Teri Goodmann

Community fundraiser/political activist

By BRIAN COOPER
TH executive editor

TH: You moved from marketing director to a larger role.

TG: As you know very well, Bill Woodward died (in 1995). Jerry understood that there would be a gift left to the museum to build a 4,000-square-foot exhibit space on top of the old Welcome Center building. That's what was envisioned. Four thousand feet of exhibit space on the foundry side of the building.

Jerry came to me one day in the office after I'd worked there a year-and-a-half or so, and he said, "You know, Bill died and I know that Bill very generously left us a bequest and he wants us to build this exhibit we've been planning that covers some of the environmental history of the upper Mississippi River. It was after 5 at night and he said, "I know that Bill will roll over in his grave if I don't leverage more money with this money of his. Would you know how to raise money?" I said, "Well Jerry, I just know how to raise money for politicians, but it can't be that different, but I think we should probably get a consultant."

And, of course, the rest is history.

We began and had the consultant come up. He said, "You're never going to able to raise $10 million from the private sector unless you can raise some public dollars. They feed one another. And the community just isn't big enough." No fund drive in this town has raised more than $5 million or whatever. He said, "Do you know anyone who knows anyone in government, in state government?" Well, you know, obviously my background has been working for local Democrats, all of whom were elected to the state legislature. So I called Mike Connolly that night and I said, "Would there ever be a fund that would provide for a Discovery Center that would be built in Dubuque?" I explained to him the situation. He said, "We'll see. I'll talk to Tom Flynn and Pat and Larry Murphy and we'll see what we can do." Of course, then Mike called in the wee hours of the morning later in that legislative session and said, "Teri, there's a million dollars in the appropriations bill for Dubuque for a Discovery Center. But you'd better watch out because you don't want Gov. Branstad to line-item veto it." Then I didn't know what to do.

I remembered from my political background that R.D. McDonald and Marilyn were very close friends with Gov. Branstad at the time. My grandfather worked for R.D. McDonald all his life, or his father. Grandpa always said R.D. was honorable man when he negotiated with him on labor issues. I also knew him from Tom Flynn's campaign. So I just cold-called R.D. McDonald and said, "Can I come visit?" I explained the situation to him and I said, we have a $1 million in this appropriations bills. Can you help us ensure that Gov. Branstad will not line-item veto this money out?" He picked up the phone and called him and ensured that that would not happen.

That was the beginning. After that, Gov. Branstad and Mike Connolly came to Jerry and I and said, "This is a national project. You can't stop here. You need to talk to Senators Harkin and Grassley and Congressman Nussle."

TH: This is Branstad and Connolly telling you this?

TG: Mm, hmm, separately. So then Jerry and I made a call. We went out and visited with Rich Meade and Rich Bender and John Conrad from those three offices, respectively. They sat with us together and they said, "This is a great project, but you know this is a little more than the historical society in Dubuque, Iowa. The project just isn't big enough at $10 million. It isn't a public project so it really doesn't work out. Now, if you were partnered with the city or something, it would be different." We came home a little discouraged.

At a jazz fest or something down at the brewery one night (Mayor) Terry Duggan and I had talked about merging the city project with the Dubuque project. Really just idle conversation. But Mike Van Milligen and Rick Dickinson called and said, "Could we meet with you and Jerry on the William Black?" So we sat on the Black and they talked about how the city wanted to implement their plan for a riverfront redevelopment, but the citizens of the community just kept sort of rejecting it, not as a priority issue. So they said, "What if we merged our riverfront amenities, our improvements, infrastructural improvements like the Riverfront Plaza, the River Walk, the outdoor amphitheater, harbor walk, boat docks? What if we merged that with your vision for an aquarium?" We said we'd love it because it would fit perfectly with what we had just heard in Washington.

So then the expanded project of course was $24.5 million and Washington committed. The three offices said, "We work together out here, for Iowa. We may be highly partisan in the state, but we all work together for Iowa, so let's set the parameters for your work in D.C." Then I would visit D.C. and we'd work on different funding opportunities from existing grant programs and other discretionary funds that the senators and Congressman Nussle were aware of. And we were successful in securing $8 million for the project from Washington.

TH: So after awhile, I mean, it all sort of gets co-mingled where you need money in one spot to help out the other spot. But all told, $188 million?

TG: Yes. Went from the Woodwards' almost $2 million to $188 million.

TH: I think Bill would be happy with that.

TG: I think he would be very, very happy. As a matter of fact, there were times when you'd go to bed at night and you'd feel like you had this albatross around your neck, because people around the country would say, "You're doing what? Where?" People in Houston asked us to build this in Houston. People in New Orleans again were very gracious but they just thought we were (drawl) "awful far up north" to be building something. We thought some nights it was a big huge anchor or albatross on our necks.

TH: How did this type of fundraising, if at all, differ from your previous work or raising money for political candidates or political parties. Did you notice a difference?

TG: Well, yeah. Yes and no. It's an interesting question. It's really not. Begging is begging. Whether it's for the PTA or the mother's club and it's a bake sale or whether you're going to Washington and asking for millions, you have to have a passion and believe it what you're asking for. I've never worked for a political candidate I didn't feel passionately about. I feel and continue to feel very passionately about the mission of this particular facility in Dubuque. Nowhere on the entire 2,400 miles of Mississippi River is there a national interpretive center. And we cannot find anywhere on the river or frankly, very few places in the country, integrates both the science and history story.

TH: Tell me more about your parents.

TG: Dad went in the Air Force during the Korean War. My brother Tim and I were born in Texas. Then Dad was out of the Air Force and went to Ames to finish his college degree in engineering - he was a civil and structural engineer - so we lived in Ames. Then we moved to Des Moines. Dad got his first job and we moved to West Des Moines, in the suburbs. Then dad was transferred to Davenport. I graduated from Assumption High School in 1972.

TH: How did that affect you, having to move around so much?

TG: Actually, you know, I think when you're young, it can be challenging. In our house, attitude is everything so the attitude was it's an opportunity to make new friends. Fortunate to have 5 wonderful sisters and a great brother and great folks. My mother's an only child and she's from Dubuque. My grandparents in Dubuque were just fabulous and they really spoiled us. We would travel here every summer. So Dubuque was really a home-away-from-home. It was more of a home in some ways than the communities we lived because it was stable in an environment that was constantly changing. I think that's when I fell in love with Dubuque, when I was a little girl.

TH: Now, are your parents still living?

TG: Mm, hmm.

TH: Where do they live now?

TG: Mom and dad, the both retired. Mom was a college professor. She has her doctorate in American studies. She taught at Augustana College. My dad ran the Shive-Hattery engineering office for the Quad Cities. When dad retired from Shive-Hattery and Associates, the University of Iowa hired him to run their in-house architectural and engineering department.

Then he retired and they always had a home outside Bellevue. They bought it when I was 16 and we restored it. It's about a 20-room house. Old stone house. Between Springbrook and Andrew in Bellevue out in the middle of the country. So they retired there. They sold their home in Pleasant Valley and their place in Iowa City and moved to Bellevue. TH: Are there enough young people today who are that concerned, connected politically?


TH: On both sides of the aisle are you talking about? Or you just speaking about the Democratic party? TH: I'd say just in general.
TH: Yeah. I feel very strongly that if anyone is cynical about politics, they need to go to Washington or get involved in a campaign. I think some of the finest young people I've met are involved in government in this country. I just have tremendous faith in them.