatehogconfinements - Mon 21 Jul 2008 06:45 PM CDT
no4gman - Tue 15 Jul 2008 10:46 PM CDT
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Thursday, September 22
The DFA Vote is Down to the Final 10, and Iowa Has TWO Great Candidates Still in the Running! Vote Now!
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 22 Sep 2005 09:00 PM CDT
 The DFA Vote is Down to the Final 10, and Iowa Has TWO Great Candidates Still in the Running! Vote Now!
Well, I
have to admit that I am very impressed by the Iowa progressive
community. In the initial round of voting to select a
Congressional candidate for DFA endorsement, two Iowa candidates, David
Loebsack from Iowa Congressional District 2 and Bruce Braley from Iowa
Congressional District 1, made it to the Top 10 as finalists. And
they did this by beating out many other Congressional candidates from
far more populous states than Iowa. Fifty candidates were eliminated in the first round.
Go vote now
for your choice. The voting ends Saturday. DFA is using an
Instant Runoff Voting system, which means you can vote for up to three
candidates and rank them in your order of preference.
Since
both Loebsack and Braley are on Blog for Iowa’s Candidate Watch list,
we’ve decided to have two passionate members of our blog team each
personally endorse a candidate. Hold onto your hats!
 David Loebsack is The Man to Vote For!!!
by Molly Regan
David
Loebsack is a TRUE DEANER! And whom better should Democracy for
Iowa followers choose than one of their own?! Go to Blog for America to cast your vote now,
then pass the word to all you know. Anyone in the country can
vote. You only have until Saturday, September 24th, at 4pm Iowa
time. We have the power. Let’s make it so for this great
Dean supporter.
David
has been teaching political science at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon
for over 22 years. Now he has chosen to take on the task of
defeating Rep. Jim Leach in the 2nd Congressional District of Iowa.
David
helped Governor Dean on his many tours of Eastern Iowa and was a Dean
delegate to the Linn County, the state, and the national
conventions. He is a true progressive. He is one of
us. Go to Loebsackforcongress.org for more information about David.
I have known and admired David for nearly ten years and he truly is the best person to be DFA’s first candidate of choice.
Molly Regan / Scott County / DFQC
 Bruce Braley Speaks For Me!
by Caroline Vernon
At a
time when the current administration is attempting to stack the Supreme
Court with right-wing ideologues rather than mainstream judges who will
remain fair and impartial on their interpretation of the law, it is
important that we have true representation of the people in our
Congress in order to balance the scales of justice. America needs
a new class of leadership who is not afraid to speak truth to power
even at the risk of being ostracized.
I
believe Bruce Braley is such a man. In Bruce's words, (paraphrasing)
"Saying what's popular is not always right and saying what's right is
not always popular."
America
needs leadership that will FINALLY stand up to the corporate special
interests and tell them that while it's great that they want to make
money for their shareholders, we have had enough of the rampant greed
and it is no longer acceptable to choose profits over people!
I
believe Bruce will have the courage of his convictions, represent the
best interest of "we the people" and reflect the many progressive
values that have truly made this country great.
Bruce is
strong on education, health care, and a woman's right to choose her own
destiny. Throughout his career, he has donated legal services to
many indigent Iowans through the Volunteer Lawyers Project. He also
feels that stewardship of our land, water and air needs to be a
national priority. Bruce is prepared to ask the tough questions
about the war and demand that our troops are sent home. Bruce is also
against the privatization of social security and supports continued
efforts to achieve energy independence through renewable fuels and
alternative energy sources.
A vote
for Bruce Braley is a vote for a brighter future for Iowa. Therefore, I
am hoping you will join me in voting for Bruce Braley (Iowa's 1st
Congressional district) as DFA's next Grassroots All-Star!
To learn more about Bruce, visit his website at www.brucebraley.com
Cast your vote now!
Caroline Vernon / Scott County / DFQC
Wednesday, September 14
Democracy For Iowa Conference 2005
by
Caroline Vernon
on Wed 14 Sep 2005 04:00 AM CDT
 Democracy For Iowa Conference 2005
Notes by Aaron Wings, with additions and Workshop notes by Robin Roseman
Report on DFIA Conference
September 10, 2005
Iowa City
OVERVIEW:
The
morning sessions were very informational. What was most impressive was
the variety of issues that were discussed and the political cooperative
efforts.
The
afternoon sessions were work sessions. Several important actions
were planned. We began to give structure to a statewide DFA
organization - DFIA. We also decided to have a coordinated focus
for the next several months on state health care issues, in particular,
a State Health Care Lobby Day. We urge all interested people to
join DFIA by signing up here.
MORNING SESSION:
We began
with a welcome by Dennis Roseman, Iowa City DFA Organizer who in turn
introduced members of the meeting that represented some progressive
non-DFA groups and activities:
Pat
Vunderink talked about DAWN, a Democratic Activists Women’s
Network. This might be termed an Iowa Emily’s List with a major
goal to support progressive women candidates.
Trish Nelson talked about IBLTV, Iowans for Better Local TV, a media reform group: http://www.ibltv.org.
They have an on-line petition which all are invited to sign asking the
FCC to hear Iowa complaints about the quality of local television.
There will also be an important FCC-Free Press Public Hearing,
on October 5th, in Iowa City at the University of Iowa (exact
location to be determined).
Ellen
Ballas spoke of Rapid Response Network. This organization is well known
to all readers of Blog for Iowa. Please join them in their
efforts to fight disinformation: http://www.rapidresponsenetwork.org
Mike
Carberry informed us of an Iowa City group, Citizens for Public Power.
This group has put the issue of creating a municipal Iowa City electric
power company on the November ballot. They are currently building
support for passage. http://www.icpublicpower.org
Dick
Stater, Chair Linn County Democrats, talked about a Fundraiser on
October 22nd, in Mount Vernon, with the possibility of a nationally
prominent Democratic office holder as a speaker. For more information
go to http://www.linndems.org
Alta
Price discussed Quad Cities Progressive Action for the Common Good, a
new progressive coalition consisting of various issue forums. Due to
the high level of activity, PACG is currently engaged in a fundraising
campaign in an effort to hire an organizer to maintain the necessary
support of the various issue forums.
http://www.digiforce.net/PACG%20Site/index.php
Mike
Carberry also spoke of FAIR, a local group working for social and
economic justice. FAIR will co-sponsor an Iowa City Council Candidate
Forum with Johnson County DFA and The 49 - to be held on September 15th.
The
above list exemplifies the variety of activities that Iowa DFA members
are engaged in as well as establishing connections and
cooperation with other progressive groups.
Jim Dean, DFA Chair, then gave a lively keynote talk about the future plans and goals for DFA.
He spoke
of other DFA State meetings (23 of these to date). They focused on some
small races as well as larger ones. Currently DFA is supporting 40
candidates nationwide and plans to endorse an additional 10 more
candidates for a total of 50. DFA is also engaged in providing some
Candidate and Activist training with 21st Century Democrats. In
addition, they plan to provide a 2-day training workshop in the Quad
Cities next Spring.
Jim
listed and spoke briefly on several current and future political issues
and mentioned two particular goals for the near future: a DFA Meet-up
in every congressional district and expansion of Generation DFA for
college students.
In the
next segment there were four reports by Iowa DFA Meetup
groups: Alta Price for Democracy for the Quad Cities, Tony Hansen
for Des Moines DFA, Sue Astley for Cedar Rapids DFA, and Robin Roseman
for Johnson County DFA.
Chris Warshaw, DFA Field/Political Director, described four areas of focus for DFA:
1. Meet-up programs in all states, 100 college groups, a total of 5000 at meet-ups
2. Development of communication tools such as DFA-Link.
DFA Link will replace and improve upon the functionality that we had with Meetup.com.
3.
Having special training sessions to build political skills such
as communication with elected officials and writing letters to editors,
etc. For example, there is a plan for a two-day training next
Spring in the Quad Cities.
4.
Candidate development: One goal is to build from within by
encouraging members to run for office. Also, DFA sponsored 103
candidates last year - approximately 1/3 won. DFA is currently
sponsoring 40 candidates, but won’t endorse any more until after the
November elections with the exception of one congressional seat.
This early sponsorship will be decided by voting online here.
(Note: The vote started on Tuesday, 9/13)
Next on
the program was a Candidate Forum. It was a real showcase of what we in
DFA are doing. Candidates (and one pre-candidate) from many levels of
government participated; David Loebsack (2nd District), Bill Gluba and
Bruce Braley (1st District), Tammy Place (pre-candidate, Iowa House 79)
and Garry Klein (Iowa City Council). Scroll down for contact information.
Next we had two presentations dealing with Iowa issues and Iowa groups:
Mike
Owen, assistant Director of the Iowa Policy Project, gave a fact filled
presentation on Iowa economic issues. To review this wellspring of
useful information, stats and facts (highly recommended), visit thier
website at: http://www.iowapolicyproject.org
Sarah
Swisher, gave a spirited talk about three organizations of which she is
an officer: The Iowa Democratic Party, SEIU, and Johnson
County Democrats. Sarah discussed various ways that DFA could interface
with each of these organizations for a mutual benefit.
AFTERNOON SESSION:
Identifying Goals
What to
focus on in the next 6 months? At first a large list of goals and
issues were suggested by participants but were ultimately reduced down
to reflect two levels: Meetup level and State level.
On the Local Level:
Endorse and support local candidates. (Run for office)
Participate in 2006 Democratic caucuses.
Build coalitions with other progressive groups.
Outreach-expand membership.
On the State Level:
Increase the number of contributors for Blog for Iowa.
Support Democratic Candidates; Opportunity to take back the Iowa House, Senate, and Governorship in 2006.
Health Care for Iowa.
Most importantly it was decided to form a state-wide group known as Democracy for Iowa (DFIA). This
would be done with the help of a steering committee and implemented (in
part) as a new statewide DFA-link group called DFIA.
Introducing
the DFIA Steering Committee: Dennis Roseman, Robin Roseman, Alta Price,
Gary Gramon, Sue Astley, Tony Hansen, Cliff Day, Sally Troxell,
Trish Nelson and Ellen Ballas
One goal of DFIA is to expand the number of Meet-up groups and to facilitate communication between members across Iowa.
In particular we would like to have at least one Meetup group per congressional district. (see map)
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/Redist/congress-color.pdf
It was
suggested that folks from established groups should help new
groups get going. Tony volunteered for central Iowa, Alta and Dennis
for eastern Iowa, and we need someone for western Iowa.
As a particular focus for statewide action it was decided to have a Health Care Lobby Day.
Tony
volunteered to coordinate with SEIU/Iowans for Health Care to
participate in a joint Health Care Lobby Day in Des Moines on Februrary
7th, 2006. DFA will help with a phone list and support. We
also plan to make home visits to legislators in the districts to
discuss Health Care for all Iowans.
At the
end of the day, a few of us went out for ice cream with Ed Fallon,
candidate for governor, who wasn't able to make the meeting because of
a previous engagement, but showed up at the Iowa Room just as we were
leaving. A great time was had by all!
Braley for Congress
http://www.brucebraley.com
P O Box 390
Waterloo, IA 50704
319-464-4450
Tammy Place
PO Box 501
Durant, IA 52747
563-785-4837
Friends of Bill Gluba
http://www.glubaforcongress.com
PO Box 2205
Davenport, IA 52808
563-459-6558
David Loebsack
http://www.loebsackforcongress.org
PO Box 81
Mt Vernon IA 52314
319-721-5324
Garry Klein
http://www.kleinforcouncil.org
628 2nd Ave
Iowa City, IA 52245
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