Sanders talks trade in Newton

NEWTON, Ia. — While delivering his usual assault on "disastrous trade agreements," Sen. Bernie Sanders nodded to Newton's recent history coping with the loss of a Fortune 500 company.

Sanders said effective trade policy isn't only about creating jobs, but also about protecting existing jobs. Maytag, which once employed as many as 4,000 people in Newton, shuttered its Newton plant in 2006.

"I understand here in Newton you've dealt with that issue a little bit," the Vermont senator said. "Trade is not a sexy issue that gets a lot of discussion, but it is enormously important."

Newton officials have worked to diversify the economy since Maytag's departure. But Max Cates, who once worked at the plant, said the community hasn't ever fully recovered.

"When they left, it really ripped the heart out of the town," said Cates, 45, who now commutes to Des Moines for his information technology job in state government.

Cates said he's supporting Sanders because he's the only candidate addressing corruption in politics and widening income inequality in the U.S.

"He's calling out a lot of topics you don't hear other candidates speaking about," he said.

In addition to his usual calls for universal health care, free college tuition and campaign finance reform, Sanders honed in on plans to bring down the costs of prescription drugs. He wants to regulate prescription costs and allow Americans to purchase cheaper drugs from Canada. Sanders recalled a trip he took in the 1990s, when he drove a group of Vermont women suffering from breast cancer over the Canadian border to purchase medicine. "As long as I live I will never forget the look on their faces when they bought the exact same medicine, breast cancer medicine, for one-tenth the price of what they were paying in the United States," he said. "We pay by far the highest price in the world for prescription drugs. That's just a fact. We are getting ripped off left and right." Earlier in the day, Sanders schmoozed with the crowd at the Iowa Latino Heritage Festival in downtown Des Moines and gave an abbreviated version of his stump speech.

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He began that address by invoking the message of Pope Francis, who is visiting the United States. Sanders, who is Jewish, said he was moved by the pope's words during his address to Congress on Thursday.

Sanders pointed to a critique of capitalism that Francis delivered in July and sought to tie that message with his own populist campaign for president.

"He appealed to the world's leaders to seek a new economic model to help the poor and to shun policies that sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit. That's Pope Francis, " Sanders said. "And essentially what he is saying in so many words is there is something very wrong in this world — and I am saying in this country — when so few have so much and so many have so little."

During his 13-minute address, which was translated live into Spanish through headsets, Sanders highlighted the importance of passing comprehensive immigration reform and creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

"We are not going to be breaking up families, we are going to be uniting families," he said.

Tar Macias, publisher of Hola America News, a Latino newspaper based in the Quad Cities, said Latinos could be an even more important voting bloc in 2016. He said the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa is working to get 50,000 Latinos to participate in the Iowa Caucuses.

But so far, he says the community isn't getting much attention from the field of candidates. Sanders and former Gov. Martin O'Malley seem to be the only Democratic candidates seriously courting Latino votes, he said. On the Republican side, he said he's only seen meaningful Latino outreach from former Gov. Jeb Bush.

"I think the rest of them either don't care about the Latino vote," Marcias said, "or don't think that it's big enough for them."

ABOUT THE EVENTS

SETTINGS: Iowa Latino Heritage Festival in downtown Des Moines and Newton High School auditorium

CROWDS: A couple hundred listened to Sanders' short stump at the Latino Heritage Festival and about 350 gathered in Newton Saturday evening.

REACTIONS: Sanders received a warm reception from supporters Saturday. His message on fighting income inequality was especially popular, as were his calls for universal healthcare and immigration reform.

WHAT'S NEXT: This was the first of a two-day swing through Iowa. On Sunday, Sanders will attend events in Des Moines, Fort Dodge and Mason City. For details go to desmoinesregister.com/candidatetracker .