The two longest-serving Democrats in Iowa’s state government have thrown their support behind Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s bid for the White House.
Mike Fitzgerald has served as the state treasurer for the past 24 years, and he spoke today at Obama’s campaign rally in Ames. "I’m here to tell you that today I’m endorsing Senator Obama and co-chairing his campaign," Fitzgerald said. "I couldn’t be prouder of anything in my life."
Fitzgerald told the crowd Obama is a "good and decent man" who has the capacity to bring the country together. "I want somebody that has good judgement. We don’t know what kind of problems they’re going to face in the next four years, but we can tell by looking at what they’ve done in the past," Fitzgerald says. "He’s the only candidate out there that was against this crazy war from the git-go."
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who has also served in that office for 24 years, is backing Obama, too. According to Miller, Obama has the "charmisma" and intelligence to be the nation’s leader. "I believe that when this country is in difficult times and needs great leadership, those leaders come," Miller said. "I truly believe that this man is an extraordinary leader at a difficult time."
Miller also cited Obama’s stand on Iraq. "He’s the only major candidate in either party that had the right judgement on the most difficult and the most important question of our day," Miller told the Ames crowd.
For the past eight years, Miller and Fitzgerald served in state government alongside Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa Governor who is also seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Vilsack’s campaign has not yet responded to the announcement that the state treasurer and the state attorney general are backing Obama.