National Dean Delegate District Tallies

Folks have been clamoring for a state-wide report of how the Deaniacs came out, delegate-wise.  So, I did a little reporting and here is what I discovered:

District 1

Elesha Gayman of the Quad Cities was elected a national Dean Delegate.

Phil Specht, the DFIA Founding Member from McGregor, was elected the 1st District Democratic Party Elector for the Electoral College.

District 2

Dave Leshtz of Iowa City was elected a national Dean Delegate.

District 3

Dr. Alan Koslow, MD, was elected a national Kerry (Dean) Delegate.

District 4

Darrell Lewis of Clear Lake, a DFIA Founding Member, was elected a national Kerry (Dean) Delegate.

District 5

Jean Hartwell, the DFIA Founding Member from McClelland, was elected to the IDP State Central Committee.

Congratulations to all of these fine Dean supporters, and thank you so much for your dedication and all your hard work.

I'd also like to thank Molly Regan, Chuck Galer, Dick Stater, Sally Troxell, and Darrell Lewis for organizing the Dean delegates to the District Conventions.

DFIA Meet Up Agenda for Thursday, May 6th

We have not yet received any word from our Democracy for America Meet Up people about what direction this next Meet Up should take, yet it is apparent from our DFA national website that two days AFTER our Meet Up on May 6th, May 8th will be a key day here in Iowa...and across the country in all the swing states.  Please organize this activity at your local Meet Up.
    
Iowa is one of the 17 "Swing States" where both sides will be targeting voters to GOTV (Get Out The Vote) for their side!!  Therefore, both sides will be working very hard between now and Nov. 2nd to make sure all are registered and ready to go to the polls or to mail in their absentee ballots. 

Several organizations have linked up to make May 8th National Election Action Day.  It kicks off here in Davenport at 10 AM with voter registration. 

Also, ACT (America Coming Together) is opening eight offices across Iowa on May 8th.  Go to http://americavotes.org/action/  and you can find locations in all swing states, and the location sign up that is specific to your part of Iowa.

The Iowa America Coming Together (ACT) sites will be in Ames, Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Iowa City/Coralville, Sioux City and Waterloo. Signing up at America Votes, or with ACT is committing to give 100 hours of your time between now and November 2nd.  This amounts to four hours a week.

I also received an email from MoveOn.org to sign up to volunteer for this day. So I am signed up through both websites now, and I await to hear from them more details on what all we will be doing on that day.
 
MoveOn sent me this email:

For too long, campaigns and political parties have simply sent voters a few brochures in the weeks before the election.

This year is different.  An unprecedented coalition of like-minded groups, including Sierra Club, Emily's List, True Majority, and the AFL-CIO, has started months ahead of time. Rather than relying on direct mail, we'll be conducting a genuine dialogue with voters about issues like better jobs, affordable health care, a clean environment, and safeguarding our civil liberties.

But the success of that effort will depend on how many of us can pitch in. Can you help? Sign up now at:

http://action.moveon.org/may8/

Karene 'kid' Nagel, DFIA Meet Up Coordinator

DFIA Gets First Press Mention!

Well, thanks to Alta and her media alerts, Democracy for Iowa got our very first mention in the local press!  Of course, they GOT OUR NAME WRONG . . . calling us Democracy IN Iowa.  I don't know why that kind of thing always cracks me up.  Probably because we have a long history of being "John" Dean supporters!  At least they got Howard's name right.

Anyway, excellent job, Alta, and another great quote emphasizing that one of our goals is fiscal responsibility!  Plus, Deirdre Cox Baker, the local reporter who wrote the article, did an excellent job covering the topic.  Here's an excerpt.

Scott County auditor rejects paperless voting
Quad-Cities Times

It’s something on which Democrats and Republicans agree: Scott County’s future voting machines ought to continue to include a verifiable paper trail.

Scott County Auditor Karen Fitzsimmons concurs and says she will not purchase any of the Direct Recording Electronic, or DRE, voting equipment that saves ballots electronically instead of on paper.

Fitzsimmons got a visit Tuesday from representatives of Democracy in Iowa, an organization stemming from former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s onetime presidential campaign. State co-founder Dr. Alta Price of Bettendorf delivered a 59-page study titled “Myth Breakers for Election Officials,” which includes detailed information about the DRE voting systems.

“Nothing is more important to a democracy than assuring fair elections,” Price said. “We also believe in fiscally responsible government and want to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely when voting machines are purchased.”

(more)

The New McGovern?
It's Not Whom You Think

In 1972, George McGovern outmaneuvered a divided Democratic field to emerge as the party nominee to oppose Richard Nixon - and his campaign fell apart following the convention.

There were a number of reasons for this, but perhaps the most important has rarely been examined: The traditional party faithful, especially organized labor who supported center-rightists Hubert Humphrey and Ed Muskie, turned their back on the antiwar senator from South Dakota, leaving him and his boy-wonder campaign staff to the mercy of Nixon's Southern strategy of bigotry and fear.

Now, jump ahead to last winter and spring, when Howard Dean was exciting progressive Democrats by saying what they were thinking - he opposed America's invasion of Iraq, he opposed corporate terrorism, he would fight for affordable health insurance for all Americans, he was from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Critics from the right of the party bleated, "Don't nominate this guy because he's another McGovern - too far left for his own good - and he'll bring the party down just the way McGovern did 32 years ago."

Well, the bad moon of McGovern is unmistakably rising, only this time it's coming from the right! By moving unmistakably "toward the center," PreDemNom John Kerry is threatening to alienate the energetic, passionate, progressive Democrats who supported Dean, Dennis Kucinich and, yes, Ralph Nader. And to win in November the Democrats simply can't do without that energy and passion.

If the proposed platform handed out to delegates at last weekend's district party conventions is any indication, the Democrats are going to march into the general election campaign forthrightly refusing to repeal the insidious No Child Left Behind legislation that aims to break down resistance to government-endorsed private education; refusing to vastly overhaul NAFTA and stanch the outflow of jobs overseas; refusing to take a strong stand against corporate abuse; refusing to advocate for true and vital environmental reforms; and, of course, refusing to commit to U.S. withdrawal in the shortest possible time from Iraq. All in the name of convincing the vast middle muddle that a Democrat without gumption would be better at running the country than a Republican who has strongly held views, even if they're so far outside the mainstream you have to navigate that tributary by a mule-driven canal boat.

So how does McGovern enter into this? In 1972, it was the vast center, which the Democrats needed desperately to defeat Nixon, that abandoned the South Dakota senator, leaving the president to feast on the "silent majority" that re-elected him by one of the greatest landslides in history. Today, despite right-wing myths to the contrary, the country is much closer politically, as evidenced by the utter skin-of-the-teeth margin in 2000 and polls that indicate a similar result in November. Kerry and the Democratic center-right threatens to alienate progressives at his peril - and that of the nation.

Ralph Nader: The independent presidential hopeful, or, as Kerry Democrats call him, the Presumptive Pain in the Ass, says that the only way to stabilize Iraq is with an international peacekeeping force composed of neutral nations and Islamic countries. "Iraq should be able to sort out [its] issues more easily without the military presence of a U.S. occupying force," he says.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0419-09.htm

Daniel Ellsberg: The Nixon-era Defense Department analyst who released to the New York Times what became known as the Pentagon Papers -- a confidential report that detailed over two decades the U.S. involvement in Vietnam -- predicted the escalating violence in Iraq "will get far worse." He also took issue with John Kerry's plan to perhaps increase involvement, saying, "I want him [Kerry] elected, but I'm not happy with what I'm hearing. ''We must persevere. We can't leave.' I hope that is a campaign promise he [Kerry] will go back on."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0420-04.htm