Iowa Governor's Race Debate
Tue Apr 04, 2006 at 11:45:01 AM PDT
Last night at Iowa State University there was a debate between the four candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The candidates are:
Michael Blouin - http://www.mikeblouin.com/ - Mike is a former school teacher in Dubuque. He was elected to the Iowa House in 1968, and was in Congress from 1974-1978. Since then, he has worked in the community college system and has been the director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development.
Chet Culver - http://www.chetculver.com/ - Chet is the son of former Senator John Culver. He taught at Des Moines high schools until being elected Secretary of State in 1998.
Ed Fallon - http://www.fallonforgovernor.net/ - Ed is a professional musician. Since 1992, he has served in the Iowa House.
Sal Mohamed - http://www.salmohamedforgovernor.org/ - Sal is a chemical engineer from Sioux City. He ran for the Democratic Nomination in Iowa's 5th district in 2004.
My summary of the debate and impressions of the candidates behind the cut.
The candidates: The three "credible" candidates are Blouin, Culver, and Fallon. Sal Mohamed has virtually no money, no volunteers, a promise of an "extra $8000 for a Family of 4 Every Year", and has no chance of winning. He invoked Henry Wallace several times during the debate, and spoke often of a scientific approach to government. I'm going to safely ignore him for the rest of the diary.
In general, Blouin is considered the most moderate of the candidates, while Fallon the most liberal. In a recent poll by TV station KCCI, Culver had 33% of the primary vote, while Blouin had 16% and Fallon 13%. Culver led Nussle by 1 point in a general election poll, while Blouin is down 6 and Fallon down 10.
The first questions at the debate were about education. All of the candidates agreed that steps need to be taken to make college education more accessible and affordable. One disagreement was that Fallon said that education should be designed to make better people with life skills, while Blouin emphasized the job-training and economic benefits associated with education. As both Blouin and Culver are former teachers, they each had their own experiences to draw on with regards to this area.
The Iowa Values Fund is a program designed to increase jobs in Iowa by investing in companies that will create jobs in the state. The candidates all had different opinions on the program. Fallon attacked the program as simply corporate welfare that has only created 10% of the jobs it claims to have created, and suggested the state should create jobs "the old-fashioned way", by investing in small businesses and working from the bottom up. Culver claimed that the values fund needed tougher penalties for companies that don't use the funds properly. Blouin, who in his current position works with the Iowa Values Fund, claims there are indeed such provisions in the program and that a program such as this is necessary to attract high-tech industries to develop a base for attracting young people to the state.
With regards to the death penalty, Culver stated that although it might be unpopular amongst the primary voters, as a father he felt that at sometimes, the death penalty would be appropriate. Blouin, answering next, responded that as a father, "No. Never." to possibly the loudest applause of the night. Both he and Fallon opposed the death penalty on both practical and moral grounds.
On abortion, Blouin, the only pro-life candidate, stated that after consideration, he feels that he shouldn't tilt at windmills by pushing for an outright abortion ban, but should instead work on programs to limit abortions. He promised that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, he would sign a bill returning the law to the form it has today. Culver called this an "election-year conversion", as in the 1970s in Congress he sponsored an amendment banning abortion. He stated he would veto any attempt to limit abortion. Fallon also mentioned his 100% pro-choice position, and attacked Culver's claim of election-year conversions, noting that his running mate Patty Judge voted all 3 times against choice in the Iowa House.
All of the candidates opposed forced school district consolidations.
There was an open question-and-answer period at the end of the debate. One question was what the most fun the candidates had in college was. Ed Fallon said it was how when he started his college career in Vermont, he would go skiing several hours per day and fit his studying in around the skiing. Mike Blouin said it was weekend-long bridge tournaments. Chet Culver said basically getting an education and his football scholarship.
Another asked about how they viewed diversity, especially among Latinos and the GLBT community. Fallon took the opportunity to trumpet his support of gay marriage, but the answer time was too limited for any candidate to do more than support diversity.
My thoughts: I was entirely unimpressed by Chet Culver. He seemed to have very few ideas during the debate, talking heavily about "electability" and "election-year conversions". He failed to make a strong stand on anything during the debate. It seems to me that his current popularity is based mostly on his and his father's name recognition, and that if he does not improve as a candidate his support will decrease as people begin to pay attention to the race.
Mike Blouin did a far better job at the debate in my view. He seemed the most experienced of the candidates and had actual answers to the questions asked. Some Democrats may find some of his views, specifically on abortion, as too conservative, but I did not get a sense that he was too conservative for a Democratic nominee. He mentioned that he has the support of the most state representatives and senators, and I can see why.
Ed Fallon also did a good job at the debate. He tried to make clear that he was not a fringe left candidate. He noted in one of his responses that he was the only candidate to show significant independent support at this time, due to his opposition to PAC money in his campaign and his other new clean government ideas. He is the most liberal of the three candidates, and is certainly a credible candidate in this race.
The Iowa primary is on June 6, 2006, so there is plenty of time for any of these candidates to make up ground. My personal handicapping of the race right now is that Blouin will win in June, but the candidates performance up to that point will obviously have a big impact. Personally, I am still undecided between Blouin and Fallon, and I look forward to watching the last two months of this race unfold.
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