IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Delivered to my door via The (Ames) Tribune: "Party veterans: GOP
stresses social issues too much." Well, that got my skimming the news
down to actually reading an entire article. It was well worth my time.
According to Mary Lundby, former Iowa Senate Republican leader, many
GOP voters in Iowa are more worried about the economy and energy
prices than they are about social issues including abortion or gay
rights. Lundby also asserts that the state party's central committee
has given a short shrift to other topics in favor of social issues and
that could turn off voters. "Voters have got so many other issues on
their minds, and when you only coalesce on those (social) issues, you
lose those voters in the chatter, and we can't afford that."

Labels: Iowa GOP, Mary_Lundby

After yesterday's news that the Republican Leader of the Iowa Senate,
Mary Lundby of Marion, is planning to step down from leadership and
not seek re-election, this has most certainly stirred the Republican
pot of politics a little bit here in Iowa. That's good once in awhile
though. Several people asked me today what I thought about this and so
I thought maybe I would write a little post and then offer up an
endorsement of who I think would be a sufficient replacement for
Lundby. It is prudent to start by thanking Senator Lundby. While she
tends to be much more moderate than I, I think she did the best she
could as leader given the unfortunate electoral realities that the
Grand Ol' Party in the Iowa Senate has to contend with. I fondly
remember her standing up to Governor Vilsack at the end of the 2006
session when the budget was getting hammered out. Lundby leadership
kept it from getting too much further out of control. You can say what
you want about candidate recruitment and fundraising (both things that
leadership plays an important role in) but 2006 just was not the
Republican's year.

Labels: Mary_Lundby, state Senate

In a move that won't surprise many in eastern Iowa politics, Iowa
Senate Minority Leader Mary Lundby announced today that she would not
seek re-election to the Legislature and instead will run for a seat on
the Linn County Board of Supervisors. The move follows two elections
-- one last fall to increase the number of supervisors from three to
five and a second held Tuesday, which determined how the new
supervisors would be elected. Just more than 56 percent of those
voting in Linn County chose to have the county divided into five
districts of roughly 38,000 people. Candidates for the supervisor post
would be required to live within the district, and only residents of
that district could determine who would serve them at the county
level. In a telephone interview, Lundby, 59, said she made the
decision to leave the senate more than a week ago. "I told family,
friends and colleagues about my decision," she said. "Yesterday, the
election determined that Marion would make up about 60 to 70 percent
of a new county supervisor district. Since I still want to be involved
and serving my community, I thought that would be an opportunity."

Labels: Mary_Lundby