CLEAR LAKE, IA-State Democratic leaders and candidates gathered in Clear Lake Thursday for dinner.
It's the annual wing-ding fundraiser where speakers talk about important election issues and the North Iowa Democrats announce their Beacon award winners.
This year former US Senator John Culver is one of the recipients.
We caught up with him on how his son Chet's re-election campaign for governor is going, especially with the recent flooding.
John Culver said, "this flood in an ironic way to one is beneficial in a awkward way politically because it reminds people of what he'd done before, some times people forget to the kind of effort it takes."
Other candidates for state offices are able to address issues to folks throughout Iowa all in one place.
Francis Thicke is running for Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture.
He said these next couple months include touring many different towns talking about issues such as energy.
Francis Thicke said, "we're at the end of cheap oil era, we haven't really taken stock of that and looked at how we're gonna secure our energy in the future so that's really important see how we will provide energy in the future for agriculture."
Governor Chet Culver was planning on coming to the event, but due to the flooding in Ames, was un-able to make it.
