Iowa Democrats pin hopes on Hillary Clinton

JOHNSTON - Iowa Democratic strategists said Friday they are hoping resources generated by a likely 2016 presidential bid by Hillary Clinton will aid in rebuilding a party infrastructure left reeling by 2014 losses in U.S. Senate and congressional races.

'Iowa, the Iowa Democratic Party, our ticket in this state desperately needs the general-election assets that Hillary Clinton will bring as our party's standard-bearer,” said Des Moines lawyer Jerry Crawford, who has been active in the Ready for Hillary effort. 'That's the way we recover from what was a very, very tough 2014 election.”

Former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell, a past state Democratic Party chairwoman who is advising Clinton on a 2016 run, said Democrats in Iowa must retool after a 2014 election cycle in which 'something went very wrong” in the field operations effort to identify voters.

Iowa's political landscape was assessed during a joint appearance Friday on Iowa Public Television's 'Iowa Press” show by Campbell, an LPCA Public Strategies partner and 1994 gubernatorial candidate; Crawford, a Midwest co-chair of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign; and Pella native Jessica Vanden Berg, political strategist and Democratic activist.

Campbell said she's 'hearing rumors” of a 2016 Clinton presidential announcement in April, but she would be OK if the former secretary of state waited until July to give people time to 'take a breath” after a tough 2014 campaign and put together a vision for the nation's future.

Crawford, a party insider who served as Bill Clinton's state director for the 1992 and 1996 general elections, said events like the recent flap over Hillary Clinton's private email account point to the need to have a formalized campaign in place with resources to respond when issues arise or GOP candidates launch attacks.

However, he added that 'in all the races I've been involved with of various kinds, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.”

Vanden Berg, who managed Christie Vilsack's 2010 congressional campaign, said rank-and-file Iowa Democrats not only are unhappy about the outcome of the 2014 election, but they're also frustrated to see a fully engaged presidential race on the Republican side with little activity on the Democratic side.

She also noted that there may be a difference between what Clinton needs to do to win and what Iowa Democrats need to rebuild the party field organization.

'I'm optimistic that if Hillary is the nominee and the candidate, that she puts a lot of resources here,” Vanden Berg said. 'But in presidential campaigns … it's a fight for resources, and we don't have Tom Harkin anymore and we don't have Governor Vilsack anymore.”

If Clinton runs in 2016, Campbell said, she believes the former first lady will come to Iowa to work hard and work smart. 'She now knows what it takes to win with or without competition,” Campbell said. 'She needs the party building because Iowa will determine the next president. It is a battleground state that absolutely must be won by our Democratic nominee.”