February has been a busy month for possible Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa. This thread is for any comments related to next year’s Iowa caucuses. Here are a few links to get the conversation started.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign (or some group close to Clinton) appears to be message-testing Iowa Democrats. Pat Rynard was a respondent in the latest survey, and the questions had a lot in common with the poll Bleeding Heartland wrote up here. One noticeable difference: the new poll hints at a strong focus on paid family and sick leave if Clinton runs for president.
NBC/Marist released the latest poll of Iowa Democrats, showing Clinton way ahead with 68 percent support. Vice President Joe Biden was a distant second place with 12 percent, though that poll did not ask respondents about Senator Elizabeth Warren. In hypothetical general election match-ups, Clinton leads former Florida Governor Jeb Bush by 48 percent to 40 percent in Iowa, and leads Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker by 49 percent to 38 percent.
The vice president stopped in central Iowa earlier this month. After meeting briefly with Governor Terry Branstad, Biden visited the Des Moines Area Community College, where he touted free community college tuition. Speaking at Drake University, Biden encouraged Democratic candidates to run on the Obama administration’s record in 2016. Playing for laughs, the Des Moines Register’s coverage focused on “great Joe Biden-isms.”. (For what it’s worth, where Jason Noble heard Biden calling former Representative Neal Smith his “old butt buddy,” to my ear it sounded more like a mini-stutter: “an old bud- buddy.”) Pat Rynard’s write-up was more substantive, and I tend to agree with his conclusion: Biden didn’t sound like a future presidential candidate at Drake.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders just finished a three-day swing through Iowa. He spoke to supporters at Iowa City’s Prairie Lights book store, talked to students at Drake and the University of Iowa, headlined the Iowa Citizen Action Network’s annual dinner in Johnston, spoke in Cedar Rapids and Tipton, and finally was the start guest at the Story County Democrats’ soup dinner in Ames. Sanders continues to highlight his key issues of economic inequality and money in politics. At several of his Iowa stops he also called on Republicans not to tie Department of Homeland Security funding to rolling back President Barack Obama’s immigration policies. He has yet to indicate whether he might run for president as a Democrat or as an independent.
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley hasn’t been to Iowa this month, but he’ll headline events for the Scott County Democrats in March and the Polk County Democrats in April.
Finally, Iowa Starting Line has kicked off a series of posts on how Democratic presidential candidates can win key counties in Iowa. Author Rynard has worked on various campaigns in different parts of the state. The first two installments focused on Clinton County and Woodbury County.
6 Comments
Biden
Great write-up. I think Biden would make a great POTUS, but I wouldn’t want to hang my hat on this Administration’s foreign policy. I don’t necessarily disagree with their policy, but who is calling the shots? The whole thing seems muddled and confusing.
President Obama needed to communicate with more Congressional leaders. We aren’t a direct democracy; he is a very charming guy he should have had some of these people eating out of his hand. He can’t even get help from the moderate Democrats on the hill really, and the most liberal members seem to avoid him as well.
I’m making some calls and putting out feelers for a candidate that wasn’t mentioned in this piece. Believe me, I get it. The process has been slow because he still has a day job, but he does have events coming up in Iowa. (:
moderateiadem Mon 23 Feb 5:21 PM
I'm assuming at this point that Hillary runs and...
…there will be no serious contest on the Democratic side in Iowa or anywhere else.
Hillary still will campaign hard in all the early states, but I bet she’ll take advantage of the free ride to do some stumping in general election swing states, though most of her non-early state travel will be for fundraising.
It would be nice if she could pull in a few hundred millions of dollars before Iowans caucus. With no Democratic competition and her own organic strength, that’s doable.
dccyclone Mon 23 Feb 5:37 PM
busy, busy
“Busy” is one way to describe February, I suppose. Can you imagine how busy it would be if the Democrats had, oh, two people running for president? As it is, the one candidate doesn’t even bother to show up.
ontheright Tue 24 Feb 2:51 PM
Irritates the crap outta ya
Doggone, we really are busy popping up the popcorn while trying to keep an eye on all the clowns scurrying about over on the right.
conservative-demo Tue 24 Feb 4:43 PM
I hope Bernie Sanders runs as a Democrat
It would be good for voters (and Hillary) to hear his ideas. I would hate to see Sanders run as an independent. We don’t need another Ralph Nader splitting off 2 or 3% of the vote.
cocinero Wed 25 Feb 9:23 AM
Sanders
Bernie has said on C-Span he would enter the Democratic primary if he ran. Several other Democratic-leaning candidates were asked if they would seek the office as an independent; they’ve all said they would run as a Democrat.
moderateiadem Wed 25 Feb 5:53 PM