April 2017
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New Ranking Report Push Iowa Congressional Seats To The Right
The Cook Political Report unveiled its new Partisan Voting Index scores for the nation’s congressional seats, and it’s all bad news for Iowa Democrats. Typically, Cook’s ratings change little year-to-year, but the shifting voter loyalties resulting from Donald Trump’s campaign upended the formula. Three of Iowa’s four congressional districts have moved significantly to the right in…
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What Trump’s Public Broadcasting Cuts Could Mean For Iowa
President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would totally eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS). Cutting PBS funding would be a significant blow to more than a thousand public stations across the country. Both Iowa Public Television and Iowa Public Radio would suffer severe cuts to their programing. Local public radio and television broadcasters…
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Iowa Passing Abortion Restrictions Worse Than Deep South
Just a few short years ago, Iowa was leading the way in safe and legal abortion access with the new telemedicine process that provided options to women living in rural areas. Now, after this year’s legislative session at the Statehouse, Iowa will join just a handful of states in enacting some of the most stringent…
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“Put It In “D” To Go Forward, Put It In “R” To Go Backwards.”
Many of you may recognize this as former Senator Tom Harkin’s comparison of the two political parties. He often used this comic line as a simple and easy-to-understand description of the difference between Democrats and Republicans. “Just remember one thing,” Harkin said at the Democratic Convention in 2000. “All you ever needed to know about…
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John Norris Weighing Run For Iowa Governor
As Democrats look to their developing gubernatorial primary field, one new name would bring an experience as close as you can get to being a former governor: John Norris. Tom Vilsack’s chief of staff for two years, few other Iowans have as long a resume in Iowa Democratic politics and governance than Norris. He’s been IDP…
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Iowa Legislator Proposes “Masturbatory Emissions” Fine
Iowa State Representative Lisa Heddens of Ames is simply looking to achieve “equality” in Iowa’s laws on men and women’s health procedures with a new amendment she proposed to Republicans’ 20-week abortion ban. Heddens is encouraging her colleagues to pass her “Men’s Right to Know Act,” which would allow doctors to refuse prescribing erectile dysfunction drugs…
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Why Former Army Ranger Mike Matson May Run For Iowa Governor
If Mike Matson pulls the trigger on a gubernatorial run and wins, it will be the revenge of the local official on Terry Branstad and Kim Reynolds’ legacy. A member of the Davenport City Council for the past ten years, Matson is fed up with the unfunded mandates coming out of Des Moines, as well…
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Forbes: Iowa GOP Has Mismanaged The Store, Led Us To Deficit
Guest post from Representative John Forbes As a small businessman in Urbandale for 35 years, I know numbers don’t lie and you must pay close attention. To be successful, you need to keep an eye on your income and expenses, and watch the bottom line. At the Legislature, someone hasn’t been minding the store. As…
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Take Our Video Tour Of Iowa’s Changing Voting Trends By Precinct
Here at Starting Line, I’ve written several posts looking at precinct-by-precinct results from both the 2016 election and the Iowa Caucus to give readers a sense of how and why Iowa’s voting trends are changing. No swing state shifted more than Iowa in the general election (from Obama +6 in 2012 to Trump +10 in 2016),…
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Two Cruel Iowa Senate Bills Sucker Punch Working People Again
Guest post from Matt Chapman on the workers compensation and minimum wage preemption bills that passed the Iowa Senate this week. At this point I don’t even see these as separate bills. They are all running together in a nightmare for the working class folks. No raise for the working poor. Busting unions in the…
