Iowa Center of Political Campaign Attention -- For Now

It's 15 months until the presidential election. Stop the madness. For months now, the phone keeps on ringing with recorded messages from candidates saying to meet them for breakfast or a town hall meeting.

It doesn't help that my husband is registered as a Republican, and I am basically just a registered voter who looks for the best candidate. Sometimes, there isn't a good candidate to choose.

But for now, the mailbox is usually filled each day with at least two or three brightly colored pamphlets or postcards with politicians' constant rhetoric that they can change this country back into its strong roots.

Interesting how our little humble state of Iowa becomes the center of attention until our caucus. Then, we become the forgotten state. But that's OK with me.

I've never gotten into politics. I think I became quite cynical about politicians, caucuses, straw polls and unanswered promises.

For someone who used to interview lots of politicians from the local to national level, I'm amazed at how much hoopla is already being displayed in our little Iowa.

For 21 years, I was a reporter for a daily newspaper in Iowa. I can still recall how many presidential candidates came through the newsroom for just the 1988 election. We interviewed everyone from Jesse Jackson to Michael Dukakis to Pat Robertson to of course, George Bush.

I just think it is amazing that our caucus draws that much attention. I know the history of why it is so important. But for the rest of the time, most people (including many of the politicians that come) just think we are a state made up of tiny, rural towns with lots of cornfields and hogs.

Yes. We have those. In fact, my husband is a hog and corn farmer. But we have so much more that the media never seeks out, finds and publicizes.

Maybe it would be a nice change of pace if the national media could go to our cultural attractions in the state to show we have so much more than agriculture.

We have some of the top students in the country; new museums such as the $47 million Figge Art Museum in Davenport; skyscrapers in many of the larger downtowns; three state universities and 31 other independent colleges and universities; a top-notch medical research facility at University Hospitals in Iowa City; theaters bringing in Broadway productions; and state-of-the-art civic centers with big name entertainers.

We are the largest producer of ethanol and bio-diesel, and the third largest wind power economy after California and Texas. Our state capital remains the center of the insurance industry.

Innovative factories across the counties make everything from fountain pens to refrigerators to bottled barbecue sauce.

My family often listens to comedians like Jay Leno cut down Iowa in their monologues for being boring, uncultured and unsophisticated. We invite anyone to come and see what we really are like here in the middle of the country.

Sure. The politicians will continue coming, holding their town talks while sitting on a bale of hay (even though most journalists that report on it don't realize it is a bale of straw). You'll see photo ops of these presidential hopefuls shaking hands at the country café adorned with checked tablecloths.

They'll sit on tractors and wave at the people. But my question is why don't we see them talking with our high tech engineers at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, or our doctors in Iowa City that research diseases everyday? Or how about meeting with golf course managers, website designers, mural artists, pilots or architects from Iowa?

Let's just be fair here. The farmers get a lot of publicity in this state. And yes, agriculture is the biggest industry. But agriculture can mean anything from the strawberry farmer with 20 acres to the grain bin operator to the ethanol plant manager.

The country needs to know a different side of this state that they never get to see from the politicians' stops here. Come visit us and really see what we have. You might just like it so much that you'll move here. Then, you'll get all that junk mail, phone calls and television commercials bombarding you until the election. After that, it is a peaceful place with great people, great entertainment and great businesses.