thanks for your voice recording with the text - I like to follow text with voice - especially with words and names I'm unfamiliar with. You voice is very clear and easy to listen to.
thanks for your service - I certainly appreciate your news delivery - fair and honest in this crazy world :)
This is sort of a look at the box scores after the election, it doesn't really address the issue of why all these elections have gone to the Republicans beyond the money spent in many cases. Republicans running for house in my district couldn't bring themselves out to even door knock, they relied heavily on the fact there were so many voters going out to vote who were strident Republican's and/or Trump supporters. The Federal election for a house seat was run exactly the same way! The incumbent relied on her franking priviledge and a ton of advertising that was biased and often blatently untrue in many cases, yet only won by 800 votes, but won none the less. The Democrats have lost sight of who it is they represent, in many cases. Focusing on the "middle class" often doesn't even come close to the people Democrats have counted on in the past! When the issues that the election turned on became economic, they were simple bread and butter issues, the cost of housing, the cost of food, the cost of fuel, and the hardest hit were the working poor! Not Middle Class! Iowa has a good chunk ofpeople who rely on the farm economy, inspite of what many may think, the farm bill has much to do with farming and all the added services and products farmers require. The farm bill was a failure the Republicans can take the blame sincce they squabbled about issues over SNAP and didn't get the bill passed, and when they promised to get it passed before the year extension, again they failed! I can assure you a 70 year old farmer would take a whole lot more notice if the Democrats were talking farm bill a whole lot sooner than abortion! Concentrating on the larger voting blocks in the very largest cities while ignoring places like Webster City, Fort Dodge, Decorah, Ft, Madison, Keokuk, Marshalltown, Burlington, Dubuque, Atlantic, and other lower population centers, is a failure to communicate to voters who can change the direction as to who wins and who loses. Every Union in the country should be supporting the Democrats if the Democrats are supporting the Unions, this isn't a given any more! Supporting candidates that are from Iowa and giving their very best they can in running for office need support, Picking candidates because they have money to run and some kind of name recognition hasn't workeda number of times in Iowa for the Democrats. Some who won because of that recognition, like Chet Culver, made a mess of being Governor and didn't hang on for more than one term! The Admiral who hadn't lived in Iowa since he finished undergraduate classes at 22, didn't make much of a mark against Grassley in the election either. The Iowa Democratic central committee and the National Democratic Party need to come to grips with finding their way back to the days of door knocking and shoe leather, shaking hands at the factory gates, and hussling votes from working stiffs who live pay check to pay check, then things will starttochange, not until!
I take your point that this piece doesn't fully explain why these candidates lost the elections. I wrote it because a lot of people don't realize (for instance) that the maps adopted in 2021 dramatically changed some senators' districts. People might assume Nate Boulton ran a bad campaign because they are thinking he lost in a solid blue seat. But his new district was anything but solid blue. In fact he outperformed Kamala Harris by quite a bit.
I don't think there is any single reason Democrats have lost ground in the communities you mentioned. I disagree with your contention that Democrats have "ignored" those mid-sized cities but that is a topic for another day.
Many Democratic candidates knock thousands of doors. I would say that in most legislative races I have covered, Democrats spend FAR more time door knocking than Republican candidates. So I don't think Democrats are losing in Iowa because of a lack of shoe leather. The GOP does well even though very few of their legislative candidates match Democrats in terms of door knocking. I think other factors (like the demographics of Iowa's electorate, and the conservative dominance of the radio/tv space) are more important.
thanks for your voice recording with the text - I like to follow text with voice - especially with words and names I'm unfamiliar with. You voice is very clear and easy to listen to.
thanks for your service - I certainly appreciate your news delivery - fair and honest in this crazy world :)
Thanks for reading and listening!
This is sort of a look at the box scores after the election, it doesn't really address the issue of why all these elections have gone to the Republicans beyond the money spent in many cases. Republicans running for house in my district couldn't bring themselves out to even door knock, they relied heavily on the fact there were so many voters going out to vote who were strident Republican's and/or Trump supporters. The Federal election for a house seat was run exactly the same way! The incumbent relied on her franking priviledge and a ton of advertising that was biased and often blatently untrue in many cases, yet only won by 800 votes, but won none the less. The Democrats have lost sight of who it is they represent, in many cases. Focusing on the "middle class" often doesn't even come close to the people Democrats have counted on in the past! When the issues that the election turned on became economic, they were simple bread and butter issues, the cost of housing, the cost of food, the cost of fuel, and the hardest hit were the working poor! Not Middle Class! Iowa has a good chunk ofpeople who rely on the farm economy, inspite of what many may think, the farm bill has much to do with farming and all the added services and products farmers require. The farm bill was a failure the Republicans can take the blame sincce they squabbled about issues over SNAP and didn't get the bill passed, and when they promised to get it passed before the year extension, again they failed! I can assure you a 70 year old farmer would take a whole lot more notice if the Democrats were talking farm bill a whole lot sooner than abortion! Concentrating on the larger voting blocks in the very largest cities while ignoring places like Webster City, Fort Dodge, Decorah, Ft, Madison, Keokuk, Marshalltown, Burlington, Dubuque, Atlantic, and other lower population centers, is a failure to communicate to voters who can change the direction as to who wins and who loses. Every Union in the country should be supporting the Democrats if the Democrats are supporting the Unions, this isn't a given any more! Supporting candidates that are from Iowa and giving their very best they can in running for office need support, Picking candidates because they have money to run and some kind of name recognition hasn't workeda number of times in Iowa for the Democrats. Some who won because of that recognition, like Chet Culver, made a mess of being Governor and didn't hang on for more than one term! The Admiral who hadn't lived in Iowa since he finished undergraduate classes at 22, didn't make much of a mark against Grassley in the election either. The Iowa Democratic central committee and the National Democratic Party need to come to grips with finding their way back to the days of door knocking and shoe leather, shaking hands at the factory gates, and hussling votes from working stiffs who live pay check to pay check, then things will starttochange, not until!
A lot to unpack there!
I take your point that this piece doesn't fully explain why these candidates lost the elections. I wrote it because a lot of people don't realize (for instance) that the maps adopted in 2021 dramatically changed some senators' districts. People might assume Nate Boulton ran a bad campaign because they are thinking he lost in a solid blue seat. But his new district was anything but solid blue. In fact he outperformed Kamala Harris by quite a bit.
I don't think there is any single reason Democrats have lost ground in the communities you mentioned. I disagree with your contention that Democrats have "ignored" those mid-sized cities but that is a topic for another day.
Many Democratic candidates knock thousands of doors. I would say that in most legislative races I have covered, Democrats spend FAR more time door knocking than Republican candidates. So I don't think Democrats are losing in Iowa because of a lack of shoe leather. The GOP does well even though very few of their legislative candidates match Democrats in terms of door knocking. I think other factors (like the demographics of Iowa's electorate, and the conservative dominance of the radio/tv space) are more important.