Iowa

18 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in media criticism, meta, Town Hall

Tags

2020 Presidential Campaign, caucus, Iowa, Media, media criticism, meta, town hall

Meta.

If you’re reading this you’re probably not aware (judging by the site statistics) that we spent the past weekend on an Iowa road trip, covering two out of three 2020 presidential campaign events we intended to cover (sometimes the concession to cold weather, a blocks long walk with a load of equipment, and the fact that we’re not getting any younger weigh more than getting just a few more images).

Back to the beginning. Once Democratic Party candidates started announcing that they were running or their intention to run for President (and traveling) we started contacting campaigns – not as easy as you might think – so we could receive media notices. We’re a four hour drive from Iowa’s largest city and in past years, dating back to 2007, had regularly covered the Harkin Steak Fry (look it up in our archives) in Indianola. They’re all going to be in Iowa more than once before 2020, so why not?

If history is any indication, it’s a mixed bag. In 2008 and 2012 we managed to cover what we could in Missouri and surrounding states as we received notices. In the 2016 cycle, by the time the two major candidates in the Democratic Party primary finally started sending us media notices the Iowa caucus was long over.

So, we’ve sent requests for media notices (again, it’s not always easy to find out the “to who” part) and have started to receive them. At present six of the campaigns are sending us media notices. It’s like trying to sip from a firehouse. We’ve yet to receive notices or responses from a number of other campaigns. That’s okay – it’s either a result of our failure to contact the right person or their choice.

The dynamics of the two different candidate town hall events we covered this past weekend were very similar to the constituent town halls we covered in Missouri when Claire McCaskill (D) was still a senator. At least the later ones.

There’s a meeting room in a small town with the space to seat a hundred, maybe more, interested people. Media shows up early – well, we do. We check in and may ask a few logistics questions. The lighting can be adequate or stellar. We always mumble to ourselves about the light. There’s a portable sound system that the candidate may or may not use. The interested crowd gathers, may visit, and gets seated. The candidate is usually behind schedule (that’s normal).

Then the candidate makes remarks, takes questions from the audience, finishes speaking, and, in this age of smart phones and social media, remains for a few minutes to pose with attendees for selfies.

There may or may not be a press availability. It depends on the candidate schedule and other factors. We’re a Z-list blog.

After the event is done then it’s a matter of us downloading, processing, and choosing photos; downloading audio; transcribing audio portions; and then writing and posting the story.

We’ll take anywhere from 500 to 1500 images at an event. The audio recordings (two sources) can run up to an hour of content.

So, why bother? It’s why we exist. And for the same reasons. Old media (not so much individuals) does such a poor job. There aren’t enough people covering the content details of these events. Not that some corporate entities in the game have a lack of resources. We’re comparatively cost efficient – we try, but we’re pedaling as fast as we can.

Iowa. Why do we invest so much importance in the “first in the nation caucus”? Well caucuses are democratic and anti-democratic. You show up, stand your ground, and choose your candidate. Unless you’re a working person who can’t take off for those particular two or so hours on that day. Old media needs an answer and a narrative, and they need it quick. That’s their failing. And, there’s the matter of a diverse population in a diverse state anointing a candidate for a diverse nation.

We see that you’ve never been to Iowa.

You believe presidential campaigns start too early and take too long? We attribute that to your laziness and sense of entitlement.

There are a number of publicly spirited, intelligent, and immensely talented, experienced individuals running for President. There are others doing so who are none of the above. How are we all going to tell the difference if they’re not meeting with voters in small groups from state to state over the period of time from now to the Fall 2020 election?

Also, Donald Trump (r). I rest my case.

It is our impression that the Iowa voters who attend these events to vet candidates and who participate in the caucuses take their responsibilities very seriously. Would you want unengaged morons doing this instead? Of course, there are no guarantees that they’ll get it right in 2020. With a single exception (a right wingnut Bret Kavanaugh supporter) the Iowans we watched participate this weekend were cheerful, thoughtful, engaged, and polite.

And, if we are to judge the entire Democratic Party field of candidates from the two campaign events we witnessed this weekend we’ll be in the good hands of an experienced, intelligent, and compassionate nominee in 2020 who believes in doing the best for all Americans.

Reporter: “Where does [this candidate] stand with you?” Iowan: “Oh, they’re on my top twenty list.”

Welcome to Iowa.

Previously:

Sen. Cory Booker (D) in Indianola, Iowa – March 16, 2019 – “Hope is the active conviction that despair will not have the last word.” (March 16, 2019)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – March 17, 2019 – keep the peace, tell the truth, obey the law (March 17, 2019)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – March 17, 2019 – keep the peace, tell the truth, obey the law

17 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2020 Presidential Campaign, Amy Klobuchar, Iowa, president

In the second leg of our Iowa presidential campaign road trip we left Altoona, Iowa early this morning for Cedar Rapids. There had been some overnight snow along Interstate 80.

Iowa [photo: Joan Ferguson].

Late this morning well over a hundred individuals (and quite a few media people) gathered in an upstairs meeting room in Cedar Falls, Iowa to hear from Senator Amy Klobuchar (D), a candidate for President in 2020.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D).

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D): [on education]…there are many paths to success in this country. There isn’t just one pat to success. And I see immigration reform as a part of this as well. Uh, we need workers in our factories, in our fields. We’ve got people here that are working in the shadows, right, and I believe comprehensive immigration reform is the answer. Just to give you a sense, the President always talks about it with security. Yes, we want to have security at the border. Not his wall, okay, that’s not what we need.[….][comprehensive immigration reform]… hundred fity-eight billion dollars in savings on that bill that passed the Senate, in ten years. People come out of the shadows, pay their taxes, hundred fifty-eight billion dollars in savings. Think about how that would help with the debt, think about how that would help our country. I see this as an economic issue. Twenty-five percent of our U.S. Nobel laureate were born in other countries. Nearly seventy of our Fortune Five Hundred company CEOs, state from a while back, born in other countries. Immigrants don’t diminish America, they are America….

…when they say there’s an urban rural divide. I will not do it. I go [in Minnesota] not just where it’s comfortable, I go where it’s uncomfortable. I visit every single county every year. I meet with Republicans, I meet with Independents, I meet with Democrats. I have people yell at me, I have people hug me. I don’t care. I think you have to get out there and you have to listen to people….

…and then I see these words on the wall [at the Carter Presidential Library], um, that they put up there, and this is before Trump. [….] Now it is so meaningful. It was Mondale, looking back at their four years….And the words on the wall said this: “We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace.” And I think that is a minimum that you should expect from any President and Vice President. And that is, that you try to keep the peace, and that you tell the truth, and you obey the law. And that is what I promise you I will do.

Early in the afternoon Senator Klobuchar walked in the Cedar Rapids St. Patrick’s Day parade with Linn County Democrats.

Sen. Cory Booker (D) in Indianola, Iowa – March 16, 2019 – “Hope is the active conviction that despair will not have the last word.”

16 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2020 Presidential Campaign, Cory Booker, Indianola, Iowa, president

Early this evening over a hundred indivuduals gathered at a winery across from the balloon field in Indianola, Iowa to hear from Senator Cory Booker (D), a candidate for President in 2020.

Senator Cory Booker (D)

Senator Cory Booker (D): …So, I want to end by telling you hope, and why this has been two of the most hopeful years of my life. Because hope is the active conviction that despair will not have the last word. When there was the Muslim ban I, I ran out to Dulles Airport because I was a lawyer and I heard that they were detaining people without access to lawyers. And I got to Dulles Airport and the concourse was full of one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen as an American. Hundreds and hundreds of Americans piling into that concourse demanding justice, demanding the release of detained people. And every time a Muslim family not from this country emerged out of the gate everybody erupted into songs. Singing patriotic songs. There were guys with yarmulkes…cheering Muslims coming off a plane. That’s America. [….] Hope is the active conviction that despair will not have the last word. [….][after the inauguration] …And so I went home that night, and I’m telling the truth, I’m being seduced by despair now, I curl up in a ball and I’ve got a headache, I’m worrying. And the next morning I wake up to a chorus of Miss Virginia Jones’s, millions of women from coast to coast, said to me, Cory, despair will not have the last word. I’m bringing the hope. hate won’t have the last word, I’m bringing the love. Sexism won’t have the last word, I’m bringing the equality. They said to me, Cory Booker, as if they were pointing to me…this is not a time to curl up, it’s not a time to shut up, it’s definitely not a time to give up. It’s time to get up. It’s time to rise up. It’s time to speak up. And so I ask you all right now, in this moral moment in our country what will we do? Each and every one of us has the power to make change in greater ways than we think. We’re stronger than we know. We’re more beautiful than we realize.[….] This is a moment now where we need the best of who we are. We need our traditions, the ones that go back to Birmingham, Selma. The ones that go back to Stonewall. And Seneca. When American gathered together and said our country is going wrong we’re going to make it right. I want to ask everybody in tis room right now. I want you to caucus for me, but whatever you do, between now and six hundred days from now, what ever you do, don’t let this election be small. Don’t let it be about just one man and one office. Don’t let it be just about what you’re against. Let this be the moment in American history that we can again revive ideals of civic grace. That we call upon our neighbors to have a more courageous empathy for those people who are hurting, those people who are left out, those people who can’t afford their healthcare, those people who are getting starved in public education. Let this be a moment where we not just show courageous empathy, but we revive ideals of love and seek a loving community. If we can make this a big election, a big moment for America, yeah, we’re in the pit but we can go to the palace.[….] Well, it’s time for this generation to dream again. Dream that we can save this planet from peril. Dream that we can have cathedrals of learning for our kids. Dream that we can have healthcare for all. It’s time for defiant dreams.
Daring dreams. And bold dreams. And if we dream together, and work together, and struggle together, and turn common pain into common purpose I promise you, we won’t just elect a new president in the White House, we will as a whole, as a nation, we will rise. Thank you.

A toss of the coin

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

caucus, Iowa

Last night in Iowa:

Jason Noble ‏@jasonnobleDMR
I’ve come across three instances in which a Democratic caucus delegate was awarded with a coin toss. Hillary Clinton won all three. 10:50 PM – 1 Feb 2016

This is not a new concept. For instance, in Missouri:

Missouri Revised Statutes
Chapter 115
Election Authorities and Conduct of Elections

Tie vote in primary election, procedure to be followed.

115.515. 1. If two or more persons receive an equal number of votes for nomination as a party’s candidate for any federal office, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, state auditor, circuit judge not subject to the provisions of Article V, Section 29* of the State Constitution, state senator or state representative, and a higher number of votes than any other candidate for the same office on the same party ballot, the governor shall, immediately after the results of the election have been announced, issue a proclamation stating the fact and ordering a special primary election to determine the party’s nominee for the office. The proclamation shall set the date of the election, which shall be not less than fourteen or more than thirty days after the proclamation is issued, and shall be sent by the governor to each election authority responsible for conducting the special primary election. In his proclamation, the governor shall specify the name of each candidate for the office to be voted on at the election, and the special primary election shall be conducted and the votes counted as in other primary elections.

2. If two or more persons receive an equal number of votes for nomination as a party’s candidate for any other office, except party committeeman or committeewoman, and a higher number of votes than any other candidate for the same office on the same party ballot, the officer with whom such candidates filed their declarations of candidacy shall, immediately after the results of the election have been certified, issue a proclamation stating the fact and ordering a special primary election to determine the party’s nominee for the office. The proclamation shall set the date of the election, which shall be not less than fourteen or more than thirty days after the proclamation is issued, and shall be sent by the officer to each election authority responsible for conducting the special primary election. In his proclamation, the officer shall specify the name of each candidate for the office to be voted on at the election, and the special primary election shall be conducted and the votes counted as in other primary elections.

3. As an alternative to the procedure prescribed in subsections 1 and 2 of this section, if the candidates who received an equal number of votes in such election agree to the procedure prescribed in this subsection, the officer with whom such candidates filed their declarations of candidacy may, after notification of the time and place of such drawing given to each such candidate at least five days before such drawing, determine the winner of such election by lot. Any candidate who received an equal number of votes may decline to have his name put into such drawing.

[emphasis added]

§ 115.517 RSMo applies to general elections.

Last year in Nevada, Missouri:

And the winner is …
Tuesday, April 21, 2015

The result of the April 7 city council was determined to be a tie between [sic] Ryan Watts and Michael Brown, for second place when the Vernon County Clerk finished canvasing the vote. City Clerk Bev Baker told Watts and Brown the election could be decided by a run-off election or a coin toss or drawing of names. The candidates opped [sic] for a coin toss, which was conducted at 10 a.m., Monday, in the council chambers….

[….]

Yes, the statutes are from Missouri. The Iowa presidential caucus is a political party enterprise and, I assume, the rules are understood by the candidates and their campaigns. The logistical problems (and costs) of a run-off caucus for the state party for a precinct with a tie are significant.

A coin toss to resolve a tie is not a new concept in American politics.

A win is a win.