'This election is as serious as a heart attack'

[Ethelk2044]

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/09/this_election_is_as_serious_as.html

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Robert Chesnut's search for truth led him on a sunny Sunday afternoon to acres of rolling land usually used to launch hot-air balloons to listen to six major Democratic presidential contenders trying to lure supporters to their cause.

"What am I looking for? The truth," said Chesnut, 81, a retired electrical switch assembly worker from rural Wever in southeastern Iowa.

"I hear promises, but then I begin to hear promises I know they can't keep," said Chesnut, a member of his local Democratic Party's organization, as he accompanied his wife, Virginia, 79. "That's one of the reasons why we haven't made up our minds yet on who to commit to."

The Chesnuts were among an estimated 12,000 Democrats who almost doubled the population of Indianola, the home of the National Balloon Classic, for the annual steak-fry fundraiser of veteran Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin- - a $30 per person event that serves as the party's informal kickoff event for the race to the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

For Democrats, the steak fry served as the counterpart for the state Republicans' fund-raising presidential straw poll in Ames held a month ago, with each event looking to display the organizational strength of individual candidates that will be needed to get people to attend party caucuses scheduled this winter.


Just as most Republican contenders bought the fundraising tickets and bused their supporters to the straw poll, Democratic candidates comped some supporters and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's campaign claimed turning out a quarter of the audience, in part by using 15 buses from 10 locations across the state

[illinoisprogressive]

1. that is why so many people have not decided yet. they know this is an important election