The Iowans in Boston for the Democratic National Convention are making their way home now after John Kerry formally accepted the party’s presidential nomination last night. John and Jackie Norris got engaged at the Democratic National Convention in L-A four years ago. They were both in Boston for the Democratic Convention this week — Jackie as a delegate, John as the field director for John Kerry’s national campaign. John says working on Iowa Caucus campaigns for the past 20 years has put him in contact with lots of campaign workers who’ve moved to other parts of the country, and who he is now calling on to work for Kerry. John and his wife ate breakfast together every morning this week, something they haven’t done regularly for quite a while. They’ve been having one of those “commuter marriages,” as John is working at Kerry campaign headquarters in D.C. and Jackie is home in Ames, raising the couple’s 11-month-old twin boys. Jackie sends John email pictures of the boys, and they talk by phone every morning and every night. John says he will come home after the election’s over. But Jackie’s not so sure. Jackie says if John Kerry wins, her husband may be asked to work in D-C and she’s ready to talk about moving there. The couple met, by the way, through Iowa politics, as Jackie came to Iowa to work for Tom Vilsack’s campaign in 1998; she is now a teacher. In 1998, John Norris moved back to Iowa from D-C to run the Iowa Democratic Party, then he worked as Vilsack’s chief of staff. Norris, who is a Red Oak native, has run for office himself, losing to Congressman Tom Latham in the 2002 election, and this past January Norris said he’d like to run for office again someday.

An eastern Iowa couple got singled out for special treatment last night at the Democratic National Convention. Tom and Becky Furlong of Letts, which is in Muscatine County, hosted a John Kerry picnic on their farm last summer. Kerry invited the couple to sit with his family last night in the convention hall. Furlong, like Kerry, is a Vietnam veteran, and endorsed Kerry early in the campaign. Furlong says he was impressed with Kerry becuase he’s “a serious person of substance.” Furlong was on stage, briefly, too, part of a group of farmers who stood as another farmer from Kentucky gave a testimonial on Kerry. Furlong was elected an alternate delegate to the convention, and was sitting in the balcony earlier this week, and didn’t find out ‘til yesterday that he’d be on stage. He says the seat upgrade was “thrilling” especially since he wasn’t sure his wife would even be able to be in the hall for last night’s speech.

Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack issued a challenge to the Iowa Democrats who’ve been in Boston at their party’s national convention. Vilsack told ‘em they’re going to have to work harder than they’ve ever worked before to get party nominee John Kerry over the top. “I don’t know about you, but I love a challenge,” Vilsack said during remarks to Iowa delegates. “I love a challenge. I love a challenge.” Delegate Linda Langston of Cedar Rapids took Vilsack’s challenge to heart. She plans to give speeches to civic and community groups when she returns to Iowa as a way to spread the message and the enthusiasm she picked up at the convention. Delegate Frank Sample of Des Moines says he’s ready to write letters, knock on doors and walk in parades, as he says people sometimes don’t pay attention and “sleep walk” through an election. Delegate Tom Powers of Waterloo says he’ll focus on races up and down the ticket. But a lot of the talk at the convention has been about the roughly four percent of Americans who haven’t decided whether to vote for Kerry or for Bush, and party activists are being told to focus on women voters. Delegate Mary Mascher of Iowa City did some brainstorming, and hopes to target voter registration drives in places women frequent, like beauty salons. Mascher wants to put voter registration cards in child care centers, too. Delegate Som Baccom of Des Moines arrived in Iowa as a refugee from Vietnam as a child and she plans to focus on getting legal immigrants to vote. Twenty-five-year-old delegate Elesha Gayman of Davenport plans a Trick or Treat event on Halloween that’ll have a get-out-the-vote theme, and she’ll wear a costume.“Lady Liberty, of course,” she says, laughing. Another 25-year-old Iowa delegate, Lauren Haldeman of Iowa City, plans to play her accordian on the street to attract potential voters to sign voter registration forms. She says it’s worked before. “Either that, or they run away,” she says.