Can You Separate Federal Issues from State Elections?
Many state candidates are asked less about their stance on issues affecting the state and more about federal matters they can do little about.
Randy Formanek is what you might call a persuadable voter. He’s decided to stick with President Obama this year despite not being “100 percent about this Obamacare.” He also believes the president has not done enough to secure the border. Still, Obama deserves a second term, in his opinion, if only because Republicans have been unwilling to work with him. “Obama’s my man,” he says.
But Formanek also says he’s going to vote for a Republican in his state Senate district in Iowa. You see, Jane Jech, the Republican seeking the seat, has come to his home in the small town of Chelsea and asked him personally for his support, just after visiting with his dad right around the corner.
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Still, legislative candidates are also swimming either with or against strong tides. When legislative candidates make their rounds, many find themselves asked less often about their stances on issues affecting the state than about their partisan identification. Often, the issues at the top of voters’ minds are federal matters they can do little to nothing about. “It is difficult for a local candidate to explain that what goes on in Washington is not what goes on in Iowa,” says Democratic state Sen. Jeff Danielson.
The stakes in Iowa are high. Republicans took control of the state House two years ago and also regained the governorship. But they fell a couple of seats short in the Senate -- half the seats in the chamber come up for election every two years -- so GOP leaders are pinning their hopes on candidates like Jech, who are going door to door.
That makes the presidency “the keystone to American politics,” Schneider says -- an effect that extends even to higher-profile races like the governorship. Most states moved their gubernatorial elections away from the presidential campaign year in order to isolate them from the national tide. “There is simply no question that the primary motivation was to reduce presidential coattails on the election for governor and to increase the voters’ attention on state rather than national issues,” says Larry Sabato, who directs the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
It’s hard to find people anywhere near as worked up about state Senate contests, despite the fact that the entire tax and education agenda of Iowa Republicans hangs in the balance. “I honestly don’t know who’s running to tell you the truth,” says Roger Sturtz, sitting with his wife Jean in front of their house in Urbana, just moments after Parbs and Kapucian passed by in the Urbanarama parade.
Matt Reisetter knows the presidential race is going to have an effect on his fortunes. “You always get drowned out down ticket,” he says. That’s precisely why he’s pounding the pavement, trying to meet as many voters as he can in his state Senate race in Blackhawk County. Reisetter, who is running against Jeff Danielson, believes that soliciting votes door to door can make a difference of several percentage points either way, which would be more than enough to decide a race in a district like his. Reisetter, a Republican, lost a state House race back in 2006, which was a strongly Democratic year, by 106 votes. Danielson, by contrast, won re-election in 2008 by just 22 votes “with the Obama landslide at his back,” as Reisetter puts it.
To do that, Reisetter roams an older neighborhood in Cedar Falls with an iPad in hand, doing his best not just to learn the names of the people he’s about to meet but trying to remember something about each family. Reisetter is 36 and can rattle off connections with many local people, such as having gone to high school with their children or his brother having been in their class. Still, most people he encounters on a Saturday afternoon are more concerned with finding out whether he’s a Republican or a Democrat than his stance on any particular issue. Danielson, the Democratic incumbent, believes that Reisetter will be vulnerable not because of his partisan affiliation or any association with Romney, but because of his years working for Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent but controversial social conservative in Iowa. “You’re Matt and I’m voting for your opponent,” one man tells Reisetter by way of greeting him when he comes to his door.
That rankles Reisetter, if only because Wisby has already described herself to him as an independent. Walking away from her house, he decides he’s going to send her a postcard chiding her for not keeping an open mind. With someone like that, he reasons, he has nothing to lose.
But he gets to make his case in person about an hour later, when he runs into Wisby out taking her daily walk with a neighbor. “How can you call yourself an independent, but you won’t vote for a Republican?” Reisetter asks her.
“I absolutely adore Obama,” Wisby tells him.
“I’m not running against Obama,” Reisetter reminds her. He’s already spent some time reassuring other voters that if they want to vote for both Obama and him, he has no problem with that.
In Wisby’s case, that just might work. “You’re a nice guy, I might flip my vote,” she says.
Reisetter walks away laughing. “I might’ve gotten her vote,” he says. But just to be safe, he’s going to follow up with a postcard anyway.