And now there is one Democrat...Iowa's Vilsack throws hat in the ring

Coming about two days later than I expected, the first Democratic candidate to announce a run for the presidency in 2008 has done so today--outgoing Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat.

The Iowan got some national attention, not all of it welcome, in 2004 when he was mentioned as a possible running mate for the doomed candidacy of John Kerry.

His signing an "English-only" bill in 2002 got the attention of Hispanic groups in 2004:

From AP:

Gov. Tom Vilsack, a potential vice presidential candidate, signed a measure two years ago declaring English the state’s official language. That could hurt his chances of joining the Democratic ticket.

Iowa’s English-only measure and dozens like it nationwide draw virtually unanimous and vehement opposition from Hispanics, an important Democratic constituency, who view them as thinly veiled racism. Hispanics, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority group, are being eagerly courted by Democrat John Kerry and President Bush.

And Vilsack's wife, around that same time, took some heat too.

From the Sioux City Journal:

On the day before she was slated to give a prime-time address at the Democratic National Convention here, Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack came under fire Monday for comments she penned in columns for an Iowa newspaper.

The columns included a 1994 piece in which she said she was "fascinated at the way some African-Americans speak to each other in an English I struggle to understand, then switch to standard English when the situation requires."

The comments were disclosed Monday in the Boston Herald under a large headline reading, "Say What?" In the columns, written for the Mount Pleasant News, Vilsack also wrote that Southerners, while polite, have "slurred speech," according to the article, which characterized her comments as derisive toward blacks and people who live in the South and East.

Republicans immediately pounced on the remarks. "This kind of intolerance is not acceptable in our country and it's shameful this kind of language is being supported by John Kerry and the rest of the Democrats on a national stage," said Leon Mosley, an African-American who is the cochairman of the Republican Party of Iowa.

These positions play well in the Hawkeye State, but Vilsack, both Mr. and Mrs., will find a more hostile audience in the other 49 states as these stories get spread around.

Technorati tags: Iowa
Politics 2008 Vilsack Elections