New Haven Independent

Rod Livesay, an Iraq vet and Iowa firefighter, was among the legions of union members being called to perform a rescue operation — salvaging the Connecticut senator’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, in this Thursday’s Iowa caucuses. Livesay came out to support Dodd Tuesday.

Well, sort of.

As Dodd crossed the snowy Iowa plains in pursuit of the presidency, he relied on the support of the firefighters at every stop, even for his wheels.

The International Association of Fire Fighters has pumped several hundred thousands of dollars into the Connecticut senator’s quest for the Democratic presidential nomination. The group ensured its Iowan members showed up at each stump speech from Clinton to Marshalltown Tuesday.

That support, emblazoned on Dodd’s yellow bus, appears to be the campaign’s biggest hope to convert Dodd’s low-polling campaign into a viable candidacy at Thursday’s caucuses, which will be a make-or-break day for lower-tier contenders. Firefighters are being asked to caucus for Dodd and bring five buddies, too.

That quest hit a small roadbump at a morning stop in Clinton, with Dodd’s encounter with Livesay. Livesay showed up to support Dodd, but revealed he is not so eager about caucusing for the Democrat.

“Out of respect for the union, I’m here and I’m going to hear what he has to say,” said Livesay (pictured at right), an Iraq War vet and Clinton firefighter. The candidate earned the IAFF’s support through years of firefighter-specific legislation that has increased funding and aided families that had lost a firefighter in the line of duty.

But Livesay and the senator quickly diverged on the voter’s most important issues.

Dodd calls for withdrawing combat troops by the end of April 2008 and ending the war in eight to 10 months.

“That would be disastrous to pull them out” in that time frame, remarked Livesay. He asked Dodd about border security, and listened politely to the response, but later said he couldn’t commit to supporting the candidate.

Next to Livesay in the booth, Ray Darsidan praised Dodd’s credentials — including 26 years on the Senate, service in the Peace Corps and National Guard, bipartisan legislative feats on the Family And Medical Leave Act and children’s issues. Darsidan said he agrees with Dodd’s current thrust — that the race shouldn’t be about “celebrity” or “elocution,” but experience. But he was not optimistic that he could find five friends to go to the polls for a candidate that few had heard of. “It’s an uphill battle,” Darsidan said.

Why Fire?

At a second campaign stop in Bettendorf, Dodd stopped in a firehouse where about 15 firefighters stood in wait.

“Every firefighter here is caucusing for the senator,” Dodd’s traveling press secretary made sure to tell this reporter.

IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger (pictured at right), who’s spending a week alongside Dodd on the campaign trail as the organization pours resources into the senator’s bid, said he expects 800 firefighters to caucus for Dodd on Thursday. He said he’s also brought 30 to 40 paid staff into town to help organize at local firehouses. His union represents 288,000 firefighters across the nation.

The group is one example of how, according to this New York Times article, independent political groups are taking unprecedented influence over the presidential race this year. Schaitberger said the IAFF takes pains to conduct its activities independently: By campaign finance laws, independent groups can’t coordinate with campaigns.

The campaign bus was procured by the IAFF, which rode it around for six weeks independently of the Dodd campaign, Schaitberger said. When the Dodd campaign started using the bus, the campaign take over the costs of operation, and added a line of fine print to show it was paid for by the Dodd campaign, Schaitberger said.

Whereas John Edwards has tried to distance himself from a flood of pro-Edwards ads by the A.F.S.C.M.E. union, Dodd makes his associations clear in both bus and human form.

Why the prominent association to this particular special interest group?

“They’re the most coveted endorsement,” said Dodd at one break in the campaign trail, “because they work the hardest.”

Dodd noted that in 2004, the IAFF helped propel John Kerry from single-digits in polls to a stunning caucus victory. Dodd said his interest in firefighters’ issues was sparked in 1999s, with a tragic fire in Worcester, Massachusetts that took the lives of six firefighters. After learning they could have prevented death if they had been equipped with heat-detecting guns, Dodd starting fighting for funding for them at a national level.

True Believers Found

Arriving in a downtown coffee shop in Cedar Rapids for a rally Tuesday, Dodd came across two true believers on the weary campaign trail.

Dan and Judy Russo, who trekked out from Connecticut to brave the Iowan plains for their senior senator’s presidential bid, bounced around the Blue Strawberry cafe and sang the candidate praises with Italian hand gestures. They chatted with Connecticut U.S. Rep. John Larson (pictured at left), who was on his fourth trip to Iowa to support Dodd.

“The country needs a man of substance, needs a man of experience, needs a man of integrity, and Dodd is all those things,” said Dan Russo, who chairs the Democratic Town Committee in Middletown, Connecticut. He and his wife, Judy, called up the campaign to offer their services and, after getting stranded a couple days near the Cincinnati airport, arrived in Cedar Rapids.

Teeth-freezing winds cut across the plains and through city blocks near their temporary home Tuesday. Their candidate is polling at about 2 percent of likely caucus voters. But the Russos were still door-knocking, in the hopes that Iowans may heed the encouragement of two Nutmeggers and caucus for Dodd on Thursday.

The coffee shop stop, which drew a crowd of 100, was the biggest and most lively of the day. College students brought signs and cheered. Dan Lehn, a Connecticut transplant now teaching at an Iowa college, said he was definitely going to caucus for Dodd. A social psychology professor, he said he didn’t like how the national media was affecting Iowans’ impressions by focusing on only the top three Democrats. Is this Dodd’s year to finish strong in Iowa and become president? “I want it to be his year,” said Lehn, “but I wouldn’t bet my house on it.”

Previous Iowa Dodd coverage:
Dodd, Ignored, Picks A Happy Place