Maybe our good friend Steve King has been too busy trying to stop immigrant voters from exercising their rights to realize that nearly 600,000 U.S. citizens are denied representation in Congress because they live in the Nation’s Capital.
Heck, most of them they speak English too!
Indeed, King and his colleagues in the House Judiciary Committee seem intent on letting the “DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006,” which would give the District of Columbia a voting member of the House of Representatives, rot while the session expires.
If the bill stalls, the best chance DC has had in years will pass.
Don’t let that happen! You can email King or write a letter to your local paper urging him to make sure every citizen has the rights they deserve. If he really is concerned with our election process, maybe he’ll come around.
And if he does, I’m sure King, who once called DC more dangerous than Iraq , will find the city a little more obliging.
Steve King is delaying the renewal of the federal Voting Rights Act by pushing for an end to multilingual ballots. Apparently letting citizens understand whom they’re voting for is “driving a wedge between cultures.” Steve King isn’t all asshole though; yesterday he apologized for calling Helen Thomas ugly.
Now that Karl Rove is free of indictements, he has some spare time to spend campaigning for Mike Whalen and Jeff Lamberti here in Iowa. Thank god for that.
Cityview answers all of your eminent domain questions, and then some. If that’s not enough, Chris Woods ponders what the Legislature’s next move may be.
According to an article in the Globe Gazette, some Iowa Democrats are hankering for a little Obama ‘08 action. It strikes me as unusual to find an entire news story about someone not visiting Iowa, which says something about Obama’s popularity (and about how demanding Iowans are). Here’s an interesting Nation article on Obama’s progressive stalwart potential.
A study conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest gave Iowa a failing grade on school nutrition. Harkin has been pushing for national school nutrition standards for years. I could make a crack about Iowa feeding the world, but I’ll let you imagine one for yourself.
Nussle released his education “plan” yesterday, which includes a call for more available AP credit, skills training, increased teacher pay, and guarantees that tuition won’t increase more than the Higher Education Price Index.
Sounds really fabulous, right?
Problem number 1: Nussle doesn’t know where this money is going to come from, as usual. Here’s what he told the Register:
Nussle said he had not priced the entire package completely, but it would be funded by “shifting stuff around” in the state budget.
Problem number 2: Nussle ”guarantees” to hold tuition to less than or equal to the HEPI. First of all, the HEPI rises faster than inflation. Here’s an explanation of why by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. Secondly, Iowa tuition is already indexed to the HEPI, and it’s not stopping exhorbitant tuition increases. Here’s a NYPIRG factsheet showing that indexing has not held down tuition.
In fact, just today the Regents increased fees at public Iowa universities by $200 because the legislature didn’t appropriate enough back in April.
So without knowing where the money will come from, or really having a new solution, I’m not sure I would take Nussle’s “guarantee.”
(It’s also skeezy to hold your education plan press conference at the high school at which your opponent taught.)
First of all, lots of Dems are throwing around cutesy Nussle rhymes and it’s gross. Vilsack has coined the “Nussle hustle,” and Fallon kicked it up a notch by ending his convention speech with the chant “Out-muscle Jim Nussle, out-hustle Jim Nussle, let’s tussle with Nussle and win!”
According to Radio Iowa, the Iowa Department of Economic Development released a report today showing that the Values Fund has only actually created or retained 8,000 of the 25,000 jobs Vilsack was claiming. In other words, Ed Fallon was right all along. (In case you’re keeping score, that’s still 0 points for Vilsack.)
Yepsen flaps his mouth about why Culver decided to call for Archie Brooks’ resignation. After implying that CIETC is indicative of “the Democrats’ culture of cronyism in Polk County” and that Democrats need Brooks to deliver votes, he briefly bothers to mention that Culver is “among the majority of civic-minded Democrats who are profoundly outraged that people who call themselves Democrats would engage in the obscenity of milking a program designed to benefit the jobless.” So what you’re really saying then, Dave, is that corrupt politicians exist (gasp!) and that every now and then they happen to be Democrats. You would never, ever write a biased story that makes unnecesary jabs at Culver (just read it for yourself), right?
One happy bit though: another Register columnist goes over how Michael Mauro shouldn’t be tarnished by having relatives working at CIETC. It even includes quotes from Republicans saying what a great, professional, nonpartisan job he has done as Polk County auditor. Of course, one does manage to “sneak” a nonpartisan raspberry into print: “Michael has forgotten more about elections and election law than Chet Culver ever knew.” Sometimes I wonder if it’s wrong for me to even bother repeating their nonsense, but that one’s just funny.
p.s. Hotline has a story about the Culver campaign accidentally appropriating a Nussle quote on their website. WTF, mate?
Rubbermaid announced last night that it will be moving 500 jobs from Centerville (population 6,000) to Kansas. The company turned down the offer of a $1 million tax break under Vilsack’s Iowa Values Fund, and executives explained that they believe there are more opportunities for expansion in Kansas. Vilsack’s statement, issued this afternoon, doesn’t seem very reassuring to the hundreds of Iowans finding their jobs in jeopardy lately:
Today’s news is upsetting, but it reinforces my commitment to creating and retaining sustainable, quality jobs in our state. We are working every day to transform Iowa’s economy and minimize the impact of a changing, global marketplace.
Chris Woods at Political Forecast covers the possibility of an override of Vilsack’s veto on eminent domain.
The Concord Monitor’s story on Vilsack’s visit wasn’t exactly positive- it noted that he doesn’t have foreign policy experience beyond a few recent trips abroad and that he called complaints in New Hampshire about the possibility of making the primary later in the nominating calendar ”overblown.”
Another article says Vilsack’s people are leaving New Hampshire out to dry:
The plan has yet to be made final by the rules committee and the full DNC, but New Hampshire Democrats widely viewed the Iowa votes as a clear break from the decades-long alliance between the two states to work together to protect their early positions.
New Hampshire Democratic Chair Kathy Sullivan, herself a member of the DNC rules committee, said:
“There are a number of New Hampshire Democrats who are disappointed that the Iowa commissioners and member of the rules committee have not voted with New Hampshire on these things.”
Vilsack said he has not talked to the Iowans on these panels about it. One of them was Des Moines attorney Jerry Crawford, a big contributor to Vilsack’s Heartland PAC. The rules committee member is Sally Pederson, Vilsack’s own lieutenant governor and chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.
Even more embarassing for Governor Vilsack, his wife was forced to wear ugly shoes while touring a plant in NH.
Apparently Hillary Clinton and Russ Feingold gave Ed Fallon a ring to congratulate him on a well-run race and “say hello.” This article at the Quad-City Times says Culver has also reached out to Fallon, meeting with him for over two hours on Friday about how to attract his supporters. My first reaction to the party unity spiel was to roll my eyes, but it seems Democrats really are making an effort to create a unified front against Nussle. (Happy sigh.)
Fallon said he didn’t want to think about running for another office “immediately,” but it sounds like we haven’t seen the last of him.
Well, it seems we’ve dropped the ball this summer and haven’t been able to post regularly. We may be scattered across the country, but we haven’t forgotten about Iowa! I only have limited Internet access, but I ran across a few stories today that seem interesting, so I thought I’d put them up some links.
The Register commissioned a poll to find out which likely 2008 presidential candidates Iowans favor. The results are pretty interesting with Edwards taking the lead with 30% support, followed by Clinton with 26%, Kerry with 12%, and our own governor taking only 10%. Needless to say this probably comes as a blow to Vilsack, because if this is the kind of support he has in his own state it doesn’t bode well for gaining support elsewhere. Also, this is the first poll done that doesn’t give Clinton the lead, which could very well be related to the fact that she hasn’t campaigned here since 2003, whereas Edwards has already visited the state at least once this year. Clinton recently changed her position on ethanol, and she now supports funding for research and development, whereas before she was opposed to subsidies. I criticized McCain for this very about-face, and I still think it is an obvious ploy to win support in the caucuses that doesn’t necessarily reflect how a person would act in office. However, Edwards’s lead over Clinton is within the margin of error, and maybe if she actually campaigned in the state she could do really well. Basically this poll shows that Iowa would definitely not be a lock down for Vilsack in the caucuses, so it will be interesting to see how it changes the early campaigning techniques.
Also, there is an interesting article on how the Democrats are reacting to the influence of blogs on politics, and you guys should check it out. Apparently Vilsack doesn’t like being personally attacked by blogs, poor guy.
There’s been a fairly heated debate raging today over at Political Forecast about whether Culver has placed undo stress on choice during the campaign, and it seems people in the Iowa blogosphere aren’t the only ones to have noted how the navigation of this sticky issue has changed in state races.
The New York Times highlights our very own gubernatorial race as an example of how South Dakota has changed choice in state races. Instead of questions about how to regulate abortions, candidates are now faced with a binary choice: ban or no? This places candidates like Blouin, who are personally pro-life but oppose a ban, in an awkward position. How does one articulate a nuanced position on a hot-button issue without committing an “I supported abortion before I was against it” misstep? (That was meant to be rhetorical, but I reckon picking a pro-choice female doctor as a running mate and letting her answer the question is one method of assuaging people’s fears!)
The article also points out that no one really knows how this issue will play out. Some pro-lifers are against ban proposals because they don’t see them as a pragmatic approach to eliminating abortion, and worry that they will call pro-choicers to action (well duh!). Perhaps the Nussle folks are worried about this too, as Nussle declined an interview with the Times, and his spokesperson noted that he has not publicly stated whether he would support a ban. On the other hand, he may just be standing aside to let the Dems pick each other apart—a strategy that has obviously been working.
The Des Moines Register released a poll today that was conducted May 29-June 1, so I imagine this will be the last numbers we get before Tuesday. Here’s how it breaks down:
It doesn’t look like the survey questions created the alleged “Fallon supporters don’t fit the likely voters criteria” effect, but with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 points and a huge chunk of undecideds, a convention decision is becoming more and more likely. I wish Drew’s blog was still around so we could review what the delegate break down would be.
The article accompanying the poll does a surprisingly good job of highlighting and analyzing the things each candidate has going for him: Blouin is counting on union organizers for his GOTV, but according to the poll Culver has more support amongst union families. Fallon claims independents and Republicans will jump ship and vote in the Democratic primary, but the poll also says Blouin and Culver have picked up more outside the party support. Culver has garnered the most youth support, but people over 64 are much more likely to turn out. The article also does a nice job of interviewing supporters who sum up the main issues of the campaign, but you can read that for yourself.
Finally, the poll also asked if people wanted to continue with the direction and priorities for the state set by Governor Vilsack. A whopping 50% said no! I definitely wouldn’t want to commence my bid for the presidency with that kind of sentiment a brewin’, but that’s just me.
All in all, I think this quote from a Fallon press release sums it up best: “‘We’ll find out on election day,’ he said while eating a sandwich.”
p.s. The coverage of Mike Blouin’s bus tour on his website actually resembles a blog! After months and months of campaigning and claiming to be tech savvy and “hip”, someone has finally grasped that “blog” is more than a buzz word! I bet Andy McGuire had something to do with this. (She told us she’s addicted to blogs.)
