If John Kerry and his advisors have made a list of Tom Vilsack’s assets and liabilities, one item in the plus column would be Vilsack’s relationship with organized labor. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union — known as AFSCME — endorsed Vilsack when he first ran for governor and the union is credited with a lot of the legwork that led to Vilsack’s 1998 victory. Jan Corderman, president of the Iowa branch of AFSCME, says the union’s relationship with Vilsack dates back even farther, to when Vilsack was a state senator representing a town with two state-run institutions.

“It’s very helpful that he’s a policy wonk because that’s what we end up dealing with is policies and how they impact our members and the services we provide,” Corderman said during an interview with Radio Iowa.

Thousands of state workers have lost their jobs due to budget cuts during Vilsack’s tenure as governor, but wages have grown and the latest union contract forbids state government managers from ordering workers to take unpaid days off as a means of cutting salary expenses. Experts say one of Vilsack’s political liabilities was his decision to approve the law that declared English as the state’s official language. It angered many democrats and even republican President George Bush opposes so-called “English Only” efforts.

Reverend Carlos Jayne of Des Moines was part of the Immigrant Rights Network, asking Vilsack to veto the bill.

“This is a slam at immgrants when you declare an ‘English Only’ bill. You are in effect saying that the immigrants, that the people who do not speak English are somehow two steps behind us in status,” Jayne said during an interview with Radio Iowa. But Reverend Jayne isn’t willing to say Vilsack’s action on this issue disqualifies him from being vice president.

“I still think Tom Vilsack is a great governor, but I’m not going to give him an A plus on every issue because there are some things I just don’t agree with him on,” Jayne said. In early May, Senator Kerry told Radio Iowa he thought Vilsack had done a good job as governor during difficult times.

If democratic presidential candidate John Kerry chooses Tom Vilsack as a runningate, Vilsack will be thrust into the national spotlight — and behind a microphone. Vilsack often uses his speeches to draw a rhetorical line in the sand.

“Many believe that elections are about winning and indeed that is an important aspect of any election, but more fundamental than winning is the fight — what it is that you fight for, who you fight for and what you stand for,” Vilsack said during a speech in 2002.

Vilsack’s speechmaking skills were honed during his years as a trial lawyer, then reshaped by his experience in local and state politics. When Vilsack talked on the Senate floor, he often flipped through notes he’d written on a pad of yellow notepaper. When he became Governor, Vilsack still wrote the first draft of his major speeches, including his first, formal “Condition of the State” speech which lasted an hour and a half and covered 128 agenda items he wanted lawmakers to consider.

Former Republican House Speaker Ron Corbett of Cedar Rapids watched Vilsack give that speech, but now Corbett is president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce and he sees Vilsack from a different perspective. “I think he does an outstanding job in front of the general public when he’s speaking both in large and small groups in really framing the issues to support his position,” Corbett said during a Radio Iowa interview.

Senate Deomocrat Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs agrees. “I don’t know what Kerry’s criteria is, I don’t know what he’s looking for, but Tom Vilsack can deliver a great, compassionate speech and kind of take your heart out of your chest and show your beating heart to you and make you feel that same compassion he has and the same vision for making Iowa a better place,” Gronstal told Radio Iowa.

If Kerry’s looking for a cheerleader, Vilsack can do that, too, as he did during his 2002 re-election campaign when he faced republican challenger Doug Gross. “Governor Gross? Not today, not in November, not ever,” Vilsack said. Vilsack’s accomplishments as governor are the next installment in Radio Iowa’s continuing series examining Tom Vilsack’s career.

One day back in August of 2002, Radio Iowa’s O.Kay Henderson walked eight miles with Vilsack during his annual week-long walking and jogging tour from one small Iowa town to another.

Eight miles took just a little over two and a half hours once you figure in the water breaks and the handshaking at a few farmsteads. It gave Henderson plenty of time to ask questions.

“Do you like campaigning?” Henderson asked.

Vilsack laughed. “I like governing and I like campaigning in terms of meeting people, going out and talking to folks, shaking hands, visiting with them, finding out what’s on their mind. There are other aspects of campaigning that, you know, I could do without.”

Vilsack, though, said he’s developed a thick skin over the years. “You have to remember that campaigns are about an image or a perception of a person, they’re not about the real person because people don’t have an opportunity to know who I really am. They haven’t spent time with me, so it’s about a perception. As long as you keep that in mind, that it’s about a perception, then it’s a little easier to take.”

While Vilsack says people don’t really know him, Vilsack has over the years publicly shared details of his life that others might have kept under wraps. Vilsack often tells very personal and sometimes painful stories to illustrate a point.

From the Radio Iowa archives, here’s a segment of a Vilsack campaign speech:

“What you need to know about me is that when you start life out as an orphan and you were adopted into a family with an alcoholic mother in an abusive situation from time to time with a father who was a great guy but a poor businessman, when you grow up in a situation like that, there’s not a great opportunity for joy. There’s not an opportunity to experience childhood. In my family, it was more about shame and humiliation and embarassment. But every once in a while there was a bright light in our home. Every once in a while all of us could take pride. Every once in a while those in my home could see a brighter and better future and it was when I brought my report card home. When I showed my parents that I was doing well in school, it was an opportunity for them, even though there were differences between them and even though they were separated for a period of time, it was an opportunity for them to transcend their difficulties and that taught me a powerful lesson of the importance of education and opening the door of oportunity, a door that can provide a much brighter and better future,” Vilsack said in 2002 at the Iowa Democratic Party’s state convention.

A review of Vilsack’s strong points is next in this Radio Iowa series spotlighting the Vilsack career.