Dvorsky Defers to Anderson, Kinney

"You're the only politician I've ever heard get up and not say a word about himself - at his own event!" Brad Anderson told Bob Dvorsky and a crowd of about 50 gathered for Dvorsky's annual local fundraiser in Coralville.

There's reasons for that, one being that Dvorsky is unopposed this year. But Bob also knows for that next term to mean anything and to keep his job as Appropriations chair, he needs to help elect other Democrats, especially Senate Democrats. So he turned the spotlight over to Secretary of State candidate Anderson and to Kevin Kinney, the Democratic candidate in open, Republican-held Senate 39, a must-win race for both parties.

"People are very much wanting a change, and we can capture this seat from the Republicans," Kinney said. "It's overwhelming to me to see the support I'm getting from everyone."

Along with Kinney, Anderson is a high priority both for Bob and for Sue Dvorsky, who chaired the Iowa Democratic Party through the 2010 and 2012 general elections. "We couldn't put out all the fires and we lost Mike Mauro," in 2010, Sue Dvorsky said.

"The mission of that office is to expand accessible voting," she added. "It is a foundational race. If we cannot get back to the Iowa value that voting has to be easy and accessible, if we cant get this fixed, we will be struggling for the foreseeable future."

The Dvorskys were among Anderson's first supporters, but Brad said he had to work a little harder to win over the immediate family. "My nine year old asked, Dad, why are you running against John Kerry?" (Even in a political family, that's pretty remarkable civic awareness at age 9.)

Anderson's goals for the office include online voter registration, an option to sign up for permanent absentee ballot status, and getting Iowa to number one in voter turnout ahead of Minnesota.

Recent polls show the race between Anderson and his GOP opponent, Paul Pate (who held the office from 1994-98) extremely close. "I've never seen a poll like that, tied to a tenth of a point," he said, citing one of three recent polls.

Responding to criticism that his campaign is focused on attacks on incumbent Matt Schultz, who lost a congressional primary, Anderson said: "When Pate announced he said 'I want to continue the good work of Matt Schultz' - and then tried to delete it."

 "The advantage we have in this race is organization, said Anderson. "At some point Pate will be competitive in fundraising, but there's no time to match us in organization."

Other political folks in the audience were too numerous to name. I tried, but then I gave my notes to Bob to make sure they all got introduced and didn't get them back. And that anecdote is a better end to the post than a list of names.