IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Bob Krause, who is running for U.S. Senate next year against five-term
incumbent Chuck Grassley, was in the news last week with some sensible
comments about health care reform. He encouraged Grassley to demand
higher reimbursement rates for Iowa health care providers in exchange
for dropping his opposition to a public option in the Senate bill ...
Krause is obviously right on both counts, but don't expect Grassley to
listen. He is the leading Republican voice against the public option
and has an ally in Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a
Democrat whose health care reform plan may be worse than the insurance
industry's. Iowa Democrats have given Grassley a pass for too many
years. I appreciate Krause's commitment to running a real race against
him.

Labels: Charles Grassley

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City
tells the Carroll Daily Times Herald that his party should be held to
a higher standard when it comes to values questions of the sort now
swirling around South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, an admitted
adulterer. While extra-marital affairs occur in both parties, it is
fair to judge Republicans more harshly on such matters, Vander Plaats
said. "I think its an added dimension for our party," Vander Plaats
said. "The reason I say that is we highlight one man-one woman
marriage. We highlight family values. And if we do that that's where
the trust comes in. Are you going to walk the walk or just talk the
talk."

Labels: Bob Vander Plaats

I've ranted recently about crossover voting crossover voting in
primaries. As anyone who reads a site like mine should know, Iowa is a
"closed" (sic) primary state, meaning you have to be registered in a
party to vote in a primary, and you vote only in one party's primary
at a time. You can't for example participate in a Republican primary
for governor and a Democratic courthouse primary. It's a soft version
of "closed," because you can change party on the spot, and a lot of
people do. Leaving aside my opinion on that law, let's look at how it
can impact a statewide race. In a sense, Vander Plaats and Rants and
Fong aren't just running against each other--they're running against
the interesting local Democratic contests.

Labels: elections

A friend of mine in Des Moines, Iowa, got a phone call last night,
testing out the names of potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates.
It was an automated survey and did not indicate who the sponsor of the
call might be, "but it was quite apparent it was a GOP call," my
friend reports. "...The survey started off by asking what I thought
the most important issue facing America today might be, then rolled
right into, 'Who would you vote for in the 2012 Presidential primary?'
-- offering choices of Huckabee, Palin, Gingrich, Jindal, and JEB
BUSH." ... Next, the survey asked a question about Obama.

Labels: polling

What an honor it is to have my good friend and contributor Christian
Fong writing regularly at Hawkeyereview.com. Now that Christian has
announced his candidacy to run for Governor of the great state of
Iowa, I wanted to make all of Christian's work available for you to
read. Instead of requiring you to troll through the last several
months of archives, I've categorized the articles by subject and
grouped them here for your review and study. Christian Fong is a name
every Iowan should become familiar with very soon. For those who
might attempt to diminish him for his relatively young age (32), don't
let the prognosticators divert you from the most important facts about
our newest GOP candidate.

Labels: Christian_Fong

The chatter surrounding Christian Fong running for governor continues.
What disturbs me regarding this matter isn't Fong as a potential
candidate for some office, but the complete lack of a foundation for
him to mount a gubernatorial campaign. I know a lot of people seem
impressed that Fong is the chair of the Generation Iowa Commission, a
program of the Iowa Department of Economic Development that tries to
keep young Iowans from leaving the state after college to look for
career opportunities. I'm glad that people like Fong and Waukee's
Isaiah McGee serve on this commission. But does service on this
committee really prepare a 32 year old man to serve as this state's
governor?

Labels: Christian_Fong, RPI

The National Republican Congressional Committee is launching a round
of ads bashing Democrats who voted for last week's energy bill -- and
CNN reports, surprisingly, Bruce Braley is on the list. Braley's spot
on the list is probably due more to his position as a key ally to
House Energy and Commerce chair Henry Waxman than to any perceived
vulnerability in the 1st CD, where he easily bead Dave Hartsuch last
year and where no names have surfaced as possible 2010 opponents. …
Mostly freshmen and red-staters, and the perpetually endanngered Baron
Hill. I'm actually surprised that in Iowa they went after Braley,
rather than Boswell, who wavered before voting yes on the bill.

Labels: Bruce Braley

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob Vander Plaats has renewed his
promise to end same-sex marriage with an executive order, even if it
means facing impeachment. Appearing on the show of controversial
Christian radio host Steve Deace, Vander Plaats once again said if
elected governor in 2010 he would issue an executive order stopping
same-sex marriage until the legislature either passes a law legalizing
it or passes a constitutional amendment banning it. "I can't give the
people the right to vote on this, but I think I can mobilize people
like [Senate Majority Leader Mike] Gronstal and [House Speaker Pat]
Murphy by saying no more same-sex marriages until you step up and vote
to make this law," Vander Plaats said.

Labels: Bob Vander Plaats

After the news of Senator Randy Feenstra and Story County Treasurer
Dave Jamison looking at running for State Treasurer, we have more good
news about possible candidates for other seats. Christian Fong, a
young Cedar Rapids businessman, is seriously considering a run for
Governor. Krusty hit on this last Friday and didn't think it was a
good move for Fong. With his experience, Fong must be thought of as a
serious contender but will have to raise a lot of money to raise his
name ID. He also must outline a conservative message on both the
fiscal and social fronts. You can read some of Fong's writings on the
Iowa economy by clicking here. His candidacy in this race has the
potential to drastically change the dynamics of this campaign.

June 29 was exactly 120 days since the federal government released
highway funds to the states as part of the economic stimulus bill
(American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Smart Growth America marked
the occasion by releasing a review on how wisely states are spending
the transportation money. ... I've been concerned that Iowa would spend
too much money this year on new road construction, which adds to
future maintenance costs, instead of fixing the roads and bridges that
need repair. Neither Iowa Department of Transportation director Nancy
Richardson nor the state legislature have shown much interest in
balanced transportation funding in the past. The fiscal year 2010-2014
Transportation Improvement Program approved earlier this month by the
Iowa Transportation Commission includes more money for road widening
than I would prefer.

Labels: transportation

History lesson: It was ten years ago today that Iowans went to the
polls in a statewide special election, as Republicans overplayed their
hand in the dawning days of the Vilsack Administration. The GOP still
controlled both halves of the Legislature, despite Vilsack's win, and
the governor plays no role in the constitutional amendment process. So
they rushed through the second passage of two constitutional
amendments backed by Iowans for Tax Relief, that took caps on taxation
and spending that were already in the law and locked them into the
Constitution. Colloquially, these were known as "the Stanley
Amendments" after Iowans for Tax Relief leader, and former U.S. Senate
contender, David Stanley. But rather than putting them on the 2000
presidential ballot, the Republicans scheduled a hurry-up statewide
special election for June 29, 1999.

Democrats in Iowa should be glad we have an Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame and that Sally Pederson and Tom and Christie Vilsack were inducted into it last night [Saturday]. In many ways, the successful Vilsack-Pederson campaign in 1998 was a turning point in a process that is changing the long Republican history of Iowa into something more relevant to modern times. ... Governor Culver bragged about the success of the event's fund raising efforts, saying that more money had been raised this year than in any of the previous years of the Hall of Fame event. What Chet Culver does not understand is that it is false success when among the 2009 Hall of Fame Hosts are listed the powerful interests that stymie the efforts of the progressive movement to do what is right in Iowa and in Washington.

Labels: Tom_Vilsack

Last night I attended the Republican Party of Iowa's Rising Star event. On a scale of one to four stars (like a hotel), I would give the event one star. ... The bar. A folding table with young ladies handing out bottles of beer, water, soda and glasses of wine. The surprising thing about the bar, you had to pay dearly for everything. A bottle of water and a small soda each cost $2, beer and wine were $3 - $4. No free water. I thought it odd that we would have to pay for water and sodas but the best was yet to come. We entered into the rooms displaying the art and joined the others milling about. There were no tables set up with finger foods, hot foods, cold foods, nothing but a small bowl of chex mix.

As I was sitting here this evening contemplating the passage of the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill yesterday evening I continued to get more and more irate. Sure I have been opposed to any form of cap and trade legislation because I firmly understand that it is a job killer, an economy killer. I understand that it is nothing more than a massive tax on all Americans. I understand that it does have good intentions, however I remain unconvinced that it will achieve the objectives that the bills supporters have been claiming. ... As more and more Americans called in to voice their disapproval of the plan I thought that Boswell would succumb to the pressure of the public. That was not to be though. Ultimately he fell on the side of the puppets.

Labels: Leonard_Boswell

The Republican Party of Iowa is celebrating its "rising stars" tonight
at an event featuring Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Judging by
what we've heard lately from Iowa GOP leaders, they're gonna party
like it's 1929. Case in point: Iowa Senate Minority leader Paul
McKinley. The possible gubernatorial candidate's weekly memos continue
to whine about spending and borrowing by Democrats (see also here).
Republicans would rather slash government programs and provide
"targeted" one-year tax credits. The lessons of Herbert Hoover's
presidency are still lost on these people. I apologize for repeating
myself, but excessive government spending cuts can turn an economic
recession into a depression.

Labels: Iowa GOP, Paul_McKinley

I was shocked, saddened, and disgusted once again to hear of South
Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's admission that he is the latest
politician to cheat on his wife. Of course, there has been intense
media scrutiny on this situation over the last several days given that
his staff had no clue where he was. I suspected there was a problem
when his wife told the media that she was also unaware of his
whereabouts. That's just not normal. Then he was hiking the
Appalachian Trail. Then he came back and told the press that he had
changed his plans last minute and gone to Argentina. "I wanted to do
something exotic," Sanford told The State. My first gut reaction to
reading that was, "Uh huh, what's her name?"

Is Christopher "Not Tom Harkin" Reed looking for a new nickname: Not
Dave Loebsack? Reed, the Republican's 2008 Senate nominee, is telling
his Facebook friends that he's running for Loebsack's 2nd District
seat. Reed sparked a fair amount of controversy late in the campaign
in the Iowa rightosphere, charging that the Iowa Republican Party was
undercutting his campaign. The most attention he got in the
traditional media was after his one debate with Harkin, when he called
the senator "the Tokyo Rose of Al-Qaida." It turned out to be Harkin's
easiest re-elect by far. Reed did manage to carry five western Iowa
counties. But none of that turf is in the 2nd District, where Loebsack
beat Mariannette Miller-Meeks (who the rightosphere really, really
REALLY thought would pull an upset despite any objective evidence) by
nearly 20 points.

Labels: Christopher_Reed, Dave Loebsack

The Des Moines Register announced today that Kathie Obradovich will be
the paper's next political columnist. Obradovich, 44, has been the
Register's political editor since 2003, and she was a state government
reporter and statehouse bureau chief before that. Notably, though
Obradovich's CV certainly qualifies her for the new title, this
announcement should also help her employer save some cash. The
Register, which has been forced to trim its budget by struggling
parent company Gannett Co., has likely avoided the need to hire any
additional (high-profile) staff. Obradovich replaces longtime
columnist David Yepsen, who was a fixture of Iowa's political
landscape for decades before he left earlier this year to take a job
at Southern Illinois University.

60% of the Midwesterners surveyed in a recent Washington Post-ABC News
poll think that President Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan is crap.
I'm not surprised. This is what happens when government gives billions
of taxpayer dollars to huge corporations, and does nothing for the
little guy. Seriously, give me one example of how these stimulus
dollars have helped you? That's right, you can't. On a more local
level, the state of Iowa received over $600 million in stimulus, which
Governor Culver has already used. That money wasn't used to stimulate
the economy here in Iowa; it was used to make sure state spending
could continue at its historically high levels.

Labels: Chet_Culver

With Chris Rants joining Bob Vander Plaats as an officially announced
candidate, the 2010 primary season is beginning in earnest. Now is as
good a time as any to look at an aspect of the race that won't be on
the ballot: lieutenant governor. 2006 was unusual in that three
candidates named running mates before the primary. It was the first
time anyone had done that since 1990, the first time number one and
number two ran as a ticket. Iowa changed its system with a 1988
constitutional amendment. Before that, lieutenant governor was an
independently elected office with its own primary and general
election. The lieutenant governor had some clout as well, presiding
over the state senate. But that power went away with the amendment. No
longer an independent officer with a statewide constituency, the
lieutenant governor now has a constituency of one.

Where Do They Get This Stuff? ... To cut to the chase, and remove any
question about my own position, I'm siding with one of my favorite
theology doctors: "Let he who has no bad health habits cast the first
bed pan." If what I mean by that is ambiguous, let me try again. I
recall years ago reading about a British doctor who simply refused to
treat patients' self-induced medical conditions -- the impact of
smoking on a cough or bronchial condition, the consumption of
excessive salt on elevated blood pressure or excessive animal fats on
cholesterol levels. In effect, if the patient was unwilling to make
any effort whatsoever to improve their condition by altering their own
behavior, the doctor's sense of the most appropriate triage of his own
time and talent was to spend them with the patients who would.

Labels: health_care

So the Nazis have goose-stepped back into our politics. Swell. ... Instead of simply dismissing this as an obviously warped and overwrought viewpoint, Democrats issued a statement calling it "hate speech." Oh brother. What do we call it when liberals fling "Nazi" at conservatives? And they do. Iowa Republican wonders why Democrats are
so much more incensed about this use of an "N" word then they were when state Democratic Sen. Jack Hatch, used the other really awful "N" word. So this is the state of our political discourse at this hour. Aren't you proud? I know I'm not. How about adopting a simple rule of thumb. No more Nazis. People on both ends of the political spectrum need to remember that trotting out "Nazi" to tar the other side says more about you than your rivals. It says you don't really understand history. It says you have so little to say of consequence that you decide the best way to get applause and attention is to start throwing swastikas. It says that you'd much rather pick fights than articulate ideas.

In late April, the U.S. Senate rejected an amendment to the housing
bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to provide relief for
troubled homeowners by modifying mortgage payments. Among those who
opposed the measure, which was known as "cramdown," was Sen. Chuck
Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. "It will
cause interest rates to go up and will make it more difficult for
people to get a mortgage," the Iowa Republican said at the time. Two
months later, the people who benefited from Grassley's vote are poised
to shower him with campaign donations.

Labels: Charles_Grassley

It's not an Official re-election announcement, but an email from
Governor Chet Culver's campaign committee landed in in-boxes this
morning announcing a campaign swing via train through the western end
of the state tomorrow. The vehicle, of course, has been a Democratic
icon since way before Joe Biden. Harry Truman rode the very same
tracks in his upset 1948 win. One of his major speeches of that
campaign was in Dexter, where he unveiled the new definition of the
GOP acronym as "gluttons of privilege," which Tom Harkin loves to
quote. Culver isn't inviting such direct comparisons. He's stopping
one town before and two stops after Dexter. But he is playing offense
with this trip.

Labels: Chet_Culver

Much has been written and said about the vanishing act South
Carolina's governor pulled over the weekend. Lest you worry about
Iowa's governor, his staff issued a statement late yesterday
announcing Governor Chet Culver would be going to St. Louis today for
a conference on biotechnology and life sciences hosted by the
Democratic Governors Association. ... "The event is closed to press,
but we wanted to make sure you were aware he is attending this
conference where he will tout Iowa's leadership in renewable energy
and biotechnology, as well as learn what other states are doing in
these important fields. The conference will be attended by governors
of six other states." According to his staff, Culver will be back in
Iowa "late" this afternoon.

Labels: Chet_Culver

Michael Kiernan, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, is up in
arms over comments that Ed Failor Jr., the President of Iowans for Tax
Relief, made at a Flag Day event which was organized by the Boone
County Republican Party. At the event, Failor compared the current
economic actions and policies of the Democratic party to those of the
Nazi party in Germany in the 1930's. This isn't the first time that
Failor, Jr. has compared Iowa Democrats to Nazis. After the Speaker of
the Iowa House Pat Murphy removed the people from a public hearing on
the repeal of federal deductibility, Failor said that Murphy had acted
like a "jack-booted Nazi."

Labels: Iowa GOP

In today's world we sorely need leadership. Unfortunately, Iowa's
Second Congressional District is being left with very little, if any.
A real leader is not afraid to take a stand on the issues whether said
stand is popular with the public or not. A real leader will not sit on
the fence, or stick a toe in to test the waters, before making a
decision. A real leader makes decisions based on convictions,
principles and confidence, rather than looking to others before making
a decision. With the current state of world politics, we cannot afford leaders
without conviction and without direction. Recent events in Iran and
North Korea have shown that ours is a President without conviction and
lacking the fortitude to be a world leader.

Labels: Dave Loebsack