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Charles City native Hart selected as state Democratic Party leader

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Charles City native was selected as the new Iowa Democratic Party chair at the party’s State Central Committee (SCC) meeting Saturday.

Rita Hart, who grew up near Charles City, was elected chair, along with a new slate of party officers including Gregory Christensen as vice chair, Paula Martinez as secretary and Samantha Groark as treasurer.

Charles City native Hart selected as state Democratic Party leader
Rita Hart

“As a teacher, a farmer, a state senator and lieutenant governor and congressional candidate, I’ve seen time and time again how the policies that our leaders implement affect everyday Iowans. My focus is squarely on helping our party begin winning elections again,” Hart said in the election meeting. “The job of the chair is to make that happen.”

Hart and her husband, Paul, have been operating his family’s century farm near Wheatland, about 25 miles northeast of Davenport, since 1986, and she was also a teacher for more than 20 years in the Calamus-Wheatland and Bennett Community school districts.

Hart is the sister of long-time (now retired) Floyd County Treasurer Frank Rottinghaus, and has other brothers and sisters in the area.

Hart served in the Iowa Senate for two terms from 2013 to 2019, representing all of Clinton County and part of Scott County in the far eastern part of the state. In 2018, she ran for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Fred Hubbell for governor.

In 2020, she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in Iowa’s 2nd District against now-Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, losing by only six votes. Currently, she was serving as the chair of the Clinton County Democratic Party.

Hart ran for party chair against Bob Krause, the president and chairman of the Veterans National Recovery Center, and Brittany Ruland, state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott’s former campaign manager and business owner.

One of hart’s first challenges will be leading the party as it copes with the decision by the Democratic National Committee to no longer let Iowa start the Democratic presidential candidate selection process through its state caucus system.

Other states have said that Iowa does not represent the party’s diversity and that the caucus process leaves out Iowans who cannot spend several hours in person at a caucus site on one specific Iowa winter night.

After problems with reporting during the last two Iowa presidential caucuses, the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee voted in early December to let South Carolina go first, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia and Michigan, if their states go along with the plan and indicate they can be ready in time.

Hart said she wants to maintain the traditional start-off position Iowa has held since 1972.

“We’ve got to continue to fight that fight for the first-in-the-nation status and then be very practical about how we move forward,” Hart said last week during a forum for IDP chair candidates.

Some state party leaders have suggested Iowa should ignore the national party and hold its caucus before any other state holds a caucus or primary, but the DNC has said that any state that defies it rules will would automatically lose half its delegates to the national convention.

Presidential candidates would be barred from campaigning in the state, including placing their name on the ballot. A Democratic presidential candidate who violates that restriction would not receive any pledged delegates or delegate votes from that state.

The Iowa Democratic Party will also have to battle back from significant losses in the 2022 midterms. Republicans now hold all four Iowa congressional seats, the governor’s office and all but one statewide office, as well as 34 out of 50 Iowa Senate seats, for a 68% supermajority, and 64 out of 100 Iowa House seats.

“I’m under no illusions that this will be easy, and I know that it will take time, but I am heartened by the support that I’ve heard from the SCC and from folks across our state,” Hart said. “I’m truly amazed by the commitment to our party success.”

— Iowa Capital Dispatch contributed to this story

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