Iowa GOP Candidate Mistakenly Speaks To Democrats

Dan Dolan of Blue Grass is a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. House in Iowa’s 2nd District.

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By Eric Stidman

Story Created: Mar 13, 2012 at 1:13 PM CDT

Story Updated: Mar 13, 2012 at 1:28 PM CDT

ALBIA, Iowa (AP) — A Republican congressional candidate said he learned a valuable lesson about double checking his campaign stops after giving his pitch to Iowa Democrats by mistake.

Dan Dolan of Muscatine said he arrived early Saturday at the Monroe County Courthouse in Albia for a Republican convention and headed up the stairs. Turns out, county Democrats also were holding their convention in the courthouse, and Dolan gave them his speech, the Quad City-Times reported.

"My staffer runs up and says, 'Hey, Dan Dolan is here. Can he speak?' So they stopped everything, and I get up there and give my speech," Dolan said. "I get done, a guy raises his hand and says, 'I think you want to talk to the Republicans.'"

Dolan said it was a "crazy day" with 10 campaign stops in the district.

Dolan and John Archer of Bettendorf are competing for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack for the 2nd Congressional District seat.

Monroe County Supervisor Denny Ryan said he understood how such a goof-up could occur. The Republican convention began at 1 p.m., and the Democratic convention at 11 a.m. He said the whole situation was comical.

"We just didn't ask enough questions. He was very polite about things," Ryan said. "He's a great guy; he didn't offend anybody."

Dolan said he wasn't sure how many Democratic votes he won that day, but "I think everybody was very, very good about it."

He said the rest of the day continued without a hiccup, but he and his staff have learned to ask before addressing the crowd.

"From that point on, we checked at every place we stopped," he said. "We said, 'Is this the Republican convention?'"

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