Thousands of Democrats to hear presidential hopefuls Saturday

DES MOINES - Joe Biden will not be there, but Bill Clinton and Katy Perry will.

So will a miniature music festival. And the nation's four Democratic candidates for president.

The event is the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Des Moines on Saturday, the state party's fall fundraiser, with a few of the candidates using the universal language of music to speak to undecided Democratic voters in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

Hillary Clinton, the leader in polls on the race in Iowa, is bringing pop star Katy Perry. Clinton also will be joined for the first time on the campaign trail in Iowa by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Bernie Sanders, who is second to Clinton in the polls and closing ground fast in some, is bringing rock guitarist Wayne Kramer, singer and songwriter Jill Sobule and alternative rock guitarist and singer Ryan Miller.

And Martin O'Malley is bringing … Martin O'Malley. The candidate who has been a distant third in most polls plays the guitar and sings, which he did this past week on the daytime television talk show 'The View.”

'There is a lot of energy out there,” Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Andy McGuire said Thursday. 'There's a lot of excitement in the candidates, and they just want to make sure that they get people to the caucuses on Feb. 1.”

Hillary Clinton, Sanders, O'Malley and Lincoln Chafee, who also has little support in the polls, will address thousands of Iowa Democrats on Saturday. More than 6,000 tickets have been sold, the party said Thursday.

Notably absent will be Jim Webb, who this week dropped out of the race, and Vice President Biden, who announced this week he will not be a candidate.

In announcing his decision, Biden said he would remain vocally involved in the race and implored Democratic candidates not to shy away from the Obama-Biden administration's two terms in the White House.

McGuire praised the current administration and said she thinks the candidates' views largely align with the administration on issues such as health care and immigration policy reform.

'I think President Obama has done a great job and Vice President Biden. So to continue to do great work is something I think all the (Democratic) candidates would agree with,” McGuire said.

Iowa Rep. Ken Rizer, a Republican from Cedar Rapids speaking Thursday on behalf of the state party, said Biden's decision to stay out of the race leaves Democrats with 'all their eggs in one basket” in Clinton, whom he called a 'deeply flawed” candidate Iowans 'cannot and do not trust.”

Information about the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner is available at iowademocrats.org.