Tom Harkin

Harkin calls on young people to ‘raise the bar’ and run for office

October 30, 2017 By O. Kay Henderson

Tom Harkin

Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is lamenting the “lost art of human relations” in the United States Senate.

Harkin, a Democrat who served 30 years in the U.S. Senate, did not run for reelection in 2014. Harkin said these days senators spend little time listening to one another in private or in public.

“The lack of debate, legitimate debate,” Harkin said. “Everybody goes and gives a speech and then they walk off the senate floor. There’s no such thing as a debate any longer on the senate floor.”

Harkin said “the money chase” is partly to blame as senators have to raise more and more cash for their reelection campaigns.

“We need a whole new generation of young people that will sort of raise the bar,” Harkin said. “…Young people know how to get along, maybe more so than some of us old timers.”

Harkin made his comments Sunday afternoon after receiving an award at the Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. The Institute was started by Bob Dole, the Republican Party’s 1996 nominee for president who was a long-time G-O-P leader in the U.S. Senate. Harkin, who visited Dole at Dole’s home in Washington, D.C. last Friday, said Dole was “a great legislator” because he knew who to work with people.

“Willing to compromise, probably a dirty word today,” Harkin said. “Someone said once: ‘Cooperation is the essense of civilization.’ It is, so we could cooperate and get things done.”

Harkin is scheduled to be in Des Moines this afternoon to hand out his annual “Excellence in AmeriCorps Award.” His 2017 award goes to a young woman who helped create an institute at the University of Northern Iowa that encourages students to get involved in their community through service to others.

Options unclear for Iowans enrolled in now-closed ITT Technical Institute

September 7, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

One of the largest for-profit colleges in the country is closing immediately, but it’s not clear how many Iowa students may be affected.

ITT Technical Institute offered courses on-line and has operated attendance centers in the Des Moines suburb of Clive and Cedar Rapids, but the Cedar Rapids campus was closed and the Clive campus already had been targeted for closure. ITT lost its accreditation and is under investigation for fraud. The U.S. Department of Education in August announced the school could not enroll students who were depending on federal financial aid. Federal grants and loans were ITT’s main source of revenue.

Attorneys general from 20 states — including Iowa — have been investigating complaints against the school. More than 40,000 students had enrolled in ITT courses for the quarter that started this month. It’s unclear how those students can transfer credits to other schools or even if that’s possible. A spokesperson for Iowa Community College Trustees is not available for comment. A spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Education referred questions to the Iowa College Student Aid Commission.

ITT offered courses in business, information technology, nursing and health sciences. Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin issued a scathing report on for-profit colleges like ITT four years ago.

“In this report you will find overwhelming documentation of exorbitant tuition, aggressive recruiting practices, abysmal student outcomes, taxpayer dollars spent on marketing and profit, and regulatory evasion and manipulation,” Harkin said. “And these practices are not the exception. They are the norm.”

Harkin was chairman of the Senate Education Committee when the panel conducted a two-year review of for-profit colleges. The report found a majority of students left the schools without a degree.

Harkin: ‘no one is left out’ in the ASL sign for ‘America’ (AUDIO)

July 26, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

Tom Harkin

Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin was the first speaker to take the stage this afternoon at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

“Twenty-six years ago today, our nation won a hard- fought battle to end discrimination for over 50 million people when we signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA!” Harkin began, to cheers.

Harkin, whose late brother Frank was deaf, was the chief sponsor of that bill in congress.

“We still have a way to go before we build a truly inclusive America,” Harkin said. “When, 26 years later, 70 percent of adults with disabilities in America aren’t in the workforce, it’s time to take action.”

Harkin told the crowd a President Hillary Clinton would champion the rights of disabled Americans.

“Hillary Clinton will fight to eliminate the subminimum wage and ensure that a fair day’s work earns a fair day’s pay,” Harkin said.

Harkin taught the 20,000 people in the convention hall a gesture from American Sign Language – linking fingers and rotating joined hands in a circle in front of the body.

“That, my friends, is the sign for America. It’s a beautiful sign. Think about it. We’re all together. No one is left out in this constant circle of life that is America,” Harkin said, to applause and cheers.

Harkin was surrounded on stage by more than a dozen disabled Americans. He spoke moments after a gold medalist in the Paralympics led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance and a blind man sang the National Anthem.

AUDIO of Harkin’s remarks, 5:30

Iowa’s DNC roll call: 30 delegates for Clinton, 21 for Sanders

July 26, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

Stickers given to Iowa delegates at the convention.

Thirty of the 51 delegates from Iowa will cast their votes for Hillary Clinton tonight when roll call is taken at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Christina Blackcloud, a member of the Mesquakie Settlement in Tama, is one of those Clinton delegates.

“She supports everything that I support, basically,” Blackcloud says. “For instance, gender equality, justice, social equality, environmental concerns and all that kind of stuff.”

Twenty-one Iowa delegates, including Corey Jones of Anamosa, will be voting for Bernie Sanders.

“I feel like the Bernie supporters are grieving,” Jones says. “We have to come to terms with Hillary as the nominee, but I feel like we all will come to terms with it. We all will accept it.”

Jones says Sanders supporters secured a victory by “pushing” Clinton to take more progressive policy positions — and there’s only one way to ensure those policies get enacted.

“At the end of the day, the revolution cannot continue without a Democratic president,” Jones says.

Delegate Joel Potter of Des Moines says he got involved in the Sanders campaign because he’s concerned there’s too much corporate money influencing politics.

Delegate Jesica Butler of Hawarden signs document to signify her vote goes to Sanders tonight.

“And when I heard yesterday that Hillary committed to overturning ‘Citizens United’ I was very happy,” he says. “I’m happy to see the influence of the Bernie campaign on the platform.”

Kenneth Adderly of Waterloo, a retired professor, is a Clinton delegate at the convention. He predicts the “Never Hillary” movement within the Democratic Party will cease and Clinton’s poll numbers will rise after the convention’s over.

“And if she doesn’t, what it will do it probably save that 18 percent of Sanders supporters who the media say will not vote for Hillary, it will bring them over,” he says.

Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin will be speaking on the convention floor this afternoon, sometime in the three o’clock hour. Today is the 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act Harkin steered through congress. He’ll be joined on stage by disabled Americans who’ve benefitted from the law.

Harkin reveals he got a stop talking sign during 1984 convention speech

July 26, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

Tom Harkin checks his phone at the Democratic convention.

Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention this afternoon, at about three o’clock Iowa time. Harkin is promising to make it brief.

“I’ve only got four minutes,” Harkin told Iowa reporters Sunday evening, “so don’t hold your breath.”

But Harkin revealed he got the hook the first time he spoke at a national convention. It was 1984 and Harkin was running for the U.S. Senate for the first time. He was given a speaking slot on the main convention stage.

“I kind of got going and two or three minutes went to four or five minutes or six minutes and there were these potted plants along the front (of the stage) and I looked down out of the corner of my eye and I saw this guy crawling underneath the plants and reaching up on the podium and putting a piece of paper on the podium in front of me,” Harkin said, explaining the paper read: “Stop talking.”

Harkin is one of the Clinton delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

Harkin: Philly hotels charging ‘criminal’ rates this week

July 25, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

Tom Harkin

Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is calling on party officials planning the next Democratic National Convention in 2020 to negotiate better hotel deals. Many hotels for this week’s convention in Philadelphia have raised rates.

“Somebody’s got to get to the site selection committee,” Harkin says. “It is criminal what they’re doing here.”

Harkin helped raise money for some of the Iowans who could not afford to pay nearly $700 a night to stay in the Iowa delegation’s hotel.

“Next time, we can’t let this happen,” says Harkin, who is a delegate at this year’s convention. “…I got a matchbox that’s 600-and-some buck a night. Look, I can afford it, but my God there’s a lot of people who come here who can’t afford that kind of money, not just from Iowa, but I’m hearing from other states, too.”

Cities hoping to host conventions for the two major political parties routinely submit bids. Harkin says the site selection committee for the 2020 convention needs to make this deal: “We may come here, but we want one gaurantee, that your hotels can charge no more per night than they normally would at that time of the year.”

Some of the Iowans in Philadelphia are using the airBnB app to stay in private Philadelphia homes. One delegate tried to book a room in a local youth hostel, but couldn’t secure a spot.

Iowa Republicans who attended their party’s national convention last week were charged about $250 a night for rooms in the suburban Cleveland hotel that had been reserved for the Iowa delegation.

Leaked email leads Iowa backer to call for delegates to ‘go all in’ for Sanders

July 25, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

Fifty-one delegates from Iowa head into the Democratic National Convention today in Philadelphia, where a party squabble may erupt.

Leaked emails showing national party staff favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders led to the resignation of the Democratic National Committee’s chairwoman Sunday.

Caleb Humphrey of Madrid is a Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

“What the Bernie camp has thought since the conception of this whole race is that the scales have been tipped in favor of Hillary Clinton,” Caleb Humphrey, a Sanders delegate from Madrid, told Radio Iowa. “Now we know unequivocally, in black and white, that this is true.”

The solution, he suggested, is to dump Clinton and nominate Sanders.

“I propose that the delegates from Iowa go all in for Bernie Sanders,” Humphrey said, “because he ran a solid campaign, he’s got the fever of the people and he can win this fall.”

Sanders delegate Ingrid Olson of Council Bluffs said Clinton remains the presumptive nominee.

“And I don’t think that is going to change,” Olson said.

But Olson warned there’s “division” within the Iowa delegation and it’s in danger of fracturing at this convention.

“They think we’re ‘one hit wonders’ and we’re here temporarily, but the people that I know are very dedicated and they’re here for the long haul. They are energized. They’re youthful and the party needs them if the party’s going to survive, otherwise we’re going to end up having a Republican candidate such as Donald Trump,” Olson said. “…They need to figure out a way to welcome us and not make us make us feel like outcasts.”

Andy McGuire, the chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, last night said party unity is a “work in progress.”

“We need to continue to talk about the issues that we have in common and get to unity,” McGuire said. “When we talk about education and we talk about equal work for equal pay and when we talk about college affordability — these are issues we all agree on.”

Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin backed Clinton in the Iowa Caucuses and he predicted Sunday that Democrats will unite in the “City of Brotherly Love.”

“You’ll see some Sanders folks, this and that, back and forth,” Harkin told Iowa reporters, “but I’ll tell you, when Hillary Clinton takes that stage Thursday night, everybody will be behind her.”

And Harkin pushed back at the notion the nominating process had been rigged against Sanders.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help bring our party together, to work with both Sanders and Clinton people to get us united,” Harkin said. “…If all else fails, all I’ve got to say is: ‘Trump.’ That brings us together right away.”

Iowa delegate Cindy Pollard of Newton was wearing an “I’m With Her” t-shirt Sunday night in Philadelphia. She expects “smooth sailing” for Clinton this week.

“I think it really will be,” Pollard said. “It’s going to be powerful in that room and I think when we go in there, everybody will come together and it’s going to happen.”

The Iowa delegates went to a bowling alley in Philadelphia for a pre-convention party Sunday night. It appeared the Sanders delegates gathered in their own bowling lanes, while the Clinton delegates teamed up in others. Eighteen-year-old Sruthi Palapniappan of Cedar Rapids, a Clinton delegate, noticed.

“I think we kind of just went into our own pods and then just realized: ‘Oh no,'” she said. “‘We accidentally divided.'”

Harkin gave the crowd a short pep talk at the bowling alley, then music started to play. “Disco Inferno” — with the lyric “burn baby burn” — has become a rallying anthem for Sanders supporters and the song was first in the rotation.

Harkin criticizes Trump on Vietnam service, but not Bill Clinton

July 18, 2016 By Dar Danielson

Tom Harkin (file photo)

Retired Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, joined a conference call today to criticize the likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Harkin says it was one year ago in Iowa that Trump made comments about Senator John McCain not being a war hero because McCain was captured.

Harkin claims Trump doesn’t understand the difficult missions McCain flew in Vietnam and says Trump avoided military service. “He’s a draft dodger. There’s no doubt in my mind he’s a draft dodger — he had something like a bad knee or something like that that supposedly kept him out of the military. But he could have volunteered, ” Harkin says.

Harkin, who is a veteran, was asked if he also thought that former Democrat President Bill Clinton is a draft dodger, as Clinton took a similar route as Trump in avoiding military service in Vietnam.

“I’m not certain exactly how those two compare, ” Harkin responded, “I do believe that a lot of people at that time found ways and means to keep from serving in the military. I don’t know all of Clinton’s deal, but at least Clinton did not make fun of or disparage those who serve in the military like Donald Trump does.”

Harkin was also asked about why McCain has said he will vote for Trump, despite his comments. “John McCain is one of these persons — and I know him very well — who is loyal, even if people aren’t loyal to him, he’ll be loyal,” Harkin says. “He’s loyal to his country, he’s loyal to his party.”

Trump’s comments on McCain came on July 20th of last year during a forum in Ames.

Ernst sets August date for “Roast and Ride” fundraiser

March 30, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

Joni Ernst on last year’s ride.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst will hold her second annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on August 27.

Ernst held the first edition of this event last June at the Central Iowa Expo site near Boone. Seven Republican presidential candidates addressed the crowd. Ernst and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker each rode Harleys and led a procession of motorcyles to Boone.

This year’s edition will feature another motorcycle ride. Ernst will speak. Her staff says the event will give Iowans “an opportunity to rally in support of the Republican presidential nominee” and hear from Iowa Republicans who are on the 2016 General Election ballot.

Last year Ernst said she wanted to start a “new tradition” for Iowa Republicans like the high-profile “steak fry” fundraisers former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin held for Iowa Democrats for four decades. Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Barack Obama all made more than one appearanace at the annual Harkin Steak Fry.

Ernst’s staff says “additional details” about the 2016 “Roast and Ride” will be released later.

Photo courtesy of Joni Ernst’s office.

Irish pol in Iowa for St. Patrick’s events talks of global rise of ‘extremism’

March 17, 2016 By O. Kay Henderson

John Deasy

An Irish politician who’s in Iowa today is offering his perspective on our country’s presidential race.

“My deep belief is that American politics and the system of politics here is resilient and it always reverts back to the politics that isn’t politics of rhetoric and it’s politics that certainly isn’t the politics of fear and I know that America will revert back to that, ultimately,” John Deasy of County Waterford, Ireland, said this morning in Des Moines.

Deasy has been a member of the Irish Parliament for 14 years. Earlier in his career, Deasy lived in the U.S. for 11 years and served as an aide members of the U.S. House and Senate.

“I’m an American history graduate and I think about the progressive moderates in American history — Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, etc.,” Deasy said. “I’m not going to lecture Americans about their political system, but I envy some Americans with regard to the choice they may have in November, sometimes.”

Deasy considers well-known Iowa politicians Tom Harkin, Chuck Grassley and Terry Branstad “progressive conservatives on both of the fence.”

“It’s something that I think is slipping out of politics, not just I’m not talking about the U.S., I’m talking about Europe — globally. It’s the politics of extreme which seems to be popular these days. The politics of fear, even,” Deasy said. “…We just had an election in Ireland and the politics of fear won to a certain extent.”

Deasy made his comments in speeches before the Iowa House and Senate. Deasy is in Iowa as a special guest for St. Patrick’s week celebrations in Emmetsburg. The community’s St. Patrick’s parade will start at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by a Social Gathering of the Clans. Irish immigrants with the last names of Nolan, Neary, Mahan, Laughlin, Downey, Sylvester, Jackman, Hickey and Crowley settled in what is now the city of Emmetsburg in 1856.