Column: Caucus politics can't cool longtime friendship

Iowa Democratic Party Press Secretary Josh Levitt, in a press release previewing the presidential candidates at the Iowa State Fair, wrote that the “GOP candidates in attendance will continue to support out-of-date, out-of-tune policies that leave Iowa’s families behind. And no amount of delicious fried food can make up for the stale taste of their backwards policies.”

Charlie Szold, the communications director for the Republican Party of Iowa, sent out a “welcome mat preview” to the fair, touting the GOP candidates as the “Field of Dreams.” He asserted that Democrat Hillary Clinton had never seen the Iowa-based movie of the same name, pointed out that Clinton was skipping The Des Moines Register’s Iowa State Fair Soapbox, and announced a news conference about how Clinton had lost voters’ trust.

So when Levitt and Szold met up Thursday at the Iowa State Fair, no one would have been surprised if they engaged in a Monster Arm Wrestling death match, threw cow chips at each other or tried to toss their counterpart off the Sky Glider.

Well, maybe not the last one.  “I’m afraid of heights,” Levitt admitted.

Instead, they visited the butter cow, checked out the big bull and snacked on Bauder’s ice cream.  To round out their strangely alliterative state fair afternoon, they engaged in a friendly baseball pitching contest on the Midway. A strange outing for two political adversaries in high-profile jobs during the Iowa Caucuses, perhaps. It was not at all unusual for Levitt and Szold, who are buddies.

Levitt, 25, of New York, and Szold, 25, of Connecticut, met eight years ago as freshmen living on the same dorm floor at American University in Washington, D.C.

Levitt was impressed by Szold’s intellect.  “Charlie immediately struck me as somebody that was a very deep thinker but also very passionate about what he believed in,” he said.  “And from the very get-go we didn’t agree on much, but it was a blast talking to him” about all kinds of issues.

Szold initially homed in on a shared interest (the Mets) but came to appreciate Levitt as a grounding influence to his more volatile personality.  “I feel like I can be a little bit more meteoric than Josh, and he kind of brings me back down to earth,” Szold said.

Each has leaned on the other during rough times.  Levitt was grateful for Szold’s compassion after the death of a close friend earlier this year. Szold found himself at loose ends after the 2012 election cycle and said Levitt was “always a reasonable guy to talk to.”

None of that changes the fact that the two of them argue fiercely over politics and policy.  Szold credited one of their more heated arguments over Obamacare for inspiring him to make the move from journalism to politics.  “I was kind of losing my mind about it a little bit. And I realized that night that if I felt so strongly about something, that it was wrong to sit on the sidelines,” Szold said.

A few days later, Szold called his brother, Tom Szold, who was working at the Republican Party of Iowa for the 2012 cycle, and ended up taking a job as organizational director.  When Levitt began exploring an opportunity with the Democratic Party here this cycle, Szold urged him to take it.   “Charlie said to me, you gotta do that,” Levitt said.  “I think we always thought this would be amazing if this ended up working out.”

Although they are passionate about doing their best in high-profile, adversarial roles, they live within a block of each other and spend time together.  Szold’s girlfriend is also a friend and former roommate of Levitt’s. “We are both very committed to doing our jobs very, very well, and it is our jobs to be as strong of an advocate as we can,” Levitt said.  But, he emphasized, politics doesn’t define their friendship.

“If it was a weaker friendship it might be a problem, but we’ve known each other literally for eight years now. That’s literally a lifetime from college and beyond,” Szold added.

It helps, also, that both state political parties share the priority of keeping the Iowa caucuses the first in the nation.  Szold and Levitt have worked together on joint projects such as announcing Microsoft’s sponsorship of the 2016 caucus media center and both parties’ participation in the Iowa Brown and Black Forum.

Neither could recall a time when one of them persuaded the other to his point of view.  “We help each other understand where each side is coming from,” Szold said. “It’s easy to kind of paint yourself into a corner and you start having trouble understanding how anybody can possibly disagree with you.”

Levitt agreed.  “The biggest thing I’ve learned is it’s more than OK to disagree with somebody and still get along really well,” he said.

It’s refreshing to hear in a society where polarized politics has become a deal-breaker in all kinds of relationships.

As for the baseball pitching, Levitt didn’t seem either surprised or dismayed that Szold’s 71-mph fastball blew away his 53-mph effort.  Both of them walked away with prizes.  And what good would Szold’s oversized, inflatable bat be without Levitt’s inflatable baseball?