Leadership of Iowa Dems Open For Anyone Who Wants It

Leadership of the Iowa Democratic Party will soon be up for the taking. The opportunities aren’t simply limited to who becomes the next state party chair, however. Many local offices could use a fresh new face in the running. So too could major county parties. Incumbents long rumored to aim for higher office could finally make that leap. And multiple party projects, including recruiting young people to run for office, expanding Democrats’ donor bases in Eastern Iowa and getting young activists more involved, are all just asking to be led by someone.

Who will step up? In Central Iowa at least, there’s growing rumblings from a number of up-and-comers who are eager to take on new leadership positions within the party. Iowa Democrats certainly need the help, but will there be enough ambitious newcomers? And will the current establishment be smart enough to support them?

Tom Vilsack was back in Iowa last week, both speaking at local events in his official role and appearing at political fundraisers. I’ve heard a number of people chattering about what Vilsack may do once he returns to Iowa after the Obama Administration. Could he run for Governor in 2018? What about Senate in 2020? Could he help steer the state party behind the scenes?

All of those would be great things for him to do, in my personal opinion. The problem, however, is that we’re still turning to the Vilsacks to solve our party’s problems in this state instead of propping up new leaders.

After the 2016 elections are over, state party chair Andy McGuire will move on from her position, likely to run for governor in 2018. At that point our party will again face a situation where we lack a clear leader. The state party chair will be up for grabs again. There’s no clear statewide official like Tom Harkin to direct things. Whoever is the gubernatorial nominee could lead the party into the future, but they’ll have to win the general first. Outside of McGuire, no one seems to be making any big moves to prepare themselves for that primary.

Of course, you don’t have to be the party chair or gubernatorial nominee to help the Iowa Democratic Party, or to make a name for yourself while doing it. People just need to step up.

One might think that the 2010 and 2014 wipeouts of some our party’s rising stars, like Bruce Braley once was, would encourage a mad dash to fill the vacuum. That hasn’t happened too much. In the Congressional races, legislative incumbents thought to once harbor higher ambitions watched as former candidates stepped in to run.

And as I wrote before, no incumbent Democratic legislator in a safe seat in Iowa has built up a local political machine. Why not? You could use it as a strong base of support when you run for higher office. You could use it for leverage with statewide Democratic officials and leaders when you want some legislation moved at the Capitol. You could do it just because it’s the right thing to do to help out fellow Democrats. Hell, you could do it because you’re vain – who cares?

During the Iowa Caucus, when all of the national press was in town, there were incredibly few go-to Democratic leaders or legislators who you ever saw being interviewed. Why on earth not? Why did no one have any interest in stepping up to be a leading voice on Iowa politics? No one was interested in building their personal brand among Iowa activists and Democratic donors nationally?

Perhaps the outlook for Iowa Democrats will be rosier after 2016. Any of this year’s newly successful Democratic candidates could build upon a win into something larger. Consider Monica Vernon. Obviously this is getting ahead of ourselves, but if she were to defeat Rod Blum, she’d represent a Democratic-leaning seat for likely a very long time barring an awful election. She could use her campaign resources to help build up her political base in Linn County and help the local Democrats expand even more into the Marion and Hiawatha suburbs. The swing/Democratic-leaning Eastern Iowa is a very valuable base to have. That skilled, long-term turnout operation run by her would be very useful were she to run statewide, perhaps against someone like Joni Ernst.

And there are some who have taken ambitious steps this year. Rob Hogg is still traveling the state, building up good will with local candidates and activists, useful if he runs again. Stacey Walker is running for a supervisors seat in Linn County. Jim Mowrer took advantage of no bigger, established names running in the 3rd District and could have a long, successful Iowa career in front of him because of it. Many young professionals in the Des Moines area are starting to position themselves for bigger things.

Hell, look at me: Democrats had a real problem in this state with conservatives’ online dominance influencing the 2014 campaigns. So I created Starting Line. It was easy. Well, not necessarily easy – it was a ton of hard work and extremely long hours. But I didn’t have people trying to stop me. There was an opening for a former campaign staffer to be a key progressive reporter whose work was widely read and influenced the larger state and national media. I just had to do it, and here we are.

Iowa Democrats are rightly focused right now on the election in two months. But immediately after that, we’re going to have a free-for-all for who leads Iowa Democrats into the future, both at the state and local levels. The opportunity is there – people just need to take it.

by Pat Rynard
Posted 9/2/16