Former Ambassador Novetzke urges participation in Democracy

URBANDALE - Sally Novetzke has worked with presidents, prime ministers, popes, queens, kings and a host of diplomats from around the world.

'But I don't know where I want to go from here,” the former U.S. ambassador to Malta said Wednesday. 'I just let things lead me.”

Her love of politics remains strong.

'I still believe in it,” Novetzke said after speaking to the Westside Conservative Club. She'd like to pass on to schoolchildren her belief that 'democracy only works if you make it work.”

Novetzke, 83, has made politics her life work and made politics work for her.

Long active in the Iowa GOP, she was an early supporter of George H.W. Bush. After winning the presidency in 1988, he appointed her ambassador to Malta, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. She served from 1989 to 1993.

It's not only schoolchildren who need to be taught about participatory democracy, however. Novetzke is concerned with the 'young people” in their 50s who have lost interest in their government.

'They've been lulled into thinking everything is just fine,” she said. 'They're not interested. They don't read the paper. They say it's all bad news. I say, ‘Why don't you make good news?' You can help the country if you get involved. Doing nothing solves nothing, so do something.”

She chaired the Linn County Republican Party from 1979 to 1980, the state party from 1982 to 1985 and the Iowa Federation of Republican Women of Iowa from 1987 to 1989. She worked on many political campaigns, including as state co-chairwoman for George Bush for President in 1988, the 1980 and 1984 Reagan/Bush campaigns, the 1980 Bush for President campaign and Tom Tauke's congressional campaign.

Novetzke also was a delegate to the state, district and county Republican conventions from 1974 to 1988 and the Republican National Convention in 1980 and was a member of the National Rules Committee. In 1984, she was a delegate to the Republican National Committee and served on the Permanent Organization Committee. She was a delegate-at-large to the 1988 Republican convention.

Novetzke was encouraged to run for office but preferred to be the 'kingmaker and queenmaker, because when I run people for office I can do more good by getting them elected.”

'That's my calling … my area of expertise,” she said.

Novetzke, who with her late husband, Dick, has four children and eight grandchildren, continues to make her home at rural Cedar Rapids. She stays in touch with her associates in the political and diplomatic worlds. Last year, she attended a 25-year reunion of Bush administration members and plans to attend Barbara Bush's 90th birthday party in June.

Novetzke continues to serve in a variety of capacities, including as a lifetime trustee of the Hoover Presidential Foundation at West Branch.

'I'm slowly getting out of those things,” she said, saying it's time to let younger people with fresh ideas step up. 'I've given them my best ideas.”

She's not through, Novetzke insists.

'As long as you have your health, you're strong and have energy, keep contributing,” she said.