Behind TWO 8-balls: Monday Meanderings

I had a quiet afternoon at work today, which gave me some time to check and comment on some blogs, and in the process, I was led to ponder the candidacy of David Loebsack.

This post from John Deeth led me to think about it.

Weeks ago, slightly before the filing deadline, I e-mailed someone from Loebsack's campaign to ask to be included in their press releases. I recognize I'm probably not tremendously high on anyone's priority list, but I'm a registered Dem who works for a gub candidate and writes a mildly well-read political blog, so I figured I'd at least merit a response.

Nothing. No "sorry, but no," no press releases, no response at all.

Then the filing deadline came and passed, and Loebsack failed to meet the criteria. He's the only Democrat running, so he shouldn't have problems with voters supporting other candidates, and he's been running for a while, so it's not like he had a short period to work with. Selden Spencer in CD4 hasn't even built a website yet, but he was able to do it.

Loebsack needed to gather 1,716 signatures, and exceed 2% of the 2004 Democratic vote in 8 of the district's 15 counties. Granted, CD2 includes Linn County (Cedar Rapids) and Johnson County (Iowa City), but it also includes 3 counties with less than 1750 Democratic voters (Wayne, Van Buren and Davis) and 6 more counties with less than 5000.

Here's what I said in the comments on the before-mentioned Deeth post:

"When Sal Mohamed, frequently considered a "cold day in hell" candidate, can generate 3,709 signatures and over 1% of the Democratic vote in 10 counties, and Loebsack can't do it in eight, with 15 counties to choose from, it sounds like he either a) dropped the ball, b) never left Iowa City, or c) hasn't built any name recognition in 9 of 15 counties while running against a 14-term incumbent.

None of those would be a good sign."

Then tonight, to do my homework before this post, I went to Loebsack's website to see if I could remember which staffer I had e-mailed. I didn't recognize any of the names on the contact page, and didn't recognize any of them. So I went back and found the e-mail. The e-mail address I mailed to isn't listed on the page anymore.

So now, looking back, Loebsack's staff was ignoring my media request, then they blew the filing deadline, and now they're rotating staff.

Not good signs, considering a lot of Democrats I know would already vote for Leach over Boswell.

KL