PHOTOS: VP Biden campaigns for Culver in Cedar Rapids

Chet Culver has been standing up for Iowans for the past four years and now its Iowans' turn to stand up for the first-term Democrat, Vice President Joe Biden said at a lunch hour rally in Cedar Rapids.

Riffing on Iowa native John Wayne's comment that “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life … it puts itself in our hands,” Biden said Iowans should put their tomorrow in Culver's hands to guide the state through the current recession and into a new economy.

Biden spoke in Greene Square Park in downtown Cedar Rapids on Day 2 of Culver's five-day, 41 county “Choosing a Better Iowa, Choosing a Brighter Future” announcement tour included stops in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Anamosa.

“He is you. He is of you,” Biden said about Culver. “Chet Culver always stood up and fought for the people of Iowa. Now, frankly, it is time for you to stand up and fight for Chet Culver to be re-elected.”

After the rally that drew about 500 people, Biden met with four area residents to discuss “issues important to America's middle-class families.”

Later, Biden discussed including health care reform and flood recovery efforts Dave Thalacker of Cedar Crest Manufacturing, Carlie Etschedit a nurse, Karl Oakley, an electrician and David Correll, a firefighter, over lunch at the Blue Strawberry Coffee Company.

Culver has the “gumption” to do the job, said Biden, who has known the governor since he was a seven-year-old visiting the Biden house with his father, former U.S. Sen. John Culver.

He and the president are looking for allies like Culver who “have the guts to do what's necessary even it's not popular.”

“That's why I'm here today,” he said. “That's why the president was here. That's why we'll come back.”

He praised Culver's response to the 2008 natural disasters, winning passage of the $830 million I-JOBS that is funding recovery in Linn County and using $4 billion in federal assistance, including $1 billion in Linn County, to speed that recovery.

After the floods, “this guy with broad shoulders didn't flinch,” Biden said. He weighed in and waded in to lead the recovery, he added.

He also remanded the audience that the federal stimulus package has made $3.3 billion available to Iowa and more than $2.3 billion has been spent.

That aid included $20 million that has been leveraged into 875 small business loans of $384 million from banks that Biden said had stopped lending money.

Culver touted the accomplishments of his first term including raising the minimum wage, expanding preschool and health-care opportunities for children, and dealing with the response and recovery to the nation's fourth worst natural disaster in the midst of national recession as major benchmarks since he took office in January 2007.

Culver pointed to boosting the state minimum wage, raising teacher salaries to the national average, expanding preschool and health-care opportunities for children, and dealing with the response and recovery to the nation's fourth worst natural disaster in the midst of national recession as major benchmarks since he took office in January 2007.

He claimed “a record of action tested by fire” and contrasted that with his Republican rivals, who, he said, “believe inaction is leadership.”

He will face the winner of the June 8 GOP primary contest between former Gov. Terry Branstad, state Rep. Rod Roberts of Carroll and Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats.

Democrats at the rally were, for the most part, upbeat about the governor's chances in the fall.

“We expect it will be a tough race,” said Dave Stephen of Cedar Rapids, a member of the Carpenters union. “But I'm afraid of Terry Branstad getting back in there. I remember what it was like back in the 1980s – it was hard times, especially for construction unions.”

Jobs are at the top of the union's agenda, Stephen said. He's between jobs right now, but is encouraged by the prospects of fl.ood recovery work funded by the state I-JOBS bonding plan and federal assistance.

Memories of the Branstad administration will become much more vivid in a Culver-Branstad matchup, Sen. Wally Horn, D-Cedar Rapids, predicted.

“I don't see how it can't be close,” he said about the November election. Polls show Culver has dropped 20 percentage points in the polls with both Branstad and Bob Vander Plaats beating.

Those polls reflect the current reality: Culver is in trouble, said former Democratic congressman Dave Nagle of Waterloo.

“He's got the wrong theme at the wrong time and wrong direction,” Nagle said, adding, “but it's a long time until November.”

Former Iowa House Democratic Leader Dick Myers of Iowa City thinks Republicans are wishing Culver was in trouble.

“He's spent his time working on the things Iowa needs – jobs,” he said.

Photos by Jim Slosiarek

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Biden and Culver eat at Blue Strawberry

Vice President Joe Biden and Iowa Gov. Chet Culver ate at Blue Strawberry following their appearance. Secret Service and local police screened the lunch crowd guests as they entered the restaurant. Blue Strawberry rebuilt following the 2008 floods. Biden and Culver were expected to tour flood damage during his visit.