Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and political activist, is running for president as an independent with running mate Matt Gonzalez. He has secured a place on the November ballot in Iowa with the Peace and Freedom Party. Nader delivered a campaign speech at Iowa State University on October 10, 2008. After his speech, Nader sat [...]

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The following is the full text of Nick Lindsley’s three-part interview with Bill Ayers. Ayers is a former member of the Weather Underground, a radical leftist organization active in the ’70s. Today, Ayers is a Professor at the University of Illinois. The interviews originally appeared in Volume 1, Issues 2, 3 and 6 of the [...]

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In a sea of polo-clad Midwestern boys and carefully made-up sorority girls, Troy Cairo isn’t hard to miss. A brooding artist attached to his iPod by day and a pink sunglasses and white suit clad DJ by night, Cairo, better known as DJ Kinky Kyro, is a regular fixture at the Bali Satay House on [...]

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Selden Spencer is a Democrat and neurologist from Huxley who practices at Ames’ McFarland Clinic. In 2006, he challenged 4th district Republican Representative Tom Latham, receiving 43 percent of the vote. He decided not to run again this year over concerns that he would be unable to run a competitive race. Spencer first spoke with [...]

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Fourth district congressional candidate Becky Greenwald speaks to voters at a house party in Ames on April 30. (photo: Gavin Aronsen/The Progressive) Update: On June 3, Greenwald won the 4th district Democratic primary with 51 percent of the vote. In November, she will compete for Tom Latham’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. William [...]

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Fourth district congressional candidate Kurt Meyer sits down for an interview at the Ames Progressive Office on March 25. (photo: Gavin Aronsen/The Progressive) Kurt Meyer has made a career working for nonprofit organizations ranging from nursing homes and hospitals to museums and libraries. In 1988 he started a company to assist nonprofits that has since [...]

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Fourth district congressional candidate William J. Meyers with his wife Raphaela Boehm at Old Chicago on February 9, when the two first met with the Progressive. (photo: Gavin Aronsen/The Progressive) William J. Meyers is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, a job that took him to London, where he specialized on counterterrorism work [...]

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Fourth district congressional candidate Kevin Miskell speaks with the Progressive at his campaign headquarters on March 28. (photo: Gavin Aronsen/The Progressive) Kevin Miskell is a fifth-generation Iowa farmer and the former vice president of the Iowa Farmers Union, where he worked on a wide range of agricultural political advocacy involving sustainable agriculture and family farming. [...]

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The following interview originally appeared as part of a longer blog entry at Gavin’s Journal on this site. Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell represents Iowa’s 3rd district and has served the state for six terms, since 1997. When he first entered the House he voted in favor of a bill that would have limited representatives to [...]

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Ed Fallon speaks with the Progressive at his campaign headquarters office on January 28. (photo: Gavin Aronsen/The Progressive) On his shift to national politics… Well, I had thought about where I could most make a difference in the world, and I spent a long time thinking about that because, personally, I like being in Iowa. [...]

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