Two Democrats seek nomination for First Congressional District

Two democrats will face off in the primary to see who will go on to run against First District republican Congressman Jim Nussle in November. Former state representative Bill Gluba has spent the last few days rallying support from labor unions. During a campaign stop in Waterloo, Gluba called NAFTA a disaster for the American workforce. He says the hammer has to come down on the big corporations that’re sending jobs out of the U-S. He calls them “Benedict Arnold Companies” whose whole purpose is to take care of the interests and the pocketbooks of a few major corporate executives who expect to make huge returns to benefit a few stockholders. He says he’s going to stand up and fight for fair trade, not free trade. Gluba , a Davenport native, says Nussle has voted on the wrong side on issue after issue. Gluba also says Nussle is one of the architects of a failed economic policy that has created the biggest mess in history, and cost Iowa more than 30-thousand jobs in three years. Gluba says they can beat Nussle if democrats can raise enough money. He says this is a 54-percent democratic district that Senator Harkin, Governor Vilsack and Al Gore all carried with over 50-percent of the vote. Denny Heath of Clinton says he doesn’t take campaign contributions from special interest groups. He says he’s been a union member for 25 years in his working life and says he supports unions, but he says he doesn’t seek endorsements because it thinks it’s wrong. He says you should be representing all people. Gluba says Heath is naive, as Gluba says he spends 70 to 80 percent of his time raising money for the campaign. But Heath says campaign finance reform is his top issue and his message is well received and will transcend the money.He says nobody wants to address this before they go to Congress, he says Gluba says they’ll address this when they get to Congress. He says right Gluba wants your money and when he goes to Congress, he won’t be thinking about doing his job, he’ll be thinking about how to raise more money for the next election. Gluba and Heath will face off in the June 8th primary.