Residents of Greene County voted overwhelmingly yesterday to approve a casino proposed for the county seat town of Jefferson. Full unofficial results (pdf) indicate that nearly 57 percent of registered voters cast ballots, which is a phenomenal turnout for a summer election. “Yes” defeated “no” by 2,905 votes to 964 (75 percent to 25 percent). The campaign in Greene County paralleled other Iowa battles over casino proposals. Local political leaders touted the economic development potential. Detractors, particularly in the faith community, warned of hidden social costs associated with gambling.

According to local resident and casino advocate Chuck Offenburger, the case for the gambling referendum rested largely on “the positive impact a similar casino has had in Emmetsburg and Palo Alto County” in northwest Iowa. Wild Rose Entertainment of Des Moines, which operates the Emmetsburg casino, spent about ten times as much money during the referendum campaign as did the “No Casino Greene County” group.

Wild Rose Entertainment was also the corporate entity backing the Norwalk casino project that Warren County residents voted down in May. The “casino as economic development” message wasn’t compelling in rapidly growing Warren County. But the Greene County vote took place against a backdrop of 10 percent population loss in the past decade. As Offenburger wrote recently, “Let’s be honest here, yes, there are a few problems that might come with a casino development and with community growth. But we already know there are a whole lot of problems that definitely come with decline.”

I am skeptical that the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission will approve a casino for Jefferson, given that Greene County is neither close to Iowa’s border with another state nor part of a large metro area lacking a casino (as is the case for Linn County, where voters approved a gambling referendum in March). A study is underway to determine how a new casino in Cedar Rapids, the Des Moines area, or Greene County might affect the 18 existing casinos with state licenses.

Catching up on news from last week, former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus will serve as director of the new Tom Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement at Drake University in Des Moines. The Harkin Institute was originally established at Iowa State University, the senator’s alma mater, but that arrangement fell apart earlier this year. Harkin confirmed in June that he planned to donate his papers to Drake.

In one of the most disappointing election results of my lifetime, a majority of Iowans voted against retaining Ternus and two of her fellow Supreme Court justices in November 2010. She had served on the court for 17 years, the last four as chief justice. Ternus had a “major positive impact” on the justice system during her tenure. Governor Terry Branstad appointed Ternus to the high court but said nothing in her defense as social conservatives trashed her alleged “activism” during the anti-retention campaign.

After the jump I’ve posted Drake University’s announcement of the Ternus appointment as well as her official bio.  

Since the day State Senator Kent Sorenson dumped Michele Bachmann for Ron Paul, Iowa politics watchers have speculated that he was paid well to do so. Earlier this year, news emerged of indirect payments totaling $7,500 per month from entities supporting Bachmann to Sorenson while he chaired her presidential campaign in Iowa. Today The Iowa Republican blog’s publisher Craig Robinson posted e-mails and memos detailing a large “payoff” for Sorenson in exchange for publicly endorsing Paul.

I hope these allegations will generate momentum in the Iowa legislature to prohibit lawmakers from being paid by political campaigns. An ethics investigation of Sorenson is pending, but these rules should be written into state law in my opinion. The integrity of the Iowa caucuses is undermined by the perception that presidential candidates can buy state legislators.

I assume that whoever leaked this information to The Iowa Republican is hoping that Sorenson will either resign or lose in a GOP primary to represent Senate district 13 next year. It’s a district Republicans “should” hold, but Sorenson is surely not the best candidate to accomplish that goal. To my knowledge, no Republican has announced plans to challenge Sorenson in a primary. He has passionate defenders in the social conservative wing, thanks to his uncompromising stance on Medicaid abortion funding, his hostility toward an LGBT youth conference, his support for impeaching Iowa Supreme Court justices and bringing back the death penalty, among other issues.

It’s worth noting that Robinson has never been sympathetic to the Ron Paul faction within the Iowa GOP. His website displayed a strong “Rick Santorum” slant in late 2011 and early 2012. Critics have even accused Robinson of taking money in exchange for promoting a certain angle at The Iowa Republican. Still, today’s post on Sorenson’s “payoff” is a must-read.

EMILY’s List, an organization supporting pro-choice women Democratic candidates, gave its formal endorsement to Staci Appel and five other Congressional today. Appel is challenging ten-term GOP Representative Tom Latham in Iowa’s third district. The endorsement indicates that she will receive some financial support from the EMILY’s List PAC. Appel had already received access to the nationwide network of EMILY’s List individual supporters.

I would guess that today’s endorsement means that Appel’s early fundraising has gone well. EMILY’s List put six Congressional candidates “on the list” in May and gave the same designation to six more candidates (including Appel) last month. Just six of those twelve “on the list” candidates received the group’s full endorsement today.

After the jump I’ve posted the press release from EMILY’s List and the latest voter registration numbers district-wide and for the sixteen counties in IA-03. On paper, it’s a highly competitive seat. Latham tends to outperform the top of the Republican ticket, though, making this an uphill battle for any challenger.

Your unintentional comedy for the week: Republican National Committee and Republican Party of Iowa leaders freaking out over lengthy planned television broadcasts about Hillary Clinton. Republicans now threaten not to co-sponsor any presidential debates with CNN or NBC if those networks move forward with a documentary about the former first lady and secretary of state and a miniseries starring Diane Lane, respectively. The RNC is appalled by the “thinly veiled attempt at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 presidential election,” while the Iowa GOP is upset by the lack of “journalistic integrity.”

What a pathetic display of weakness and hypocrisy.

Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, corporations can make and broadcast movies about political figures, and such activity is not considered “electioneering communication” that must be funded through a registered political action committee (PAC). The Citizens United case arose because of a (very negative) corporate movie about Hillary Clinton. I didn’t agree with or welcome Citizens United, but Republicans were happy to treat corporations as people with unlimited free speech in the political sphere. Who are they to tell CNN and NBC not to make money by airing films that could draw a large potential audience?

I’m old enough to remember when prime-time television about controversial political topics had to be balanced with an opposing point of view. But under the GOP’s sainted President Ronald Reagan, the Federal Communications Commission voted to “abolish its fairness doctrine on the ground that it unconstitutionally restricts the free-speech rights of broadcast journalists.” Democrats didn’t like it, but elections have consequences. As a result, CNN and NBC can air films about any political figure as frequently as they believe they can profit from doing so.

P.S. – RNC Chair Reince Priebus and Iowa GOP Chair A.J. Spiker wouldn’t be making this threat if they believed in GOP talking points about Benghazi or Hillary being “old news.”  

Last week brought a good reminder that state boards and commissions don’t always rubber stamp the governor’s desired policies. Although Governor Terry Branstad has made clear that he wants to push back the start of the K-12 school year in Iowa, the State Board of Education on August 1 voted five to two against a Department of Education proposed rule change. Background and further details are after the jump.

What’s on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers? This is an open thread.

A recent news report brought to my attention research published earlier this year on poor road and bridge conditions in Iowa. The full report by the national non-profit group TRIP is available here (pdf). Excerpts from the conclusions are after the jump. I knew that Iowa was one of the worst states for structurally deficient bridges, and that the Des Moines metro area is one of the country’s worst mid-sized communities on that metric. However, the estimated financial impact of bad roads and bridges on drivers surprised me. I also didn’t know that “poor road conditions are a factor in one-third of all traffic deaths in Iowa.”  

I haven’t seen any official announcement or press release, but State Representative Anesa Kajtazovic has launched an Anesa for Iowa campaign website, as well as a fundraising page for a Congressional campaign on ActBlue. As of Friday evening, her Facebook page features a new photo of an Irish-themed “Anesa Kajtazovic for Congress” logo in honor of the Irish fest scheduled for this weekend in Waterloo.

Kajtazovic is the fifth Democrat seeking the nomination in Iowa’s first district, which Bruce Braley is vacating to run for the U.S. Senate. State Representative Pat Murphy was the first to declare, followed by Cedar Rapids City Council member Monica Vernon, Cedar Rapids attorney Dave O’Brien, and former State Senator Swati Dandekar. 

Bipartisan consensus allowed a group of President Barack Obama’s nominees to be confirmed easily this week, but a Republican filibuster nearly blocked the confirmation of one federal agency head. In addition, Senator Chuck Grassley again pushed back against claims that Republicans have dragged their feet on confirming federal judges during Obama’s presidency.

Details are after the jump.

Shocking news: Iowa House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is resigning from the state legislature to take an unspecified position in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. I’ve posted his announcement after the jump. McCarthy served as House Majority Leader when Democrats controlled the lower chamber from 2007 through 2010 and was elected minority leader soon after the 2010 elections. I thought he would stay in the legislature for the long haul. He original ran for the House in 2000 but relocated from Beaverdale to the south side after losing the Democratic primary to Janet Petersen.

His decision means a special election will come later this year in House district 33, covering parts of south and southeast Des Moines. It’s a safe Democratic seat with nearly 5,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, so the special nominating convention will in effect decide McCarthy’s replacement. UPDATE: Less than an hour after McCarthy’s announcement, the Iowa House Democrats sent out a press release on Karl Schilling’s candidacy for the House district 33 special election. I’ve posted that after the jump.

The 46 remaining House Democrats will also need to elect a new minority leader.  The obvious candidates are the current assistant minority leaders: Ako Abdul-Samad of Des Moines, Mary Mascher of Iowa City, Mark Smith of Marshalltown, and Mary Gaskill of Ottumwa. My guess is that Smith will certainly seek the position. No idea who might challenge him. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Jo Oldson of Des Moines ran against McCarthy for minority leader in 2010.

UPDATE: Oldson’s name was not placed into nomination in 2010.

The rumor mill says that State Representatives Mark Smith and Dave Jacoby are both sounding out colleagues about the leadership post.

It’s been a banner week for State Representative Tyler Olson. Not only did the top two Iowa Senate Democrats both rule out running for governor, Olson gained public support from State Senator Bob Dvorsky. He posted on Facebook last night, “I’m not just endorsing Tyler, but the idea of creating a new vision for Iowa that will lead our state into the next 30 years of innovation and prosperity.” Dvorsky’s wife, Sue Dvorsky, preceded Olson as Iowa Democratic Party chair and “enthusiastically” endorsed his candidacy a few weeks ago. Olson also has the backing of State Senator Janet Petersen, with whom he served in the Iowa House, and State Senator Rob Hogg, whom he has known for the last decade, as well as several Iowa House Democrats.

The endorsements for Olson are a bit awkward for State Senator Jack Hatch, who hasn’t secured the public support of any fellow legislators as he explores a gubernatorial campaign.

I understand jumping on board with a candidate you believe in, but at the same time, I feel that a Democratic establishment stampede to any candidate (as happened with Brad Anderson’s secretary of state campaign) is premature when the field isn’t even set. In addition to Olson and Hatch, former State Representative Bob Krause is running for governor, and State Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald hasn’t ruled out the race. The Iowa Democratic Party would benefit from at least one spirited statewide primary contest next spring, especially since the U.S. Senate race is just a coronation on our side.

Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread. After the jump I’ve posted Olson’s first campaign video, a biographical piece released online last week.  

Less than 24 hours after news broke of Chris Diebel’s candidacy for the Des Moines City Council’s at-large seat, incumbent Skip Moore’s campaign announced the endorsement of the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, “a coalition of 52 local affiliated unions.” Moore was a unionized city employee for many years and had strong backing from organized labor in his successful 2009 campaign.

Diebel is a marketing specialist who worked for several hip downtown Des Moines businesses before becoming a managing partner in LPCA Public Strategies, the public and government relations firm headed by Iowa’s most prominent Democratic consultant, Jeff Link. A former “young professional of the year,” Diebel has volunteered for a wide range of non-profit organizations, including several that will generate support from “upscale” Democrats and Republicans (e.g. Des Moines-Westside Chamber of Commerce, Des Moines Arts Festival).

Local elections tend to have low turnout, and it will be fascinating to see which campaign does a better job of mobilizing supporters: organized labor’s boots on the ground or LPCA’s cutting edge campaign management techniques.

UPDATE: On August 1 the Central Iowa Building & Construction Trades Council became the second large labor group to endorse Moore for re-election. According to a news release, “The council represents 17 local labor unions and over 5,000 skilled union workers in central Iowa.”

This week’s featured wildflower is particularly valuable for insects and birds in prairie habitats, because its leaves hold small pools of water, even long after the flowers are gone. Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) is blooming now in central Iowa. I’ve enclosed several pictures of this striking yellow flower after the jump.

I highly recommend a visit to the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City (Jasper County) at this time of year. Dozens of prairie plants are flowering. It’s a perfect half-day trip.

This is an open thread: all topics welcome.

Kevin Hall reports for The Iowa Republican today that Muscatine County GOP Vice Chair Mark Cisneros plans to run for Iowa House district 91 next year. The seat is open because two-term incumbent Mark Lofgren is running for Congress. I expect House district 91 to be among a dozen or so districts that will determine control of the Iowa House after next year. Click here to view a map and the latest voter registration numbers.

Cisneros moved to Muscatine from California five years ago and owns a local business. According to Hall, former State Senator Jim Hahn “first approached Cisneros about running for the seat two months ago.”

Two other Republicans, Mark LeRette and Emily Lofgren (Mark Lofgren’s daughter) have already announced their candidacies in House district 91. Cisneros told Hall that the primary rivals “will sharpen each other, making the primary winner strong in the general election.”

Two weeks into U.S. Senate leaders’ deal to reduce filibusters against President Barack Obama’s nominees, senators have finally confirmed three members of the National Labor Relations Board. However, Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is not going along with the Senate’s “new normal.”

Iowa Senate President Pam Jochum has decided against running for governor in 2014, she confirmed by telephone yesterday. Although she has been “overwhelmed by encouragement from people” across Iowa, she sad her most important priority is her daughter Sarah. Jochum is the primary caregiver for Sarah, an adult with developmental disabilities, and she decided it would be difficult to balance her daughter’s needs with an “18/7” statewide campaign for governor. Jochum added that she greatly enjoys being president of the Iowa Senate, a position to which she was elected last November.

Similar considerations prompted Jochum to opt out of the first Congressional district race earlier this year. Raising money for a Congressional bid and campaigning across 20 counties would have been almost as time-consuming as running for governor. Jochum is not up for re-election in the Iowa Senate until 2016, and her Dubuque-based district 50 is safe as long as she desires to serve.

Catching up on news from last week, Jake Porter plans a second campaign for Iowa secretary of state on the Libertarian ticket. He received 33,854 votes (about 3 percent of votes cast) as the Libertarian nominee for that office in 2010. Porter’s campaign is on the web here, as well as on Facebook and twitter. I’ve posted his campaign announcement and official bio after the jump. He pledged not to “endorse any political candidate like [current Secretary of State] Matt Schultz did when he supported Rick Santorum for President,” and touted the fact that he is not affiliated with any major political party like Democratic candidate for secretary of state Brad Anderson.

Porter’s bio alludes to experience with political consulting and campaign management. He elaborated by e-mail that he managed Libertarian candidate Eric Cooper’s campaign for Iowa governor in 2010, Bob Barr’s Libertarian presidential campaign in Iowa during the 2008 general election, and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign in Iowa for part of 2011, when Johnson was running as a Republican.

Chris Diebel, considered a possible candidate for the open seat in Iowa Senate district 17, announced today that he will run for the Des Moines City Council at-large seat this November. Diebel told the Des Moines Register, “I’ve spent my career working with small businesses, neighborhood associations and local chambers and I believe it’s the perfect opportunity to take that community involvement to the next level.” He is a managing director for LPCA Public Strategies, more commonly known as Jeff Link’s political consulting firm. After the jump I’ve posted Diebel’s official bio.

Diebel will be competing against Des Moines City Council member Skip Moore, who kicked off his re-election campaign last month. Moore won a tough three-way race for the open at-large seat in 2009. Michael Kiernan had left the position to become chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. In that race, many labor unions endorsed Moore, while his opponents had support from other parts of the political establishment. All three candidates were clustered together on election day, but as a close second, Moore advanced to the runoff against Leisha Barcus. He won the runoff election a few weeks later by 52 percent to 47.5 percent. Moore worked for the city for many years as an arborist before joining the city council. His campaign Facebook page touts his work on behalf of “the residents, the neighborhoods and the working families in our city.” I particularly appreciate his efforts to make Des Moines more bicycle-friendly.

With Diebel out of the running for Senate district 17, the campaign for that heavily Democratic open seat is shaping up to be a clash of two Des Moines south side political titans: Tony Bisignano and Ned Chiodo.  

Governor Terry Branstad’s campaign announced today that it has hired field directors in each of Iowa’s four Congressional districts. I enclose below the press release with background on Matt Leopold, Nic Pottebaum, Kaylee Carnahan, and Jacob Johnson. All four field directors have campaign experience, and all but Carnahan have Iowa campaign experience.

Reading the press release, I was struck by the way the governor’s campaign staff continue to talk about the “Branstad-Reynolds committee” in official communications as well as in less formal settings. The campaign’s registered name is Governor Branstad Committee. Lately Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds has accompanied Branstad to many public events. Traditionally, Iowa’s lieutenant governors have been sent out to handle events the governor could not attend, so that the administration could cover more ground. The “Branstad-Reynolds” team branding effort is one reason some Iowa Democrats suspect that the governor may announce shortly before next year’s filing deadline that he is not running for re-election–clearing a path for Reynolds to step in as the Republican establishment candidate for governor. I expect Branstad to seek a sixth term, barring a serious health problem.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal announced tonight that he will not run for governor in 2014. Gubernatorial candidate Bob Krause tweeted that Gronstal told the audience at the Pottawattamie County annual Democratic fundraiser that his Senate seat is needed to maintain the Democrats’ 26-24 Senate majority. IA-03 Congressional candidate Gabriel De La Cerda also reported Gronstal’s announcement. Gronstal has represented the Council Bluffs area in the Iowa Senate for many years and was just re-elected to another four-year term in 2012. Since he’s not up for re-election in 2014, he could have run for governor without giving up his seat. However, if he became governor a special election would be called in Senate district 8. Republicans hold both of the Iowa House seats in that district.

I am not surprised by Gronstal’s decision. I was more surprised when he said he was seriously considering the race. While I agree he could be a good governor, and other Democrats could be excellent Senate majority leaders, I would be concerned about finding another Democrat who could hol

UPDATE: Gronstal told Radio Iowa’s O.Kay Henderson that he made the decision in the last ten days, adding, “I think Terry Branstad is imminently [eminently] beatable. This is not the same Terry Branstad that was governor back in the ’80s who understood the spirit of compromise, so I think we have a much more ideological governor. I am confident we (Democrats) can find a candidate who will be able to beat him.”

SECOND UPDATE: Gronstal’s official statement is after the jump.