1st Dist. Iowa Congressional Candidate Monica Vernon

Captions: From left, Dr. Christine Grant, former director of the University of Iowa Women’s Athletic Program and Cedar Rapids Mayor Pro Tem Monica Vernon, who is currently running in the Democratic primary for 1st District Congressperson to oppose current Republican Rep. Rod Blum; on left, Andy Coglan, Vernon campaign aide, on right, Peter Hansen; Monica Vernon

Last night, June 25th, my husband and I, along with Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness, Iowa Sen. Bob and Sue Dvorsky, Andy Colgan (campaign aide), Peter Hansen, Dean Abel, Andrew (campaign intern) and others had the pleasure of attending a campaign fundraising get-together for Democrat Monica Vernon, currently Mayor Pro Tem and City Councilor in Cedar Rapids, who is running in the Democratic primary for First District Congressperson in Iowa. She formerly ran with Jack Hatch when he ran for governor against current Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. Dr. Christine Grant, formerly the director of the University of Iowa Women’s Athletics Department, hosted the event from 5:30 p.m. till a little after 7:00 p.m. Dr. Grant, who asked us to call her Christine, was an extremely gracious and charming host.

Mayor Pro Tem Vernon talked to us about how difficult it was, as a Cedar Rapids Councilor, to deal with the homelessness and the property damage, as well as the loss of businesses and the difficulty of accessing businesses after the flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids. She also ran a marketing research firm for over 25 years, and it sounds as though her marketing firm was one of the casualties of the great flood.

She felt that the hardships she and many others endured during and after the flood informed her desire to lead struggling people to a better place. Her marketing firm had already experienced difficulties contacting and researching the middle class. At first they blamed themselves, she said, for having difficulties finding the middle class until later they realized that there was a declining number of people in the middle class to reach. The transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy became real to her in a way that it hadn’t before.

In response to my question, she stated that she will work with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on taking the military chain of command out of decision-making in sexual assault cases.

I pointed out that Republican Sen. Joni Ernst made the same promise to work with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, but reneged on it and recently voted to keep the military chain of command in decision-making in sexual assault cases. That means a military court can rule that a soldier did commit rape, sexual harassment, or some other form of sexual abuse or assault, and a military commander can overrule the court and deny the convicted perpetrator any form of consequence for his or her actions. After 26,000 sexual assaults in one year alone in the last five years, obviously sexual assaults in the military are a problem. Why Sen. Ernst would say that she herself has been a victim of sexual harassment and know that sexual assaults exist in the military and then break her campaign promise is a mystery, but I believe that Democrat Monica Vernon is telling the truth and will not break her campaign promise if elected.

Vernon’s opponent, Republican Rod Blum, given his extremely conservative record, is highly unlikely to vote for women’s rights or any other type of civil rights.

Monica Vernon also opposes the Fast-Track Trade Authority, which just passed the U.S. House of Representatives on the second go, and opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a great deal for corporations and foreign countries in the area but not for American workers. The AFL-CIO and other labor unions oppose it, especially after the disastrous results of the NAFTA trade deal concluded during Bill Clinton’s administration.