The man who managed President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign in Iowa is pondering a bid for statewide office. Brad Anderson of Des Moines might run against Republican Secretary of State Matt Schultz in 2014.
“I’m certainly looking at it. I think there are a lot of innovative things that we could do with that office that are not currently being done,” Anderson says. “I think the current secretary of state has wasted a lot of money on fruitless DCI investigations.”
Schultz has culled through state records and come up with a list of 3500 people who could have illegally voted in past elections in Iowa. An agent in the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is combing through that list, and so far seven people have been charged with voter fraud. Anderson questions the time and effort being spent on the investigation.
“Obviously preventing voter fraud is important to everyone. We all support that,” Anderson says. “There are just different ways to do it.”
Anderson, as the manager of Obama’s Iowa campaign this past year, oversaw an effort that identified thousands of new Democratic voters in Iowa. He suggests as Iowa’s chief election official he would focus on boosting voter turn-out.
“Quite frankly back in I think it was ’92 we were at 80 percent turnout. You know, we’re at 73 (percent) now,” Anderson says. “I always believe we can do better and we should always focus on, you know, how do we get more people involved in the process, how do we get more people out there to vote as opposed to this idea that we constantly have to threaten penalties and felonies and things like that.”
Anderson made his comments this morning during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight at 7:30 on Iowa Public Television.
In addition to his work as Obama’s Iowa campaign manager in 2012, Anderson worked on the 2004 campaign of John Edwards and for Obama’s 2008 General Election campaign in Iowa. Anderson was communications director for former Governor Chet Culver during the opening year of Culver’s administration. He is presently employed as a political consultant for a Des Moines firm that works for candidates throughout the country and in other countries as well.