Leonard Boswell has represented Grinnell and the rest of Iowa's Third District in Congress for more than a decade. With his seniority and prominent positions on the Agriculture and Intelligence committees, Boswell is noted for his success in bringing pork barrel funding to the district--$404 million alone in crop subsidies from 2003-2005.
But Boswell's votes on certain key issues--most notably his vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq--have drawn anger from the left wing of the Democratic party and led to a primary challenger: former state representative and former gubernatorial candidate Ed Fallon.
Fallon criticizes Boswell in sharp, if measured, terms. He accused Boswell in an interview of being "out of step, not just with Democrats but with a majority of the residents of the district." and said that "a lot of people" see Boswell's "record as more supportive of Bush's agenda" than "the priorities of the American people."
Grant Woodard '06, Boswell's field director, dismissed the charges.
"I think that at the end of the day, Congressman Boswell's been a strong Democrat throughout his career," Woodard said. "He might not be the most liberal member of Congress, but I think that reflects pretty well who he is as an individual."
Fallon's campaign is two-pronged. First, he has a laundry list of particular votes on which he thinks Boswell took the wrong position, from giving tax breaks to oil and gas companies to supporting immunity from prosecution for telecommunications companies that cooperated with federal wiretapping.
Second, Fallon attacks Boswell on campaign finance and ethics. According to opensecrets.org, 74 percent of Boswell's fundraising in 2007-8 has come from political action committees (PACs). PACs have higher donation limits than individual candidates do, and can be run by corporations, unions, interest groups or individual candidates. Fallon criticizes PACs and said that he has never taken PAC money.
Woodard said that the "vast majority" of Boswell's fundraising from PACs comes from labor unions. "I know it's politically popular to deride [PACs] and claim that they're this evil, evil thing, but they do represent real people."
Opensecrets.org reports that in 2007-8, 48.8 percent of Boswell's PAC money came from business groups and 27.4 percent from unions. In 2005-6, he raised 38.5 percent from business PACs, and 24.2 percent from unions.
The Boswell campaign responds principally by arguing that Boswell can win general elections and that Fallon cannot.
"I think [Boswell is] one of the few Democrats that can win this district," Woodard said. "This is not that liberal a district."
Boswell supporter and Poweshiek County Democrats Chair Don Smith, History, agreed. He said that he thought Fallon was too liberal for the "close" Third District. "I think we've been fortunate to have a Congressman who's in tune sufficiently with the people in his district to keep the district in Democratic hands," Smith said.
Fallon and his supporters insist that Fallon can win a general election, pointing to Boswell's recent narrow victories as signs not of a close district but of Boswell's weakness.
"Boswell should be doing a lot better," Fallon said. "But his positions are out of step, not just with Democrats but with a majority of the residents of the district. I think he's been fortunate to win. I'm confident that I'm going to do better in the fall election than he did."
Boswell's campaign also pushes back on the issue of campaign finance. Much of Fallon's fundraising has come through the organization Democracy for America (DFA), which is dedicates to "electing progressives up and down the ballot," according to DFA Political Director Charles Chamberlain. DFA, a registered PAC, has not donated any money directly to Fallon, but has encouraged its more than 600,000 members to donate to Fallon's campaign. By mid-February, DFA members had donated more than $35,000 to Fallon.
"Mr. Fallon seems like he wants to have it both ways," Woodard said. "He wants to hinge on this slight distinction of direct donations ... He claims that he won't accept PAC money, but we don't see the difference between" PAC donations and donations by DFA members.
Chamberlain of DFA dismisses this attack. "I think that's a rather cynical attempt by the Boswell campaign to misrepresent events," he said. "Our PAC ... did not contribute a dime to the Fallon campaign, and if we had, it wouldn't be accepted."
Amidst the attacks, what remains uncertain is if Fallon will pose a serious challenge to Boswell. Former Iowa Democratic Party Chair Gordon Fischer said that while things could change, "I tend to think that [the primary] will not be that competitive."
Neither campaign says they expect the race to be easy, and both intend to campaign on college. Students for Fallon co-leader John Ayling '08 said that he thinks "that generally speaking the positions that Grinnell students have are closer to Fallon's than to Boswell's," and expressed optimism that Fallon would win the college "if students are informed."
Students for Boswell Leader Nathan Clubb '11 said that his group intends to campaign vigorously, pushing their message that Boswell is a loyal, moderate Democrat and that Fallon is unelectable. They also have high hopes that a mid-April campaign visit to campus by Boswell and U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) will persuade students to vote for Boswell.
The primary election is June 3, but students will be able to vote on campus on April 30 at a special satellite voting station.
