Greenwald sees increasing momentum

The past two weeks have been pretty good for 4th District Congressional candidate Becky Greenwald.

Democrat Becky Greenwald speaks to the crowd at the Des Moines Register Soap Box at the Iowa State Fair in August (photo courtesy of Greenwald for Congress).

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee placed her campaign to unseat incumbent Rep. Tom Latham (R-Ames) on its “Emerging Races” list, which puts her within reach of additional resources as she tries to close a nearly 10-to-1 fundraising gap between herself and her opponent.

Then, EMILY’s List, a national organization dedicated to electing pro-choice women to public office, endorsed Greenwald, a fundraising and publicity shot in the arm.

And late last week, Greenwald took to the airwaves with her first television advertisement.

“I’m thrilled with the momentum we’re building,” Greenwald said.

But most importantly, support from the high-profile national organizations has brought attention to a race that most voters and media in the district have not been following closely, even though most agree that this year represents the Democrats’ best chance to defeat Latham.

Latham has proven himself an adept fundraiser and campaigner, cruising to victory in his recent challenges. Since the 2002 election, the first race that took place after district lines were redrawn based on the 2000 census, Latham has averaged about 60 percent of the vote.

But the demographics of the district have changed considerably in the past year, and now registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 6,000. But even with a growing base and political conditions that favor Democrats, most observers felt early on (an still believe) that the DCCC must invest heavily in Greenwald’s campaign for Latham to feel much pressure.

In a previous Iowa Independent story, Latham’s opponent in 2002, John Norris, said the lack of participation by the national Democratic Party was one of the reasons he couldn’t carry the district. He simply couldn’t raise enough money to counter Latham’s attacks, he said.

“The DCCC and EMILY’s List up our profile nationally to groups who are interested in electing Democrats,” Greenwald said, adding: “We know we don’t need to match Latham [in fundraising]. We’ll have enough to get our message out to voters.”

Stepping up criticism of Latham

For now, Greenwald said she is focusing on introducing herself to voters around the district, but in the coming weeks she will begin to draw distinctions between herself and Latham.

“He’s been in Congress 14 years, 12 of those in the majority, and he has been a complete failure for voters in this district,” Greenwald said. “He’s done nothing to solve our problem with fuel prices, he’s done nothing to advance comprehensive immigration reform, and he’s simply out of touch with the needs of our district.”

The nation’s economic troubles have quickly become the central focus of the campaign, Greenwald said, as the level of anxiety among voters continues to rise.

“What we’ve seen recently is catastrophic and shows the worst aspects of our capitalism,” she said.  “It’s shown us that Bush and his economic policies, supported 94 percent of the time by Tom Latham, has taken us.”

It’s something that permeates any campaign conversation with Greenwald: the idea that Latham has voted with Bush 94 percent of the time. It’s become her central argument, calling Latham Iowa’s “Low yielding Congressman.” Greenwald’s campaign even started a Web site dedicated to hammering home the point. The site, ReplaceTomLatham.com, features a photo of Latham speaking with Bush and allows visitors to the site to provide their own caption of what was being said at the time the photo was taken.

“As bad as I felt the Bush-Latham economic policies were, and I always thought they were bad, I never dreamed it would hurt our economy so much,” she said. “I never thought it could get this bad.”

Greenwald will get her chance to discuss the issues face to face with Latham three times before the election: Oct. 3 on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and Oct. 10 on WHO radio in Des Moines and KGLO radio in Mason City.  She said she hoped to hold another debate, sponsored by KCCI-TV and The Des Moines Register, but Latham declined the invitation.

“I think when voters get the chance to see where their member of Congress stands on the issues the choice will become clear,” she said.