DES MOINES, Iowa—On August 24, the first day petitions for city council candidates could be filed, Socialist Workers Party candidates Rebecca Williamson and David Rosenfeld, on left of counter, filed more than double the required signatures at city hall.

Williamson, who is running for the council seat in Ward 1, a workers district in the northwest part of the city that includes a considerable number of African Americans and immigrants from Africa and Bosnia, had 129 signatures validated, more than double the 58 required. Rosenfeld, who is running for an at-large seat that requires 164 signatures, had 482 signatures validated.

Both candidates are planning to participate in defense of Dr. LeRoy Carhart’s abortion clinic near Omaha, Nebraska, August 28-29, where women’s rights supporters will counter efforts by rightist Operation Rescue to shut down the medical facility.

— MAGGIE TROWE