‘This is Iowa politics at it best’ – Quad City Times

But in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, it’s a tale of two trajectories for N.J. Sen. Cory Booker, former mayor of Newark, N.J., and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Ind.

Buttigieg, 37, sits atop the Iowa polls, while Booker, 50, has struggled to emerge from a crowded field with less than two months before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.

“I don’t understand it; I really don’t,” Davenport resident Loxi Hopkins said about why Booker isn’t polling better. Booker’s among her top three favorite candidates. “We need someone smart this time around. I’m looking for integrity.”

Most caucus-goers have yet to make up their mind, and lower-polling candidates such as Booker aren’t out of contention. 

In a crowded hall at St. Ambrose University Saturday evening, Booker fielded questions about racial justice, the environment, health care and the recent speech of a racist activist at a Bettendorf church.

“This hate is growing,” Booker said. “We should have a president that’s not afraid to speak to the insidious persistence of overt bigotry and implicit bigotry that’s come back.”

Booker appeared at St. Ambrose for a “Leading the Nation” forum co-hosted by the Quad-City Times.

Before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100, Booker dilated upon his campaign’s signature theme, love, which he described as a duty. “Love says injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he said.

Love, he said, is also an approach to coalition-building. “I hear Democrats wanting to vilify the 60 million people who voted for Donald Trump. You got to be kidding me,” Booker said. “We as Democrats don’t win when we vilify Republicans.”

Booker also took policy questions from panelists. Dispatch-Argus-QCOnline.com reporter Sarah Hayden asked about Booker’s “baby bonds” plan, a signature campaign promise that calls for every American child to receive $1,000 in a savings account at birth, with additional deposits based on family income. At age 18, the savings could be used for approved expenses such as education and housing.

Booker added that he also wants to cut taxes for 150 million Americans by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit. He said it amounts to a pay increase and would cut poverty by one-third.

Another of his plans would give renters a refundable tax credit if they’re paying more than one-third of their income in rent.

“That would lift 10 million out of poverty and secure even more millions of Americans in their homes,” Booker said. The tax code “is used to help people with wealth get more wealth. It’s about time we have a tax code that starts making sure that everybody can compete,” he said.

When asked by Quad-City Times Executive Editor Matt Christensen about persistent disparities in health, education and economic outcomes between black and white residents, Booker decried ongoing systemic issues, including environmental justice.

As one example, Booker said black children are 10 times more likely to die of asthma complications than white children are. As another, he decried the “shameful reality” in which America leads developed nations in maternal mortality, while black women have four times the maternal mortality rate of white women.

When speaking about environmental issues, Booker framed the climate crisis as a challenge of not just legislative policy but diplomacy. Because America only accounts for about 15% of global emissions, he said, American global leadership becomes paramount.

“We need a president who’s going to say, ‘I’m rejoining the Paris climate accord, but now I’m going to call for another global gathering because we’re not meeting our goals of meeting the Paris climate accord,’ ” he said.

Booker has not qualified for the Dec. 19 Democratic debate. Some in the party have expressed disappointment that all of the six candidates who have qualified are white.

After being asked by St. Ambrose University student journalist Ryan Sandness about the diversity of the remaining candidates, Booker emphasized that “each of them would be so much better than Donald Trump” while criticizing Democratic National Convention (DNC) debate rules. 

“I trust you far more than I trust the DNC and their making of the debate rules, because this state chooses right,” Booker said. “So if a pollster calls … just choose Cory Booker just to make sure he’s on stage. Don’t let caller ID block people out.”

Wayne Lee and his wife Juliana stood on the balcony at Danceland in Davenport and watched as South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg gave a speech, answer a few questions, and then ask the crowd to caucus for him during the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucus.

The Lees, of Davenport, have decided where their vote is going out of the 15 Democrats running for president.

“We both agreed to caucus for him already,” Wayne Lee said, speaking of Buttigieg. What convinced him and his wife is what Buttigieg said in his speech. “He talked about his judgment, his values, his humility.”

During his speech, Buttigieg was asked by a member of the audience what three characteristics are needed to make a good president.

The first, Buttigieg said, “is judgement to guide you in what to do when you have different people who are good at what they do, who are smarter than you in their fields and are bringing you advice and they don’t agree with each other. And usually the course of action means accepting some cost that you’d rather not face. It means trading some of the values you hold dear against some of the others. And there’s not a playbook on how to do it. You just have to negotiate your values and hold what you believe is the most important; what you believe best serves those who trusted you with their money and their lives by electing you to office, and that quality of judgement is very important.”

The second value, he said, is humility. “Every person who has been in that office has just been a person, a human being.” That person has to accept that, “at any given moment you could be wrong.”

The third value, Buttigieg said, is the “determination to find people where they are and bring people together.”

“Building bridges is not about minimizing difference,” he said. “It’s not about pretending you agree on everything or anything. It’s about making sure that when you come together in good faith you find out what the shared goal actually is.”

Buttigieg said he has been a Democratic mayor in a state that has had three Republican governors during his terms. “I wouldn’t get anything done if I didn’t know how to work with folks who disagreed with me, locally as well as across the state and sometimes nationally.”

During his speech, Buttigieg said that climate change is the global security threat of our time and it is up to the U.S. to rise to the occasion and lead the world in fighting climate change.

He continued to promote his idea of Medicare for all that would allow people to choose between purchasing a public health insurance plan or keep their own private health insurance carrier.

Buttigieg said much more needs to be invested in the public school system across the nation. He added that there must be investment and resources invested to finally get rid of systemic racial injustice.

Buttigieg spoke before a packed house at Danceland, with people packed on the main floor and lining the balcony.

Before he spoke, Lisa Killinger looked out over the crowd. “I think this is Iowa politics at its best where people show up to learn. This is how we do it in Iowa and it’s really, really encouraging to me.”

Killinger said she’s still making up her mind. “Right now I’m favoring Pete because he’s very positive and he seems to really have his act together and how to organize, and what I’m interested in is a candidate that can the incumbent.”

Caucus-related activity is intensifying in the Quad-Cities. On Wednesday, entrepreneur Andrew Yang will meet with veterans and go bowling in Davenport.

The candidate will make the following two stops:

• Veterans’ Appreciation Breakfast with Andrew Yang, 9 a.m., American Legion Post No. 26, 705 W. 35th St., Davenport. RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/yang2020/event/167281/
• Bowling with Andrew Yang, noon, Big River Bowling, 2902 E. Kimberly Road, Davenport. RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/yang2020/event/166058/