Candidate Watch: Elesha Gayman - Iowa House District 84by Caroline Vernon
Elesha Gayman is an outstanding candidate for Iowa House District 84. She is a breath of fresh air, and exemplifies the kind of down home values that will help to promote and preserve what it means to be an Iowan. Elesha will ensure that Iowa is a better place to live, work, and raise a family. What else could we ask for?
[Click here for a map of Iowa House District 84 in Scott County.]
Elesha Gayman was born in Davenport, Iowa. Her great, great grandparents were one of the original 13 families that settled in Davenport during the mid 1840's before Iowa became a state in 1846. In fact, the Gayman homestead is still in the family and their name can be found on the monument at the Scott County museum and pioneer village.
Initially inspired by former Republican State Representative, Neil Harrison, Elesha first became involved in politics at the age of thirteen when she became a member of the Davenport Youth City Council. Feeling a little rebellious at the time, Elesha advocated against youth curfews. Although she shared she was unsuccessful in changing anyone’s mind, the experience with the DYCC did much to enhance her confidence levels.
During her senior year in high school, Elesha helped to plan voter registration drives and engaged many of her peers in the process. Upon graduating in 1997, she recalls that Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” was in full swing. It was at that time that she started paying closer attention to the different platform issues and became more selective of who she would support and why. Although she was previously involved with the Republican Party throughout the 90's, their message at that time discouraged women from becoming involved in the political process as well as the workforce. As a result, Elesha said the last thing she wanted to hear was someone telling her what she couldn’t do. This got her more fired up than ever.
Click here to visit Elesha Gayman's website.
After attending one year at St. Ambrose University, Elesha attended the first semester of her sophomore year in Rome, Italy, majoring in Political Science with an emphasis in International Relations. Elesha shared with me that this experience imparted a deep sense of history. Many of the cobblestone roads still bore the deep grooves made by the wheels of ancient chariots. In addition to her political science classes, she also took advantage of taking classes in Catholicism, Art, and Philosophy.
Elesha arrived in Rome just two days after the embassy bombings in Africa and the Kosovo situation was also exploding over there at the time. These issues prompted her interest in law and military affairs, so she took as many military classes as she could in college. It was at that time that she became very interested in the career of General Wesley Clark. She later became part of the Draft Clark campaign for President although she ultimately went to the Democratic National Convention as a Howard Dean delegate.
Upon returning home, Elesha finished her education at the University of Iowa, graduating in May of 2001 with a BA in Political Science and International Relations. Having also lived in DC for a while as well as Washington State, Elesha said she realized that Iowa is one of the last great places in this country that still reflects the old Americana values. She says this makes her feel so proud to be from Iowa and is one of the reasons she came back to stay. Having quit her job to work for John Kerry during the last campaign, she decided at that time that even if we didn’t win, she was committed to staying here in order to make sure Iowa stayed on the right track.
Wanting to learn more, Elesha began to ask many of our seniors to share what issues were most important to them and was surprised to find that one of their greatest concerns was the lack of young people who stayed in Iowa after completing their education. They wanted to know where their children and grandchildren were going. This inspired Elesha to look at this problem of Iowa Brain Drain and address it in the best way possible. One way to do so is to support and advance what it is to be an Iowan. Iowa ranks second in the nation in volunteer hours. That says a lot about the people here.
Elesha believes that innovative and on-going economic development is necessary in order to attract new businesses to Iowa, yet the question remains, who will be the workforce? She is concerned that if we are unable to offer a new generation of an educated workforce, it’s going to be difficult recruiting the kinds of socially responsible companies to Iowa that will continue to re-invest in our communities. At a time when our economy is rapidly changing, our manufacturing jobs continue to disappear, and with CAFTA in place to only exacerbate the problem, it is more important than ever to establish innovative ways of developing effective and sound relationships with the business community. In Elesha’s opinion, this does not necessarily mean giving them huge tax breaks.
The state of the family farm also concerns Elesha. It is estimated that approximately 70% of family farms will turnover within the next 15 years due to retirement, etc. Rather than see these farms bought up by large corporations, Elesha’s hope is to be able to encourage young people to continue in their family traditions and she believes we should focus on ways to make it lucrative for them to do so. Providing new opportunities for our youth is also what is means to be an Iowan.
Elesha would like to see more incentives for ethanol development, as well as wind farms. She suggested that rather than continuing to subsidize oil companies, we should be investing in alternative forms of energy. In Europe, although the cost of gasoline is much higher, people were aware of the fact that the governments were not subsidizing the oil industry so you only paid once at the pump. In America, we actually pay twice, once at the pump and again through our taxes.
Elesha believes America should concentrate on being a “world leader” rather than a “super-power.” We need to lead in environmental conservation, economics, and ethics as well as maintaining a strong military. But as Elesha says, “a good leader doesn’t always need to speak loudly and be the center of attention.... There are times where you need to scale back and let other members of your team (which is the global community) step in and apply their level of expertise in certain circumstances in order to work together as a team. That’s what it means to be a good leader. It’s not to say “screw you” to the rest of the world.”
I shared with Elesha my concern about progressives being able to get our message “out there” when the mainstream media fails to report on the issues that really matter. She believes we will continue to see a shift in how the news is delivered. She was very excited about the prospect of Al Gore’s new independent cable network. Elesha believes this will begin to revolutionize television. We’ll see more news in the form of little vignettes - Independent people from across the nation will be able to cement 8 minute time slots. This will attract a wide variety of independent and alternative news sources. Elesha believes it is very important to explore diverse viewpoints across the political spectrum in order to continue to educate yourself and better understand what is in the hearts and minds of all Americans.
I asked Elesha how she expects to fare against long time incumbent, Jim Van Fossen, and how she proposes to differentiate herself. She told me that she is eager to go “toe-to-toe” with Jim on the issues. Elesha believes they actually agree on many issues as Jim used to be a Democrat but feels he has not led on issues such as the environment and education. She looks forward to a spirited campaign against him but feels it’s time for a fresh face with fresh ideas. She says she’s certainly “tough enough”. Elesha’s mother taught her, “nobody is ever any better than you are but you’re never any better than anyone else”. Elesha said this has helped to keep her grounded but at the same time give her the courage to stand up for what she believes.
Elesha shared with me how much she has enjoyed working with Senator Schoenjahn this past year. She has expressed her gratitude for the ongoing support of many people who have been willing to help with her campaign. She also made special mention of Gordon Fisher. Elesha says Gordon, as chair of her campaign, has been a phenomenal resource for her given his level of expertise. Elesha is the third woman candidate that he has helped who has run for a house seat. The others have been successful and Elesha hopes her campaign follows suit, citing that there has been a serious lack of women leadership in this country, particularly in Iowa. On a national level women represent about 13% of government yet approximately 52% of the populace. The ratio is even less in Iowa. That needs to change.
When asked what she believes Democrats must do in order to win in 2006, Elesha indicated we should continue to follow Howard Dean’s example of utilizing the Internet as a fund-raising tool as well as a powerful means to connect people. Making these connections, she believes, makes people feel like they’re part of community which is very important. She also believes, what will be key for progressives, is encouraging the next generation of young people to invest in learning more about computers. That’s going to do for the Democratic party in this decade, what talk radio did for the Republicans since the 80's. Elesha wants to inspire hope in people that have never been involved in politics before as well as reach voters who have been involved but not happy with the direction this country has been heading.
In my opinion, Elesha Gayman is an outstanding candidate for Iowa House District 84. She is a breath of fresh air, and exemplifies the kind of down home values that will help to promote and preserve what it means to be an Iowan. Elesha will ensure that Iowa is a better place to live, work, and raise a family. What else could we ask for?
Click here for a map of Iowa House District 84 in Scott County.
Click here to visit Elesha Gayman's website.