June 3 primary pits rural vs. urban

Monday, May 26, 2008

(The Des Moines Register)By THOMAS BEAUMONT
tbeaumont@dmreg.com

The Democratic primary in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District is a stylistic clash of Leonard Boswell's centrist, rural background and Ed Fallon's self-styled progressive, urban record.

In that way, the June 3 primary will test Boswell's ability to inspire liberals and Fallon's reach in the district's vast rural tracks.

"It's Fallon's job to get people excited about him, especially outside his urban base," Drake University political science professor Rachel Paine Caufield said. "It's so difficult to do that in a primary election, and the incumbency advantage is so strong."

Fallon, a former state representative from Des Moines, is the first Democrat to challenge Boswell since the former Davis County farmer was elected to Congress in 1996.

He has described Boswell, who moved to Des Moines in 2002, as out of step with a district where 70 percent of its registered Democrats are from Polk County.

"A Democratic Congress is not enough," Fallon told the 3rd District Democratic convention in West Des Moines last month. "We need a progressive Democratic Congress. Now is the year to accomplish that."

Boswell argues Fallon is outside his party's mainstream and was ineffective during his 14 years in the Iowa Legislature.

Having held an Iowa House district on Des Moines' near north side from 1992 until 2006, Fallon has a base in Polk County. But his opposition to the expansion of livestock confinements has earned him a following in rural Iowa.

Fallon last week proposed a moratorium on the construction or expansion of hog lots owned by corporations, a measure popular with some Democrats in the broad swath of rural south- and east-central Iowa.

Boswell opposes the moratorium, arguing it would diminish the authority of state natural resources and agriculture officials.

Joe Brock, Jasper County Democratic chairman, said he supports Fallon in part because he sees the moratorium as an attempt to help the district's declining number of family farmers.

"With Ed's environmental and progressive farm record, people will be out there for him," said Brock, a Monroe farmer. "But the farming thing, there are so few of them anymore, and what's left isn't very active politically."

Fallon narrowly carried each of the district's 12 counties in his unsuccessful bid for the three-way 2006 gubernatorial primary.

He also argues that the sharp rise in the number of registered Democrats in the district is a sign the party seeks change. The number of registered Democrats in the district has risen by roughly 10 percent this year, about the same as statewide.

The trend is in large part a product of high interest in the party's presidential caucuses. Republican registration is up about 1.8 percent in the district, compared with less than 1 percent statewide.

Drake's Caufield said it was unclear which part of the Democratic Party's spectrum the new party members represent, and whether they would be motivated to weigh in on the primary.

"We have yet to see in any race how the caucus numbers are going to matter," she said. "It's kind of all up for grabs."

Voters must be registered to the party in whose primary they wish to vote, although they can change their registration at their polling place June 3. The winner will face Republican Kim Schmett, a lawyer and former congressional aide, in the general election.

Brock said Boswell is the preferred candidate on Jasper County's Democratic committee, where many see the longtime rural figure as one of their own.

A former state Senate leader from southern Iowa, Boswell represented eight of the 3rd District's counties for three terms before congressional redistricting in 2002 prompted him to move to Des Moines.

Marengo Democrat Tammy Wetjen-Kesterson said Boswell's rural background has engendered trust from a network of traditional party activists.

"He understands traditional farming in Iowa and that links very much to the rural way of life and what's going on in these small communities," said Wetjen-Kesterson, an Iowa County Democratic chairwoman.

However, Boswell's vote for the USA Patriot Act, the Iraq war resolution and subsequent war appropriations have prompted some district Democrats to his left to complain.

Des Moines Democrat Patricia Wengert said she has voted for Boswell, but has hoped a Democrat who reflects the district's urban base would challenge him.

Wengert was particularly bothered by Boswell's vote for the Democratic majority in Congress in 2005 for a bankruptcy bill she said made it more difficult for people on hard economic times to re-establish themselves.

"I think it's time for a change. I'm looking for someone progressive, and he's not a progressive. He's not even close," Wengert, a 54-year-old lawyer, said about Boswell. "I don't view Ed Fallon as outside the party mainstream. He is the Democratic Party I grew up with."

Boswell has said the bill was aimed at helping people work through financial difficulties without having to declare bankruptcy.

Although Boswell has held far fewer primary campaign events, he has made overtures to the party's left wing this spring.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the outspoken Massachusetts Democrat, campaigned for Boswell last month, at the candidate's request. Frank is a member of the left-leaning Progressive Caucus, unlike Boswell, a member of the largely rural, moderate so-called Blue Dog Democrats in the House.

Frank said the appearance at Grinnell College was to signal to the district's liberals the incumbent was reliable.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Frank said in an interview after addressing about 50 students and party activists with Boswell. "I'm to Len's left. That's why I'm here, to say to people who agree with me in the first place that he's all right."

Boswell has stressed his party loyalty with the party's base, which has earned him the support of liberals.

He continually raises Fallon's endorsement of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 2000, arguing Nader was a big reason Democrat Al Gore lost to Republican George W. Bush.

"It occurs to me things would have been a lot different if we'd have been behind Al Gore and he had been the president, versus a guy named George W. Bush," Boswell told the 3rd District convention at Valley High School.

Nancy Bobo, a Des Moines Democrat who describes herself as progressive, said Fallon's backing of Nader reinforces her support for Boswell.

"You can't turn your back on the party in such a public manner and then come back a few years later and ask us to stand with you," said Bobo, a nonprofit executive who supports Boswell. "Leonard has been there when we need him."