Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign announced several key Iowa hires yesterday. Robert Becker will be state director, having filled the same role on Bill Richardson’s 2008 Iowa caucus campaign. Becker also worked on Bill Bradley’s Iowa staff before the 2000 Iowa caucuses. Three organizers who are joining Sanders’ campaign as regional field directors did the same work earlier this year on behalf of the effort to draft Senator Elizabeth Warren to run for president. Brendan Summers will serve as caucus director for Sanders in Iowa; he worked for the Iowa Democratic Party during the 2008 election cycle. After the jump I’ve enclosed a statement from the Sanders campaign with more background on all the new staffers.
Pete D’Alessandro has been coordinating the Sanders campaign in Iowa since mid-May. Earlier this month, the Sanders campaign tapped Blair Lawton as political director for Iowa. Most recently, Lawton headed the “Run Warren Run” effort here. Justin Huck will be field director for Sanders in Iowa, having previously done that job for the League of Conservation Voters in this state. Tara Thobe will serve as Sanders’ statewide operations director.
Ed Tibbetts reported for the Quad-City Times, “The [Sanders] campaign has said it plans to have about two dozen staffers on the ground sometime this summer.” Hillary Clinton’s campaign has had more staff than that working in Iowa since April. She can be proud of her campaign’s innovative digital organizing strategy and her staffers’ persistence in trying to obtain signed supporter cards. During Clinton’s recent appearance at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, at least six or eight Clinton campaign workers approached me and others nearby, supporter cards in hand–starting from the first few minutes we were standing in line outside and continuing inside the room, before and after Clinton’s speech.
Clinton should be ashamed, however, that her campaign will exploit 100 unpaid interns in Iowa this summer. These volunteer “fellows” will work full-time for free, knowing that may be their best chance of obtaining paid work for the campaign in the fall and winter. Democrats who criticize the use of unpaid interns in the business world shouldn’t replicate that model, especially since Clinton is likely to report many millions of dollars raised for her presidential bid during the second quarter of this year. It’s not right, and if I were working for Sanders, I would make sure Iowa liberals and labor Democrats know about the arrangement.
June 22 press release from Bernie Sanders’ campaign:
Bernie Bolsters Iowa Campaign
DES MOINES – Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign announced on Monday that five new senior members have joined an already-impressive team assembled by Campaign Coordinator Pete D’Alessandro.
Robert Becker has signed on as state director. Susana Cervantes is the regional field director for Sioux City. Beth Farvour is the regional field Director for Iowa City. Margaret Jarosz is regional field director in Dubuque. And Iowa caucus veteran Brendan Summers came on board as caucus director.
Becker has been managing political campaigns around the world for 25 years. In 2000, he was a regional field director for former Sen. Bill Bradley’s Iowa bid and was former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2008 Iowa state director. Becker has worked on Democratic campaigns across 2-states and managed several ground-breaking efforts, including Jared Polis’ historic 2008 victory in Colorado, in which he became the first openly gay man to run and win a seat in Congress. He has also worked extensively internationally, organizing and training political activists in countries emerging from repressive regimes, including Egypt and Libya following the Arab Spring.
Cervantes most recently was the Western Iowa field director for Run Warren Run and has extensive background in grassroots organizing having worked for the Nevada Democratic Party, Organizing for Action in Chicago and in 2012 as a field organizer for President Obama’s re-election campaign in Las Vegas. Her organizing roots originate from her work as a Union Organizer for the United Farm Workers Union in California.
Farvour served as a regional field director for Run Warren Run in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District and has organized on behalf of Democrats in her native Wisconsin, including Mary Burke’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign.
Jarosz also was a regional field director for Run Warren Run in Iowa. She started in local politics and issue-based organizing in Wisconsin, eventually joining the 2012 Obama for America re-election campaign. Prior to joining Run Warren Run she was a Field Organizer for Battleground Texas during Wendy Davis’ campaign for governor.
Summers returns to Iowa in the role of statewide caucus director. Summers is an Iowa politics veteran having worked in many roles over the last decade, including serving as the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2008 Caucus-to-Convention Director and from 2010-2012 as the party caucus director. Summers possesses extensive expertise on the Iowa Caucus process, having been responsible for drafting and maintaining compliance of Iowa’s 2008 and 2012 delegate selection plan.
“From day one we vowed to assemble a top-notch campaign team in Iowa and we continue to demonstrate our commitment to doing just that,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ national campaign director. “Iowa’s caucus process is tailor-made for Bernie Sanders’ grassroots style of campaigning and we will continue to build a first-in-the-nation organization to capitalize on that strength.”