All 40 Iowa House Democrats left the state capitol this morning to protest Republican House leaders’ plans to debate a bill and a proposed constitutional amendment that are among gun advocates’ highest legislative priorities.

UPDATE: Democrats returned late in the day, and I’ve added details below on the House floor debate and passage of both bills the evening of February 29.

The U.S. House voted yesterday to repeal two regulations enacted by the Obama administration’s Department of Education. Bruce Braley (IA-01), Dave Loebsack (IA-02), and Leonard Boswell (IA-03) were among 69 House Democrats who joined a united House GOP caucus in supporting this bill.  

Polls just closed in Michigan and will close in an hour in Arizona. Mitt Romney’s fighting for his political life in the state where his father used to be governor. I cannot believe that someone who’s been in politics as long as Romney says things like my wife “drives a couple of Cadillacs” and “I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners.”

I love how Rick Santorum’s campaign robocalled Michigan Democrats seeking their votes in the primary because Romney opposed the bailout of U.S. automakers. The call didn’t mention that Santorum also has spoken out against that bailout.

I’ll update this post later with results. Meanwhile, any comments about the Republican presidential race are welcome in this thread.

UPDATE: Romney is easily winning Arizona with 49 percent of the votes to 25 percent for Santorum, 16 percent for Newt Gingrich, and 9 percent for Ron Paul. LATER UPDATE: Final Arizona results: Romney 47, Santorum 27, Gingrich 16, Paul 8. Romney gets all 29 delegates from the state.

With about three-quarters of the Michigan votes counted, Romney’s the projected winner with 41 percent to 37 percent for Santorum, 12 percent for Paul, and 7 percent for Gingrich. LATER UPDATE: With almost all the votes in, Romney’s at 41, Santorum 38, Paul 12, Gingrich 7. It’s not clear yet whether Romney or Santorum will win more delegates, which are assigned by Congressional district in Michigan. Exit polls suggest that Romney carried the Catholic vote in Michigan, which means it wasn’t too smart for Santorum to attack JFK during the final week of the campaign.

In a CNN interview, Paul denied that he is “in cahoots” with Romney.  

The Democratic-controlled Iowa Senate passed two bills today favored by corporate agricultural interest groups. House File 589, the notorious “ag gag” bill, seeks to prevent whistleblowers from reporting alleged abuse at agricultural facilities. Senate File 2172 would reduce the number of sows that confined-animal feeding operations need to report for manure management purposes. Details on the bills and how senators voted are after the jump.

UPDATE: Bypassing normal legislative procedures, the Republican-controlled Iowa House also passed the “ag gag” bill on February 28. Scroll down for details on how the state representatives voted.  

Republicans have recruited a strong candidate for the open Iowa House district 14, which covers most of Sioux City’s west side, part of the north side and some of the downtown neighborhood.

Des Moines was second only to Washington, DC in the latest Forbes magazine report on the best cities for high-paying jobs.

A majority of Iowans oppose a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, according to the Des Moines Register’s latest statewide poll.

Christie Vilsack toured Iowa’s new fourth Congressional district late last week to roll out an energy plan “geared towards bringing a new prosperity to Iowa’s small cities and rural communities by creating layers of economic opportunity.”

The five-point plan is more of a political statement than a detailed policy document. Like some of Vilsack’s previous proposals, it embraces some Republican talking points.

Upon closer examination, the energy plan looks like two parts bipartisan no-brainers, two parts conservative buzzwords, and one part fairy dust.

Catching up on some news from last week, President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign named Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller as one of 35 national co-chairs. The only other state attorney general on the list is Kamala Harris of California. After making a show of abandoning Miller’s working group on foreclosure fraud last year, she eventually signed on to the settlement reached with five major lenders earlier this month.

In a press release, Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina predicted that the national co-chairs “will be tremendous assets on the ground as we build the biggest grassroots campaign in history.” I wouldn’t count on much help from Miller there. His 2010 re-election campaign had no grassroots operation whatsoever. He didn’t even have a campaign website up until September of the election year, and his first advertising appeared a few weeks before the election.

The Obama campaign is hiring organizers for the spring, summer, and fall in Iowa and many other states. I am seeking comment about where the organizers will be assigned to work in Iowa. CORRECTION: Bleeding Heartland user albert point out in the comments that this listing is for unpaid internships. My understanding is that the Obama campaign is also hiring paid field organizers for Iowa,  and I will update this post with further details when available.

Every year as International Women’s Day approaches, the Democratic Activist Women’s Network recognizes women who have excelled in Iowa politics. This week DAWN’s List announced the 2012 award-winners who will be honored at a reception in Des Moines on March 4. Event details are after the jump, along with the list of honorees for the Women’s Appreciation Day Reception.

On International Women’s Day itself (March 8), the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Des Moines, Sisters on the Planet Ambassadors, and the Iowa Oxfam Action Corps are hosting a potluck, speaker, and movie screening at the Thoreau Center, 3500 Kingman Blvd in Des Moines, from 5:00pm to 7:30pm.

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

UPDATE: Over at the Essential Estrogen blog, Lynda Waddington reviewed what the four Republican women in the Iowa Senate have been doing this session.

The U.S. Postal Service announced yesterday that it will keep mail processing facilities in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids open, saving hundreds of jobs.

Longtime Iowa Republican consultant Nick Ryan created the Red, White and Blue super-PAC a few months ago to support Rick Santorum’s presidential bid. This week news emerged that the super-PAC has been a huge gravy train for a brand-new company Ryan owns.

In related news, the Federal Election Commission is seeking further information on more than $300,000 Newt Gingrich has received from his own presidential campaign as reimbursements for unitemized expenses.

The number of Iowa children living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty more than doubled over the last decade, according to a new report.

Northeast Iowa contains a large number of potentially competitive Iowa House and Senate seats. The field is now set in the new House district 56, where a first-term Republican will face a Democratic challenger with a similar background.

Tonight the four remaining Republican candidates for president take the stage in Mesa, Arizona, for the final debate before super Tuesday. CNN will broadcast the debate starting at 7 pm central time. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are under the most pressure to dent Rick Santorum’s momentum. Based on the last few debates, I expect Ron Paul to take more shots at Gingrich and Santorum than at Romney.

Any comments about the GOP presidential race are welcome in this thread. I’ll update the post later.

UPDATE: That debate wasn’t very interesting. Romney seemed to do a little better than Santorum, but I didn’t think anyone was on top form. Paul went after Santorum and mostly left Romney alone. Gingrich absurdly promised $2.50/gallon gasoline. I posted some excerpts from the CNN transcript after the jump.

The Iowa Supreme Court held an unusual evening session on February 21 to hear oral arguments in Governor Terry Branstad’s appeal of a district court ruling that declared two of his line-item vetoes illegal.

The Des Moines Register’s latest statewide poll conducted by Selzer & Co included more than a dozen questions about issues Iowa legislators are considering this session. Proposals to raise the gasoline tax and allow a large utility company to bill its customers up front for a nuclear power plant were among the most unpopular ideas polled.

The list of potentially competitive Iowa House districts without a Democratic candidate shrank yesterday when the chair of the Muscatine Community College Business Department, John Dabeet, announced that he’ll stand in the new Iowa House district 91.

A recent DMR article highlighted the growing scam of for-profit corporations using tax dollars to provide substandard education via online learning.

Two companies are advertising on television in Iowa to have parents sign up their children for “free” online education (at public expense.) The companies, K12 Inc, and the Iowa Connections Academy, are exploiting a loophole in Iowa's open enrollment law. Two small school districts have signed agreements with the companies. Parents from anywhere in the state can open-enroll their children to one of those districts. The districts then will turn in their enrollment to the state and receive state money as if the students were enrolled full time in the district. Ninety-seven percent of the state money is then passed along to the companies. The students will receive 100% of their “education” online. 

Nine-term Republican Representative Tom Latham started running a new television commercial in Iowa’s new third Congressional district last week. The spot is a response to a negative commercial that the House Majority PAC is running against Latham. Within days, that Democratic super-PAC responded with yet another ad about Latham. Follow me after the jump for videos and transcripts.