The question was as inevitable as the evasion that followed.It was opening night at the Clinton campaign office here, and Tom Vilsack, the guest of honor, had just arrived.
The former Iowa governor was comfortable as the center of attention, neither his navy blazer nor his demeanor rumpled by another day of campaigning. He was still shaking hands and greeting old friends when a woman hollered out, “Are you going to be Hillary’s vice president?”
The voice was too big for the small room, but the bright tone brought chuckles and even a few cheers. Gone but not forgotten — that was the underlying message. Vilsack may have quick-stepped through his own presidential campaign, but there are still folks on his home turf who consider him worthy of Washington, D.C.
This was not the time for a simple yes or no, however. Vilsack dipped his head as if to shrug off embarrassment.
“I better start my speech before I answer that.”
The line wasn’t particularly funny, but it drew a good laugh. More importantly, it let Vilsack get rolling with what he does best — talking policy.
In this instance, though, the policy was a person. Over the next half hour, Vilsack laid out his case for electing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton. He called her tough and tested, sharp and articulate, and respected around the world. He also described her plans for energy independence, health care and concluding the Iraq War.
Vilsack must have hoped a year ago he would be making just these kinds of arguments in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses. But the name on the campaign posters was supposed to be his own.
It would make for an interesting parlor game: What significant event in presidential politics happened one year ago this week? Of more than a dozen southeast Iowans asked that over the past several days, only one got it right.
The answer, of course, is that Tom Vilsack became a Democratic presidential candidate. Before a crowd of about 1,000 at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant with news cameras rolling and confetti flying, the small-town mayor turned small-state governor took his biggest step yet.
“America needs a president who builds and creates, who makes our country more secure, who is bold and has the courage to create change,” he declared. “I will be that president.”
Eighty-five days later, with his campaign slipping into debt, the first candidate in the race set a new mark as the first to exit.
“Gov. Vilsack became the victim of a vicious circle,” said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University. “That is, he couldn’t raise money because people didn’t think he could win, then people didn’t think he could win because he couldn’t raise money.”
Leading on the issues
Reminders of Vilsack’s campaign are rare but not impossible to find. Web surfers still can hook up to www.tomvilsack.com, but the link for contributions is offline. And visitors to the candidate’s adopted hometown will spy a few cars with bumper stickers bearing the red “V” logo.
“I think people have great regard for Tom here in Mount Pleasant,” Dorothy Welcher said.
Welcher is a local Democrat and Vilsack fan. She admits to being disappointed when he withdrew but doesn’t consider his attempt misguided. “I think he was following his heart.”
The three months Vilsack survived as a candidate were not without promising moments. He wrapped up eight years as governor in January, leaving a Democratic successor, Chet Culver, with Democratic majorities in the Iowa House of Representatives and Senate. He then saw that Senate deliver on one of his final requests, passing a resolution opposing a troop escalation in Iraq.
Vilsack made ending the war a priority issue of his campaign, along with energy policy and education and health care reform. Eight months after he left the race, the importance of the topics has not waned.
“I don’t have any regrets,” the former governor said in a telephone interview the day before Thanksgiving. “Particularly as I listen to the candidates talk about the issues, the positions I articulated … have been adopted in one form or another by most of the candidates, so I feel pretty good about the fact that we were sort of on the leading edge.”
History will decide the truth of that claim. For Des Moines County Democratic Party Chair Stacey Wachter, Vilsack’s legacy in Iowa has endured untarnished.
“He still has a lot of clout in this state,” Wachter said, “and because he ended his time (as governor) on his own terms and because he ended in such a good light, I don’t think there are many Democrats who have a problem with him.”
Job juggling
Vilsack and his wife, Christie, still have a home in Mount Pleasant, the town where she grew up and his political career began. They spend most of their time in Des Moines, however, which keeps them close to oldest son, Jess, and allows Vilsack to hold down his widening assortment of jobs.
Since ending his presidential run, the former governor has hosted a pair of symposiums and taught a class on rural lands and development at Drake Law School.
“It was a great experience to visit with young people about the future of rural America,” he said.
He also became a distinguished fellow at Iowa State University, where he is part of an effort to create a seed bank for nations in West Africa.
“Farmers there are not using hybrid seeds or any of the more advanced seeds that increase productivity here in the United States,” he explained. “As a result, they obviously have children that are without food and adequate nourishment, and they also have poor crops because of bad weather conditions.”
Beyond his academic duties, Vilsack travels the country lecturing on renewable energy for Minneapolis-based law firm Dorsey %26amp; Whitney. He also has teamed with former New York Gov. George Pataki to lead a task force on climate change for the Council on Foreign Relations.
“It’s a little difficult to juggle all of these balls at one time,” he said, “but, obviously, I’m interested in trying to solve problems and be involved in the debates of my time.”
The “balls” do more than stimulate his mind, though. They also keep the money coming in as he chips away at his campaign debt, some of which remained even after Clinton tapped her supporters on his behalf.
“Most campaigns, when they end, they basically cut off the workers immediately without any additional severance pay,” Vilsack said. “… We didn’t think that was right. So we basically went in debt to make sure they had two weeks notice and had enough time to transfer to another campaign.”
Loyal friends
While he made it clear in his concession speech on the day he withdrew from the race that his one and only reason was a shortage of money, Vilsack left another essential question unresolved: Which of his opponents would he support? Would it be John Edwards? Barack Obama? Bill Richardson? Or, as many expected, would he bring his political power to bear for a certain senator from New York who had once been the nation’s first lady?
The answer was quick in coming. One month after dropping out, the Vilsacks announced their shared support for Clinton. Both would work with the campaign, with Vilsack serving as national co-chairman and Clinton’s chief surrogate, or stand-in, in Iowa.
“She is the best candidate I’ve ever seen,” he told his audience here in Washington. “I even said that in front of her husband.”
In private, Vilsack is equally enthusiastic.
“We have great candidates, and I have a lot of respect for all of them,” he said. “But I think Sen. Clinton is more qualified, and she is better prepared to lead from the very first day she is elected and she is sworn into office. And, frankly, there is no room for error or time to waste with on-the-job training.”
Clinton’s connection to the Vilsack family goes back to the impeachment hearings for President Richard Nixon, when she and Christie’s late brother, Tom Bell, shared an office as aides to the House Judiciary Committee.
More than two decades later, Christie Vilsack asked Clinton to hold a fundraiser for her husband’s first gubernatorial bid.
“I found out (afterward) that it was in the smallest hotel in Washington (D.C.), and they had to find the smallest conference room and divide it in half to make it look like I had a crowd,” Vilsack said. “But they raised enough money to (keep the campaign going).”
Loyalty is born in such efforts. Today Vilsack not only speaks on Clinton’s behalf, he also takes on less public responsibilities such as sharing turkey and tossing a football with campaign staffers in Des Moines on Thanksgiving Day.
At the grand opening of the campaign office here, he touched on the social significance of putting a woman in the White House. He also discussed Clinton’s international experience, arguing she is the only presidential hopeful capable of restoring America’s reputation abroad, which members of his party claim has been shattered by President George Bush.
Exchanges between Democratic candidates in the past two weeks have been especially raw over foreign policy. Clinton derided Obama, the senator from Illinois who has emerged as her chief rival, for suggesting to an audience in Clarion, Iowa, that the four years he lived in Indonesia as a child gave him a deeper understanding of international relations.
Vilsack, meanwhile, captured headlines by saying on MSNBC that Clinton had been “the face of (her husband’s) administration on foreign affairs.” Pundits pounced on the statement, mockingly asking whether former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had been aware of the first lady’s vaunted status.
Asked to respond this week, Vilsack said in an e-mail that Clinton had traveled to 82 countries, many of them on behalf of her husband, and met both leaders and “regular citizens.” Those visits helped advance American interests, he said
“For example, when she traveled to China as the U.S. representative to the Women’s Conference, she declared there that ‘Women’s rights are human rights,’ ” Vilsack said. “The advancing of women’s rights is tied directly to our effort to promote democracy, to promote a well-educated citizenry, to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty.”
Down the road
With the caucuses only 32 days away, sniping seems certain to accelerate, and Vilsack can expect his comments to be sliced and diced. Such are the difficulties of being a chief surrogate.
But what of the rewards? That’s the juicier topic.
Karen Gorham has been a Vilsack booster for years. She hosted the first Vilsack for Governor event with her husband at their Washington home in 1998 and also donated the legal maximum to his presidential campaign, and she remains certain his time has not passed.
“I expect him to be in the next administration no matter who gets elected, Hillary or somebody else,” Gorham said.
The most frequently stated view in the area seemed to be that Vilsack would make a fine secretary of education, or maybe energy. One man suggested attorney general.
Of course, there is still the biggy — vice president. Vilsack was a contender to join Sen. John Kerry on the Democratic ticket in 2004 only to be ruled out in favor of Edwards, a senator from North Carolina who had finished second in the nomination race.
“When you’re choosing a running mate, the first rule is do no harm,” Goldford said, “and Gov. Vilsack would do no harm.”
Then again, it’s unclear whether he would do much good. Even if he were to deliver Iowa, with only seven electoral votes, the state is far from the most coveted prize in next year’s general election. By comparison, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland also is a Democrat, and his state boasts 20 electoral votes.
On the plus side, Goldford said voters rarely make their choice based on the second name on the ballot, and Vilsack’s policy expertise would “serve any Democratic administration well.”
Not surprisingly, Vilsack was mum on the subject. Any talk of running mates is premature, he said.
“It’s a very competitive race right now, and people ought to be focused on winning that race.”
He also denied speculation that his target had been on vice president all along, saying there was no “grand plan.”
“My attention is solely and completely on making sure that Hillary Clinton is the nominee,” Vilsack said. “And when she’s the nominee, I’ll be perfectly content to continue doing what I’m doing.”
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