Democrats hoping to take on Grassley address Linn County convention

CEDAR RAPIDS - Instead of taking aim at one another on Saturday, Democrats hoping to take on Chuck Grassley in November took the opportunity to criticize the Republican senator.

Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin, former state senator Tom Fiegen and former state representative Bob Krause spoke to Linn County Democrats on Saturday during the county's convention at Cedar Rapids Washington High School.

Conlin, who lost a gubernatorial bid against then-Lt. Gov. Terry Branstad in 1982, said if elected she would take on Wall Street, among other moneyed interests, and expressed her frustration with the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry in 2008.

“We gave $700 billion in taxpayers' money to people who drove us off the cliff and hoped that they'd do the right thing,” Conlin told a crowd of around 100 people. “And for what ... they still haven't loosened credit.”

Conlin later said that she saw the bailout of Wall Street banks - a program that Grassley supported - as the most significant evidence of a dysfunctional government. Conlin said her history of going after white collar crime as an attorney, and her refusal of campaign contributions from PACs and federal lobbyists, makes her the ideal candidate to correct the dysfunction in Washington.

Former Iowa representative Bob Krause of Fairfield told delegates that the current recession is nothing compared to the future recessions the nation will see if it doesn't readjust the way it trades and the way it enforces labor laws.

“Because of NAFTA and the WTO, America will lose one out of every four jobs in the next ten years,” Krause said. “(NAFTA) happened because its supporters wanted to break the American worker, and they darn near succeeded.”

Krause said that the steady loss of manufacturing jobs throughout the Midwest, and especially Iowa, hasn't gotten enough attention, either from Grassley or fellow Democrats.

“Passing NAFTA was one of the pivotal mistakes of my generation,” Krause said. “Sending jobs overseas is not how you build a middle-class.”

The eventual Democratic nominee will have to overcome some big odds to unseat 30-year incumbent Grassley. In a Rasmussen poll from January, Grassley had double-digit leads over all three of his potential Democrat opponents.

Conlin has faired better in the polls and in fundraising than Fiegen and Krause, and said that she thinks Iowans know it's time for Grassley to step aside.

“We should all thank him for his 50 years of public service,” Conlin, 65, said. “But it's time for him to take a rest.”

Democrats will vote on their nominee for the senate race on June 8.