Katrina vanden Heuvel: Like a Scoop of Cherry Garcia

[marmar]

from The Nation:


BLOG | Posted 08/10/2007 @ 10:55am
Like a Scoop of Cherry Garcia
Katrina vanden Heuvel



Iowa resident Peggy Huppert began laying the foundation for the Priorities Iowa Caucus Campaign in September of 2005. Since then, the campaign has contacted over 12,000 Iowans and 8,000 have signed a pledge to "only caucus for a candidate who supports a significant shift in federal budget priorities away from nuclear and other obsolete Cold War weapons toward unmet social needs including education, health care, and energy independence."

With an average of 100,000 to 120,000 Iowa caucus voters, 8,000 voters pledged to this cause is a very significant number – in fact, John Kerry defeated John Edwards by just 6,900 votes in 2004. Over the past four election cycles, when there were more than four candidates in the race, the margin between the top four was often less than 8,000 votes.

"No other candidate is close to having this level of confirmed supporters," Huppert said.

John Norris, former national field director for Kerry-Edwards 2004 and an unpaid advisor to the Priorities Campaign, said, "When a candidate is evaluating who to listen to, one basic question they ask is: who's delivering people on election night?"

The parent organization for the campaign is Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, a coalition of 700 business executives founded by Ben Cohen that includes the present or former CEOs of Black Entertainment Television, Goldman Sachs, Hasbro, Men's Wearhouse, and Phillips Van Heusen - as well as Ted Turner and Nation partner Paul Newman.

The group came into existence as a response to Congress' skewed priorities: over half of the federal discretionary budget goes to the Pentagon and the US spends more on defense than the rest of the world combined. Meanwhile, problems like hunger, poverty, and infant mortality are – at best – given short shrift. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45