Legislation to bring full public financing of elections to legislative and statewide races is moving forward in Iowa, please pass this on to any bloggers you think may be interested: Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) is hosting a blogger meetup tomorrow, Thursday April 11, at 5:30 p.m. CDT at Ritual Cafe at 1301 Locust Street, near 13th St. between Grand & Locust in Des Moines. They will be talking about the Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections (VOICE) Act that would bring full public financing of statewide and legislative elections to the state.
Iowa bloggers interested in learning more about the VOICE Act, Iowa CCI, and their work are encouraged to attend. If you have any questions or are unable to attend and would like more information, please contact Adam Smith at asmith@publicampaign.org.
To learn more about the VOICE Act, please visit http://www.voterownediowa.org/.
All over Iowa, students are working through their student governments to pass resolutions opposing President Bush’s plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq. They want to send a message: students will no longer tolerate fumbling or equivocation from elected representatives on the Iraq war. Too much is at stake to be sending more troops to Iraq without an end in sight, benchmarks by which to measure success or failure, or a clear definition of victory.
Here at Grinnell, we’re proud to be the first school in Iowa to pass a resolution against the President’s gamble. Yesterday, our student election board certified the results of the vote—81% of students voiced their opposition to Bush’s plan with over half of the student body participating. Today, the text of our initiative was sent to our Members of Congress. It is our hope and faith that they will realize that there are better options in Iraq than a senseless surge. It’s time for our President and his party to reappraise the war.
If you would like to learn more about our student campaign against Bush’s plan, or receive any help passing a resolution at another college, email democrat@grinnell.edu
You might have noticed that a few weeks ago I stopped posting to this site very often, and it might have reminded you of the time I stopped blogging for several months to work for the IDP during the general election. Well, I have been doing campaign work again, this time over in Dallas County, on Democrat Dan Brickner’s campaign for Sheriff.
Tomorrow is election day there, and Dallas County voters will have the opportunity to elect a replacement for former Sheriff Brian Gilbert, who was forced to resign after “allegedly” stealing $120,000 from a drug bust. We have also learned since then that there were a lot of other problems in the department, as indicated by this report by the state auditor (big PDF). The report is fun to read, unless you depend on the Dallas County Sheriff to protect you and your family. Then it’s pretty scary.
Dan has 28 years of law enforcement experience, and has spent 20 years as police chief in Albia and then in Perry. He has overseen a large budget, and he has managed a large staff. His opponent has never managed a department with more than one full-time employee, and has ties to the current Sheriff’s department. Dan has no personal connections to the department, so he’ll come in without any favors to pay back or friends to protect. In this race, it is black and white: Dan is the only candidate with the experience and the integrity to fix what needs to be fixed, and I knew it within five minutes of meeting him.
If you live in Dallas County (and that includes much of West Des Moines and Urbandale, among other more rural communities and small towns), please don’t forget to make it to the polls. The Brickner campaign has a significant lead in absentee ballots, but the cliche still holds true: every vote counts.
So tomorrow, get out and vote for Dan Brickner if you’re in Dallas County. Thanks.
The Iowa Democratic Party today announced a new web site, StopGOPSmear.com, that attempts to expose the Republicans’ smear tactics and respond to them with the facts.
One interesting feature of the site (which I’m sure will serve its purpose) is the link at the top left allowing visitors to report any attack ads or mail pieces that they receive to the Party so that our candidates can respond quickly. This is perhaps the most useful part of the site, because visitors to it will probably be good Democrats anyway. This is just a way for our campaigns to find out faster what the next big wave of attacks is.
Either way, it’s a worthwhile project, especially since there have been so many hit pieces put out by the Republicans already this election.
Mark Warner’s PAC, Forward Together, is holding an online vote to determine which Iowa legislature candidates it will give $5000 (House) or $6500 (Senate). It’s a great perk that presidential hopefuls do this sort of thing in Iowa, since that amount of money really makes a huge difference in a state race.
Eric Palmer is challenging extremist conservative Danny Carroll, who he came painfully close to unseating in ‘04. Carroll has had the benefit of visits from conservative fundraising powerhouses John “I’m a panderer not a uniter” McCain, Sam “I hate evolution” Brownback, Haley “I hate Jews and Blacks” Barbour, and Newt “My conservatism doesn’t need explaining” Gingrich. He’s also received a ton of money from convicted felon Thomas Grabinski.
Just to remind you a little more why Eric Palmer deserves your vote (as if you haven’t heard our spiel before), Carroll is also known for his attempts to suppress Grinnell College students’ votes and his outlandish ideas about gay marriage.
Sure, it’s obvious from his record deficit that he’s a Bush crony, but now that Nussle is getting free publicity from Fox News this morning, it’s certifiable. This is from a campaign email a few days ago:
Watch Jim Nussle talk with E.D, Brian and Steve of FOX and Friends this Tuesday about his vision to make Iowa the Renewable Energy Capital of the World. Jim will discuss his bipartisan “Independence from Oil With Agriculture (IOWA) Act,” which helps ease prices at the pump for hard-working Iowans.
That’s at 7:30AM Central in case you want to watch him talk for a few minutes without being interrupted by difficult questions or by pesky Democrats who also happen to be running for Governor (and, in at least one case, who happen to be leading Nussle in the polls).
And although I’m sure this doesn’t come as a surprise to you, it might come as a disappointment. If you want to tell them what you think, email friends@foxnews.com or call 888 369 4762. And please, if you get a good response post it as a comment. I emailed about 36 hours ago and never got a response.
(Also feel free to email Jim Nussle and tell him how hokey you think naming a bill “the IOWA Act” is — especially just months ahead of the gubernatorial election.)
