Category: Uncategorized

I wanted to take a brief moment to update Starting Line readers on how we’re doing: we’re doing great! Thanks to your help in sharing our articles, Starting Line has seen very high traffic in the past several weeks. As you may have noticed, I’ve also been on the road a lot recently for the various campaign events and town hall forums. It’s produced a lot of great stories, and I enjoy getting out of Des Moines to hear more voices. It also starts to cost some money. My travel budget is pretty low and could use some re-filling. If you haven’t […]

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 as state Republicans’ constant restrictions on local control. To slingshot from alderman to governor may seem like an impossible task, but Matson’s impressive military background has Democrats in Eastern Iowa promoting him as a serious contender that could reach out to rural and Republican voters. […]

Democrats and their grassroots supporters’ victory at blocking the Republicans’ Obamacare repeal provides a much-needed boost to morale. Since the election, national Republicans have been riding a wave of enthusiasm as they anticipated turning back the clock on everything Obama. Democrats needed a win and this is a giant one. The odds of saving Obama’s signature health care legislation against a massive Republican majority seemed slim to none. But Republicans didn’t anticipate that the Democrats’ supporters would ignite an immense and enthusiastic resistance to the Trump agenda. This passionate grassroots support for Obamacare exploded across the country following Trump’s election. […]

In the age of Donald Trump, an independent media that holds our elected officials accountable is more important than ever. This is especially true in Iowa, where the new Republican majorities have rammed through an extreme right-wing agenda that brings something new and disastrous seemingly every single day to the Statehouse. Fortunately for those of us on the left in Iowa, we have a rather robust online news presence from several independent sites and blogs. But it wasn’t always like that, and it didn’t spring up over night. Now it needs your help to keep it going [donate to Starting Line […]

The Republicans in the lowa legislature must be suffering from whiplash as they have suddenly slammed their party into reverse by opposing “local control.” The Republican mantra for years has been to repeat the quote credited to Thomas Jefferson: “The government closest to the people serves them best.” Republicans have long sung in unison that “local control” symbolizes that government closest to the people. For years they sang that tune as if it was a sacred verse taken directly from the Republican hymnal. Republicans embraced local control as one of their signature qualifying identities in order to be a Republican. […]

The party affiliation on your voter registration card could block you from employment at Iowa’s state universities were a newly proposed bill by Senator Mark Chelgren to become law. Senate File 288, proposed by the Ottumwa legislator, could bring about a Soviet-style purge of liberal-leaning college staff in Iowa. Chelgren wants to impose an ideological litmus test in order to create a “partisan balance,” based on how Iowa has voted in past elections. The legislation proposes that a “person shall not be hired as a professor or instructor member of the faculty at such an institution if the person’s political party affiliation […]

The Iowa Starting Line post of December 23 – “Many Important Topics Missing From IDP Chair Discussion” – prompted the following thoughts from this Chair candidate. Paragraphs from the original blog appear in italics, with my responses posted below. I don’t believe I heard anyone, not a candidate nor a SCC member in the audience last Saturday, talk about the importance of retaking the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House. … While it’s true they take the lead on the targeted districts, the state party should also be a close partner in advocating for and highlighting the state’s most crucial legislative […]

Governor Terry Branstad and legislative Republicans will wield full control over the executive and legislative branches of Iowa government come next January. Democrats lost their majority in the Iowa Senate, which they’ve held since 2006, as early returns showed Senators Mike Gronstal, Chris Brase and Brian Schoenjahn losing their reelection efforts. That bumps Democrats down to 23 seats, and Republicans up to 26, with one independent (and this is assuming Democrats win the Joe Seng Davenport seat in the December special election, which is very likely). However, early indications show that Democrats are losing in seats even thought to be […]