October 27, 2022
DUBUQUE, IA—It's been one year since I first hit the road to follow Admiral Michael Franken on the campaign trail. On that trip in October of 2021, a small group of curious and skeptical people showed up in the northwest Iowa towns of Pocahontas, Storm Lake, and Sioux Center. One wag texted the Admiral - you know the primary votes are in the eastern part of the state, right?
During that first road trip, I observed the potential for a political miracle as I watched him interact with 12 people gathered to meet him in a Pochonotas cafe. I traveled with Franken and his wife, Jordan, to visit the home where he grew up near Sioux Center and saw the creek where he learned to swim, which can no longer sustain life because of pollution.
Rural northwest Iowa is where Admiral Michael Franken's story began. And these roots are why more Iowans resonate with his candidacy once they understand who he is.
Here is that first column. Click: Let’s be frank about this.
One year later, I decided to see what was going on in the campaign today. I picked his tour in Dubuque, a resilient Mississippi River town where retired Senator Tom Harkin had a congressional office staffed by Linda Lucy for nearly 25 years. Today, neither Iowa’s U.S. Senators (Chuck Grassley or Joni Ernst) has an office in Dubuque.
To be one of 100 people elected to represent a state is an honor and a tough job few understand. Most have no idea what the job of a Senator entails. It’s not your fault. Even though the person representing you in elected office dramatically impacts your life, mainstream political coverage is mostly about the horse race of elections. Once upon a time, The Des Moines Register and WHO radio had Washington, D.C. bureaus reporting on the Iowa congressional delegation. Alas. Gone. So are The Register’s bureaus around the state.
As for political coverage in general, if there’s something outrageous, nasty, or titillating to cover, it will get a lot more clicks than the nuances of how Dubuque lost daily air service by American Airlines.
And yet, Dubuque’s bridges, highway construction, and deals cut through bi-partisan efforts led by Harkin spell the difference between a small city’s success and failure. That’s the job.
Horse race journalists turned their heads to our state after the latest Iowa Poll by renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer held surprising news about the Grassley/Franken race. Franken beating incumbent Grassley is about as man-bites—dog-story as it gets. Local TV crews are showing up to cover Franken. National reporters are coming to town. Lawrence O’Donnell invited Franken on his show last week, and a Fox News anchor had Grassley on to ask him: What’s going on in Iowa?
To which the 89-year-old Iowa Senator in his seventh term answered:
“I don’t know what’s going on in Iowa,” then he begged Fox viewers for money.
The Beltway crowd has been pouring money into a handful of Senate races around the country, but it just might be the ones they ignored that will keep the body in a Democratic majority. And that’s an October surprise, causing a scramble.
Donald Trump is flying into Sioux City on November 3, believed to be the reddest corner of the state, and Senator Rand Paul picked a Twitter fight with Franken. All of this generates attention for Franken, and the polls indicate that’s what he needs to overtake the advantage Grassley has in name identification from incumbency.
For those addicted to the horse race of a campaign, you will be amused to follow @FrankenforIowa, who answered a tweet by Paul:
I spent 42 years defending this country from complete assholes. I’m not done just because I retired from the Navy. And I’m not going to be lectured to by an insurrectionist. @FrankenforIowa
Yea, say a chorus of democrats who are sick and tired of how nice and polite their candidates have been. They-go-low-we-go-high stuff has a hard time competing with the lie-cheat-and-win gang.
Franken has faced formidable enemies of democracy around the globe, which compelled him to forgo the cushy retirement he had earned. The man who was commander of the USS Winston Churchill took to heart the part of his oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Franken spoke to the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Politics and Eggs, and the noon Rotary Club meeting. He talked about foreign policy and how it relates to Iowa. He answered questions, weaving in his thoughts about money in politics and the need for citizen legislators, not professional politicians, term limits, and outlawing family members from lobbying. (I don’t know how many in the room know Grassley's wife, Barbara, worked for a D.C. lobbying firm). He also said members of congress should hold investments in a blind trust while serving in office.
When Franken starts talking about the intricacies of policy, his wife Jordan eventually signals, that’s enough, and he heeds her call. He’s a northwest Iowa nerd with a command presence, not a politician. This is both a blessing and a curse in a political campaign.
I was curious what the reaction to Franken was from participants.
One man told me:
“I’m a Republican and will vote Republican no matter what, but he didn’t come off like a politician. I learned a lot about what’s going on around the world. He’s really smart. But I’ll still vote Republican.”
Another participant approached Franken enthusiastically, saying she’d seen him the night before on the Lawrence O’Donnell show, The Last Word.
“Franken is just what we need right now,” said Geri Shafer, who moved to Dubuque with her husband in 2020.
After leaving the Rotary luncheon at the local country club, the candidate met privately with people living in the Table Mound Mobile Home Community to discuss the impact on residents of out-of-state investors buying these parks and raising rates exponentially. It can be a financial trap with little hope of escape.
The final event of the day was a gathering for local supporters. Some said it was a record turnout of close to 200.
The Democratic crowd of supporters puffed wind into the Navy seaman’s sails, pushing him to plow through the swells he’ll navigate toward the final election day ballot count on November 8.
They applauded his remarks about health care, pay equity, the real cause of inflation, and responsible gun ownership, getting Iowa’s public education back to tops in the nation, and they stood up cheering for the man they believe will defeat Chuck Grassley against all odds.
Michael Franken might have the last word, after all. We shall see.
More: Violence Against Women Act
Lobbying Firm: Barbara Grassley
I’m honored to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.
Below are the members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative in alphabetical order. There is a lot of talent here, and I’m honored to be on the list.
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
*Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
*Cheryl Tevis is our newest columnist. She is an ag journalist who lives in Boone County. The last line of her first column hints at what her column offers. Check it out! And meet her tomorrow.
MICHAEL FRANKEN just might win