Category: 2017

Democrats and progressive candidates saw a lot of encouraging success in this year’s municipal and school board elections in Iowa, but one major race remains outstanding: Tuesday’s Cedar Rapids mayoral run-off. Who leads the second-largest city in the state is a big deal – it should also be a reliably Democratic office, but it hasn’t been in past years. So, Tuesday’s race between November 7’s top vote-getters – Democrat Monica Vernon and Republican Brad Hart – will have a huge impact on city policies, as well as Eastern Iowa politics for years to come. Vernon led the crowded eight-person mayoral […]

Democrats in Iowa are still buzzing about the good news – finally, good news – out of Virginia and beyond from Tuesday night’s elections. Maybe, just maybe, 2018 will be the sort of wave year for Democrats we’re hoping for in this red-trending state. Or, at the very least, it won’t be yet another blowout loss kind of cycle. And it reinforces my advice from immediately after Donald Trump’s election one year ago: if you’re a Democrat who’s ever thought about running for office, 2018 is the year. Because, either one of two things are going to happen: it’s a […]

Iowans went to the polls yesterday in municipal races for city council and mayoral seats around the state, the second big election date since the 2016 election. Enthusiasm for local campaigns have been up in Democratic circles since Donald Trump’s elections, and many races that often only see one or two candidates were packed with contenders. Democrats and progressive activists saw a number of key victories in city council races across Iowa, building upon the good night for the party with the Virginia sweep. Iowa’s municipal elections are technically nonpartisan, but you typically know who is from which party. Here’s […]

The municipal races for city council and mayor are fast approaching this Tuesday, with voters in Windsor Heights seeing a crowded field of candidates running. Nine people are running for the three at-large council seats. One in particular has been drawing criticism online for his past posts on social media, as well as a recent OWI in the city he hopes to represent: Sean Murphy. Many people forwarded on to Starting Line screenshots of candidate Sean Murphy’s past comments on Facebook and Instagram. A baseball and tennis coach at Dowling Catholic High School, Murphy has posted a number of questionable […]

Iowans won’t be seeing too many TV ads for Novembers’s municipal races, most of which are relatively low-profile affairs where not a whole lot of money spent. But one of the few they will watch is really quite good and a “refreshing” change of pace from the typical campaign ads we’ve come to expect. Josh Mandelbaum is up on television in the Des Moines media market with a 30-second ad entitled “Refreshing” two and a half weeks out from the city council election. It highlights his work as an environmental attorney on the issue of clean drinking water in a […]

The elections for school board in Iowa are fast approaching, the first big round of races that are seeing new leaders step up in the wake of the 2016 outcome. One candidate that’s drawing a lot of attention in Central Iowa is Kyrstin Delagardelle Shelley, who was recently endorsed by the Des Moines Education Association and a host of other labor unions. She’s one of three contenders on the September 12 ballot competing for two at-large Des Moines school board seats. A teacher/librarian at Northview Middle School in Ankeny, this is Shelley’s first bid for public office. The election results […]

Environmental attorney Josh Mandelbaum’s path to winning a Des Moines City Council seat got easier last month when Christine Hensley announced she was retiring. However, there’s now chatter about other potential candidates considering a run in the heavily-Democratic ward. Another Republican (or independent) may launch a bid, but it’s highly unlikely any would have the type of deep ties Hensley did that allowed her to win such a district. The eventual race may resemble a Democratic primary more than anything else. Mandelbaum already has a significant head start, especially after his $110,000 fundraising haul in his campaign’s first three weeks. He […]