Written and submitted by Mario Piscatella, our Northwest Iowa Regional Field Director.
Following Senator Dodd’s tremendous performance (and the great party the IAFF threw) at the JJ Dinner on Saturday, the Northwest Iowa Dodd Squad headed up to Emmetsburg for the Five-County Fundraiser. Organized by the Democratic 
Central Committees of Emmet, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Kossuth and Humboldt Counties, the fundraiser helps to build the Party in a very rural area of the state. State Senator Jack Kibbie was a fantastic Master of Ceremonies, introducing each of the candidates (or their representatives) and keeping the well-beyond capacity crowd in their seats. Beyond capacity, yes—the fire department was forced to block all entries and only allow one person to enter for each person that left the room. They were enforcing a maximum capacity of 580 in the room, with well over 100 outside the room. Estimates put the total attendance over 700—a great turnout. You can check out Senator Dodd’s speech here.
Let me also say that the event organizers did a fantastic job putting the fundraiser together. Special recognition to Palo Alto County Chair Norlyn Stowell and his associates John Nelson (Emmet County Chair), Lois Jirgens (Pocahontas County Chair), Terry Kocher (Humboldt County Chair), and Chris Louscher (Kossuth County Chair) --- they were wonderful.
On Monday, we had Senator Dodd's wife Jackie in our office for an Open House. There are a few pictures of the event here, all taken by the Woodbury Democrats’ all-star photographer Darrell Strong. 
Jackie give a short pitch of why she believes her husband is the best person to lead this country forward, talking about the results he has achieved including the Family and Medical Leave Act, Head Start, and other landmark Children’s Health Care legislation. She talked about his service in the Peace Corps and the military and how important it is that we restore America’s moral authority. With some prodding (it was me!) she talked a bit about her own experience as the former COO of the Export-Import Bank (which she kindly pointed out does not Import anything but goodwill, and not nearly enough of that under the current administration). It's events like these that make me marvel at how fortunate America would be to have Chris Dodd restoring and defending our Constitution as President and Jackie Dodd filling the role of First Lady with intelligence and grace.
