Clinton, Sanders, O’Malley plan Eastern Iowa visits over Labor Day weekend

CEDAR RAPIDS - He may not be the first, but Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is the rare presidential candidate to make a campaign stop at the Meskwaki settlement west of Tama-Toledo.

Sanders, whose support in Iowa is growing, according to the most recent polls, will have a town-hall meeting at 2 p.m. at the Meskwaki Tribal Center on Friday, Sept. 4.

He won't have the state to himself over the long Labor Day Weekend. Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley will join union members at traditional Labor Day weekend festivities in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City while Sanders heads to Coe College in Cedar Rapids after his Meskwaki visit.

Clinton, who has rolled out a new initiative to combat heroin and alcohol addiction, will be the guest at a Sunday evening house party hosted by Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Cedar Rapids, and attend the annual Hawkeye Labor Council AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic Monday at Hawkeye Downs.

O'Malley will make nine stops on his 11th trip to Iowa, including Tipton and Anamosa Sunday and the Iowa City Federation of Labor Picnic at Upper City Park. He will be highlighting his plan to halve the youth unemployment rate by expanding national service opportunities.

Presidential campaign visits to the Meskwaki settlement of about 800 enrolled members as well nontribal members, including spouses are rare. Ask enough people, however, and you'll hear that former Minnesota Sen. Walter Mondale, then Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry or former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson might have beat Sanders to the Sac and Fox community.

'Might have” being the operative phrase because there seems to be scant evidence of the candidates visiting the Native American community west of Tama-Toledo.

'I can't quite remember,” tribal historian Jonathan Buffalo said. He's heard people mention visits by Mondale, Kerry and Richardson, but has never seen anything in his tribal histories about those visits.

John Speer, longtime Tama-Toledo newsman came up blank, too.

However, Christina Blackcloud-Garcia, the director of tribal operations, is quite certain there has been at least one presidential candidate to visit the Meskwakis.

'Oh, he's not the first,” she said about Sanders. She recalled that Richardson visited, perhaps when his 2008 campaign was in the exploratory stage.

He was in the neighborhood. Records show the Hispanic Richardson did a 'Presidential Job Interview” July 19, 2007, at South Tama County Elementary in Tama. However, there's no mention of his visit - or stops by Kerry or Mondale - on websites that track presidential campaign appearances.

The Mondale visit may have occurred when he was a vice presidential candidate, Buffalo said.

Campaign schedule:

Sanders: Sept. 4 - 2 p.m. at the Meskwaki Tribal Center, 349 Meskwaki Rd., Tama. Doors open at 1 p.m. RSVP here; 5 p.m., Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (Local 100g) and Hawkeye Labor Council, Iowa Federation of Labor informational picket at Penford, 1001 1st St SW, Cedar Rapids; 7 p.m., Coe College Quad. RSVP here.

O'Malley: Sept. 6 - 3 p.m. Cedar County meet-and-greet, 210 E. 6th St., Tipton; 5 p.m., Lawrence Community Center, 600 E. Main St., Anamosa; Sept. 7 - 2:30 p.m., Iowa City Federation of Labor Picnic, Upper City Park, Shelter #3, 200 E. Park Rd., Iowa City.

Clinton: Sept. 6 - 5:30 p.m., Mathis house party, 1725 MacKenzie Dr. NE, Cedar Rapids, RSVP here; Sept. 7 - 11:15 a.m., Hawkeye Downs, 4400 6th St. SW, Cedar Rapids.