Former long-time R Congressman Jim Leach of IA endorses Dem Candidates in IA for 2022 Midterms

[Sogo]

Franken for Senater over Grassley
Bohannen over Miller-Meeks for House



https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river/2022-08-03/former-gop-congressman-leach-endorses-iowa-democrats-ahead-of-midterm-election

[AZSkiffyGeek]

1. Leach was a sane Republican

He served in the Obama administration IIRC.

[emulatorloo]

2. Agreed. I lived in Iowa when he was in Congress. Very supportive of higher education

and interested in helping every day Iowans. Tea-bagger Marionette Miller-Meeks is a disgrace, I hope she is defeated.

[rurallib]

4. Miller-Meeks is a disgrace for sure - and a Trumper through and through.

She had Rick (I want to take away you Social Security) Scott in for a fundraiser before last week's football game in Iowa City.

Not sure which event stunk up worse.

[rurallib]

3. I live in Leach's district and I wouldn't go quite that far

he was tolerable. It sure could have been worse.
Not sure how you mean he served in the Obama Admin. He was defeated for congress in 2006. Can't remember if he had any post in the Obama Admin after that.

[emulatorloo]

5. He was nominated by Obama to chair the NEH. Which he did. Here's what Wikipedia has on his

Post-Congression career:

‘ On August 12, 2008, Leach broke party ranks to endorse Democrat Barack Obama over fellow Republican John McCain in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.[60]

He spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, on the night of August 25, 2008.[61] He was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, a fellow Iowan.[62]

On November 14 and 15, 2008, Leach and former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright served as emissaries for President-elect Obama at the international economic summit being held in Washington, D.C.[63]

President Obama announced his nomination of Leach to be the ninth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in June 2009.[64] The appointment was confirmed in August 2009.[1]’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Leach

Looks like the entry hasn’t been updated in a long while.

[rurallib]

6. thanks

[DFW]

7. Leach from Iowa. There is a name I haven't heard since 1969.

In the summer of 1969, I was working at a summer job at the US Geological Survey's map warehouse in Alexandria, VA. My official title was "laborer." It was laborious, alright. We had to lug huge, heavy packs of 500 topological maps, newly printed on heavy glossy paper, to their proper shelves on the warehouse. Today, what they had us doing would probably be illegal, as the maps were printed with ink that reeked so horribly as to make us nauseous. I hate to think what chemicals we were all breathing in.

One of my fellow "laborers" was a guy named Leach, and I remember he said he was from Iowa. From the age of the former Congressman mentioned here, I would guess that my fellow warehouse worker was a younger brother, and that their dad was probably also some Senator or Rep from Iowa. I remember he was a Nixon-supporting Republican, but a nice guy in spite of that.