I haven’t seen any official announcement or press release, but State Representative Anesa Kajtazovic has launched an Anesa for Iowa campaign website, as well as a fundraising page for a Congressional campaign on ActBlue. As of Friday evening, her Facebook page features a new photo of an Irish-themed “Anesa Kajtazovic for Congress” logo in honor of the Irish fest scheduled for this weekend in Waterloo.
Kajtazovic is the fifth Democrat seeking the nomination in Iowa’s first district, which Bruce Braley is vacating to run for the U.S. Senate. State Representative Pat Murphy was the first to declare, followed by Cedar Rapids City Council member Monica Vernon, Cedar Rapids attorney Dave O’Brien, and former State Senator Swati Dandekar.
9 Comments
and the flowers and crown go to......
Kajtaovic’s answer to the question on the Keystone Pipeline (which is going around on YouTube in a big way) was as bad as any Miss USA candidate meltdown when drawing the question out of the fishbowl. Really Anesa? The Keystone pipeline “nuclear” aspects need to be studied?
Wow. Just wow.
mirage Sat 3 Aug 2:32 PM
I was in the room
I was in the room when Rep. Kajtazovic was asked this question, and I felt she answered it well. For an issue that wouldn’t come up regularly in the Legislature, I’m glad she is willing to say that she needs to do more research instead of jumping on a position without knowing more about it. Also, it was her first stop on her listening tour in an area that she isn’t regularly in, and the Iowa Republican was videotaping, which would make anyone more careful in their wording than normally. She handled it much better than I think most would.
rpwillman Sat 3 Aug 4:15 PM
where age factor comes into play
Great candidate. Great story. Wrong race. Wrong time.
boonecompanion Sat 3 Aug 4:54 PM
Tsk tsk
Let’s attempt placing your observation into some context there, Mirage. I don’t believe I have ever read you say anything nice or even just merely neutral about any democratic candidate – never.
conservative-demo Sat 3 Aug 5:52 PM
mirage is a Republican
but the KeystoneXL pipeline is an issue that Congress has voted on repeatedly and will probably vote on again. This is the kind of question Anesa needs to be able to answer. She will need to get up to speed on the federal issues quickly to overcome any doubts about her youth. I think an older candidate would not be under as much pressure on this front.
desmoinesdem Sun 4 Aug 6:18 AM
you do not read my comments?
I have had positive comments on many democrats in my postings…perhaps you should read a recent comment of mine on Chris Diebel (a reply to the Bisignano posting here on May 30.) to start.
mirage Sun 4 Aug 8:36 AM
on the other hand
Mirage is being a bit misleading here–Anesa did not say Keystone was a nuclear project, she said she would have to research the issue further, just like she would also research nuclear energy before supporting a certain policy in the state legislature. Naturally, Kevin Hall at The Iowa Republican website plays up the fact that some Democrats question her “youth and inexperience.” That would obviously be the main Republican point of attack against her if she wins the primary, so she needs to show depth of understanding on a range of federal issues.
Speaking of nuclear energy, Pat Murphy voted for the bad nuclear bill that cleared the Iowa House in 2011; most of the Democrats including Kajtazovic voted against it.
desmoinesdem Sun 4 Aug 6:28 AM
I don't expect all candidates to be senior fellows at Brookings
But is it too much to ask candidates to already have a solid understanding of policy? Her answer wasn’t that bad (need to have research backing policy, need to look at impact on jobs) but she didn’t clearly demonstrate that she even knew what Keystone XL was beyond that it had something to do with energy. It’s good she’s willing to say she’s not sure and would have to research it further, but she should have a decent understanding of federal issues before she decided to run for federal office. Same goes for any candidate.
matt-h Sun 4 Aug 8:36 PM
Answer
I think she will be alright. I think the answer of “I don’t know” isn’t the best. Obviously if she were simply pandering to a Democratic primary audience she would have said no. Mirage and others would have criticized her if she had simply said no. She should have been ready for the question though, it isn’t an obscure topic.
She’s obviously interesting in trying to represent a large number of people in the 1st. Not just some minor plurality.
moderateiadem Sat 3 Aug 8:59 PM