Iowa Democrats repeated a theme they want to “keep going forward” Sunday afternoon at the 33rd annual Harkin Steak Fry to 1,500 supporters in Indianola.

“I’m not hiding; I think the 111th Congress was courageous and we quit kicking the can down the road and we did things that needs to be done,” said U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa).

“We passed health care, we passed financial reform … We did some good stuff and I’m not running from any of it,” he said.

Candidates and incumbents cited the list of democratic achievements nationally and locally, from health care to financial reform and expanding the federal student loan program and state supported preschool.

Although Politico found no Democrats using their vote for health care reform in their ads, Democrats on Sunday recalled the passage of reform repeatedly to a supportive crowd.

The keynote speakers and top Democratic strategists David Axelrod and David Plouffe, who led Barack Obama’s presidential campaign to a win in the 2008 Iowa Caucus, said Democrats need to organize early voting efforts.

“We have the numbers in Iowa and other states,” Plouffe said. “If we do the great work on the ground … we can win this election.”

“I’m asking you to do what you’ve done before,” Axelrod said to the crowd at the fundraising event. “Ignore the pollsters and the punsters and the purveyors of gloom. Go out and tell our story and tell it proudly. Make sure people understand what the choice is.”

Speakers dared the audience to each find 15 people to submit absentee ballots for Democrats.

Do or die time for governor, Culver says it’s “do time”

The first of three gubernatorial debates takes place in Sioux City on Tuesday.

“There has never been one day since Chet Culver has been your governor that the budget has not been balanced,” Lt. Gov. Patty Judge told the crowd. “There is money in the bank, there is no deficit; that is a Republican lie.”

Iowa first lady Mari Culver said the previous weekend the debates would be a chance for her husband “to call Terry Branstad on his lies.”

Gov. Chet Culver criticized former Gov. Terry Branstad for embracing Indiana economic policies, citing Indiana’s 10th-highest unemployment rate in the country while Iowa has the ninth lowest.

“We don’t need to model anything off of what Indiana is doing,” Culver said.

Culver said 250 companies have committed $5 billion toward doing business in the past 36 months and cited Google, Microsoft and IBM all planning to open locations in Iowa. He also discussed his efforts to expand preschool, which Branstad said he would cut funding for.

“We’re not going back when it comes to our children with Terry Branstad, we’re going forward into our second term so we can fight for every child when it comes to preschool and health care,” Culver announced.

Congressional Democrats swing back in polls

Boswell used the issue of preschool as well, citing Republican Brad Zaun’s vote in the Iowa Senate against expanding funding for preschool.

Boswell attacked Zaun for his promise to end earmarks, which Boswell labeled as giving up Iowa’s share of tax dollars.

“I don’t know why he would run for Congress if he’s promised to do nothing,” Boswell told supporters.

Boswell said he was not worried about the big names who campaigned for his opponent, including House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and 2012 presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“Who’s he bringing? Gingrich left [office] in disgrace, if you will; I think it’s a detriment to him, somebody’s given him some pretty bad advice,” Boswell said.

Boswell insisted he would not support continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, those families making more than $250,000 annually.

“I didn’t vote for that to start with, so you can probably figure out what I’m going to do — I’m not going to support that,” Boswell said.

Democrat Matt Campbell said the man he hopes to unseat, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), practices “modern-day McCarthyism.”

“He’s done virtually nothing since being in office other than provide a lot of negative divisive rhetoric,” Campbell told the crowd in Indianola.

King has never passed a bill nor debated a Congressional opponent during his four terms in office. As Campbell told the crowd of Democrats he wanted to “give Steve King the boot,” some supporters held up their own boot in support as they cheered.

Campbell told supporters he disagreed with King on issues such as raising the social security age, going after tax evasion and a national sales tax – which he said would hurt the middle class.

Campbell said he thought his district sided with the Bush administration in the past, especially among national security issues. He said as wars become less of a focal point issue in the election season, voters are beginning to take more notice of the “extremist” statements King makes.

When King said, “The president has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race that favors the black person” on G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show in June, the Sioux City Journal and the conservative blog, RightPundits, asked if it would be the Congressman’s undoing.

“It’s a challenging time for America, and we gotta stop and Americans oughta think carefully about whether we’re going to go forward or do you want to grab a page and turn back to the same stuff that got us in trouble,” Boswell said.

Harkin’s take on 2010

Sen. Tom Harkin himself made several wise-cracks about the Republicans, including predicting Culver beating Branstad “like a rented mule” on Nov. 2.

“We asked Glenn Beck to estimate the size of the crowd and he said there’s about 500,000 people here… Sarah Palin said it’s so big you can see it from Wasilla,” Harkin said to laughter.

Harkin said there was a good reason the GOP symbol was an elephant. He said at the circus, someone is always following elephants to clean up the “mess” they leave behind. Harkin said Democrats have done that work to clean up after Republican control in the federal government.

“Fox News, otherwise known as Republican National Television,” Harkin said, “they say this is going to be a big year for the Tea Party Republicans. They’ve already put up Bush’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. They’re sipping their own bath water and calling it champagne.

“The truth is the Americans are fed up with all this right wing demagoguery,” Harkin added. “Last summer it was death panels, pulling the plug on Grandma; this summer it’s attacks on Muslims and immigrants. The Republicans don’t see this as a campaign, they see it as a race to the bottom. But that’s not where the American people want to go.”