Superstar Obama also must play Iowa back-porch politics
Dubuque, with its population near 58,000, is now one of the nation's leaders in job growth, with a burgeoning insurance industry, four colleges, a river casino and a dog racing track.
Its redemption is due to the foresight of its civic leaders, including a 53-year-old woman with a Renoir face and tousled black curls named Teri Goodmann. She is the genie behind the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, raising millions of dollars to get the museum running. She is also a major Democratic activist in a town that, despite its new white-collar cravings, remains staunchly pro-union and committed to the party of FDR, the Kennedys and the Clintons.
(AP)
First to open office
Dubuque's intense Democratic support is what compelled Barack Obama's campaign team to open an office here -- the first presidential aspirant to do so -- at 9th and Main streets. And it is what brought Obama here on Saturday, a week after Hillary Clinton, to court political players such as Goodmann in a small get-together of the town's political elite in the men's locker room of the Loras College Field House before a town hall meeting.
Obama was disappointed to learn that Goodmann is a stalwart supporter of Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). After she told him this, he turned to her daughter Elise. "Can you vote for me?" he asked. "No," Elise replied. "I'm only 16." The senator smiled. "Well, you can work for me."
Goodmann may have declared her commitment to Biden early -- she supported John Kerry last time around but has been a Biden fan since she met him in 1986 -- yet she is in many ways a classic Iowa voter, wanting to inspect the candidates up close and personal. When her four children were younger, she took them to meet every major politician who came to town, Democrat or Republican, and frequently hosts caucus meetings in her living room.
(After meeting Jesse Jackson in 1988, her son Eddie was so impressed by Jackson's height he started drawing pictures of Jackson as a basketball player.)
Goodmann believes strongly in the parlor approach to politics, noting the enormous crowds attending the Hillary Clinton and Obama visits were not traditional for Iowa, where conversations with politicians in one's home are de rigueur. "These people need to be in living rooms," Goodmann insists.
And every major presidential candidate visits Dubuque if he or she knows what is good for them, even if California or other states move up their primaries. "Iowa is the first [nominating] state, so the bump you get here can cause a domino effect," says Goodmann.
Goodmann is an equal opportunity Democrat, and despite her stance as a Biden booster, Obama may find himself in the near future sitting with Goodmann and guests in her hilltop home, sipping iced tea. Just like Biden and Gore and Kerry.