Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal today named five-term Democratic Senator Matt McCoy as chair of the Commerce Committee. He replaces Swati Dandekar, who resigned on Friday to accept an appointment to the Iowa Utilities Board. If Democrats lose the November special to replace Dandekar, McCoy will likely co-chair the Commerce Committee with a Republican colleague during the 2012 legislative session. Jerry Behn was the ranking GOP senator on the Commerce Committee during this year’s session.

I’ve posted background on McCoy and his senate career after the jump. His position on the nuclear energy bill Dandekar championed is unclear.

The Sierra Club Iowa chapter warned today that Swati Dandekar, Governor Terry Branstad’s choice to fill an Iowa Utilities Board vacancy, “will favor the utilities at the expense of the public interest.” In a statement I’ve posted after the jump, leaders in the Sierra Club chapter cited proposed legislation to promote building new nuclear reactors in Iowa. As chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Dandekar strongly supported that bill during the 2011 legislative session.

Along with the American Association of Retired Persons and the Iowa chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club Iowa members were among the most vocal opponents of the nuclear energy bill. It never came to a vote on the Senate floor after clearing the Iowa House comfortably.

UPDATE: IowaPolitics.com paraphrased AARP Iowa State Director Kent Sovern as saying Dandekar “served her constituents well,” and that the AARP “looks forward to working with the Iowa Utilities Board.”

News broke on Friday that Iowa lost about 2,300 non-farm jobs in August, causing the state’s unemployment rate to rise from 6 percent to 6.1 percent. On the same day, Governor Terry Branstad named 11 voting members of a new Economic Development Authority board. Branstad said the board will “play a large role in promoting Iowa to businesses looking to expand or relocate in Iowa,” with a view to fulfilling his campaign promises to create 200,000 new jobs and raise family incomes by 25 percent.

After the jump I’ve posted some background on the new board, its mission, and the six men and five women Branstad appointed.

All five Iowans in the U.S. House are co-sponsoring a bill that would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “to revise the Missouri River Master Manual to increase the total amount of storage space within the Missouri River Reservoir System that is allocated for flood control.” After the jump I’ve posted more details on that bill and other news about the Iowans in Congress.

The Gannett Corporation’s last round of newsroom layoffs at the Des Moines Register caught my attention immediately, because I’m a daily subscriber. I learned only recently that the Iowa City Press-Citizen was on the receiving end of more Gannett penny-pinching a few weeks ago.  

Democratic State Senator Swati Dandekar is stepping down from the legislature in order to accept an appointment to the Iowa Utilities Board, the Des Moines Register reported today. Her resignation forces a special election this fall in Iowa Senate district 18, which covers suburban and rural areas in Linn County.

Democrats currently hold a 26-24 Iowa Senate majority, so a Republican victory in the special election would deadlock the upper chamber for the 2012 legislative session. Follow me after the jump for a district map and first take on the race to replace Dandekar.

Iowa Department of Transportation officials have asked the Federal Railroad Administration to separate the $230 million federal grant intended to support passenger rail service from Chicago to Iowa City. Separating the funds would allow the Illinois Department of Transportation to move ahead with the Chicago to Moline (Quad Cities) portion of the rail line. Meanwhile, the Iowa DOT will study a potential passenger rail link all the way to Omaha, Nebraska.

UPDATE: Dix quit the race in November 2011, shortly after Republican David Maxwell declared his candidacy in House district 76.

Iowa’s new map of political boundaries created several competitive state House and Senate districts lacking an incumbent. Democrat Rachel Bly and Republican Mark Dix recently announced their candidacies in Iowa House district 76, covering Poweshiek County and most of Iowa County.  

No wonder the economy remains weak: a new U.S. Census Bureau report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage indicates that median wages in 2010 were about 7 percent below the peak level in 1999, and more Americans lived in poverty last year than ever before recorded. Iowa’s poverty rate rose over the last decade, hitting 10.2 percent in 2010. That figure translates to about 310,000 of the state’s 3,046,355 residents living in poverty.

The report’s findings bolster the case for spending more on social programs and undercut the argument for business tax credits as a job creation strategy. In addition, the new census figures show how badly the 1996 federal welfare reform failed to address poverty in this country.

The cesarean section rate in Iowa climbed again to 30.37 percent in 2010, and statistics compiled by the Iowa Department of Public Health showed huge disparities among hospitals in the percentage of live births done surgically.

Former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker joined Texas Governor Rick Perry’s campaign yesterday as Iowa co-chair. He had previously led former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Iowa campaign effort. On Monday Pawlenty endorsed Perry’s leading rival for the Republican nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Whitaker’s partner in the Des Moines law firm Whitaker Hagenow is State Representative Chris Hagenow. He endorsed Pawlenty this summer and hasn’t publicly committed to another candidate yet.

After the jump I’ve posted part of a Perry for president press release with background on nine new staffers just hired to work field. Romney is not investing as much in his campaign’s Iowa ground game as he did before the 2008 caucuses.

Voters across Iowa elected school board members today. I discuss some of the Polk County results after the jump, and I hope Bleeding Heartland readers will share anything interesting that happened in their neck of the woods.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is demanding that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources take steps to reduce fine particulate matter statewide and especially in the Muscatine area, which has long had some of Iowa’s worst air quality.

Particulates contribute to premature deaths and serious heart and lung diseases, not to mention acid rain and other environmental problems. So it’s disappointing to see state officials react to the EPA message with more concern about the polluters than the public’s health.  

Eight Republican presidential candidates will debate for the second time in less than a week tonight at 7 pm central time. I expect former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Representative Ron Paul to have a go at Texas Governor Rick Perry, like they did during last week’s debate. Representative Michele Bachmann has been trying to distinguish herself from Perry too lately. I see the other four candidates mainly fighting not to be ignored by the moderators.

I’ll update this post later, but meanwhile here’s a thread to talk about the debate or the presidential race in general.

UPDATE: First thoughts on the debate and excerpts from the transcript are after the jump.

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for president this morning, trying to set the media agenda as eight Republican candidates prepare to debate in Florida this evening.

UPDATE: Rich Olive withdrew from this race in October 2011.

One of last year’s competitive Iowa Senate races will be replayed in the new Iowa House district 48 in 2012. The swing district is located in the central part of the state, covering part of the area where Republican State Senator Rob Bacon defeated Democrat Rich Olive in 2010.  

I haven’t watched any of the television specials on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, but the attacks have been on my mind this weekend.

Not long ago, Yves Smith predicted that the proposed settlement between large mortgage lenders and state attorneys general was “likely to fall apart.” This week’s developments may prove her right.  

Both of Iowa’s senators voted against the deal to raise the debt ceiling in early August, but only one of them voted last night to block a $500 billion debt ceiling increase, which was part of that agreement.

Earlier on September 8, Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley helped send a patent reform bill to President Barack Obama. The president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have characterized patent reform as a job creation measure. Follow me after the jump for more on yesterday’s Senate votes.

President Barack Obama just made his case for “an American Jobs Act” in a speech to both chambers of Congress. In the usual Obama style, he offered Republicans a lot of compromises, like corporate tax cuts and a tax credit for employers. He argued for a payroll tax cut as well and called on Democrats to support “modest adjustments” to Medicare and Medicaid as well. On the spending side, Obama is seeking more funding for infrastructure, such as repairing roads and bridges and fixing “at least 35,000 schools.”

The full transcript of the president’s speech (as prepared) is after the jump. I’ve also posted some Iowa reaction, and I’ll keep this post updated as other members of Congress weigh in.