October 30, 2015 - Iowa Starting Line

Iowa Travel Guide: Des Moines Hidden Gems

On October 30, 2015 By Pat Rynard

The Des Moines restaurant scene has seen an explosion in fine dining options, craft breweries and quirky specialty joints in recent years. Reporters and campaign staff traveling to Iowa’s capitol for the Iowa Caucus often come away pleasantly surprised. Sometimes, however, you can get into a rut of returning to your same favorite spots downtown and in the East Village. So Starting Line put together a list of some interesting and unique eating and drinking choices in the metro area to expand your Des Moines palate. Enjoy: B&B Grocery and Meat Deli (pictured) – This South Side institution has […]

Does Any Republican Want To Win Iowa, Or What?

On October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 By Pat Rynard

The mood at the Democrats’ Jefferson Jackson Dinner last weekend was electric. Each campaign went all-out to provide Democratic activists an entertaining spectacle and show of organizational strength. How did it compare to the many Republican multi-candidate events that Starting Line has also attended? To use a phrase of the former GOP front-runner, those Republican ones have felt a little “low energy.” Why the difference? Well, for one the Democrats seem like they’re actually trying to win Iowa. I’m not so sure many of the Republicans are. There doesn’t seem to be a big difference in the enthusiasm from the […]

Jeb Bush’s Terrible Internal Iowa Numbers

On October 30, 2015November 19, 2015 By Pat Rynard

Usually when a campaign puts together a memo for their top donors you try to highlight your accomplishments and project momentum. Perhaps that’s what Jeb Bush’s top advisers thought they were doing with the internal campaign briefing that got leaked to U.S. News and World Report yesterday, but even a brief look at their Iowa numbers show extremely troubling signs for Bush’s viability in the the caucus. The most jarring number is their amount of identified supporters. Bush hopes to garner about 18% in the Iowa Caucus, which their projections show requires a vote goal of 23,716. So far they […]