State legislature In 1992, he decided to enter electoral politics, challenging Democratic State Representative
Gary Sherzan, a ten-year incumbent, for re-nomination. Although Sherzan outspent him by almost a two-to-one margin, Fallon won the
primary with 63% of the vote and went on to an easy victory in the
general election. During the
2000 presidential election, he made headlines across the state when he endorsed the candidacy of
Green Party nominee
Ralph Nader over that of Democrat
Al Gore because of Gore's choice of
Joe Lieberman as a running mate. Fallon admitted in 2001 that, while people's frustration with the Democratic Party was legitimate, his decision to back Nader was a mistake. The leaders of the Iowa Democratic Party, angered at Fallon's actions, stripped him of his place as
ranking member of the House Local Government Committee. He was voted off the
Polk County Democratic Central Committee and, when the state was
redistricted in 2001, 70% of his former constituents were moved to another district (which was done through a non-partisan process). Facing a three-way primary in what was for all intents and purposes a new district, Fallon was not expected to survive. Instead, he won 68% of the vote in the primary and won re-election to a sixth term.
2006 gubernatorial race In October 2002, after
progressive Minnesota Senator
Paul Wellstone died in a
plane crash, Fallon decided that he wanted to emulate Wellstone's impact on his state's politics by running for
Governor. After spending almost two and a half years testing the waters and preparing for his run, he announced his candidacy on April 9, 2005, at a rally at the
Iowa State Capitol, becoming the first candidate to officially declare. During the course of the race, in which he faced Secretary of State
Chet Culver and former state
economic development director and Congressman
Mike Blouin, Fallon positioned himself as a candidate focused on populist concerns. The main focal point of his campaign was a pledge to enact voluntary
public financing of elections, a pledge that he reinforced with his refusal to accept donations from
political action committees and
lobbyists and his self-imposed limitation of $2400 in contributions per person. He was also in favor of creating a locally owned
renewable fuels industry,
universal health care, reforming the Departments of Human Services and Corrections, ending
government handouts to big business, and increased funding for
public education. He opposed
urban sprawl, legalized
gambling,
factory farms, and the Iowa Values Fund, a multimillion-dollar corporate
incentive package that he dubbed "corporate welfare." In January and March 2006, more delegates pledged to him were selected to attend the
state party convention than those of any other candidate. If no candidate had won 35% of the vote in the primary, convention delegates would have awarded the nomination. In late May, he received the endorsement of the Iowa
Sierra Club and the
Iowa City Press-Citizen, becoming the first candidate to receive support from a major newspaper. In the primary on June 6, 2006, the winner was Chet Culver with 57,976 votes (39.09%) and Fallon ran third out of a field of four, receiving 38,160 votes (25.73%). Although this result was not the win that Fallon and his supporters had hoped for, it was considerably in excess of the 5 to 10% that
pundits had speculated he might receive at the beginning of the race. On January 11, 2007, Fallon announced in an e-mail to supporters that he had co-founded a private business called "Independence Movement for Iowa," or
I'M for Iowa. According to Fallon, the organization will seek "independence" for Iowa from "
special interest campaign contributions"; "
poverty,
injustice and
discrimination"; "
fossil fuels and foreign
oil"; "
government subsidies for
big business"; and "government officials who operate without the public's interest in mind, often behind closed doors, and with a lack of
integrity and
accountability.". Questions were raised about I'M for Iowa in March 2007 about whether the organization was following campaign finance laws and behaving in an ethical manner."
2008 Congressional run On January 8, 2008, Fallon formally filed paperwork with the
Federal Election Commission to run for Congress. He formally announced his candidacy in a press conference in Des Moines on January 16, 2008. Media reports noted that Fallon carried the 3rd District in the 2006 gubernatorial primary, and examination of the caucus results shows that John Edwards, whom Fallon endorsed, did much better in the district than did Senator Hillary Clinton, whom Boswell endorsed. Edwards carried six counties in the district, while Clinton carried none. Fallon was defeated by Boswell in the Democratic primary on June 3, 2008, by a 61 to 39 percent margin. ==Activism==