Hitting the campaign trail, Pete Buttigieg gives Iowa voters a glimpse of what he’s about

Feb. 10--AMES, Iowa. -- South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg's four campaign stops in central Iowa on Friday -- his first in this early battleground state since declaring a run for president -- included a college town coffee shop, a university campus building, a small-town library and a suburban senior housing complex.

Different venues with different crowds.

There was a common thread that wove through them all: People liked what they heard, but with the Iowa caucuses still a year away, most said it's far too early to pick a favorite from the crowded field of 2020 Democratic hopefuls. And some said they're waiting to hear more detailed policies from Buttigieg.

Another common thread: No one interviewed by The Tribune thought that either South Bend's relatively small size or Buttigieg being openly gay would derail his path to the Democratic nomination.

That's not to say Buttigieg doesn't face long odds in his quest for the White House. He has acknowledged himself that he doesn't have the name recognition, national profile or proven fundraising ability of other Democratic candidates.

Jan Bauer, chair of the Story County Democratic Party, host of the Ames coffee shop event, perhaps came closest to identifying Buttigieg as her choice. She first saw him at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting in Atlanta in 2017, where Buttigieg ran for party chair before withdrawing when it became clear he didn't have the needed support to win.

"He's certainly someone I watch in the field because of that connection to Atlanta," said Bauer, who recalled first noticing the "Mayor Pete" signs in Atlanta and then having lunch there with Buttigieg's husband, Chasten. "You look for the policies and the issues to be right. But it certainly takes more, and he has the ability to connect with people that you really need to have."

Buttigieg has discussed many of those policies and issues on national television, on Twitter, in online and newspaper interviews, or in his book, "Shortest Way Home," which goes on sale Tuesday.

Some of the key themes he's focusing his campaign around include:

--The time is ripe for a mayor to be president because a mayor must pragmatically solve problems daily and is held accountable if he doesn't.

--Democrats must discuss politics in terms that show how policies affect people's everyday lives.

--Conservatives talk about freedom "from" things, such as too much government regulation and taxes. Democrats talk about freedom "to" do things, such as the freedom to sue your credit card company for ripping you off, to marry the person you love regardless of gender, or to start a new business without worrying that you'll lose your health care coverage.

But many of the Democrats in the combined audiences in Iowa either hadn't heard his platform planks, or were impressed anyway to hear how he delivered them in person.

At the café, the first stop of the day, Carol Williams, a retired county park ranger, said she follows Buttigieg on Twitter but hadn't yet heard him speak. She said the 37-year-old mayor checks off two critical boxes for her: he's young and he called climate change a "national emergency."

After the event, Williams placed him in her "top five" Democratic candidates, along with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar who was scheduled to visit Ames on Saturday, California Sen. Kamala Harris, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

"It will be a very hard decision for me," she said.

Williams recalled keeping a spreadsheet in 2008 to track the candidates' policy positions, before ultimately throwing it out when her "gut" told her to go with Barack Obama.

"My gut was very positive with Mayor Pete," she said. "I didn't feel like he's made this stump speech a million times."

'We need more'

From the Ames café, Buttigieg and his staff drove across town for a brief on-campus appearance before the College Democrats at Iowa State. The group has about 50 active members, many of whom usually end up volunteering or interning for candidates leading up to the caucuses.

About 50 students came to hear Buttigieg, a strong turnout for a candidate "who doesn't have good name recognition yet" and who came during the day when most students had classes, said the group's president, Taylor Blair.

"He has a completely different perspective," Blair said. "He's young. He's a mayor. I was a little, 'how's that going to work as president,' and the way he explained it was really cool. You have to be there for the citizens of your city. You live with them. That's something we need more in national politics, where people talk about how this is actually going to impact people. You can't hide if you're the mayor."

The Buttigieg team next drove about an hour east through farm country to Grinnell, population 9,210, for an appearance at the Drake Community Library. The crowd was standing-room-only, but Garold Nelson, a retired wind blade factory worker, and John Clayton, a Poweshiek County Soil and Water Conservation District commissioner, arrived early enough to get front-row seats.

By the time Buttigieg finished, Nelson called him "a very good candidate" that he might vote for.

"I love Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders ... but I don't want to see either of them jump in the race," Nelson said. "I'd like to see somebody younger get into office, somebody who has a stake in the future, not the past. I hate to give him the kiss of death so early though because I have never supported the eventual nominee other than the incumbent."

Clayton called Buttigieg "a lot better than what I expected."

"This guy, he's smooth, he's quick in his thinking, his policy, he knows all of the details," Clayton said. "I'm going to wait a little to see if he does stumble before I commit, but if he can keep this up, I like him."

Sitting a row behind Clayton and Nelson, Donna Winburn, a farmer who would only say she's in her 80s, reminded Buttigieg during a question-and-answer session that "a lot of good things happened in the 1950s."

"He did not mention either the (higher income) tax rates or labor unions and those were two things that made America great in the '50s," she said. "That's been changing since at least the '80s."

Winburn said Buttigieg has a "lot of good ideas" and is "very smart" but she won't make any decisions until she hears all of the candidates.

Sizing up the issues

There were several times during the day when Buttigieg either declined to say he supported policies advocated by the party's far left wing or said it's too early in the campaign to commit to detailed positions on some policies.

For example, he acknowledged that income inequality, exacerbated by automation and globalization, is a critical problem facing the country.

But Buttigieg wasn't ready to commit to supporting a universal basic income, saying "I'm not there yet but I'm intrigued by it."

Similarly, he said he supports "Medicare for all who want it," an option in which the government would fund insurance provided by private companies, as a compromise between the free-market system favored by many conservatives and the "socialized medicine" advocated by the far left.

In yet another example, he was asked at each of the four events his views on the "Green New Deal," a resolution recently introduced by New York's liberal U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She has advocated for a set of environmental policies aimed at achieving "net-zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a year that many scientists say will bring irreversible environmental damage if action isn't taken quickly.

Repeatedly, Buttigieg called the Green New Deal a "set of goals rather than policies," but said it's moving "in the right direction."

Nat Jordan, co-chair of the Grinnell College Campus Democrats, said he liked the "values" he heard Buttigieg espouse, but he will need to see more details on some policies before knowing whether to vote for him in the caucuses.

""He has more experience really interacting on the ground with people rather than engaging in classic D.C. politics," Jordan said. "But I want to see more clear policies from him so that I can evaluate him side-by-side with the Senate candidates. It's important for a sort of outer-fringe candidate like him to put his ideas out there and try to get known."

The final event of the day, which C-SPAN carried live, drew the biggest crowd. It was held at the Vintage Cooperative, a senior housing complex in Ankeny, one of Iowa's fastest-growing suburban communities.

Seniors occupied only one table in the room, with a broad mix of people comprising the rest of the crowd of about 90 -- in a room with a fire code capacity of 81.

Like most other Iowa Democrats interviewed, event organizer Mary McAdams, chair of the Ankeny Area Democrats, said it was too early to pick a nominee. At least 10 other candidates are scheduled to visit Iowa in February alone.

But she wants to see more of Buttigieg.

"You believe what he says is coming from his heart and from his gut, and you can trust him," she said. "That resonates with the people of Iowa. I think he has an equal shot."

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