Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. Corporations that pollute us, Trump won’t cooperate.
2020 General Election
You know someone like her. Good fortune. Has a great life. Misfortune. Even a tragedy.
A great childhood
Theresa Greenfield https://greenfieldforiowa.com/ grew up on a Minnesota farm. Write an idyllic story about American rural life, hers would be it. Four siblings. Two girls, two boys. The girls did the same chores the boys did. Help with the family crop dusting business. Mark out the fields. Negotiate contracts. Do grown up work as a teenager.
Misfortune
The farm crisis of the 1980s. Business collapsed. Theresa Greenfield’s plan to go to college became complicated. Financial aid. Working part time. Studying part time. Two years at Iowa State, majoring in design and housing. Five years at Minnesota State at Mankato. Seven years to get her Bachelor’s Degree. She finished in 1986
A promising life
Married to Rodney Wirtjes, an electrician. She stayed home. Had one child. Was pregnant with another. She planned to be a stay at home mom, at least for a while. The kind of life America has nearly forgotten.
Tragedy
On June 3, 1988, Theresa Greenfield’s husband died in an accident at work. Her resilience was tested. Social security and workers’ compensation combined to provide her with financial support. She speaks about government help when you need it from a deeply personal perspective.
Justice
By 1990, she was thinking about her economic future, her family’s economic future. She asked workers’ comp to support getting a master’s degree in urban planning. They offered placement services instead. A compensation judge supported her request. The Minnesota Supreme Court overruled. The Court told her to rely on the compensation she is eligible for, to make use of her Bachelor’s Degree, use the placement assistance available to her.
So she did.
Making her own good fortune
Without a degree in the field, she got a job as an urban planner. In 1992, Theresa Greenfield went to work for McCombs Frank Roos (MFRA). Founded in the mid-sixties and still growing, she grew along with the firm; worked for them for thirteen years. She was good at it. The last five years she was a senior planner.
Financial misfortune
Theresa Greenfield left MFRA in 2005 to join Rottlund Homes as the Director of Real Estate. They built townhouses, primarily in Minnesota, but also Florida and Iowa. When the company felt the pressure from the real estate collapse in 2007/8, she became president of the Iowa Division. The company sold their Florida properties, their Iowa properties, and eventually closed the business. Done in by the financial collapse.
Good fortune
Theresa Greenfield stayed in Des Moines to work for the Colby [Family] Interests. The Colby Family made its money buying land from the railroads, developing and reselling. They nearly lost their money when they tried coal mining. After that, the business eschewed mortgages and built the Des Moines suburbs.
Colby created a distinctive governing system to protect the firm and the family for the long term. They created a trust. Two members of each branch of the family were trustees. Trustee or not, all family members could participate in meetings.
They had two rules. All trustee decisions were unanimous. Colby Interests would not employ any member of the family. They hired outsiders they could trust. Theresa Greenfield became President of the Colby Interests. In that role, she became a central figure in the life of Des Moines.
Political misfortune
A central figure in the life of Des Moines, she tried politics. She would bring the same integrity to politics she brought to Colby. She ran for an open Congressional seat in 2018 and was the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination. She was probably the favorite for the general election too, even though she was an amateur politician. So, it turned out, was her campaign manager.
Shortly before nominating signatures were due, she discovered her campaign manager had forged the signatures. Some in her campaign urged her to submit the signatures regardless. There was no history in Iowa of signatures being challenged. She declined. Submitting bogus signatures would have been repugnant – repugnant in and of itself and destructive to her reputation in her adopted community. She tried to collect legitimate signatures but did not have the time. She tried the courts. No go. She withdrew her candidacy. Cindy Axne won the Democratic nomination and the election.
Making her political fortune
Two years later, Theresa Greenfield is running for the Senate. She has primary opponents, but few doubt that she will be the nominee. She has support from local leaders. The National Democratic Party has her back. Can she defeat Joni Ernst?
Theresa Greenfield wants this campaign to be about one term Senator Joni Ernst. She includes in her video and will certainly include in her advertisements a reminder that Ernst had made a big deal in 2014 of castrating hogs. The video says Ernst has castrated nothing and no one. Through the enormous tax break for the rich she supported, she is feeding the hogs instead.
President Trump is a burden for Ernst. Daily Kos reminds us that Trump won Iowa by almost 10 points, but is now down 13 in polls. CNN reports on extended town hall questioning of Ernst by independent Ann Haskins about what Ernst has to say about Trump. “You still stand there silent. And your silence is supporting him in not standing up… You, yourself, served. You didn’t pledge an oath to the President. You pledged it to our country, you pledged it to our Constitution. When are you guys going to start standing up and actually be there for us?”
Theresa Greenfield is not giving us a lot of information about her politics. We know she believes in a safety net. She urges money for education, reductions health care costs. She promises to help small businesses thrive. In her Congressional campaign, she supported universal health care, support for DREAMers, and had a constant focus on economic opportunity.
She has to win a primary that will be hard for her to lose. Defeating Joni Ernst will be more challenging. Theresa Greenfield https://greenfieldforiowa.com/ is far preferable to Ernst. She will not describe Barack Obama as a dictator. She won’t oppose increases in the federal minimum wage or advocate the elimination of the US Department of Education or the Environmental Protection Agency. Theresa Greenfield may prove to be a business oriented Democrat. We should be glad to have her. Support her.
We know who the Democratic nominee will be in some of the Senate battlegrounds. The contest for the US Senate is crucial for the direction of the country. Democrats need to win the Presidency and flip a net of three Senate seats. Pick the candidates you like. Consider monthly donations. Consider ways to volunteer.
Alabama Reelect Doug Jones
Arizona Elect Astronaut Mark Kelly
Iowa Elect Businesswoman Theresa Greenfield
Maine Elect Maine House Majority Leader Sara Gideon
Michigan Reelect Gary Peters
Minnesota Reelect Tina Smith
Mississippi Elect former Congressman and Ag Secy Mike Espy
New Hampshire Reelect Jeanne Shaheen
South Carolina Elect former Party Chair Jaime Harrison
