Vilsack cautions about reading too much into election polls

By EMERY STYRON

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stopped for a few minutes in his old stomping grounds Sunday evening on a tour of Iowa to boost Democratic candidates in Tuesday?s election. Meeting with many people who helped him get his political as Mt. Pleasant mayor, state senator and Iowa governor, Vilsack said polls and political commercials don?t matter at this point in a race and that polls are often wrong.

He urged the crowd of 50 at Henry County Democratic headquarters to keep knocking on doors and calling their friends to urge them to vote. ?You folks made the difference in my election 16 years ago,? he said.

He echoed former President Bill Clinton?s remarks in Des Moines Saturday. Clinton said the country was growing, its unemployment rate had fallen, 55 consecutive months of job growth, unemployment is coming down and the deficit is cut in half, but not everybody has seen the benefits of that growth.

?In some sense, we?ve grown apart instead of coming together,? said Vilsack. ?One way of deciding how to vote for is to ask are there candidates who want us to grow together or are there candidates who are okay with us growing apart. Another way of looking at it is are there some folks who are willing to work together or are there some folks who are so stuck in their old thought process or ideology that they can?t work together.?

He said U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Bruce Braley?s support for raising the minimum wage is an example of the growing together philosophy.

Raising the minimum helps both minimum wage earners and higher-earning workers above them, Vilsack said. ?It keeps wages up. If people are making a little more money, then they have a little more money to spend. And they spend it. They spend it in small businesses that allow those businesses to grown and expand. It generally helps the entire economy.?

Braley?s support for the minimum wage increase and Republican candidate Joni Ernst?s opposition draws ?a pretty clear distinction between somebody who?s for growing together and somebody who?s for growing apart,? Vilsack said.

Vilsack planned to spend Sunday night in Burlington and make campaign stops in Ft. Madison and Keokuk Tuesday.