also note
John Norris, who served as Kerry's state director for the Iowa caucus campaign, is the campaign's National Field Director.  In that role he worked out of DC until the later part of September; ABC's The Note reported on Sept. 28, 2004 that he is being dispatched to the state.

Victory 2004|  1408 Locust Street  |  Des Moines  Field Offices

Coordinated Campaign Director

Ben Foecke

Served as Caucus Director for the Iowa Democratic Party, responsible for organizing the Jan. 19, 2004 precinct caucuses.
 
 

Co-Canvass/Field Director

Jayson Sime

Started working at the Iowa Democratic Party in June 2003 doing community outreach and then served as Deputy Caucus Director.  Graduate of the University of Northern Iowa.  Native of Burlington.
 
 

Co-Canvass/Field Director

Matt de Ferranti

During the Iowa caucus campaign de Ferranti ran the Kerry campaign's Council Bluffs field office.
 
 

Deputy Canvass/Field Director

Sue Monahan

Office manager/scheduler on Rep. Dick Gephardt's Iowa caucus campaign.  Previously worked on a state senate race in Carroll, Iowa.  Graduate of the University of Northern Iowa in Waterloo.

Research Director

Amanda Mahnke

Deputy political director of the Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign in 2002.
 
 

Early Vote and Volunteer Czar

Heather Hargreaves

Regional director on Wesley Clark's NH primary campaign, based in Hanover, after serving same role on Sen. Bob Graham's NH primary campaign (Upper Valley field organizer).
 
 

Volunteer Coordinator

Craig Davis

 

Out of State Travelers Coordinator

Aaron Silverman

 

Surrogate Scheduler

Janet Haselhoff

with AFSCME Iowa Council 61.
 
 

Human Resources/Operations Director

Francis Boggus

Council Bluffs attorney. Delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
 
 

Voter Protection Director

Matt Gannon

(From September 2004)  Took a leave of absence from position as an Associate at Arnold & Porter, LLP in Washington, DC.  J.D., University of Iowa, 1998.  B.A., University of Notre Dame, 1994.
 
 

General Consultant

Craig Varoga

Principal partner of Varoga Rice & Shalott, a Houston-based political consulting firm he co-founded in 1995.  Served as National Field Director on Wesley Clark's campaign.
 

Iowa Democratic Party  |  Victory 2004  |  1408 Locust Street  |  Des Moines
Main office at 5661 Fleur Drive is serving as a field office for Polk County Democrats through to the election.

Chair

Gordon R. Fischer

Partner in a Des Moines law firm (attorney in general practice, specializing in employment law).  J.D. from Southern Illinois University, 1994.  B.A. from the University of Iowa, 1991.
 
 

Executive Director

Jean Hessburg

(January 2002)  Previous experience includes senior vice president of programs for ProChoice Resource Center; California Director, People For the American Way Foundation; Hollywood Women’s Political Committee; and Development Director of California Human Rights Watch.  Campaign director and legislative director for Congressman Dave Nagle (D-IA).  B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa.
 
 

Communications Director

John McCormally

With the IDP since 2002.  Masters in Public Policy from Pepperdine University, 2000.
 
 

Spokesperson

Carrie Giddins

(started latter part of July 2004)  Experience includes account executive at Terris & Barnes, Political Media Inc. in  San Francisco, 2001-02; program manager at League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, 2000-01; and account administrator at Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, Burns & Associates, 1997-99.   MS from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, May 2004; MA from the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University, 2001; BA from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, 1996.
 
 

Director of Technology

David Vogelaar

 

Deputy Technology Director

Andrew Brown

 

Base Outreach

Joseph Jones

 

Latino Outreach

Francisco Hernandez

 

Vol. Coordinator/Women's Outreach

Amy Kearns

 

Controller

John Schmacker

 

Office Manager

Donna Latessa

Iowa Senate Campaign Director - Emily Parcell
Iowa Senate Fundraising Director - Heather Johnk
Iowa Senate Fundraiser - Melissa Peterson
Iowa Senate Field Director - Andy LaVigne
Iowa House Campaign Director - Tim Gannon
Iowa House - Kevin Boyd, Karen Erickson
 

Allies
America Coming Together  | 1500 Locust Street  |  Des Moines >>

Operating from eight offices around the state, including the headquarters in Des Moines, ACT Iowa had 20 staff, 138 canvassers, almost 1,100 volunteers prior to Election Day.  ACT Iowa focused on Democrats, Independents and marginal voters (people who had voted in one of the last three general elections).  ACT Iowa:

-Ran an aggressive absentee ballot campaign, going after very infrequent voters who are particularly difficult to turn out.  Through this specific program, ACT-IA reached its goal of getting 22,000 absentee ballot requests turned in. 
-From June through Election Day, ACT-IA canvassers knocked on some 560,000 doors.  Heading in to Election Day, canvassers had conversations with 266,000 people. 
-For GOTV (the last three weekends of the campaign) and on Election Day, ACT-IA continued to focus on going after the “hard to reach fruit” by running a turnout program in rural areas.  Over 600 staffers and volunteers spanned across Iowa and talked to 60,000 voters in 195 small towns.  These are Iowans who almost never get a knock on their doors in the days before an election, voters that the parties want to talk to, but never have the time for in the last days of an election.  This effort helped boost a number of winning Democratic challenge candidates for the state legislature; local candidates ran ahead of Kerry in each of the five winning open seat or challenge races. 
-Another success was the communications program.  The ACT-IA communications team organized and executed creative, attention-grabbing protests, filled the inboxes of local reporters with messages highlighting the failures of Republicans up and down the ticket, and shaped the coverage of federal, state and local races. 

America Votes  |  1500 Locust Street  |  Des Moines 

Rob Berntsen

Iowa Caucus Director for Sen. John Edwards campaign starting Feb. 14, 2003.  Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Chet Culver, after serving as Director of the Business Services Division in Culver's office.  He gained his law degree with distinction at University of Iowa College of Law in 1998.  Prior to that, he worked in Washington, DC for three years, after graduating from Georgetown University (1992).  He is a native of Marion, Iowa. 
 
 

Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO  |  2000 Walker Street, Suite A  |  Des Moines  >>
President: Mark Smith (member of  AFT).
Secretary-Treasurer: Ken Sagar (member of  IBEW).
Executive Vice President: Jan Laue (member of  BCTGM).
AFL-CIO - Deborah Dion