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« Activity by Progressive/Democratic-Aligned Groups
Activity by Progressive/Democratic-Aligned Groups in Iowa
• Two homegrown groups are Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) and Progress Iowa.
iowacci.org/
progressiowa.org/
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 2020
Contact: Hugh Espey
In Iowa, Vice President Mike Pence lies like a rug
New
model predicts 200,000
U.S. deaths by October 1.
Estimate increased by 30,000
Vice-President Mike Pence is
in Forest City, Iowa today, lying
like a rug to
the American people about the
danger Covid-19 poses to essential
workers, nursing home residents,
prisoners, and public health.
"Here and across America, we
slowed the spread," Pence said
today. "We flattened the curve. We
saved lives. And that's why we're
opening up America again. We did
it."
Iowa Citizens
for Community Improvement board
president Tom Mohan of Sioux City
responded with a public
organizational statement:
Vice-President Mike Pence lied
like a rug in Iowa today
on his George Bush-style
'Mission Accomplished' tour of
truthi-ness.
The facts are, more than
100,000
Americans have died
from Covid-19 in the last three
months. 100,000 more
could die by October 1
if state and federal governments
don't step up and do more
to put workers and everyday
people first.
Re-opening Iowa and
the rest of the country for
corporate profit
before it's safe will
be disastrous for public health
and the economy. This pandemic
has shown that everyone is
affected by the virus, and that
any one person's wellness
depends on everyone
else's.
Vice President Pence and
Governor Reynolds can still save
lives if they stop the lies. We
need strong government action
now to put essential workers and
everyday people before profits,
politics, polluters, police, and
packing plants.
New modeling
out today from the
University of Washington’s
Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation estimates 200,000
Americans will die from
Covid19-related causes by October
1. In recent days, public health
researchers have added an
additional 30,000 deaths to
their Oct. 1 predictions, as they
take into account the sobering
ramifications that re-opening the
country before it is safe has
already had.
Covid-19 cases are currently
rising sharply in nearly two
dozen states. The same
University of Washington model
predicts Iowa will
have a total of 1,240 deaths by
October 1, nearly double the total
deaths here to date.
Iowa CCI
members have launched a Stay
Safe Iowa campaign.
For more information go here: https://www.staysafeiowa.com/
Iowa Citizens
for Community Improvement is a
statewide, grassroots people’s
action group that uses community
organizing to win public policy
that puts communities before
corporations and people before
profits, politics and polluters.
CCI has been fighting to put
people first for over 45 years.
Follow us on Twitter at @iowacci.
Progress Iowa
May 7, 2020
Iowans Tell Pence: Stay in Washington
In advance of the Vice
President’s visit to Iowa on
Friday, a number of Iowans
expressed their concern about his
travel to our state and the
message it sends while cases of
COVID-19 are still on the rise.
A number of prominent Iowans
issued the following joint
statement to Vice President Pence:
“Mr. Vice President, you may
have the best intention with
your visit to our state. But
your presence here will at best
send a mixed message at a time
when every Iowan should be
practicing social distancing and
other best practices to mitigate
the spread of COVID-19.
COVID-19 numbers are on the
rise, and we have recently been
one of the worst states in the
nation for spreading this
disease. We need you to lead by
example, and practice social
distancing instead of traveling
here and encouraging us to put
our families and neighbors in
danger.
If you want to save lives and
safeguard the health of Iowans,
you should stay in Washington
and address this pandemic as a
policymaker. Help Iowa by
keeping your promise that
everyone who wants a test can
get one. Help Iowa by listening
to experts, not by dismantling
the federal response task force.
Help Iowa by fighting to protect
the Affordable Care Act instead
of working toward its full
repeal in the courts. Help Iowa
by sending much needed federal
aid for our state and local
governments, not letting us go
bankrupt as Senator McConnell
suggested.
Mr. Vice President, you can help
Iowa much more by staying in
Washington. We implore you to do
so.”
More than sixty days ago, the
administration promised that
“anybody who wants a test can
get a test,” but that has not
been the case in Iowa or across
the country. And more than a
week ago, the administration
said that the US will run 5
million daily tests “very soon”
but that number is still roughly
250,000 per day.
Meanwhile, Iowa continues to set
records for daily deaths as a
result of COVID-19, which has
killed double the number of
people as compared to the flu,
and in significantly less time.
And a bipartisan group of Iowa
Mayors have called for more
federal support, standing up to
Senator McConnell’s suggestion
that local governments be
allowed to go bankrupt.
The organizations, leaders, and
elected officials signing on to
the statement are as follows:
Alex Watters, Sioux City
Councilmember
Alicia Claypool, former chair,
Iowa Civil Rights Commission
Allison Ritchie, President,
AFSCME Area Local Union 3011
Americans for Democratic Action
Iowa
Chris Schwartz, Black Hawk
County Board of Supervisors
Connie Ryan, executive director,
Interfaith Alliance of Iowa
Danny J. Homan, President,
AFSCME Council 61
Dave Jacoby, Iowa State
Representative
Doug Bailey, Hamilton County
Board of Supervisors
Eric Giddens, Iowa State Senator
Hawkeye Area Labor Council,
AFL-CIO
Indivisible Iowa
Iowa Alliance for Retired
Americans
Iowa Citizen Action Network
Iowa Citizens for Community
Improvement
Iowa Lower Drug Prices Now
Iowa Main Street Alliance
Iowa State Education Association
Iowa Voices
Jackie Smith, Iowa State Senator
Joe Bolkcom, Iowa State Senator
Jonathan Grieder, Waterloo City
Councilor, Ward 2
Liz Bennett, Iowa State
Representative
Marti Anderson, Iowa State
Representative
Mary Mascher, Iowa State
Representative
Matt Sinovic, executive
director, Progress Iowa
Progress Iowa
Protect Our Care Iowa
Randy R. Boulton, Iowa United
Steelworkers Council
Rob Hogg, Iowa State Senator
Rod Sullivan, Johnson County
Board of Supervisors
Smith & McElwain Law Office
South Central Iowa Federation of
Labor, AFL-CIO
Sue Dinsdale, executive
director, Iowa Citizen Action
Network
Tax March Iowa
• Iowa was one of twelve states targeted by SwingLeft as part of its Super State Strategy.
https://swingleft.org/p/iowa
Iowa
SUPER STATE STRATEGY
Our primary objectives in Iowa are to: 1) flip the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Joni Ernst, 2) compete for the state’s six Electoral College votes, and 3) break unified GOP control of the state government by flipping the Iowa State House.
In the state House, we are currently targeting seven districts—five GOP-held seats and two Democratic holds. Geographically, these targets are distributed across the state and include races near Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Omaha, NE. All seven races were decided by razor-thin margins of less than 5% in 2018.
In the state Senate, we are currently targeting five districts—four GOP-held seats and one Democratic hold. Many of these geographies overlap with our state House targets in Iowa, and improving the performance of statewide Democratic candidates in these regions is critical to our pathway to victory in the Iowa General Assembly.
By the numbers
8 Seats needed to flip the state senate
4 Seats needed to flip the state house
1 United States Senate seat to flip
6 Electoral College votes
U.S. Senate Race
Theresa Greenfield
Joni Ernst
State Senate Candidates
SD-8: Steve Gorman
SD-20: Rhonda Martin
SD-22: Sarah Trone Garriott
SD-42: Rich Taylor
SD-44: Tom Courtney
State House Candidates
HD-16: Jen Pellant
HD-37: Andrea Phillips
HD-39: Karin Derry
HD-55: Kayla Koether
HD-60: Dave Williams
HD-67: Eric Gjerde
HD-82: Phil Miller
What's at stake
93% of Iowa counties don't have an abortion clinic: To obtain an abortion in Iowa, patients must undergo a state-mandated ultrasound and minors must notify their parents before receiving treatment. As of 2017, 58% of Iowa women lived in counties without an abortion clinic with just nine facilities providing abortions statewide, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
952,000 disenfranchised Iowans with felony convictions: After Kentucky’s Democratic governor restored voting rights to 140,000 people with felony convictions in 2019, Iowa became the only remaining state that permanently disenfranchises all people convicted of felonies. Combined with faulty criminal history data, this policy means that improper voter roll purges could prevent eligible Iowa voters from receiving absentee ballot request forms.
$2 billion in agricultural industry losses from 2019 flooding: Severe floods in spring 2019 caused larger and longer-lasting damage to Iowa’s farmlands, with billions of dollars in lost crops and livestock as well as damaged roads and equipment. Compared to 2011, when 127,000 flooded acres became unusable, 2019’s rains damaged 145,000 acres along the Missouri river.
What's at stake facts updated June 2020