Category: IA-03

Two separate polls have been going around the 3rd District in the past few weeks. Both appear to be your standard message-testing polls, in which campaigns gauge various messages for their candidate and others to see which might be the most convincing. They usually test the various stances and biography notes that they’re already talking about on the campaign trail to find out which one or two points would be best for a TV ad. These polls typically initially ask the poll-taker who they support in the election, go through several bios and messages for each candidate and then ask […]

The Asian & Latino Coalition announced this week that they are officially endorsing Cindy Axne in the Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District. The decision follows a forum they held with the three Democrats last week. The Asian & Latino Coalition has a large membership base in the Des Moines metro area and has become increasingly influential in Democratic politics over the past several years. “Cindy has a proven track record of holding government accountable with over 10 years of policy experience in state government,” the organization said in a statement. “Cindy is a small business owner and community […]

Cindy Axne is getting a big boost in her bid to win Democrats’ nomination for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. EMILY’s List is announcing this morning that they’re endorsing the small businesswoman from West Des Moines. The backing from the influential national organization could give Axne an extra advantage in the Democratic primary that was recently reduced from six candidates to three just a few weeks back. The chatter in Democratic circles was that EMILY’s List and other pro-choice and women’s groups didn’t want to get involved while there were two strong female candidates in the race. Now that Theresa Greenfield […]

For all the drama that occurred with Theresa Greenfield’s ballot and signatures situation, little attention was paid to the other developments in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District race a few weeks back. Iowa political news was pretty wild for the entire month of March, and I didn’t get to nearly as many other topics as I had hoped. But I did want to circle back on one story: Austin Frerick ending his candidacy. Frerick decided to bring his 3rd District run to an end a few hours before the filing deadline on March 16, though it didn’t seem to be due […]

Congressional candidate Theresa Greenfield has ended her campaign. Attorney General Tom Miller put out a judgement late this afternoon that his office does not believe that Greenfield could use Chapter 43 of the Iowa Code to justify remaining on the ballot. Secretary of State Paul Pate needed to decide by 5:00 P.M. today whether or not to certify Greenfield’s candidacy – following Miller’s opinion, he did not. Earlier this week, the 3rd District Democratic committee voted to move Greenfield forward in the process, using an obscure part of the law to place an additional candidate on the ballot after one […]

Members of the Democratic 3rd Congressional District committee narrowly voted to move forward Theresa Greenfield’s candidacy, allowing her to clear the first of three hurdles to join the Democratic primary ballot. The committee voted 36 in favor and 31 against to add an additional candidate to the ballot, pursuant to Section 43.23 of the Iowa Code. They then voted 42 to 17 in favor of making that specific candidate be Greenfield. It was another leg in the long series of events ever since Greenfield’s campaign manager admitted the night before the filing deadline that he had forged a number of signatures on […]

Problems with candidate petitions and signatures is nothing new in Iowa politics, but the recent spate of problems have certainly surpassed past screw-ups. Both 3rd District Democrat Theresa Greenfield and Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Corbett won’t know until next week whether their candidacies might continue after initial problems with signature collections. And now another 3rd District Democrat, Cindy Axne, is publicly warning Democrats about the consequences of trying to put Greenfield on the ballot. Greenfield has been seeking a legal option all this week after her campaign manager admitting he had forged signatures set off a huge chain of events. […]

It’s been a tumultuous week in the Democratic primary to take on Congressman David Young in Iowa’s 3rd District, but a poll conducted just before the chaos and shared with Starting Line showed Cindy Axne with a narrow lead in the race. The Axne campaign commissioned a poll through ALG Research (John Anzalone’s firm), which ran from March 12 to 14. It included all six of the Democrats who were in the race at that point and found the following breakdown in support among likely primary-goers: Cindy Axne: 14% Eddie Mauro: 12% Theresa Greenfield: 10% Pete D’Alessandro: 6% Austin Frerick: […]