The Iowa Democratic Party is predicting a biggest-ever crowd of 9,000 Saturday for its annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, the last major command-performance cattle call event for the top six Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa. The "JJ" dinner is annual, but peaks in pre-caucus years.
The Des Moines fundraising event is long since sold out, but you can probably score a ticket from a campaign for the small price of a signed pledge card. Campaigns scoop up tickets, haul in supporters, and engage in the usual sign wars and other such one-upmanship, as JJ kicks off the end game of caucus season.
In addition to the Big Six - the batting order is Edwards, Richardson, Biden, Dodd, Clinton and Obama -- attendees will hear from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Iowans Senator Tom Harkin, Governor Chet Culver, Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge and Congressman Leonard Boswell.
The old attendance record of 7,500 was set four years ago. JJ 2003 was, in retrospect, the high-water mark for the Howard Dean movement. Dean hauled 37 busloads of supporters (which broke Dick Gephardt's 1987 record) from a pre-dinner rally at the Des Moines Public School's Central Campus to Vet's Auditorium.
Dean very pointedly entered the dinner through the crowd when introduced, rather than walking down the designated dignitary walkway like the other candidates did. Another Dean moment drew a lot of attention: one Deaniac passed out at the pre-rally and Dr. Dean provided medical care until the EMT's arrived.
But echoes of the future were in the air -- literally, as the John Kerry campaign launched a blimp toward the rafters to unveil their then-new slogan "The Real Deal." John Edwards had a blimp, too, and the two circled each other in a dogfight for what then looked like third place. In a then-rare trip to Iowa, Hillary Clinton emceed the dinner and introduced -- or overshadowed -- the candidates. Joe Lieberman and Al Sharpton skipped the night. (Hey, wasn't Al Sharpton way more fun in the debate comic relief role than Mike Gravel? Best line: "Hey, Howard, if I'd have spent all that money in Iowa and come in third, I'd be yelling too.") Carole Moseley-Braun made one of her only Iowa stops at JJ; she dropped out and endorsed Dean days before the caucuses. Dennis Kucinich was spending a lot more time on the ground in Iowa in 2003 and was on hand; not so this time.
The atmosphere was very different at the 1991 dinner. Only about 1,000 people attended. With Tom Harkin running for president, the other candidates showed up but skipped the usual effort to pack the hall with supporters, as most of the party regulars who attend events of this sort were in the Harkin camp. An ice storm depressed turnout even more. Interstate 80 was closed in eastern Iowa, but a group of foolhardy University Democrats and I (covering the event for public radio) found open back roads and listened to the day's big news, the death of Queen singer Freddie Mercury from the AIDS that he's only disclosed the day before.
We arrived just as leadoff speaker Jerry Brown was starting. JJ `91 was the only Iowa caucus stop for Bill Clinton, and one of the last campaign events period for Doug Wilder of Virginia, who dropped out before any votes were cast. Harkin was in his element -- a partisan atmosphere, the local boy playing in the big leagues -- and the vast majority of the crowd was in his corner waving blue and white signs.
Paul Tsongas had the unenviable task of speaking last, just after Harkin. I'd pre-arranged an interview for just after his speech and he met me, as agreed, near a coat rack in the lobby. I monopolized Tsongas for about ten minutes, knowing he wouldn't be back before the caucuses and this was my last chance. He patiently and thoroughly answered all my questions, and then we shook hands. As I said "Thank you, Senator," I turned around and saw a national crew from ABC News standing behind me. Tsongas could see them while I was interviewing him, yet he'd given the local public radio guy from a rival's home state that he'd already written off a full interview, while he kept the network TV crew waiting. One of the classiest things I ever saw.
Last year saw the biggest non-caucus JJ. 3,500 people showed up at Hy-Vee Hall to see Bill Clinton. Clinton 42 made only a couple brief references to his spouse, but HILLARY 2008 signs were everywhere outside the hall as supporters promoted her as-yet unannounced candidacy. Leading with a disclaimer, the ex-president urged Democrats to "forget about 2008" and concentrate on the 2006 election, then only three weeks away. In an unusual arrangement, the big speaker went first rather than last, and Chet Culver capped off the evening. His predecessor Tom Vilsack got bigger cheers after Culver spoke, when he announced Chet's 46-39 lead over Jim Nussle in the Iowa Poll set to be published in the next morning's Des Moines Register. (That one panned out, but Denise O'Brien's 19 point lead in the Secretary of Agriculture race vanished by Election Day.)
Keynote speakers in non-caucus years included Joe Biden in 2000 and two Democrats fresh off defeats: Al Gore in 2001 and Tom Daschle in 2005. Al Franken, then just a funny guy but now a U.S. Senate candidate, spoke in 2004. The 1993 dinner featured a tribute to two of the founding fathers of the modern Iowa Democratic Party. Former senator John Culver spoke first, but the highlight was the peel the paint off the walls oratory from former governor and senator Harold Hughes, making one of his last Iowa speeches before his death three years later.
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