Sal Mohamad, one of four Democrats running for governor, says he’s raised six-thousand dollars and is running a one-man campaign. Mohamad says he works four days a week, from six in the morning to four in the afternoon, then stands on street corners in the Sioux City area waving signs. “I campaign in the street in front of the people, with the people and this is the difference between my campaign and the other campaigns,” Mohamad says.
Mohamad lives in Sioux City and on Friday and the weekends he travels around the state, campaigning in the streets. “I’m not tied to any organization or someone to control me and this is the good thing about my campaign,” Mohamad says. “I have the freedom to do what I want to do, no one to dictate to me.”
Mohamad is an engineer by training who was born in Egypt and became a naturalized U.S. citizen over two decades ago. His main campaign theme is a call for a more scientific management style in state government, a move he contends will make government more efficient so that every Iowan’s income will grow by two-thousand dollars a year because of a lighter tax burden and a better business climate.
“Everyone is going to benefit from this,” Mohamad says. “Once we put the system together (it will be) like the one when we put the man on the moon.” Mohamad has never held elected office before. He did run for congress in 2004 and lost in the Democratic primary, garnering only 16 percent of the vote. Mohamad made his comments on Iowa Public Television.