District Democrats gathered in Vinton over the weekend.
Jack Hatch; candidate for Governor.
Bruce Braley; Congressman seeking U.S. Senate seat.
VINTON--The 1st District Democratic Convention was held this past Saturday at the Vinton-Shellsburg High School. This is the first time a district convention for either party has been held in Benton County.
The week-end was kicked-off Friday night when the five Democratic Candidates for the 1st District Congressional seat attended a forum to discuss Growing the Middle Class and Addressing Income Inequality. The candidates attending were Swati Dandekar, Rep. Anesa Kajtazovic, Rep. Pat Murphy, Dave O’Brien, Monica Vernon. Democratic State Chair, Scott Brennan also addressed the crowd. After the event, a reception at the Ray House in Vinton was held for the attendees and candidates that was hosted by the Benton County Democratic Central Committee.
Saturday an enthusiastic crowd met at high school to do the business of the 1st District, debate and pass the district party platform and elect State Central Committee members. Those elected included Dr. Michael Blackwell of Waterloo, Norm Strezenbach Sr., Cedar Rapids, Jerry Lynch, Dubuque, Andrly, Lapistskyy, Cedar Rapids, Karen Pratte, Waterville, Arlie Willems, Anamosa, R.R.S Stewart, Dubuque and Rosemary Schwartz, Vinton. The Democratic Party elects the same number women and men to the State Central Committee as well as outreach to diverse groups.
Congressman Bruce Braley running for U.S. Senate, State Senator Jack Hatch who is running for Governor and Sherry Taha who is running for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture addressed the crowd as well as the five Congressional candidates.
Kudo’s to our counterparts at the 1st District Republican Convention that struck the defense of one man, one woman marriage from their platform with the idea that government should not be involved with marriage at all. It is a first step towards equality for everyone in the Republican Party even though the Republican State Platform will not embrace that concept.
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What was defeated at the convention was the idea that we should demand judges legislate from the bench, as they did here in Iowa when they ignored the law to declare that gay marriage was legal. We Republicans feel that the government is too intrusive and should not have the right to declare that churches and private businesses must perform weddings/bake wedding cakes for homosexual couples when it violates their very beliefs.
I fully expect the state platform, as it should, to contain a plank that expresses that one of the core principles of the Republican party is the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. I also expect to see any language left out that might suggest we want judges to overstep their boundaries. Because of the rules governing our convention, we were unable to create a last minute wording that fit our intention.
I thank you for celebrating with us that we have upheld our belief that the government is overreaching, perhaps one day the democrats will join us in encouraging the government to lessen their ever increasing grasp on the freedom of Americans.