A chat with Edwards Campaign Manager David Bonior
John Edwards’ campaign might have hit a rough patch in recent weeks, but Edwards National Campaign Manager David Bonior was optimistic when I talked with him Tuesday night about Edwards’ prospects in Iowa.
“I think we’re doing very well here,” Bonior said.
Bonior, who had just left a meeting in Davenport with close to 75 supporters, said the campaign is “running deep” in terms of organizational strength in Iowa. He pointed to the 99 county chairs they have recruited and a seasoned team running the campaign.
Bonior brings up the electability factor, pointing to polls that show Edwards beating the leading GOP contenders in a match-up — better in that measure than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
Bonior, a former Michigan congressman, is also looking ahead to the string of union endorsements later this summer and fall. He’s predicting Edwards will earn substantial support from both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win union federations.
“The senator is by far the leading candidate for working people, and that will manifest itself in support from labor organizations,” Bonior said.
He cited Edwards’ work in the last two and a half years on behalf of raising the minimum wage and his help on 180 union organizing drives in that time period, which Bonior called unprecedented.
“We’ve never had a presidential candidate in the history of the country that’s been that much involved in helping workers get a union, so they could get better wages, medical care, pension protections and those kinds of issues,” Bonior said.
(On a side note, Bonior has bona fide Iowa ties. He donned the black and gold for the University of Iowa’s football team, graduating in 1967. He says he played “fanny back” — as in the coach telling him “get your fanny back on the bench.”)
About