2015

Face painters, a giant American flag, Disney characters and Maya Angelou’s old tour bus. Ben Carson’s “Family Fun” night in downtown Des Moines certainly wasn’t your typical Iowa Caucus event, resembling a carnival more than a regular presidential campaign stop. There were kids carrying balloon animals, actual animals in a petting zoo, a band on…

Kathie Obradovich has a message for Iowans: you kids better get the heck off her lawn. At least that is what I took away from her recent column How about a question with that caucus selfie? In her column, Ms. Obradovich makes clear that she is way, way more serious than the average campaign event…

Presidential primary debates, how we’ve missed you. The Fox News Republican debate last night more than lived up to the weeks of hype, with things getting feisty right off the bat. Candidates sparred back-and-forth with each other, the moderators asked incredibly difficult, personal questions and everyone seemed like they came ready to play. Even the…

Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen surprised the state’s political watchers yesterday by announcing that he would be stepping down from his position and not running for re-election. While Paulsen declined to give any specific reasoning as to why now was the time to go, you have to imagine Branstad’s vetoes seriously damaged his ability to…

“You could marry your lawnmower with this decision,” Iowa Congressman Steve King said last week about the recent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. Something about that statement didn’t seem very… accurate. But hey, this is an elected member of the U.S. Congress, responsible for crafting the nation’s laws. So Starting Line decided to do…

The race to be the Democrat to beat Rod Blum has taken quite a few twists and turns this summer. Ravi Patel is out; Pat Murphy is in. While Chet Culver remains the 800-pound gorilla in the room that people are waiting on for the 3rd District race, Pat Murphy was more like a 400-pound…

I think it goes without saying that Iowans have a tremendous opportunity to meet presidential candidates. But, as Patrick pointed out in a post, many Iowans who participate in the caucus don’t get out to see the contenders. That is a real shame. Let’s hope this website has convinced you that it would be fun…

Governor Terry Branstad sure has gotten unpopular recently. Maybe it’s time for a change. But who should replace him? Hmm, how about…. Iowa native Ashton Kutcher? Sure, why not? Here’s a list of why we think Governor Kutcher would be much, much better than Governor Branstad, in the form of an obvious clickbait article (in…

After the shellacking Democrats took in the 2010 and 2014 elections, one phrase is on the lips of many Iowa Caucus activists: “party building.” How would their nominee strengthen the party infrastructure? How committed would they be to help down-ballot Democrats? What type of assistance would they provide to state and local parties beyond campaigning…

Democratic candidates have brought up climate change often in their Iowa Caucus pitches the past few months, but this week saw the issue front and center with new proposals and visits by candidates and issue groups. Martin O’Malley introduced a climate and clean energy plan several weeks ago, and Hillary Clinton followed up this week…