Special Edition: Reporter’s Notebook

In this edition: An apology to the White House, an ethics complaint, and Iowa’s fall to Ohio State

Friday night, I watched from the eaves of the Iowa Senate gallery as a Republican said he’d had enough. Sen. Dan Dawson (R-Council Bluffs), chair of the Iowa Senate’s tax committee, said, in a rush to make good on a swan-song deal, that Gov. Kim Reynolds was failing the taxpayer.

“As with anything in life, if you’re not willing to walk away from a deal, you’ll always negotiate against yourself,” Dawson said.

He said he hopes Mesabi Metallics, the company behind a proposed $15 billion steel plant in Lee County, delivers. But he apologized to the White House, saying they must have been given bad information because two things they said to the nation were not true: Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed the project was underway and that state incentives were not necessary. But, again, neither is true.

The Lee County project is not underway. And if state incentives weren’t necessary, why was the special session called so quickly? With just one month from the election, I imagine Republicans like Dawson would prefer to spend their time in district.

It’s worth pausing on who Dawson is. He isn’t a Democrat looking for a talking point. He chairs the Senate Ways and Means. He helped negotiate the MEGA program in 2023, when it was deliberately narrowed to two projects at 5% each so lawmakers could watch it work before expanding it. Friday’s bill is one project at 10%, with credits the company can transfer to others.

VIDEO: Watch Dawson’s full speech:

Now here’s the view from the governor’s branch: IEDA Director Debi Durham spent her day pitching the project to skeptical legislators. She told senators nothing gets paid until the plant is built and running, that the credits are spread over 10 years, and that the state can claw money back. An outside analysis, she said, shows a return for taxpayers. Lee County is one of the more economically depressed parts of Iowa, and 1,750 jobs paying around $48 an hour would be life-changing.

I believe that. I also think the testimony leaves a lot unanswered. CEO Joe Broking told lawmakers the owners have put more than $2 billion into the Minnesota mine, but said he couldn’t lay out the funding stack for the proposed plant. A $770 million federal loan covers only phase one. The bill’s own language says repayment “may be required.” And the Lee County board chair told the Associated Press that Mesabi hadn’t committed to a site. As Durham herself put it, the process “has been anything but normal.”

Another important note: the bill also doesn’t approve the $1.36 billion for the project. Mesabi still has to file a full application, IEDA’s board still has to vote, and a contract still has to be written. That’s where the real terms will live. Whatever lands there becomes the number every future company asks for.

Dawson’s phrase for it: “the ceiling now becomes the floor.”

I came away from Friday thinking this isn’t a fight between jobs and no jobs. It’s about who negotiates for you when the other side has a lobbyist, a White House backdrop, and a governor who wants a win. Dawson argues that Iowa’s side didn’t really show up. If he’s wrong, the contract will say so. If he’s right, we’ll find out in about a decade, when the credits come due.

You’ve made it this far, which means you’re looking to get Election Day ready, and we have the resources you need. Check out your free voter hub today.

And bookmark these stories for a deeper dive into what’s at stake this Nov. 3:

Amid Friday’s Iowa Legislature special session, the House Ethics Committee was divided along party lines on whether to consider an ethics complaint against Rep. Shannon Lundgren (R-Dubuque).

While everyone was watching the steel plant, a smaller vote happened down the hall on Friday.

The Iowa House Ethics Committee split 3-3 on a complaint against Rep. Shannon Lundgren, which means nothing happened. The three Republicans voted to dismiss it. The three Democrats voted to ask the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court to appoint independent counsel. Neither motion got the four votes it needed, so the complaint is stalled. That is more or less the end of the road for complaints like this.

Backstory: The complaint is about a character witness letter Lundgren wrote for a man convicted of lascivious acts with a child.

What stuck with me was the Republican chair’s own words. Rep. Bill Gustoff (R-Des Moines) said Lundgren’s decision “shows poor judgment, I think it’s even improper personally.” Then he said, “there’s no argument of an alleged violation.” Poor judgment and improper, but nothing to act on. Democrats wanted someone outside the committee to look at the communications and who stood to gain, and the committee couldn’t muster the votes to ask.

A separate complaint over the same issue was dismissed unanimously on technical grounds.

After they closed the meeting, I asked Gustoff what became of the now five-month-old complaint against Rep. Jennifer Smith, filed after my reporting on legislative pages and campaign mailers. I have reached out multiple times to him and the House Clerk about its status and received crickets. Gustoff told me the committee lacks jurisdiction over the sections of Iowa Code it cites. He also claimed that they had responded to my emails about Smith, which isn’t true.

So a month out from the election, the complaint about Lundgren’s character witness to a man convicted of lascivious acts with a child is effectively frozen. And it appears the House won’t take steps after one of its members used taxpayer-funded employees for campaign work. Interesting times.

Iowa lost 27-10 to Ohio State on Saturday. 4-1. First loss of the season.

Our team is ranked 18th in the USLBM Coaches Poll, down from 14th. The AP has us ranked 20th.

It was a bad day for quarterback Hank Brown. He went 12-of-27 with two turnovers. The run game didn’t help. And Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith finished with 206 yards and two touchdowns.

Oct. 9, we play at Washington against the Huskies (3-2). Game starts at 8 p.m. CT on FOX or FS1. It’s a good moment for a bounce-back.

I’ll be watching this one with half an eye on the debate coverage (see below).

No mailbag this week. I’m a little beat from the special session. I’ll still aim to answer any questions you have; just send it my way. For more, follow me on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok: @zacharyorensmith.

See you on the trail.

Yours,

Debate season is upon us. This week we’ll hear from the candidates in the governor’s race, the US Senate race, and again from IA-02. I’ll be working on some clips for them. Follow online.

🗓 Oct. 6

Sand/Lahn Debate #1, Iowa Governor, KWQC

🗓 Oct. 7

Turek/Hinson Debate, US Senate, Iowa PBS

🗓 Oct. 8

James/Mitchell Debate, IA-02, Iowa PBS 

🗓 Oct. 13

Hinson/Turek Debate, US Senate, Nexstar Media

🗓 Oct. 14

First Day for Early In-Person & Mail Voting

Sand/Lahn Debate #2, Iowa Governor, KTIV

🗓 Oct. 19

Voter Pre-Registration Deadline

🗓 Oct. 20

Bohannan/Miller-Meeks Debate, IA-01, KWQC/KCRG

🗓 Oct. 21

Sand/Lahn Debate #3, Iowa Governor, Iowa PBS 

🗓 Nov. 3

🗳 Election Day 🗳

Thanks for reading.

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