Judge Ends Her Campaign for the Gubernatorial Primary Race

On February 15, 2006 candidate Patty Judge announced that she was ending her campaign for Governor at a press conference with fellow Democrat Chester "Chet" Culver also announcing that the two candidates have joined forces to run on the same ticket in the upcoming June primary elections as reported by staff writer Thomas Beaumont of the Des Moines Register newspaper. Judge asked that her supporters and her other fellow candidates now concentrate their efforts in backing Chet Culver for Governor. Judge made the tough decision after waging an eight month campaign to be Iowa's first female governor primarily due to poor fund raising efforts last year raising just over $183,000 and needed to put $50,0000 of her own money into her campaign fund. This was also confirmed by a press release posted on Patty Judge's campaign website. This narrows the field for the race but only minimally. There are still five other Democratic candidates, four of whom have small campaign coffers, poorly managed campaigns, or both, and the two Republican candidates.

Culver welcomed Judge as his potential running mate, if he wins the primary. He fared better last year with his campaign efforts, raising $1.1 Million, a new record for a Democrat in a non-election year.

In response to the Culver/Judge ticket, Democrat candidate Mike Blouin expressed that by Judge out of the race the other candidates will get more exposure. Blouin, with his opposition of abortion rights, will come under attack by Cluver and Judge, a former nurse, who support a woman's right of choice. Blouin, who also did not fare well with raising campaign funds last year, just over $521,000, isn't giving up all hope yet because he has the support of a good majority of the Democratic state legislators.

I think Patty Judge would have been a fine Governor for the state of Iowa, and hopefully with time she will try and run again with better financial support and a stronger campaign. Now that she is no longer running for Governor, the four remaining stronger candidates, Culver, Blouin, Fallon, and Nussle, have a lot of work to do between now and June. Iowans will also have to decide which issues facing the state in the future are the most important to them: education, basic health care for all residents, renewable energy production and promotion, medical research including stem cell research, raising the minimum wage, the environment, stopping the loss of manufacturing jobs within the state. The next four months will be interesting as the race heats up more and mud-slinging between candidates intensifies.

Accusations Fly Within the Iowa Democratic Party

Recently in the news two Democrat Gubernatorial candidates have made accusations against their fellow Democrat competitors in response to the release of the campaign finance reports. Democrat candidate Michael Blouin has accused Chet Culver of accepting campaign contributions in the sum of $40,000 from supporters who in the past have paid large fines for unethical business practices such as insider trading, as reported by the Associated Press on January 26, 2006. Also, Democrat Ed Fallon has accused Patty Judge of accepting campaign contributions last year in the sum of $45,000 from contributors from the corporate livestock farming industry. Judge managed to raise $130,000, this being paltry compaired to the record breaking $2.5 milllion raised by Republican Jim Nussle. These big business farming operations are responsible for polluting the air, local water tables, and rivers with their waste by-products of methane gas and manure. Judge has defended herself according to O. Kay Henderson of RadioIowa, stating that "I am proud of the support I have received from Iowa's pork industry over the years. They are citizens of Iowa and have every right to contribute to candidates and be a part of the political process."

Judge along with Blouin are closely behind trailing the poll leaders of Culver and Nussle in a Rasmussen Report poll from November, 2005. Even though Judge has little campaign funds, she does have the advantage of name recognition with the voters. Which is more than some of her fellow Democrat opponents can say.