Michael J. Fox is campaigning with Iowa Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, Chet Culver, according to the front page of the Des Moines Register. Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, recently become a more outspoken critic of bans on embryonic stem cell research for the potential that research has to save lives (Nancy also agrees by the way). Fox filmed a now famous ad for Democrat Claire McCaskill who is running for Senate in neighboring Missouri. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out; it’s a bit upsetting, but it hits home at how important this issue — and this election — really is. Not surprisingly the right-wing smear machine went at Fox full blast with Rush Limbaugh leading the charge (though he recently was forced to apologize to Fox). It also seems like GOP hopes that there could be a backlash have not worked out. From a Newsweek poll pointed out by Hotline On Call, 62% of registered voters who saw the the ad believe it was “acceptable” while only 32% believe the ad was “too extreme.”
For Democrats, this is an issue that is the right thing to do politically and the right thing to do morally. There is also a clear choice on this one between Culver and Nussle (Culver supports, Nussle doesn’t) and finally kudos to Fox for being brave enough to fight. Let’s win this election gawdamnit.
Jeff Lamberti is at it again with those bizarre campaign tactics. Yesterday at the state fair grounds, George Bush made a campaign stop for Lamberti. In what I’m sure was a confidence-inspiring speech, Bush assured those present:
There’s “no doubt in my mind, with your help, that Dave Lamberti will be the United States Congressman,” Bush said. “Dave and I believe a lot of things.”
Dave? While the Iowa Republican Party thinks that Mr. Bush’s visit will energize the GOP vote, just whom are they turning out the vote for? As if ballots weren’t confusing enough. But surely even if the president doesn’t know the guy’s name he can make an accurate prediction about how he would vote in congress.
There is also the possibility that this whole bring-in-the-big-guns scheme won’t work because people don’t actually like the president very much right now. Bringing in the president to tell us that he and ‘Dave’ share a lot of opinions will probably discourage many Republicans and serves as a convenient reminder to Democrats of just why it is important to vote, volunteer, and donate in the next week and half.
In what is either the most scathing diss track since Nas noted Jay Z took Tae Bo, or the most misguided political intervention by a rap “star” since Kanye West spilled the beans at the Grammys, hip hop heavyweight $trick9 has weighed into Iowa’s gubernatorial debate with a youtube “endorsement” of Jim Nussle.
Whatever Iowa’s biggie intended in his video, I’m thoroughly confused. You can watch for yourself, but here’s a highlight:
Jim Nussle’s got the ten commandments/ God Damnit/ You will lose/ Just give it up smooth…/ Republicans are on top and we can’t stop/ Until gay couples can’t adopt
Should we say thanks? Is this guy popular? Why is the Register covering this? Has hell frozen over?
Those are just a few of the questions that necessarily surround this brand of mega-event.
The intersection between Iowa and hip hop does, however, make one thing clear: if these are Nussle’s ideas, Iowa’s got 99 problems and $trick9 ain’t one.
Via Hotline On Call, we learn that Rudy Giuliani will be campaigning for Republican gubernatorial hopeful Jim Nussle and Republican congressional candidate Mike Whalen in the days leading up to Election Day. There’s no question that spending time with Iowa Republicans is good for Giuliani as he mulls a presidential run in 2008, but what could be the effects on these two Iowa races?
Sure, Giuliani brings a lot of star-power with him, and he conjures up memories of 9/11 — we all know how good Republicans are at wrapping themselves in the flag — but he is also widely known as a liberal Republican, particularly for his pro-choice views. Should we be surprised that two pro-life candidates like Nussle and Whalen have attached themselves to the Giuliani teat? I don’t think so.
We’ve watched Nussle do his hustle on choice since the beginning of the campaign. And in such a split electorate, it should come as no surprise that he is trying to pivot a bit to the left; in fact, that has been a nationwide trend among GOP gubernatorial candidates according to the New York Times.
Whalen’s pro-life cred has been questioned as well. Last April, the Krusty Konservative noted Whalen’s “general ignorance and his lack of interest” in the issue and that he once told people that he was only pro-life “because his consultants told him he had to be.” But again, we shouldn’t be surprised of his posturing; he is running in unfriendly territory, a district that Kerry and Gore both won.
But therein lies the rub! If Nussle and Whalen go too far off the right-wing reservation, the base will be less enthusiastic about the election, perhaps not volunteering or not voting at all. Besides, as we have learned these last few years, when voters have a chance to vote for a Republican or a Republican-lite, they go for the real Republican. As we’ll likely find out in a mere two weeks, the same goes for Democrats.
Today’s onslaught of autocalls and mailings proves it conclusively: Desperate Danny is in all-out attack mode. Automated phone calls paid for by the the Danny Carroll committee have been falsely claiming to voters that Eric Palmer has failed to pay his property taxes in Oskaloosa, and mailings paid for by the Republican Party of Iowa are making the same claim. They cite an office called the “Mahaska County Recorder of Deeds Office” — an office that, to the best of our knowledge, does not exist at all — for their proof.
It is the Mahaska County Treasurer’s office that handles property taxes, and their records clearly prove that Eric Palmer has paid every tax that he has been asked to pay. In a campaign press release, Eric’s response is quoted as follows:
For the record, I resent the implication that I have failed to pay property taxes in the community where I grew up, went to school, and raise my children… I’m a tax-paying member of this community who runs a business on the square downtown in Oskaloosa. I have copies of the property tax records from the Mahaska County Treasurer if there is any question. If Speaker Rants and Representative Carroll want to come back from Des Moines and personally show the people of House District 75 the documents showing otherwise I would welcome their visit.
It is very important that we make clear that there are absolutely no grounds for the claims made in the mailing and the autocall that Eric hasn’t paid his taxes. The Speaker Pro Tem of the Iowa House knows this is his only shot. He is so desperate to win that at this point he is willing to open himself to charges of libel. But the Republican smear machine remains a force to be reckoned with, even if they have nothing but lies to spread. That’s why Eric needs your money now more than ever.
In the past couple days pretty much all anyone is talking about are the candidates’ reports filed yesterday on money raised and spent. The reports are available on the IECDB website.
If you want a good summary, see what Chris Woods over at Political Forecast has to say. He has a good post exclusively on the gubernatorial race, where Culver has out-fundraised Nussle by $200,000. It is certainly interesting to see who’s been donating, including a selection of presidential hopefuls.
Looking closer to home in Grinnell’s State House race in the last quarter (July 15-Oct 14)
Clearly it isn’t great news to see that Carroll has more money than Palmer at this point in the game, and Palmer certainly could’ve used the money from Warner’s PAC. However, I also know that Palmer has been working tirelessly on this campaign, and it seems impossible that someone could meet both the candidates and not come away with a better impression of Eric.
A big thanks to Chris over at Political Forecast for highlighting our favorite candidate Eric Palmer’s new television ad. In 1992 they used to say that a vote for Clinton was a 2 for 1 deal. I’d say that this year a vote for Palmer is a 6 for 1 deal. Heck, they may be young, but I think those kids know more about what Iowa needs than Danny Carroll.
I can imagine Danny’s negative response ads already.
Black silhouette appears on screen amidst sounds of nails on a chalkboard.
Action movie announcer voice- Candidate Eric Palmer says he wants to get “strict about homework” with Iowa’s families. But it is theoretically possible that his children have forgotten to complete an assignment in full. Tell Eric Palmer that he should watch his own litter before he goes into your home and starts burying your pups in pencils and paper. Tell Eric Palmer that Iowa needs more than homework–it needs fun. And tell Eric Palmer that while homework may be good for his family, he needs to stop imposing his values on hardworking, humble Iowans. On November 7th, teach Eric Palmer a lesson.”
Can we expect anything less from the Republican Party? The swift-dopes are accusing Boswell of scraping children’s knees…
We had a lot of bloggers at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner over the weekend, but because this week is an academic break for us, I’m not sure when we’ll post about that. I did think this was worth mentioning, though:
Yesterday, the Times ran a piece identifying what the GOP considers its best “pickup” opportunities — that is, seats held by Democrats that the Republicans could win. Because of the political climate, there are only three of them that they’re devoting resources to, and one of them is you-know-who:
For Republicans, the vast majority of that money has gone to protecting incumbents. The party is on the offensive in races for three seats: two held by Democrats, Representatives Leonard L. Boswell of Iowa and Jim Marshall of Georgia, and one being vacated by Representative Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont who typically voted with the Democrats.
Perhaps the other notable point made in the article is that the GOP has all but given up on Ohio. Those Grinnell students out there from Ohio (and there are a lot of you), keep this in mind: the Republicans have written off the DeWine campaign and the Blackwell campaign, and are pulling their resources from the state.
The decision about Mr. DeWine’s seat came after recent internal polls showed Mr. DeWine’s Democratic challenger, Representative Brown, jumping to a large lead. Mr. Brown’s surge came despite a barrage of Republican advertisements intended to portray him as weak on national security — the very line of attack that had given party officials confidence earlier this year that Mr. DeWine would be re-elected.
Normally, a party would be averse to scaling back its help for a senator in a state with as many as five competitive Congressional races also on the ballot. But in this case, Ohio Republicans said, Mr. DeWine and Republican Congressional candidates face the added problem of being dragged down this November by the party’s candidate for governor, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who polls show is facing a double-digit loss to the Democrat, Representative Ted Strickland.
If you’re from Ohio but live in Grinnell and have been on the fence about whether to vote here or there, you know what to do.
Culver and Nussle appeared for their second debate last night. Sponsored by the Iowa Black and Brown Forum, the debate centered on minority issues, including the recent claims of racial discrimination in state hiring practices, immigration, and the official state language. Unfortunately, I missed the debate, but it looks like it was a zinger.
Nussle seems to have spent some time criticizing Vilsack for his culpability in the hiring scandal.
“It’s like you woke up one day and magically discovered it was happening,” said Nussle, a congressman from northeastern Iowa, on Vilsack’s reaction to the scandal. The Republican candidate also argued that Vilsack’s administration was not open enough to criticism of the agencies, forcing whistleblowers to instead go to the press.
Maybe someone should let him know that Vilsack isn’t running again. Although, to be fair, Culver frequent states that he will continue in Vilsack’s footsteps, as evidenced by Culver taking a stand for Vilsack in the debate. At the same time Culver suggested that he would go beyond the measures Vilsack has proposed.
Culver added: “We will have an across-the-board effort on diversity training in terms of hiring practices and making sure the state government is inclusive. I think actions speak louder than words.”
General opinion seems to be that Culver did well. Gordon over at Iowa True Blue calls it a decisive win for Culver, saying “He looked strong, confident, and sure.”
With Nussle and Culver all tied up, the Republican Governor’s Association has decided to call up the reserves — all-expenses-paid volunteers — to swarm Iowa and try to make it happen for Jimmy N. The offer came in a letter signed by Governor Romney, the Chairman of the RGA, which went out on Monday.
… the RGA offered free airfare and lodging to volunteers willing to campaign for Republicans in Iowa, Maine, Oregon, Illinois, Arkansas and Michigan.
“There are just 30 days to go until one of the most important and challenging election days we have ever faced, and several races for governor are going down to the wire,” the group wrote in an e-mail to supporters.
“The upcoming midterm elections are critical, and some of our targeted governors’ races may end up being the bright spot for Republicans in 2006.”
The bright spot? The RGA must see some black clouds ahead.
Is the Iowa Republican base really so deflated that the party has to reach out of state with hands full of money to muster a fight?
Here’s to making sure Iowa stays dark for Mitt’s minions.
