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Iowa 2004 presidential primary precinct caucus and caucuses news">
Iowa 2004 presidential primary precinct caucus and caucuses news, reports
and information on 2004 Democrat and Republican candidates, campaigns
and issues Iowa
Presidential Watch's
IOWA DAILY REPORT Holding
the Democrats accountable today, tomorrow...forever.
THE DAILY
REPORT for Wednesday, October 22, 2003 “Dean is a good boy,
but he’s much too far left. I mean, gay marriage
in Vermont? Gees, middle America will reject
that,” said
Paul Breaut in a Manchester Union Leader article
after meeting Clark and saying he liked him.
Breaut is an independent that also likes Joe
Lieberman. “As a physician, I am
outraged that the Senate has decided it is
qualified to practice medicine. This bill will
chill the practice of medicine and endanger the
lives of countless women.”
Dean made the
comment regarding the passing of the partial
birth abortion ban. “We’re essentially
funding the next generation of terrorists
because we’re not willing to do something about
renewable energy at home,”
said Howard
Dean in Joice, Iowa, at wind farm announcing his
environmental program. “I think his biggest
challenge is transforming his national
popularity and case for being the best candidate
to beat President Bush into Democratic
delegates,”
said Clark supporter Skip Rutherford, head of
Bill Clinton’s presidential library. “These new, ‘third
party’ liberal groups, which plan to spend $364
million to $520 million to defeat the president
and other Republican candidates, have the
makings of the next campaign-finance scandal —
George Soros, meet Johnny Chung,”
said RNC
spokesman Jim Dyke. Mr. Soros is a billionaire
donor to liberal causes. Chung pleaded guilty to
charges of illegal fund raising for President
Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign. “More baby-faced people
are seen as physically weaker, more submissive,
naïve.,” said
Dr. Leslie Zebrowitz, of Brandeis University
regarding Sen. John Edwards’s appearance. “Everybody is kind of
stiffing us and dissing us,”
said Mark
Plotkin, an advocate and host of a political
program on WTOP radio about the lack of
attention that the Washington D.C. Jan. 13
Primary is receiving. “I’m sure . . . if not
for the Iowa caucuses, all these guys would not
be digging into the policy details of ethanol,”
said Sean
Tenner, executive director of the D.C. Democracy
Fund, a political action committee, referring to
the fuel additive produced from corn. “The company that
provides it [private airplane] obviously has a
profile enhancement with the political candidate
or elected official simply because the candidate
is relying on that particular company’s
aircraft,”
said Pete West, a lobbyist for the National
Business Aviation Association about candidates
use and reimbursement private planes for their
campaigns. “I have it on the
highest authority”
that the
French and Russians were prepared to make an
offer at the UN, but were rebuffed by American
officials intent on going to war, Kerry said.
“I’m going to talk about it more publicly at a
later time.”
Quoted in the Boston Globe. “If you hear something
negative about someone and they’ve been in your
living room and talked to your grandmother, you
are likely to not believe it,”
said former
Iowa Republican Chairman Richard Schwarm.
“If you’ve built that personal tie, if you like
someone, you’ll excuse a lot.”
Schwarm was
quoted in an Associated Press story on Dean’s
having visited all of Iowa’s 99 counties.
Schwarm is an Iowa Presidential Watch advisor. Abortion politics Flying High Is Clark still lost? Dean goes wind-powered Howard is 99th
for Howard Does Lieberman have an
environmental attention deficit disorder? Lieberman keeps moving
on Kerry’s Surprise Kerry’s environment
plug Edwards will return The Cutest Little Baby
Face Baby face angry Zogby Poll for Iowa Sharpton in Sudan Incumbent Money
Concerns Clinton is Hip-hop Oil hit Primary Hit Bush veto? Abortion politics One
of the earliest events for Democrats wanting to be
President was a meeting with the National
Organization of Women where candidates vowed that
no abortion bill would pass except over their dead
bodies. Now, the Partial Birth Abortion Bill has
passed and they are all still breathing. Where was
the filibuster, where were the speeches and
television ads, and why aren’t there dead bodies?
The
Associated Press has a story today detailing
the history and current position of candidates
regarding the issue of partial birth abortion.
The story indicates that the political pendulum is
likely to swing back towards the choice side
because women will are now likely to feel that Roe
v Wade is in danger. This has been the historical
pattern in the past. It is also due to the fact
that after a success, either by pro-choice or
anti-abortion, the successful side relaxes their
attack. Of all
the candidates, Dick Gephardt has the most
checkered past on the issue. He voted with the
Republican majority last year for legislation that
would ban what critics call partial birth
abortion. In 1996, the Missouri congressman voted
to overturn then-President Clinton’s veto of a
similar bill. One of Gephardt’s many missed votes
earlier this year was the Partial Birth Abortion
Bill. He did issue a release saying he did not
favor the bill without a provision concerning the
health of the mother.
Speaking of missing the vote, Senator John Edwards
did. That left Lieberman and Kerry as the only
candidates on the floor voting ‘no’ on the bill.
After the vote, Kerry’s campaign issued a
statement accusing the President of managing a
silent campaign against abortion rights. “This
vote is a step backward for women, as George
Bush’s stealth agenda to roll back the right to
choose is pushed forward,” Kerry said. Lieberman
did not have a press statement on his website
despite the fact he is hiring new press people in
Arizona, Oklahoma and North Carolina. Doctor Dean
was outraged to learn that Congress was practicing
medicine and said so. “This bill will chill the
practice of medicine and endanger the lives of
countless women,” said Dean. However, all the
candidates received a pass from the Pro Choice
group. “In general, we’re confident we’ve got nine
pro-choice candidates, any one of whom would do a
far better job than the incumbent,” said David
Seldin, communications director for NARAL-Pro-Choice
America. It seems that rather than question the
strength of their candidates’ opposition to the
bill that the invectives were spewed against the
other side who was victorious. “It certainly
solidifies the position of George Bush and the
majority in Congress as being anti-choice,” said
Kathy Sullivan, the Democratic Party chairwoman in
New Hampshire. “In terms of the Democrats, the
important thing is that they be pro-choice, not
when they became pro-choice.” Flying High Presidential candidates are
flying around the country in planes provided by
businesses, labor unions and other special
interests, keeping entourages on schedule without
the hassles of commercial air travel. An
Associated Press story reports, Edwards’
campaign is among the most frequent users of
corporate flights, logging at least $138,000 worth
with the Dallas-based Baron and Budd trial lawyer
firm. Clark paid $11,133 for flights on the Acxiom
Corp. jet on Sept. 18, the day after he announced
his candidacy, traveling to Florida and Iowa,
spokeswoman Kym Spell said. Clark lobbied for and
served on the board of Acxiom, an Arkansas-based
data analysis firm that has been trying to win
Homeland Security Department business. This is the
total amount of reimbursement reported by Clark.
Candidates have to reimburse the company or
individuals for the use of their plane at what it
would cost to fly commercial. If there is no
commercial rate available to the airport then they
have to reimburse at what it would cost if they
chartered a plane. The story is based on the
candidates’ filings of reimbursement and AP has a
chart with the total for every candidate. Is Clark still lost? The Manchester
Union Leader is covering Clark’s visit to the
Granite state and his campaign’s hope that they
finally have their act together. The
Union Leader reports Clark hopes to pick up
his first victory Feb. 3 -- most likely in South
Carolina, where veterans make up a sizable portion
of the electorate. He’s also building teams to
campaign in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arizona. It’s
a risky plan with competition from rivals who have
been working for a win much longer. With Dean,
Kerry and Dick Gephardt fighting for victory in
the first two states, John Edwards, Lieberman and
Clark are staking their campaigns on the Feb. 3rd
states.
Senior Clark advisers, speaking on a condition of
anonymity, said their greatest concern is the
candidate, who has shown great potential but has
had little time to learn the craft of campaigning.
They say he needs to learn to connect better with
voters, and it’s unclear how open he will be to
advice from political professionals. The Clark
campaign has set a fast pace in fundraising. The
campaign raised $1 million a week for its first
three weeks. The campaign hopes to hit the $10
million mark by the end of the fourth quarter.
This would give them money for ads and satellite
time. Clark’s team recently added Geoff Garin as
pollster and Joe Slade White of New York to make
Clark’s first ad, but they’re still lacking a
political director and field director. While in
New Hampshire, Clark addressed in part his tax
policy position. At the University of New
Hampshire’s Manchester campus, he laid out the
principles of an economic plan he said will save
$2.35 trillion over 10 years and decrease the
deficit. Clark said people making more than
$200,000 a year will be required to pay more taxes
than they would under Bush, but said he won’t
reveal details until later. Aides said taxes on
income, capital gains, dividends and inheritances
are among those on the table. Clark would not
rescind any tax cuts going to middle class
taxpayers, and the child tax credit would be
preserved for parents of any income, aides said. Dean goes wind-powered Howard Dean used a northern Iowa
wind farm in Joice on Tuesday as a backdrop for
announcing a national renewable energy plan
calling for greater reliance on wind energy and
ethanol, according to a
Des Moines Register story. Dean’s alternative
energy proposals include:
* Requiring that the nation generate 20
percent of its electricity from renewable sources
by 2020.
* Requiring that corn-based ethanol and
other biofuels constitute 10 percent of American
motor fuels.
* Improving wind energy production by
removing regulatory barriers, eliminating
deficiencies in transmission capacity and looking
for new investment opportunities.
* Creating a solar power tax credit.
* Expanding a production tax credit to
cover more types of renewable power generation.
* Encouraging states to use part of his
proposed $100 billion economic investment fund for
renewable energy.
To read the full text of his release visit
Dean’s website. Howard is 99th
for Howard Howard Dean must love a pun --
because they made it to the 99th county
in Iowa last night when Dean arrived in Cresco,
Iowa , which is in (are you ready for this?)…
Howard county. Dean is the first
Presidential campaigner to make it to all of the
99 Iowa counties. The last candidate to achieve
that mile marker was Dick Gephardt, when he last
ran for the Democrat nomination in 1988. Does Lieberman have an
environmental attention deficit disorder?
The Hill reports on Lieberman’s hold on Utah
Gov. Mike Leavitt’s nomination to the EPA. It also
covers Lieberman’s lack of attendance and Chairman
of the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-Okla.) distaste
of Lieberman’s lack of attendance and courtesy in
the Committee. “I think it’s outrageous for
Senator Lieberman [to oppose Leavitt]. He won’t
even come to our hearings, let alone the
confirmation hearing. “That Senator Lieberman
wouldn’t even meet with him and then go out and
condemn him is just unconscionable. That is so
uncharacteristic of the image he had before [the
presidential] race,” said Inhofe. Leavitt was
nominated for EPA administrator Aug. 11. Although
overwhelmingly approved by the committee last
Wednesday, six Democratic senators have placed
firm holds on the nominee. If they are not
released and Republicans push for his
confirmation, it could evolve into another
Democratic nomination filibuster. Lieberman keeps moving on The following information is
from Lieberman’s website… Joining the Lieberman
campaign: Stacie Paxton, South Carolina Press
Secretary. Paxton last served as the CNN Senior
Publicist where she managed publicity for the
network’s anchors, correspondents and programs
including Crossfire, Wolf Blitzer Reports and
Inside Politics. Prior to that, she served as the
press secretary to U.S. Representative Lois Capps
on Capp’s campaign and congressional office. Ruben
Pulido, Jr., Arizona Press Secretary. Pulido most
recently served as Communications Director to U.S.
Representative Mike Honda. Pulido brings with him
extensive press and policy experience in both
public relations and California state and local
politics. Pulido is bilingual in Spanish and
English. Emily Snooks, Oklahoma Press Secretary.
Snooks last served as Communications Director on
Chet Edward’s congressional campaign in Waco,
Texas. Snooks has also acted as Southeast Texas
Field Director for Tony Sanchez for Governor, and
worked for Congressman Nick Lampson. Kerry’s Surprise Senator John F. Kerry declined
to provide specifics yesterday about his televised
comment Monday night that French and Russian
officials at the United Nations were poised to
compromise with the Bush administration on the eve
of the Iraq war. In a brief interview in
Manchester yesterday by Patrick Healy of the
Boston Globe, Kerry said that he believed his
information was solid and that he intends to focus
on the issue in the coming weeks as he continues
to critique President Bush’s foreign policy and
attempts to distinguish himself from the eight
other Democrats running for the White House. For
more on the story go to:
Boston.com. Kerry’s environment plug John Kerry’s website
http://www.johnkerry.com/ has a separate
website on the environment
http://www.envirosforkerry.com/ if you want to
get the full text of his environmental policies.
By the way the website says that Kerry’s next
Internet Meet Up is tomorrow. Edwards will return We are talking Iowa here.
Edwards announced he will be in Council Bluffs,
IA: On Monday, October 27, and he will begin a
two-day campaign swing through seven counties in
southwestern and south-central Iowa. Edwards will
visit Pottawattamie, Montgomery, Union, Clarke,
Lucas, Appanoose, and Monroe counties to hear from
Iowans and share the vision he has laid out in
“Real Solutions for America,” a 60-page policy
booklet that is available online at
http://www.johnedwards2004.com The Cutest Little Baby Face In this crazy world of the
Chattering Class, Michael Crowley of the The
New Republic has written a piece about baby
faced John Edwards. For its humorous content alone
it is worth checking out on
CBSNews.com. Baby face angry The
Washington Post has a story Mark Leibovich
that shows Edward’s gut level dislike for Bush. It
also portrays Edward’s lawyer skills as being able
to get 5 yr. old girls to ‘boo’ pharmaceutical
lobbyists. One of the striking things about seeing
Edwards up close is the degree of raw anger he
evinces in his speeches—and the level of anger he
elicits from his audiences toward the President.
It’s not uncommon for presidential candidates such
as Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt or John Kerry to
attack Bush’s performance with contempt and
ridicule. But Edwards’s anger seems more
stomach-level. He is prone to attack Bush not just
for what he has done in office, but for whom he is
and where he comes from. Several times a day,
Edwards will dismiss the president as “a man who
only values wealth and money.” Zogby Poll for Iowa Zogby polled 500 likely Democrat
Caucus voters during Oct. 20-21 and has a margin
of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
The poll showed that 26 percent were still
undecided. The surprising result was that 49
percent of the Democrats felt Bush would win
reelection. The percentage results for the
front-runners are as follows: Gephardt-22;
Dean-21; Kerry-9; Clark-7; Edwards-7; and
Lieberman-5. Sharpton in Sudan Al Sharpton is in the Sudan
highlighting that country’s practice of slavery.
CBS ran a story about his visit on its program
Up to the Minute. Incumbent Money Concerns "Why does an incumbent with no
opponent have to raise $100 million and more?"
asked Republican fund-raiser Richard Norman. So
far Mr. Bush has taken in more than $84 million
for his primary campaign and is shooting for $150
million to $175 million by the time he is formally
nominated Sept. 2 at the Republican National
Convention in New York. Political types are
questioning the Bush strategy and its vacuum
cleaner approach to raising money. The point being
made is that Bush doesn’t have a primary, so why
the need for all the money in the primary. The
Washington Times story covers the question in
a piece titled, Size of Bush war chest raises
questions,. The answers to the question in the
article are as follows: "Bush doesn't have a
Republican opponent but he does have a long list
of Democratic opponents and needs all that money
to attack them and solidify his own base," said
Mark Braden, an election-law lawyer and former
counsel to the Republican National Committee.
Another reason is that, after the primary season
ends, Mr. Bush can give the Republican National
Committee whatever he has raised but not spent.
The RNC can then spend it in the general election
to get out the vote and to counter the $300
million to $500 million that liberal Democratic
groups are expected to plow into anti-Bush ads —
at least three times what the Democrats spent
against Mr. Bush in 2000. Clinton is Hip-hop We always knew President Clinton
had a thing with gyrating his pelvis, but now, he
is cashing in on the talent to raise money for the
National Democrat Party. Pulsing lights, throbbing
hip-hop music and Bill Clinton are on tap next
week for a Democratic National Committee
fund-raiser at a Washington D.C. nightclub
designed to transform young professionals into
political donors.
The Washington Times is running a story on the
event in today’s newspaper. The Oct. 27 at the hot
spot, Dream, will include an open bar, full
dinner, members of the Washington Redskins, a
percentage of the "more than 50 celebrities"
invited to the fund-raiser, and Mr. Clinton, whom
"everyone will have an opportunity to see."
Hip-hop acts Ginuwine and Big Boi of Outkast along
with actor and comedian Chris Tucker also are
expected to appear. The enormous four-story
nightclub at 1350 Okie St. NE in the New York
Avenue warehouse district opened in November 2001
with a jacuzzi, two large showers and bedrooms in
the posh VIP lounges. Now, is that a Clinton spot
or what? Young Democrats will be charged $50 for
admission, with requests to give as much as $500
for "VIP tickets," according to the DC Social
Insider website. "If Democrats are going to be
successful in reaching out to young people, we're
going to have to take the party to them — where
they work and where they play," said DNC Chair
Terry McAuliffe. Oil hit In an
Associated Press story, Democratic lawmakers
released a letter from Iraq's national oil company
yesterday, confirming it pays far less to import
gasoline than Halliburton, the Texas contractor
that buys petroleum goods for Iraqis with U.S.
government money. Iraq's State Oil Marketing
Organization said it pays between 90 and 98 cents
per gallon to buy oil from neighboring countries
and transport it throughout Iraq. Halliburton
charges the government $1.59 and then receives a
markup that could boost the price to $1.62 to
$1.70, according to Democratic Reps. Henry A.
Waxman of California and John D. Dingell of
Michigan, who released information supplied by the
Iraqi company. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall
said in a written statement that KBR's costs are
higher because the company's contracts for
gasoline, transportation, depot storage or labor
cannot last longer than 30 days. Primary Hit A
Des Moines Register story covers the lack of
attention the Jan. 13th Washington D. C. Primary
is receiving. Democrats in the District of
Columbia have scheduled a primary for Jan. 13 that
they are promoting as the first-in-the-nation test
for presidential candidates, ahead of the Iowa
caucuses and New Hampshire primary. It's unclear
how much impact the nonbinding D.C. primary will
have, or if any of the nine Democratic candidates
will actively campaign for the District vote.
Organizers had hoped the Primary would draw
attention to the District’s lack of
representation. Charges have been made against the
organizers that they were using the event to bring
not only attention but the cash that comes from
intense early campaigning into the district as
well. Sean Tenner, executive director of the D.C.
Democracy Fund -- a political action committee --
denies that they are doing it for the money. The
Democrat National Committee does not recognize the
primary. Bush veto? The
Washington Post is reporting that the White
House staff are not happy with the 84 Republican
congressman who said make part of the $87 billion
Iraqi funding a loan. Senior advisers to President
Bush will recommend that he veto a spending
measure for Iraq's military and reconstruction
needs if it requires Iraq to repay any of the
money, White House officials said yesterday. The
threat came as House-Senate negotiators are trying
to reconcile their Iraq funding bills. Many
lawmakers are insisting that some of the aid take
the shape of loans, not grants.
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