Greene County Democrats had their first opportunity to meet Kim Weaver of Sheldon, an Iowa Democratic state committee member and an announced candidate to run against Steve King in the Fourth Congressional District. Weaver attended the Greene County Democrats’ fall fundraiser dinner and pie auction at the Greenewood Center in Jefferson Sept. 19. About 40 persons attended the dinner.
Weaver was introduced Saturday by Adrienne Smith of Jefferson. “When she defeats Steve King in November of 2016, she will replace divisiveness with unity. She will replace hateful, racist rhetoric with intelligent, thoughtful dialogue. Instead of being embarrassed by our representative, we will have a representative that has solid Democratic values. Kim will bring to DC the values Democrats embrace…. Integrity and intelligence will be the norm, instead of stupid comments to get attention,” Smith said.
Weaver said she is taking up the challenge of running against King, “because I’m passionate about people. And when I see problems, I find solutions.”
Dr Andy McGuire, Democratic state committee chair, spoke. She named as priorities education, a living wage, healthcare for all, and pay equity.
Ed Fallon, former state legislator who is now devoting his full energies to advocating for policies to combat climate change, compared those who dismiss evidence of climate change to those who ignored news coming from Europe prior to our country’s entry into World War Two.
Fallon walked 3,000 miles in the cross-country Great March for Climate Action, and he walked the 400 mile length of the proposed Bakken pipeline.
“We have the capacity to fight climate change. We need the political will,” Fallon said. “Climate change is not an issue. It’s a crisis. It’s something we have to address or nothing else will matter.”
Aside from Weaver, there were no candidates at the dinner. Representatives of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were there with information and to recruit campaign volunteers.
Nicole Friess-Schilling and her children provided musical entertainment.
