Got an e-mail from Tom Harkin announcing that his wife Ruth is endorsing Hillary. Here's an excerpt:
She feels that women who are lucky enough to serve in public office had, and continue to have, a responsibility to opening doors and paving a new way for those seeking other leadership roles. And as Ruth looked closely at who is best suited to do the job of President and to inspire a new generation of leaders, Hillary topped the list.
Thanks a lot, Ruth. If Hillary loses the general to a Republican who puts two or three more Alitos on the Supreme Court, I hope you'll apologize to all women.
Of the many things that bother me about the Hillary Clinton candidacy, one of the biggest is this idea that women are supposed to back her as a pathbreaker (with the corollary that people who don't back her are sexist or can't handle strong women). Hillary would be a weak general election candidate, and I don't even think she would be the best president out of the current field.
The e-mail also mentions that Tom Harkin has no plans to endorse any of the presidential candidates. Smart move, senator.
7 Comments
Not that big of a deal
To me, Ruth’s endorsement of Clinton isn’t that big of a deal. She doesn’t have the same type of influence that other female Iowa Democrats have, particularly spouses like Christie Vilsack. No one is going to care who Chuck Grassley’s wife endorses on the Republican side, and certainly no one will be checking to see who Dody Boswell endorses or anything like that. Their influence isn’t that great and they aren’t political assets like C. Vilsack was for T. Vilsack. Oftentimes to Republicans, Ruth Harkin has been more of a liability because of her government lobbying work and her position on the board of a big oil company.
What I thought was more interesting was the content of the email itself–it is a different html style and stands apart from the Harkin campaign site currently. I know that Jeff Link was recently added on as campaign manager for Harkin’s re-election campaign and he’s looking to start staffing up I believe. The other interesting thing was that I got two (2) emails to my other blogging account letting me know about the endorsement and telling me how to contact the campaign as an “Iowa blogger” with questions. He’s beginning the outreach now and is looking forward to making his re-election effort a strong one.
chris-woods Tue 3 Jul 2:14 PM
I got those two e-mails as well
and I wrote back with my questions. So far no reply from Tom Harkin's people.
desmoinesdem Tue 3 Jul 3:52 PM
two-way street
Outreach is a two-way street. Hopefully they’ll realize that asking us to contact them with questions and not getting a reply back is not good outreach (or good form) at all.
chris-woods Tue 3 Jul 3:58 PM
well, it's only been one day
and it's the day before a holiday, so I am cutting them slack until next week.
desmoinesdem Tue 3 Jul 6:07 PM
fair point
Always forget that not everyone gets to sit at home like a bum as the college life provides me 😉
chris-woods Tue 3 Jul 6:41 PM
they e-mailed me
on Thursday or Friday. Didn't really answer my question about whether Ruth Harkin really thinks that we are more likely to hold on to our Senate seats in SD and LA while competing for Senate seats in CO, NM, MN, NH etc if we run Hillary at the top of our ticket. The e-mail was along the lines of, rest assured that Ruth Harkin is very committed to keeping our Democratic majorities blah blah blah. Oh well, I made my point.
desmoinesdem Sat 7 Jul 11:32 PM
Who replied?
I know that Jeff Link is managing the re-election campaign, as of right now, so it’d be interesting to see if there are names we know who are working for Harkin right now (the only person I know is Jesse Harris, who is doing field work).
chris-woods Mon 9 Jul 3:28 PM