Congressional Committee to Organize the Second District
Meeting Minutes: December 9, 2001
Present: D. J. Arnold (Linn), Lori Bears (Johnson), Sarah Benzing, Alan Bohanan (Cedar), Cath Denial, John Dockendorff (DesMoines), Sandy Dockendorff (DesMoines), Mary Elgar (Henry), Brian Flaherty (Johnson), Lee Hamre, Barbara Hood (Jefferson), Diane Kearns (Lee), Jerry Kearns (Lee), Pat Marshall (Linn), (Betty McMahon (Muscatine), Don Paulson (Muscatine), Carol Porch (Johnson), John Riessen (DesMoines), Kirsten Running, Sharon Savage (Muscatine), Phil Scott (Jefferson), Norm Sterzenbach (Linn), Bob Thomas (Appanoose), Lorene Thurman (Linn), Pete Thurman (Linn), Mayrose Wegmann, Bruce Whitaker (Van Buren), John Whitaker (Van Buren), Kendra Wyse (Henry),
Call to order:
The meeting was called to order by Alan Bohanan at 2:00 p.m. in the Iowa Wesleyan College Library in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
Welcome and Introduction:
Welcome and introductions of members present (as listed above) occurred.
Potential candidate for the Second Congressional District John Whitaker from Van Buren County and potential U.S. House of Representative candidate, John Whitaker from Van Buren County were introduced to the meeting.
IDP Staff people Kirsten Running and Sarah Benzing were introduced.
Minutes: The 10-28-01 minutes were corrected to state "Sandy Dockendorff pointed out that we also have the responsibility to help the candidates that cross county lines."
A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the minutes of the 10-28-01 meeting, with the change.
Treasurer Report: A bank account needs to be established and Sandy Dockendorff will open one soon. The last meeting raised $160.00. We will receive some funds from the old third and first districts.
The major agenda item of the First District meeting which will occur next Sunday, will be the distribution of the funds.
State Central Committee: Norm Sterzenbach reported that the state party has a new website that will be available for candidates and people at the county level. It will have the entire voter registration file on it. One will be able to do queries and to download for labels. It will import into Excel or Access. They are in the process of doing beta testing at this time and training in the counties will soon begin. Editing authority will be given to at least one person per county.
The Jefferson Jackson Day dinner will be October 5th of 2002.
A resolution was adopted to take care of the method for dissolving the accounts in the district committees. A committee was assigned to look at how to set up temporary committees. Information was distributed that indicates the size of the new district central committees and the new district convention. A method has been approved for county delegate numbers and will be available within the next two or three weeks.
A resolution passed, in a prior state meeting, for change in preference for alternates. It will allow for seating of alternates in the by-laws and will give preference to seating by county but allow other county alternates to be seated if space is available.
Bob Thomas reported that the new computer system will be called VAN for Voter Activation Network. He reported that an ad hoc group was advised to look at how we elect central committee members.
Candidate Presentation: John Dockendorff who is running for the Iowa House of Representatives from the 87th district introduced himself. His primary focus is economic development, schools and families.
John Riessen who is running for the Iowa House of Representatives from the 87th district introduced himself. His primary issue is jobs, and he is also focusing on education and the budget.
IDP Staff Report: Kirsten Running is the second district field staffer for the coordinated campaign. She is working on the voter lists and will be working with the person assigned to the website from each county. There will be other field staffers assigned to the counties in the future. Kirsten needs the names of students who would be interested in internships in the county, the districts or with the state party. Although they are unpaid, they can turn into paid opportunities in the future.
Jeannie Murray, the executive director has stepped down from the party. There are several job openings at the present time.
Sarah Bensing is the field coordinator of the state of Iowa. She has been working on voter list clean up. They will get more field staff in January.
Caucus Training: Sara Norris will run the caucus training. Saturday, Jan 26 in Ottumwa is established. There will be other training dates identified in the future. She is looking at Ottumwa, Davenport, Burlington and Iowa City. These will be posted on the website when they are available.
Young Democrats: Mayrose Wegmann is the President of the University of Iowa Democrats and is the Vice President of Iowa Young Democrats at the state level and will work to organize young Democrats in Iowa. Several activities have been organized at the University. A person must be 35 years of age or younger to qualify as a Young Democrat. Young Democrats need to go to their teachers to discuss the formalization of a Young Democrats group on campus. Contact Mayrose for ideas about how to increase involvement of young people or if you want to start a Young Democrat in your county. Contact Mayrose if you would like to speak to her Young Democrat meetings or if you have suggestions for her.
Organization of the District:
Alan asked for volunteers to work on drafting a constitution for the new second district. The First District constitution can be used as a template, with the inclusion of the electronic notification change. Sandy Dockendorff would like to work on it. Anybody else should contact Alan.
Committees under that constitution are finance, education, program and issues. They will be addressed in the future.
Communications: Sharon Savage discussed the listserve communication systems. One is for research and is being run by Brian Flaherty. The other is for general communication. All are encouraged to sign-up for the general communication listserve. Alan encouraged that people use the listserve to notify each other of events.
Brian Flaherty discussed his research listserve that conducts research in opposition to Jim Leach. He distributed a hand out that listed information that has been gathered and needs to be gathered for the group. His group has sought to identify all elected officials in each county and to gather information about the newspapers in each area. Brian requests that the district committee continue to gather such information. Brian has outlined some information on Leach's voting record in the 107th congress. Brian requests that each person in the group take one or two special interest groups and go to their websites to locate their 105th congressional legislation, find their recommended votes or congressional scorecard. Record their key votes and try to find Leach's vote and identifying information about the legislation. Go to www.thomas.loc.gov to search by house roll call vote or bill number to find out what the vote was. This information will be compiled and then given to the candidates.
Much discussion occurred about the fact that Jim Leach has a pattern of voting for measures and then voting against the funding of the same measures. It presents a misleading impression of him. The research that Brian's group is doing will help to point out these inconsistencies in his behavior.
District Convention Site Proposals: Henry and Jefferson counties have both proposed that the conventions be held in their counties.
Kendra Wyse proposed that the convention be held at the Howe student activity center on the Wesleyan campus. She said it will cost approximately $900 total, with $500 for the facility itself. The meal would need to be arranged with the food service that has a contract with the Wesleyan campus. There is a possibility that the Republicans may want it for the same date. The manager will contact Kendra about availability. Some concern was expressed about the costs.
Phil Scott proposed that the convention be held at the Best Western in Fairfield. Initial research has indicated that rental of the space for the whole day would cost $600. This cost does not include the fee for the rental of the individual rooms. Concern was also expressed about the cost of this facility.
Alan requests that a written proposal be submitted to the committee. He also advised that a subgroup be formed to tour both sites.
Candidate Presentation: John Whittaker addressed the group. He said that he will announce shortly that he will run for the congressional seat. He said that he would be glad to meet with groups as requested.
New Business:
It was requested that the dates of the county central committee meetings be placed on the website.
The next state central committee meeting is February 16 at 8:30. The officers meeting is at 8:30, the subcommittee meets at 9:30 and the regular meeting is at 10:30.
A motion was made seconded and carried to hold the next meeting Sunday, January 13th, 2002 at 2:00 p.m. at this location (the International Room of Iowa Wesleyan College Library).
The meeting was adjourned for the purpose of viewing the potential convention site at 3:50 p.m.
Submitted by Sharon Savage, Secretary