100 days before caucuses, O’Malley, Clinton, Sanders lead Iowa Democratic pep rally

DES MOINES — Part family reunion, part mini-nominating convention and all pep rally, the Iowa Democratic Party's Saturday night Jefferson-Jackson Dinner marked the beginning of a 100-day march to the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

And if Saturday night's enthusiasm and energy generated by the 6,600 party faithful that rocked Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines Saturday night is turned into campaign activity they will turn Iowa Democratic blue, door-knocking, IDP Chairwoman Andy McGuire predicted.

'We stand strong, we stand together and we will win in November,' she said.

Rep. Dave Loebsack of Iowa City, the lone Democrat in the Iowa congressional delegation asked his fellow party members to 'send me help' in Washington and echoed that call for unity.

'We are all on the same team behind our Democratic nominee,' he said.

Those candidates — former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Gov. Martin O'Malley and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — gave Iowa Democrats plenty to cheer about while asking them to launch their White House campaigns at precinct caucuses Feb. 1.

Sanders went first Iowa, applauding the Obama administration for making 'real progress' in improving the U.S. economy against a backdrop of 'unprecedented obstructionism from right-wing Republicans' who he said suffer from amnesia because 'they forgot what the world looked like seven years ago' teetering on the brink of financial collapse.

Sanders said he's the candidate who can lead Democrats in building a winning coalition of voters who will build on what Obama has started.

'People are excited to be part of a political revolution that will change this nation and give us a future to believe in,' Sanders told the crowd that was heavily peppered with cheering backers waving 'feel the Bern' and the 'revolution starts here' signs.

Sanders pledged to carry the banner on the issues of climate change, equality, justice, 'ending a rigged economy that is held in place by a corrupt political system,' and halting the exodus of American jobs overseas.

'On the evening of Feb. 1, in every precinct, in living rooms, in high school gymnasiums, and all across Iowa, we will send a message to our nation and the world ... We will be heard,' said Sanders, who promised to 'govern based on principle not poll numbers.'

'I pledge to you that every day I will fight for the public interest not the corporate interests,' he said. 'I will not abandon any segment of American society — whether you're gay or black or Latino or poor or working class — just because it is politically expedient at a given time.'

He concluded by quoting abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison: 'I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard.'

O'Malley worked to bolster his poll numbers by making a strong progressive pitch to woo Iowa Democrats who may have been awaiting Vice President Joe Biden's entry into the race until he announced last week he will not run.

'Action not words' the former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor repeatedly said in touting his executive experience.

O'Malley framed the choice Iowans will have in 100 days as 'action, not words … new leadership or the same old battles.'

'You decide whether we move forward or back. We cannot move beyond today's gridlocked politics by returning to the divisions of our past,' O'Malley said, offering himself as the candidate not bound by the past.

'I believe that to solve our problems we must face tomorrow,' he said. 'We need new leadership. New ideas. Someone with the courage to stand up for what's right — even when it's not always popular.'

None of the candidates has all of the answers, but O'Malley promised to lead 'with heart and skill.'

He acknowledged he's fighting an uphill battle for the nomination, but that doesn't scare him.

'I kind of like the tough fights. I've always been drawn to the tough fights,' he said. 'Perhaps the toughness of the fight is the way the hidden God has of telling us we are fighting for something worth saving. The American dream is worth saving. Our children's future is worth saving. Our country is worth saving. Our planet is worth saving. It's time to join the fight. I am in this to win this.'

Clinton, the last to speak, contrasted the Democratic approach with the 'reality TV' approach of Republicans.

We Democrats are offering real solution' to issues like creating jobs, investing in clean energy, making college affordable and enacting tougher gun laws to keep communities safe, she said.

She also pointed out that when Democrats control the White House more jobs are created, the economy grows faster and the deficit is smaller, and Clinton added, recessions occur four times more frequently under Republican presidents.

'We cannot afford to go back to the Republicans' stale policies,' she said.

Clinton, who got a campaign assist from her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at a rally earlier in the day, also made clear what she's her own candidate.

'I'm not running for my husband's third term and I'm not running for Obama's third term,' Clinton said. 'I'm running for my first term. And I'm running as a proud Democrat.'

Sanders, O'Malley and Clinton were the main event, but the evening wasn't only about them. It was also about firing up the party regulars who will knock on doors, make phones calls and organize precincts ahead of the caucuses and the general election.

They ranged from longtime party workers like Norm Sterzenbach of Cedar Rapids, who attended his first JJ Dinner in 1974, to first-timers like Nick Gordon, who along with Sam Reiss, road-tripped from Champagne-Urbana, Ill., to 'mobilize as many people as possible to make Democrats win.'

'It's kind of fun,' Sterzenbach said, adding that the annual fundraiser 'peaks every fourth year.'

In addition to a good time, he said, 'For people who haven't met the candidates will get a chance tonight to feel like a part of the process.'

It also was a night to show their pride, IDP Chairwoman Andy McGuire said.

'Are we proud to be Democrats?' she asked and 6,600 voices said they were.

Democrats need to do that, Sterzenbach said, because 'Republicans have stolen the spotlight with Trump making absurd comments and the others lining up to say 'me too.''