Democratic Primary Race Shaping Up In Iowa’s 5th Congressional District

The race for the 2008 Democratic nomination in Iowa’s Fifth Congressional District is shaping up early this cycle with two contenders already campainging aggressively in the wide swath of 32 western counties that stetches to the borders of Minnesota and Missouri.

Retired businessman Bob Chambers of Essex (southwest Iowa) and retired Presbyterian Minister Rob Hubler of Council Bluffs both had tables at U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin’s recent steak fry in Indianola and are regulars at local party events in western Iowa. So far, the Democratic nominee in 2004 and 2006, Creston’s Joyce Schulte, has not entered the race or formally declared her intentions, although she did tell Iowa Independent in the spring that she is weighing a third bid.

For his part, Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King is widely expected to seek re-election to Congress although there is spirited speculation, including several recent letters to the editor in the Carroll Daily Times Herald, that the Kiron conservative may seek to unseat 33-year Washington veteran Harkin, now chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The outspoken King — a cult hero to some and a devil to others — is highly popular in conservative western Iowa and, after a grueling initial primary that went to district convention in 2002, has won his three general elections with muscular margins. In the 2006 5th District race King pulled 58 percent of the vote to Schulte’s 36 percent.

Schulte has not answered repeated phone calls, made at various times of the day over the last week, to her house in Creston.

Even with the heavy GOP registration advantage in reliably conservative western Iowa, Hubler, who is staking out liberal positions on key issues, says he can win the 2008 race.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could,” Hubler, the first to enter the race on the Democratic side, said.

A son of a Presbyterian minister, Hubler, 64, grew up in Council Bluffs, graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1961. He then joined the Navy where he served on nuclear submarines from 1962 to 1969.

As a veteran, Hubler said he has been appalled by reports of treatment of men and women in uniform at some health-care facilities.

Hubler is calling for the United States to pull its forces out of Iraq “as soon as possible.”

“The United States armed forces cannot stop Iraq’s ongoing and escalating civil war,” Hubler said. “The sending of more troops in a surge proposal will only result in more of our brave warriors’ blood being spilt.”

Hubler said he views poverty as a main front in the war on terror.

“Poor and poverty-stricken people are the No. 1 target for recruitment by terrorists and those of fundamental ideology,” Hubler said. “The long-term plan to combat terrorism must start with poverty.”

He worked on some of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin’s first campaigns for the House in the early and mid-1970s, where he made contacts in wide swaths of western Iowa. He also served as an Iowa field office staff member for former Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Clark of Iowa.

Hubler did fund-raising for the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., and while in Illinois, Hubler gave U.S. Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, a powerful Illinois Democrat, one of his first jobs in politics. Hubler consulted on some campaigns in Colorado as well, including work for U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, who also ran for the presidency in 1984 before the campaign imploded over Hart’s brazen showcasing of an alleged extramarital affair.

“He had more ideas that running for president,” deadpanned Hubler.

Hubler said he plans to tap into long-standing political connections to raise money for his race against in Iowa’s 5th District. Hubler says he can raise $600,000 or more to compete with King. In the 2006 race, King spent $620,000 compared to just $73,000 for Schulte. A largely self-financed Independent, Roy Nielsen of Orange City, spent $150,000 but failed to break into double digits with just 5 percent of the vote.

Chambers, 68, a fifth-generation Iowan with roots in Fremont County, had a long career in the high-tech manufacturing business in Colorado before returning to Iowa for retirement. He ran against Schulte and lost in the 2006 primary.

But Chambers said he’s ready for a second run, that he understands the district and is prepared.

Chambers bills himself as a fiscal conservative and says the Bush Administration and its congressional allies are responsible for increasing the debt and federal spending to an unacceptable level.

“We’ve simply been borrowing as a nation and I don’t think the GOP has any intention of paying it back,” Chambers said.

He says independent voters in western Iowa will trend away from Republicans for a host of reasons, notably the war in Iraq, which Chambers wants to see ended.

“The independents are swinging strongly Democratic,” Chambers said. “That puts Mr. King in jeopardy.”

In an interview last April at a 5th Congressional District event — that featured New Mexico Governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson — Schulte said she was considering the third congressional bid.

“We’re certainly looking at it,” Schulte said then. “I’m leaning toward running.”

Iowa has never elected a woman to a congressional seat or to the U.S. Senate, and the Hawkeye State has never had a female governor. Is there any way a female candidate can win in the most conservative district in the state?

“That’s a fascinating way of putting a question, that women aren’t electable in Iowa,” Schulte said.

Schulte, who has been employed in student services at Southwestern Community College in Creston, said she knows the electoral history with women for top political positions in Iowa.

“Yeah, I know what the rule is at the moment,” Schulte said. “We’ve gone all the way up the ladder except moving into those top three.”

Why is that?

“It beats my five aces,” Schulte said. “You know, women are good to keep home and whatever. We brag about them in every way except. And I just don’t know whether it’s a figment of our imagination in a sense that women can’t do those top pieces in government. We do the top pieces in raising families. We do some of the top pieces in business.”

She noted that women are fighter pilots and astronauts.

“Why we can’t do it in Iowa for those congressional and senatorial pieces I’m not sure,” she said.