Last weekend I wrote that Des Moines City Council member Chris Coleman should have disclosed his business relationship with Ed Boesen before voting to approve an urban renewal district encompassing part of Beaverdale. Boesen was an investor in a development project for Rice field, which could qualify for tax breaks because of the urban renewal area.

Coleman initially said he saw no need to disclose his business relationship with Boesen, because the “CoBo” partnership had supposedly ended years ago.

But in an interview with the Des Moines Register, Coleman now says Boesen owed him $20,000 at the time of the key City Council votes:

Coleman today acknowledged Boesen owed him money even as the councilman voted three times in 2007 in support of Boesen’s Rice Development Partners $11.6 million Beaverdale project.

“I don’t think that the appearance of a conflict (of interests) means there is a conflict,” Coleman told the Register today. “It is two different things. I didn’t in any way feel that it was in any way tied to the Rice project.”

Coleman also acknowledged to the Register that he had a second business relationship with Boesen, in addition to a partnership called CoBo Investments that was formed in 1998.

Coleman sold a Beaverdale home on 49th Street to a Boesen-managed company in January – two months after the final vote on Rice Development Partners’ project – for nearly twice the current assessed value of the property.

But Coleman said he did not receive all of his proceeds from the sale of the house on 49th Street or from the 2005 duplex sale by CoBo Investments because Boesen did not fully pay him for either transaction.

Let me spell out to Coleman why there was a conflict of interest. If someone owes you money, you might have an interest in helping that person make a profit on some other project, because that might increase the chance that you’d get paid back.

In addition, it looks very bad for Boesen to be buying property from a City Council member shortly after the Beaverdale votes, especially for twice the assessed value of that property.

The fact that Coleman never received the full proceeds from the house sale makes no difference. Presumably he was expecting to receive that money.

This situation warrants further investigation.

Boesen’s death last month has been ruled a suicide. Several creditors are suing his estate. It is not clear whether his business partners will be able to go ahead with the Rice field project.

Do you think a University of Iowa professor could explicitly ask students to expose their breasts in exchange for better grades without being reported almost immediately?

I don’t pretend to be any kind of medical expert, but upon reading this story my first thought was that Professor Arthur Miller might be going through early-stage dementia, which can manifest in inappropriate sexual behavior.

It’s amazing that a longtime professor would send students e-mails asking them to show him their breasts. (CORRECTION: It appears he used vague language in the e-mails rather than directly asking students to take off their clothes.) It seems that the university would have booted him long ago if he had a history of doing that. What do you think?

UPDATE: Some of you disagree with me in the comments. I think we will soon find out if Miller had a long pattern of this behavior, because if so, women who took his classes within the past 10 to 20 years will start coming forward.

Last week Becky Greenwald challenged Representative Tom Latham to five debates, including four this month when he is in Iowa for the summer recess.

The Iowa Farmers Union invited both candidates to debate at its annual conference in Marshalltown. Although Latham has already agreed to attend that event on August 23, he is refusing to debate Greenwald there. A statement from the Greenwald campaign calling on Latham to reconsider is after the jump.

I’m with former Congressman Berkley Bedell, who represented Iowa’s sixth district from 1975 to 1987. He wrote recently in the Sioux City Journal, “I never gave it a second thought as to whether or not I would debate in elections. As leader of the team, of course I debated any opponent.”

Bedell was commenting on Steve King’s refusal to debate his challenger, Rob Hubler, but his point applies to Latham as well.

This month would be a good time for an activist to rent a chicken suit and show up at Latham’s public events around the fourth district.

John McCain’s commercials seek to plant doubt about whether Barack Obama is “ready to lead,” but some seasoned moderate Republicans aren’t fooled. Former Congressman Jim Leach was among the prominent figures who formed “Republicans for Obama” today. A press release from the Obama campaign in Iowa is after the jump. Key excerpt:

“I have no doubt that Barack Obama’s leadership is the leadership we need and that the world is crying out for,” said Leach. “Barack Obama’s platform is a call for change, but the change that he is so gracefully articulating is more renewal than departure.  It is rooted in very old American values that are as much a part of the Republican as the Democratic tradition. There’s an emphasis on individual rights, fairness and balance at home and progressive internationalism.”

You can download the Republicans for Obama conference call here.

The Associated Press has more on Leach’s endorsement:

Leach predicted that many Republicans and independents would be attracted by Obama’s campaign but said his decision to endorse a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time wasn’t easy. […]

“For me, the national interest comes before party concerns, particularly internationally,” said Leach, who has long been an opponent of the war in Iraq.

“We do need a new direction in American policy, and Obama has a sense of that,” he said. “He recognizes that a long-term occupation of Iraq is not only expensive, it’s extremely dangerous to the American interests.”

[…]

Many Republicans argue that GOP candidate John McCain has an edge when the debate turns to foreign policy because of his long experience in dealing with such issues and his record as a career military officer and prisoner of war.

“There’s a distinction between trumpeting issues and realistically looking at effectiveness,” Leach said. “I have never known a time period where the American brand has been in less repair.”

David Yepsen recently opined that “it’s too early to count out McCain” in Iowa, but I see little reason to keep Iowa in the swing state column.

McCain has trailed Obama in every Iowa poll and will be unable to compete with Obama’s ground game here. Now he won’t even have the respected moderate Leach to help him in vote-rich eastern Iowa.

John Deeth has several Republican reactions to Leach’s endorsement of Obama. I had to laugh reading comments that cited this as evidence that GOP moderates are “far to the left” or that conservatives were right to lose faith in Leach.

Memo to Republicans: if Leach were an isolated case, your party wouldn’t be getting crushed by the Democrats in voter registration:

None of the states viewed early this year as competitive in the presidential campaign has swung more decisively than Iowa since Bush’s re-election, based on a comparison of voter registration statistics. […]

In Iowa, the number of registered Democrats has increased 16 percent since mid-2004, according to statistics from the Iowa secretary of state.

Trailing Republicans by roughly 8,000 in the summer before the 2004 election, registered Democrats now outnumber them by more than 90,000, according to statistics reflecting changes in July.

GOP leaders would do well to ask themselves why they have lost so much ground to Democrats. But if they’d rather discount Leach as less than a real Republican, that’s fine with me.

Rob Hubler, Democratic candidate for Congress in the fifth district, will speak at the Iowa State Fair on Wednesday, August 13. You can catch him at the Des Moines Register’s soap box on the Grand Concourse at 2:30 pm. According to an e-mail I received from the campaign, “Rob will be talking about our changing energy needs, his plan to strengthen our economy, and our continuing commitment to our veterans.”

The e-mail adds:

If you can’t be there in person join us by listening to Rob at 11 o’clock [on August 13] on Jan Michelson’s radio show on WHO-1040AM broadcast live from the State Fair.

I won’t be at the fair on Wednesday, and I may not be near a radio that morning, but I want to welcome Hubler to Des Moines by reminding Bleeding Heartland readers of five things you can do to help him send Steve King into early retirement.

1. Donate to his campaign. King has more money than Hubler, as most incumbents do, but his cash on hand as of June 30 was only about $243,000–hardly an intimidating war chest by Congressional standards. The grassroots should be able to help Hubler narrow the money gap substantially.

2. Sign up for one of the 11 canvasses Hubler’s campaign is organizing for this Sunday, August 17:

Sunday marks our first large door-to-door operation and we need your help to talk to friends and neighbors about Rob’s vision for the future.  Nothing is more effective than having a neighbor drop-by their door with a piece of literature about Rob.  King will be pushing the same tired messages- but with your help we can show Iowa that there is a clear choice in this election and that Rob Hubler is the candidate who will best represent us in Washington; but we can’t win without your help!

Please contact Beth at our Council Bluffs office (712) 352-2077 or email her at beth@hublercongress.com to meet up with supporters near you. Don’t forget to bring two friends to join you!

We will be having canvass parties in the following towns:

Council Bluffs                                   Creston              

Clarinda                                           Sioux City

Spencer                                           Spirit Lake

Onawa                                             Storm Lake

Le Mars                                           Lamoni

Carroll

If you don’t see your town listed, we will be coming your way soon; contact us to help set up a joint canvas in your area.

I just came across this research paper on why canvassing is such an effective tool for reaching voters. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but it looks interesting.

Incidentally, Hubler will be at AtlanticFest this Saturday, August 16, so spread the word if you have friends or family nearby.

3. Kick in a few more bucks to Hubler’s campaign.

Every dollar you give now is worth several dollars in October. Even if you gave recently, can you afford another ten bucks?

$10 buys a canvass packet (clipboard, literature, etc) that volunteers need to get Rob’s message to voters.

4. Keep your eye and your camera on Steve King. Douglas Burns listed King’s town hall meeting schedule at Iowa Independent. Click the link for details about events in Sioux Center and Sioux City on August 15, Council Bluffs, Red Oak, Creston and Denison on August 19, and Spencer and Storm Lake on August 22.

August 11 marked two years since the notorious “Macaca moment”, which started to turn the tide against Virginia Senator George Allen in his race against Jim Webb. It couldn’t have happened if S.R. Sidarth hadn’t caught Allen on tape trying to bully and humiliate him with a racist slur.

The “Macaca” story launched a media narrative about Allen’s racial insensitivity, and blogger Mike Stark pushed the ball further down the field a couple of weeks later by shouting out a question no journalist would have dared to ask the senator (click the link for details). The Allen campaign’s denials led to a wave of news reports about the way Allen had casually used racial slurs before holding public office.

We all know King likes to shoot off his mouth. He appears to be incapable of feeling embarrassed by his ravings, but the broader public may not be so forgiving.

If you don’t have a camera, ask to borrow a friend’s camera or simply go and take detailed notes of any offensive comments. (You might need a large sheet of paper.)

5. Talk a few friends or relatives into donating to Hubler’s campaign. Tell them about this race and send them the link to Hubler’s website. We’ve got a strong candidate and need to get more Democrats engaged in the fifth district contest.

The Obama campaign is officially launching field offices in six small towns today, and Senator Tom Harkin is speaking with reporters by conference call about the Obama campaign’s rural outreach. In addition,

the Obama Iowa Campaign for Change is kicking off its series of Rural Roundtable Discussions in Washington and Algona [on August 12]. To find out more, please visit: http://ia.barackobama.com/IAru… To read Senator Obama’s comprehensive plan to strengthen rural America, please visit: http://www.barackobama.com/iss…

The new offices are located in Carroll, Grinnell, Indianola, Iowa Falls, Muscatine and Spencer. They bring the number of Obama field offices in Iowa to 26 (including two in Des Moines).

Since the first wave of office launches last month, field offices have been opened in West Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Creston and Tipton, as well as in the small towns being highlighted in today’s conference call. A press release from the campaign states that four more field offices will open next week but does not say where.

Note that many of Obama’s offices are located in battleground House and Senate districts. For instance, the Grinnell office is in House district 75 and Senate district 38. Iowa Falls is in House district 44 and Senate district 22. The West Des Moines office could help in House district 59.

I am still unclear on what, if anything, staffers in Obama field offices will be doing for the down-ticket candidates. For instance, I don’t know whether voter IDs on candidates other than Obama are being collected, and I don’t know whether there are plans for phone bankers and canvassers to mention the statehouse and Congressional races in their voter contacts. There is a danger that Obama’s GOTV will mobilize supporters who either leave the down-ticket ballot lines blank or (even worse) vote Republican down-ticket.

If you are volunteering in one of Obama’s field offices, I’d love to hear from you about any efforts related to the Congressional or statehouse races. You can either post a diary or a comment on this blog, or send me a confidential e-mail (desmoinesdem AT yahoo.com).

After the jump, I put a press release announcing today’s office openings as well as a full list of Obama’s Iowa field offices, along with their addresses and phone numbers (if available). I added the name of the county and the Congressional district where each office is located.

By the way, the Iowa page of John McCain’s official campaign website now lists six offices: a state headquarters in Urbandale (which is also a field office covering southeast Iowa), Council Bluffs, Ames, Davenport, Dubuque, and Marion (suburb of Cedar Rapids). I don’t know how many more McCain field offices are planned, if any.

This came through from Becky Greenwald’s campaign today:

Waukee, IA – General Wesley Clark announced today he is endorsing Becky Greenwald for Congress. Greenwald is the Democratic candidate for Congress in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.

In announcing his endorsement, Clark noted Greenwald’s experience caring for Vietnam War veterans and strong commitment to bringing the troops home from Iraq.

“I’m endorsing Becky for Congress because her experience with the American Red Cross assisting wounded veterans returning home from the Vietnam War has shaped her strong commitment to our nation’s veterans,” said General Wesley Clark.

Tom Latham has voted to cut billions from Veterans programs in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. (HCR 95, Vote #78, 3/20/03)

“George Bush and Tom Latham have for too long cut funding for our troops returning from Iraq, and we need Becky in Congress to be a voice for our soldiers,” said General Clark.

Becky’s first job out was of college with the American Red Cross helping military dependents and wounded Veterans returning from Vietnam adjust to a life with injury and the scars of war.  She worked at Wilford Medical Center, the largest Air Force Hospital in the country. This experience has shaped her views and left her with an unyielding commitment to keeping the promises we have made to our troops.  

Becky supports a phased withdrawal from Iraq and is committed to bringing our troops home in a swift and safe fashion.  She supports a timeline for withdrawal that will maintain the safety and well-being of our troops.

“General Clark’s patriotism and service to our country is unmatched,” said Becky Greenwald. “I am honored to have his endorsement.”

I hope Clark will come to Iowa sometime this fall to campaign with our good Democratic candidates. He was one of the most sought-after surrogates during the 2006 Congressional elections.

Republicans like Tom Latham need to be held accountable for their voting records. Too often, the Republican leadership and its loyal foot soldiers have reduced spending on important services to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

Latham’s frequent support for blank checks to fund the war in Iraq also need to be an issue in this campaign. A timeline for a phased withdrawal of our troops is entirely appropriate.

82% of Americans think our health care system needs a “major overhaul.” On top of that, over 90% of Americans [pdf] think the next President and Congress should improve the quality and affordability of health care.

With the worsening economy continuing to be the top issue for most Americans, this hope for change isn't hard to understand. American health care spending is projected to reach a full 1/5th of our GDP by 2015, which means by then, we'll be spending twenty cents of every dollar we make on health care. Health care premiums have risen 86% between 2000 and 2006 while wages only rose 20%, putting the strain on working families. Health care costs continue to be the #1 cause of bankruptcy in America.

Americans are paying $217 million for health care per hour. Meanwhile, insurance industry profits have risen 1,000% in the past five years.

According the to Government Accountability Office, health care reform is necessary to keep our country on the right track:

“Rapidly rising health care costs are not simply a federal budget problem,” the GAO report says. “Growth in health-related spending is the primary driver of the fiscal challenges facing state and local governments as well. Unsustainable growth in health care spending also threatens to erode the ability of employers to provide coverage to their workers and undercuts their ability to compete in a global marketplace.”

Quite simply, with rising health care costs (including $50 billion per year to pay for insurance industry advertising) being born out by working families and American businesses, health care is a top economic concern. To keep American workers at their best, and to keep American business competitive in the world, something has to change.

Nancy Pelosi has recently declared health care expansion to be #2 on her list of legislative priorities, right after ending the Iraq war. In the past month, tens of thousands of Americans have told us they want quality, affordable health care for all. Now it's time to ask Congress.

So, Congress, which side are you on? Are you with us for quality, affordable health care for all? Or are you with the insurance companies, working to preserve our broken system?

We've set up a quick and easy way for you to contact your Members of Congress and ask them if they support our vision for health care reform. Just click here and enter in your phone number and address. Choose the elected official you want to talk to and in a few moments, we'll call your phone and connect you automatically.

Over the next few weeks, we want to make 100,000 calls to Congress, asking every Member which side they are on. We need your help to do it, so please click here to call!

Once your done with your call, tell us what happened so we can keep track of where Congress stands. As of today, we're proud to announce Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), are with us. The rest, so far, are unknown. You can see the full list here.

Health care is a priority for the American people. It's a priority for Nancy Pelosi. It's up to us to make sure it's a priority for Congress as well. Please take a moment, call your Members of Congress, and ask them which side they are on.

Oh, and if you have a blog or website, you can help spread the word about this campaign by embedding the widget you see above on your site. Just copy and paste the code here.

Like many people who volunteered for John Edwards last year, I’ve been working through conflicting feelings this weekend.

Natasha Chart voiced some of my frustration in this piece about our ridiculous standards of public morality. Ethical lapses that affect the lives of thousands or millions of people are not career-enders for politicians, but marital infidelity is supposed to be–if you’re a Democrat. Once again, it’s ok if you’re a Republican.

Many Edwards supporters are angry about the publicity surrounding this story. It’s infuriating to see journalists more interested in Edwards now that he has admitted to an affair than they were when he was a presidential candidate talking about substantive issues.

David Mizner loathes the “American sickness” of needing to know about the sex lives of politicians, adding:

I supported Edwards not because I loved him and not because I thought he had sex with only his wife. I supported him because I believe in progressive populism.

Many bloggers I respect, from TomP to MontanaMaven and RDemocrat made similar comments on Friday. After all, we were backing Edwards for president, not husband of the year.

Ellinorianne put it well:

What John did in 2006 has no bearing on Universal Health Care.  What happened in 2006 does not make poverty in this County any less of an urgent issue.  The corporate media would love to believe that what John did in 2006 would mean one less powerful voice talking about the strangle hold that corporations have on every facet of our lives in this Country.

Nothing can take away from these issues unless we let it happen.

On one level, I relate to what Ellinorianne wrote, because Edwards undoubtedly put topics on the agenda that would barely have been discussed had he not run for president. While he was in the race, at least one candidate was talking about the excesses of corporate power. After he dropped out, that issue disappeared from political discourse.

For that reason, I never regretted the time I spent volunteering for Edwards. Of course, I was sorry that Iowans did not give him the boost he needed in the caucuses. I was disappointed that I failed to deliver a third delegate for him from my own precinct. But watching the campaign devolve into identity politics in February and March, I was more convinced than ever that helping this longshot candidate was worth the effort.

These past few weeks have caused me to question for the first time whether I would back Edwards if I had it to do over again. Edwards’ policies and rhetoric were a necessary condition for my support, but they would not have been sufficient had I not also believed that he was the strongest general election candidate. Otherwise I could have backed Dennis Kucinich, who was even closer to me ideologically than Edwards.

Here and at other blogs, I advocated for Edwards as the most electable candidate because of his communication skills, his appeal to small-town and rural voters, his way of evoking broad themes in his answers to specific questions, and so on.

Speaking to potential caucus-goers, I often noted that Edwards had faced intense national scrutiny for years, making it unlikely that the Republicans could spring any “October surprise” on us.

Now I realize that the whole time, Edwards was hiding a story that would have reinforced the most devastating narrative about him: he’s a phony who talks about one set of values but lives a different set of values.

How damaging was this narrative? Last year I used to joke that if I ever came into possession of a time machine, I would go back and persuade John Edwards to hire Sarah Susanka (the Not So Big House woman) to design his Chapel Hill home.

It appears that Edwards had no game plan other than to hope that Rielle Hunter wouldn’t tell anyone and/or that journalists wouldn’t pick up on the rumors as long as he lied.

I empathize with Elizabeth Edwards, who wrote on Friday:

This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well.

I agree with BruceMcF, who observed that our country would have lost a great leader if sexual immorality had ended Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s career.

But presidential candidates have to run in the world that is, not the world that used to be or the world that should be. I simply can’t imagine how this affair could have remained under wraps throughout a long campaign.

To my mind, Edwards owed it to all Democrats to either step aside or find some way to make this story old news. I understand the desire to avoid a media circus, but it wasn’t realistic to hope that journalists would cover for him or that Hunter would keep a secret.

Responding to a commenter at Daily Kos, Elizabeth Edwards wrote on Friday:

Each of us has a day we wish we could take back. We are all imperfect beings, Denny. Here’s what I know, looking back: poverty, a truly aggressive and progressive environmental platform, universal health care would not have been part of the discussion if someone of force and vision had not been there to make them part of the conversation.

An imperfect man with a truly progressive vision who spoke to and for those whom others ignored? Yes, that is who I supported.

An imperfect man who had come to face his own imperfections and was seeking to redeem himself to those closest to him? Yes, that is who I supported.

With the Supreme Court and so much more riding on the outcome of this election, helping someone redeem himself to his family is not high on my priority list. Ultimately, I have to agree with Ezra Klein:

No one forces you to devote your life to national advocacy of important issues. But if you decide to do follow that path, with all the plaudits and moments of roaring applause it entails, you have to make certain sacrifices, and shoulder certain realities. Among them is that if you falter, you can harm all that you’re advocating and deny help to all whom you claim to represent.

If Edwards wanted to face his imperfections, he should have found some vague way to disclose marital problems that he and Elizabeth had worked through. Let voters decide whether that should be a deal-breaker or whether his potential contribution to American life outweighs the mistake.

If he could not bear to get ahead of the story, the least he could have done was to tell the truth when first asked about rumors of his affair. DrFrankLives (who has devoted far more volunteer hours to Edwards than I have) hit the nail on the head in this diary:

I want to know two things.  How the hell could you, a man who ran everything through a careful filter, allow that to happen during a political campaign in which so many people had so much riding on you?  And what the hell were you thinking when you denied it when asked about it?  You’re a lawyer.  You know that questions keep coming.  And nothing delights a cross-examiner like a false answer.

Which candidate would I have supported knowing what I know now? Probably I would have held out for Al Gore for a few more months. Maybe I would have settled on Chris Dodd or Joe Biden. Neither of them were as strong on my key issues as Edwards, though. I suspect that I would have come around to Edwards eventually if the affair had been revealed early in the campaign. It wouldn’t be the first time I voted for someone who was unfaithful to his wife.

Had I known that Edwards was recklessly hiding a story with the potential to destroy his campaign, I would have found a different candidate for sure.

What makes me more angry than anything else is that this scandal appears to have derailed Elizabeth Edwards’ plans to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. We need her voice on health care reform.

Feel free to share your own reflections in the comments.

As always, post a comment if you know of any important event I have left out.

Democratic candidates, send me your public schedules (desmoinesdem AT yahoo.com) so I can include your events on my calendar.

I have included notices about public meetings convened by the Rebuild Iowa Office, but note that  you can give your feedback in person any day at the Iowa State Fair:

The Rebuild Iowa Office will have representatives at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines to answer questions and hear Iowans’ concerns and ideas as the state moves forward with flood recovery. RIO representatives will greet Iowans alongside members of the Governor’s Office staff at the Governor’s Office booth, located in the center of the Varied Industries Building on the main concourse.

Iowans can also go online and submit their ideas at the Rebuild Iowa Office Web site (www.rio.iowa.gov) or call the RIO office at (515) 242-5004. […]

The RIO and Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission were established by Executive Order after the Flood of 2008. RIAC is a 15-person, bipartisan commission whose members chair nine task forces focused on specific issues that will develop further recommendations to support the state’s strategic recovery and rebuilding process. The Commission reports to the Lt. Governor. Major General Ron Dardis, adjutant general of the  Iowa National Guard serves as the Commission’s chairman. The RIO coordinates all state recovery activities.

Iowans can fill out “Speak up Iowa!” surveys at the RIO/Governor’s Office booth. “Speak Up Iowa!” input sessions are taking place across the state and were created to initiate dialogue on the major issues facing the State of Iowa and provide an opportunity for official public and community involvement, with specific focus on gaining input for the RIAC 45-day Report due Sept. 2, 2008. “Speak Up Iowa!” allows residents the opportunity to voice their ideas and desires regarding the long-term recovery of their communities.

Now, on to the rest of the calendar.

Sunday, August 10:

There’s a fundraiser for Rob Hubler in Carroll, which former Governor Tom Vilsack will attend. Reception starts at 6pm; dinner at 7pm. Crossroads Bistro, 12012 Hwy 71 in Carroll. To RSVP for this event, please call the Hubler campaign headquarters: 712-352-2077.

Monday, August 11:

The Rebuild Iowa Office is holding its third “Speak Up Iowa!” public input session at the Red Coach Inn, Banquet Rooms 2 and 4, 1200 Senate Avenue in Red Oak, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, August 12:

The Rebuild Iowa Office is holding its fourth “Speak Up Iowa!” public input session at the Iowa Central Community College Career Education Building (Rooms 108 and 110), 330 Ave. M in Fort Dodge from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

It’s the last day to reserve a spot at the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa’s Crossroad lunch event, which will take place on Friday, August 15. (see below for more details). For more information or to make a reservation, call (515) 279-8715 or email tiaiowa@dwx.com.

Tom Harkin is attending a fundraising reception and private classic car display in Ankeny hosted by Dennis Albaugh at 5:30 pm. The evening promises to be a fun one with over 120 classic Chevrolets for you to view.  For full details of this great event please click here.

One Iowa is holding its “Coffee House/Happy Hour” at Ritual Cafe, a time to meet like-minded friends and relax in a welcoming atmosphere, from 5:00 pm to 6:45 pm. At One  Iowa , we believe all families should have equal protections and responsibilities; the way to achieve this is through marriage.  As we continue our work toward Marriage Equality, this month Phyllis Stevens will talk about the Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights events going on in September. Ritual Cafe, located on 13th Street between Grand and Locust in downtown Des Moines, is an LGBT-operated coffee shop and cafe offering “really great coffee and food” in an open and affirming place. For questions, please contact One Iowa at (515)288-4019, or you can visit our web site at www.oneiowa.org.

State Representative Bruce Hunter (House district 62) is holding his Re-Election Kickoff and fourth annual Hunter house party, with special guest Michael Mauro, Iowa Secretary of State. The party will take place on Tuesday from 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. at the home of Bruce Hunter & Betty Brim-Hunter, 452 Wilmers Avenue, Des Moines. Suggested donation $25. Please Make Checks Payable To The Committee To Elect Bruce Hunter.

The Des Moines Business Record is honoring this year’s “women of influence” at a reception on August 12 from 4:30 to 7:30 pm (honors presentation at 5:00) at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown. You can register for the event, which costs $25 to attend, at http://www.businessrecord.com. The honorees are:

Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu

Former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell

Des Moines attorney Lori Chesser

Community volunteer Sheila Drevyanko

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage employee Cara Heiden

Iowa Environmental Protection Commissioner and philanthropist Charlotte Hubbell

Community activist Willie Glanton

Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge

West Des Moines City Council member Loretta Sieman

The woman business owner of the year is Sarah Grant of Sticks.

Wednesday, August 13:

From the Iowa Power Fund:

(DES MOINES)- The Iowa Power Fund board of directors will hold three of its monthly meetings in locations around the state with the second meeting being held on Wednesday, August 13 in Algona.  This meeting, as well as the last summer meeting of the Power Fund directors, will be followed by an evening public forum on energy issues.

The August 13 meeting of the Power Fund directors will be held at 10:00 a.m. at the Water’s Edge  Nature Center, 1010 250th, Algona.  The meeting will include presentations by seven applicants for funding.  They will include: Soy Energy, LLC – Biodiesel Plant at Marcus using PEF Pellet Boiler; Carbon-Free Energy, LLC – Vertical Wind Turbine Manufacturer; The cornerstone BRAD, LLC managed by Bison Renewable Energy, LLC; Indigo Dawn, LLC – Green & Main, Integrating Efficiencies into a Historic Mix; I-Renew – Energy and sustainability EXPO; TPI Iowa LLC – TPI Wind Blade Advanced Manufacturing Initiative; Prairie Land Enterprises L.C – Switchgrass.

The evening public forum is the second in a series of six annual forums hosted by the Office of Energy Independence. The energy forum in Algona will also be held at the Water’s Edge Nature Center and will begin at 6:30 p.m.

From 1000 Friends of Iowa:

NW 26th Street Public Input Meeting

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Central Senior Center

2008 Forest Ave.

Des Moines, IA 50311

Commonly known as the MLK Parkway Extension, Polk County and other leaders are now calling this project the “NW 26th Street” project. This proposal consists of

   * Reconstruction of NW 26th Street to a 4-lane facility between IA 415 and I 35/80

   * Construction of a new interchange at I-35/80 and NW 26th Street, and

   * Construction of a new four-lane roadway on new alignment from near Euclid Ave/U.S. 6 and MLK Jr Parkway and the proposed NW 26th St interchange

This will be an open house with some audio/visual presentations, and held by Snyder and Associates, the engineering firm doing the study for Polk County. This will be a meeting to provide an update on the study and collect input on proposed alternative locations for the project, including possible expansion of existing streets in Des Moines like Beaver Avenue and 6th Avenue. Another alternative presented for public comments is for expansion of transit services in the metro area to prevent congestion in the future.

This meeting is a part of the Environmental Impact Statement, a federally required evaluation for a project that has extensive environmental impacts.

Thursday, August 14:

Congressman Leonard Boswell, who represents Iowa’s third district, will be speaking at the Des Moines Register’s Soap Box (outside the Register’s Service Center on the Grand Concourse) at 1:30 pm. As part of this new Iowa State Fair tradition, the Congressman will be speaking on the challenges facing our country in these uncertain times and about his work to put us back on the road to peace and prosperity.

Friday, August 15:

The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa is holding a Crossroads lunch featuring Michele Soria of New Realities Diversity & Innovation Training & Consulting:

Do I really value diversity?

Challenging perceptions & creating new behavior

Does equity exist for all people? Is it possible? What is my responsibility to create multi-cultural inclusiveness in society?

An intensely interactive experience which will challenge your beliefs and create new behaviors.

The Crossroads luncheon is Friday, August 15 from  11:45 am – 1  pm at Plymouth Congregational Church, 42nd &  Ingersoll Avenue , Des  Moines .

Reservations are required for Crossroads and must be received by Tuesday, August 12.

Cost is $8 and is payable at the door.

For more information or to make a reservation, call (515) 279-8715 or email tiaiowa@dwx.com.

Dr. Steven and Jill Kraus will be hosting a reception at their home for Tom Harkin in Carroll on Friday, August 15th at 5:30 PM.  Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be provided and valet parking is available.  For the full details on this event, please click here.

Saturday, August 16:

Senator Harkin and Mayor Jerry Sullivan, candidate for Statehouse (HD-59), will attend a fundraiser for Sullivan’s campaign from 3:00 to 4:30 pm at the Great Midwestern Café, 1250 NW 128th St in Clive. Catering provided by Great Midwestern Café. Suggested donation $50 (host levels higher). Checks can be made payable to Sullivan for State Representative, 7018 Franklin Ave, Windsor Heights, IA  50322. RSVP to Mike at mmccall@iowademocrats.org or call (614) 561-9117.

1000 Friends of Iowa is holding its 10th anniversary celebration and annual meeting at the Griffieon family farm near Ankeny. The event starts at 9:00 am and runs all day. Click here to register for the meeting or find more details about the event, including a schedule and directions to the farm. Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey will be the keynote speaker. Registration costs $30, and that includes an “Iowa grown lunch.” Other events of the day include:

Presentation – Connie Mutel author of The Emerald Horizon: The History of  Nature in Iowa  Mutel will describe her new book, which offers an opportunity to understand,  reconnect with, and nurture Iowa’s precious natural world. She’ll also discuss  the functions (such as flood-resistance) provided by healthy native communities,  and offer a challenge to restore these functions through reintegrating nature into  Iowa’s working landscape.      1:30     Presentation – Erv Klaas  Dr. Klaas will discuss how reserving valuable cropland for growing corn and  soybeans creates difficult challenges to livestock owners who use riparian zones  for pasture. He will use the Griffieon pasture to illustrate problems livestock  owners face, the technique LaVon is using to remedy the problem and how  improvements to water quality and to our streams depends on a total watershed  approach.       2:00     Tour de Sprawl – Guides: LaVon Griffieon & Stephanie Weisenbach  In the past decade development has encroached upon the farmland next to the  Griffieon’s farm.  We will tour the neighborhood by bus to see the changes made  upon some of the world’s most prime soils.

I am involved with 1000 Friends of Iowa and will attend this meeting, but not in my capacity as desmoinesdem, so don’t expect any talk about partisan politics!

I haven’t posted about the recent suicide of Des Moines businessman Ed Boesen. I feel sorry for his family, who are dealing with a sudden bereavement as well as the fallout from his business dealings. His estate is being sued by several lenders.

Last year I didn’t write about the controversy over developing Rice field in Des Moines either. The green space where Rice Elementary used to stand is used as a playing field by local residents, many of whom wanted to keep it that way. I understand their position, but I also know that the Beaverdale neighborhood already has quite a few city parks. Since I support compact economic development and “infill” (new building in established neighborhoods), I thought a proposal for a mixed-use residential and commercial development on Rice field was reasonable.

That said, I was troubled by the way the Des Moines School Board agreed to sell the land to Boesen’s group, which didn’t submit the highest bid. School Board member Connie Boesen is Ed Boesen’s sister-in-law.

Why am I rehashing this now? It turns out that Des Moines City Councilman Chris Coleman did not disclose a prior business relationship with Boesen at the time the council approved a tax-increment financing district for parts of Beaverdale.

According to the Des Moines Register,

Coleman said he had no financial stake in Rice Development Partners, Boesen’s company that planned an $11.6 million project in Beaverdale and stood to benefit from a council decision to approve the area as part of an urban renewal district, making it eligible for tax breaks.

Coleman, who is head of the Better Business Bureau, also said he didn’t know until Thursday that his name was consistently misspelled on documents filed with the Iowa secretary of state.

A handwritten document signed by Boesen in February 2000 lists two officers: himself and “Chris Cobeman, 3600 48th Place, DM, IA 50310.” Other typed documents also spell Coleman’s name as “Cobeman.” Over the years, Cobo Investments filed new records with the state updating addresses, but the misspelling of Coleman’s name was never changed.

[…]

Coleman said Thursday that he was involved in no other deals with Boesen.

Coleman goes on to say he never tried to hide the fact that he had owned property with Boesen at one time. However, all but one of his fellow City Council members told the Register they had no idea of that relationship.

The intentional misspelling of Coleman’s name on several official documents is a huge red flag to me. It suggests that whoever filed the papers was trying to make it more difficult to identify the participation of Coleman, who was elected to the City Council in 1998, in this partnership.

The Register reports:

Public officials are not required by law to make such a disclosure unless there’s a direct financial gain, said Alan Kemp, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities. But most elected officials try to identify anything that resembles a conflict of interests, he said.

Bergman, the city attorney, said he did not recall Coleman mentioning his business relationship with Boesen when the Rice Field issues were before the council, but Bergman said he previously knew of the duplex ownership.

“I would have told him if he asked me at the time that I would not have considered it a conflict of interests to vote on at the time,” Bergman said Thursday. “There’s no law, rule, regulation of any kind that I can think of that would require that to be disclosed.”

Even if the law did not require disclosure in this case, Coleman showed poor judgment in my opinion by not revealing a prior business partnership with a finalist for the Beaverdale development project.

Elected officials should go out of their way to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. That Coleman is the head of the Better Business Bureau makes it worse.

I agree with Drake University Professor Rachel Caulfield, who told the Register that the misspelling of Coleman’s name on documents is “certainly worthy of a deeper investigation.”

Are you watching the Olympics? Which sports do you follow?

We decided to relax our “no tv on while kids are awake” rule so the kids can watch a bit of the Olympics. Already I remember why I loathe network sports coverage. There seem to be two minutes of commercials for every minute of action on NBC.

In 1996 I lived in the Czech Republic and watched hours of coverage of the Atlanta Olympics on state-run Czech television. There were no commercials, and they had extensive coverage of sports where Czechs and Slovaks do well (like canoeing and kayaking).

Watching the gymnastics made the biggest impression on me, though. You could tell that most of the people in the arena were watching large tv screens. There would be huge cheers whenever an American finished a routine. Meanwhile, Czech television was showing all of the gymnasts. You’d see some girl from a different country finish an amazing routine to dead silence from the crowd.

Or, in the middle of a difficult maneuver, the competitors from other countries would have to deal with deafening roars from the crowd as an American finished up on a different piece of equipment.

The crowd was so unsportsmanlike in not acknowledging good performances from non-Americans that I felt embarrassed to face my European colleagues at work.

I am glad John Edwards is not the Democratic nominee.

I will have more to say on this story in the next day or two. Meanwhile, here are some links for you.

Edwards talks to ABC News about the affair and denies he is the father of Rielle Hunter’s child:

Edwards blamed the affair on the adulation surrounding his remarkable rise into presidential politics.

“I went from being a senator, a young senator to being considered for vice president, running for president, being a vice presidential candidate and becoming a national public figure. All of which fed a self-focus, an egotism, a narcissism that leads you to believe that you can do whatever you want. You’re invincible. And there will be no consequences.”

Elizabeth Edwards says she and her husband began “a long and painful process” after he told her about the affair in 2006. She adds:

John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. Admitting one’s mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame.  

David Mizner says, “Stop Moralizing, You Sickening Scolds:

So another human showed himself to be human, and nominal progressives hop on their high horses and moralize and judge and get all dewey-eyed in support of Elizabeth, as if you have any idea what went on in their marriage, and in their bed. As if you have any right to know.

This is none of our business.

This is an American sickness, this need to know–the belief that we’re entitled to know–about the sexual lives of politicians.

But but but, you don’t have a problem with the sex, you say, you have a problem with his lying about it. Yeah, that’s what Ken Starr said too.

Meteor Blades speaks for many in this angry response to Mizner’s diary:

One can argue persuasively that it shouldn’t matter.  But should isn’t the real world, and it’s delusional to operate these days as a politican with the idea that what you have done doesn’t affect how some people might vote.

You knew when you declared for the presidency that this affair hung over you, that it might easily come to light. That it could, had you gained the nomination, have wrecked the party’s chances for winning the White House, tamped down support for Democrats running for seats in Congress, and set progressives back a decade. You knew that when you kept your name in the hopper for the vice presidency.

But you kept running anyway. You lied. And you got others to lie for you. You did this knowing full well the damage that could be done, not to your marriage, but to the party and the aspirations for better governance of those who looked to you as a leader who could help bring it about.

Ezra Klein uses less colorful language than Blades but makes a similar point:

No one forces you to devote your life to national advocacy of important issues. But if you decide to do follow that path, with all the plaudits and moments of roaring applause it entails, you have to make certain sacrifices, and shoulder certain realities. Among them is that if you falter, you can harm all that you’re advocating and deny help to all whom you claim to represent. I don’t know if it’s true that Edwards’ affair started and ended in 2006, but if so, that’s actually the most morally unforgivable of possible timelines.

Matt Stoller still believes Edwards is a phony but doesn’t get “the rush to vilify him as the worst person ever.”

Meanwhile, Cenk Uygur asks some important questions:

Does John Edwards care less about poor people today than he did yesterday? Would his affair lead him to change his position on NAFTA? How would it alter his policy on Iran?

Some will claim, as they did with Bill Clinton, that it’s not the affair but the lies that went along with it. Really? Did JFK come out and tell the American people – or his wife – “by the way, while my wife was in the hospital I was having an affair with not one, but several women at the same time”? No, of course, he lied too. Every man that has ever cheated on his wife has lied (and so has every woman who has ever cheated). It is part and parcel of the affair.

Now, we get to the most relevant question – if John Edwards’ political career is done, why isn’t John McCain’s? John McCain had a well-documented affair on his first wife, with his current wife. He has admitted in the books he has written about his life that he ran around with several different women while still married to his first wife. And don’t forget that he left her for a younger, richer woman – multi-millionaire Cindy Hensley who is now Cindy McCain – after she had been severely hurt in a car accident.

So, why are McCain’s actions any more excusable than Edwards’? Because it was thirty years ago? Does that wash it away? Will we be fine with Edwards running for office again in a couple of years because then it will all be in the past? What is the statute of limitations on an affair?

Digby wants to know why journalists haven’t followed up on the New York Times story about McCain’s alleged affair:

I personally don’t care who and of these people are sleeping with (especially McCain). Marriage is a very complicated institution and I don’t pass judgment on how others conduct theirs. I think this is all bullshit. But if the media has decided that even a failed politician who has no chance at the presidency can be subject to this kind of scrutiny, then they need to be a little bit more vigilant about pursuing someone who is the nominee of his party and has been very publicly linked to a specific woman by the paper of record, not the National Enquirer. If these are the rules, then this guy is a far more likely subject of scrutiny than Edwards.

In theory, I agree with Mizner that what goes on in a politician’s marriage is none of our business.

But in reality, I see no way that this affair could have been kept secret during a long campaign. If it was important to John and Elizabeth Edwards to prevent this media circus from happening, then he should have declined to run for president.

I also feel embarrassed to have inadvertently misled people in the course of advocating for Edwards.

I can’t count the number of times I said it would be less risky to nominate him, because he’s been under intense national scrutiny since 2004, so the Republicans would not be able to dig up new dirt on him.

Or in the words of another precinct captain I know, who used this line many times, “He’s been in the spotlight for years, and the worst they can say about him is he has a big house and paid too much for a haircut.”

Tonight I’m feeling more sorry than ever that Al Gore sat out this presidential campaign.

I don’t know what to think about this story from today’s Des Moines Register:

Regent Michael Gartner of Des Moines proposed studying the potential sale of the U of I’s “Mural” as a way to pay for $16 million in damage from June’s record floodwaters that entrenched the arts campus next to the Iowa River. The entire campus has an estimated $232 million in flood damage.

The Iowa Board of Regents decided at its meeting Thursday to research how much the 8-by-20-foot abstract painting would fetch if sold to a museum.

The piece is a prized painting for the university’s museum, acquired nearly 60 years ago when it was not nearly worth its estimated $100 million in value today. The idea of selling it brought strong sentiments from the U of I president, the art community and a state leader about the value of art and why it matters for universities to hold onto such treasures.

Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, who heads the Rebuild Iowa Office to recover from the flood, said there are options for paying for recovery besides selling artwork.

“I think selling off our assets that we probably could never purchase again would not be something I would like to see happen,” Judge said Thursday. “I would like to think we would rebuild that art center, that that painting along with the other great paintings will be hanging there for my grandkids to see, just like I did and just like my children did.”

The rest of the article goes through a lot of the pros and cons of selling this painting. My instinctive reaction is that it would be wrong to get rid of this irreplaceable piece.

On the other hand, the flood damage to the University of Iowa campus and the arts area in particular was so extensive that maybe this sale is justified. I don’t know how much of the reconstruction will be covered by insurance.

What do you think?

Anyone get to the State Fair today to see John McCain on the soapbox?

Dien Judge covered the story for Iowa Independent.

You can watch the video on this page of the Des Moines Register’s website.

The Register’s write-up is here. McCain threw in a dishonest line with a talking point he and other Republicans have been using this week:

He criticized Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s recent comments about the need for Americans to properly inflate their tires to get the best gas mileage.

“I’m all in favor of inflating our tires, don’t get me wrong. But that’s a public service announcement. It’s not an energy policy,” McCain said to a cheering crowd at The Des Moines Register’s soap box.

Earth to McCain and the entire press corps: Obama released a detailed energy plan last year. It’s easy to find at his campaign website. Obama also gave a major speech on energy policy earlier this week.

But never let the truth get in the way of a Republican one-liner.

I’ve been meaning to write a post about the various dishonest television commercials McCain has produced during the past week. It’s hard to keep up with the man’s mendacity.

Over at MyDD, Todd Beeton has a post about McCain’s latest tv ad as well as a story about  a hard-hitting new Obama radio ad regarding McCain’s role in facilitating the merger of DHL and UPS. If that merger goes through, some 8,000 jobs in Ohio (a state McCain desperately needs) could be lost.

There’s plenty going on, with the Adel Sweet Corn Festival set for Saturday and the Iowa State Fair running now through August 17, but here are a few political events for you as well.

Go to www.barackobama.com for details on his campaign’s events.

Friday, August 8:

Rob Hubler, candidate for Congress in the fifth district, will attend an office opening/Barack Obama birthday celebration in Creston, which the Union County Democrats are hosting from 7 pm to 9 pm. The address is 209 North Maple Street, Creston. Light refreshments will be served.

Barack Obama’s Birthday Party and Phone Bank! (Barack’s Birthday House Meeting: August 4th)

Friday, August 8 at 4:00 PM

Johnson County Democratic Headquarters (Iowa City, IA)

Join local staff and supporters galore at 625 S. Dubuque St. for an exciting evening in celebration of Barack’s 47th Birthday! We will have cake…

Barack’s Birthday House Meeting: August 4th (Barack’s Birthday House Meeting: August 4th)

Friday, August 8 at 5:00 PM

Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change (Council Bluffs, IA)

Join us and help celebrate Barack’s 47th birthday! We will enjoy food and the # 47 in all of its forms!

Open House (Barack’s Birthday House Meeting: August 4th)

Friday, August 8 at 5:00 PM

Democratic Headquarters (Marshalltown, IA)

We will be meeting at the Democratic Headquarters here in Marshalltown this Monday from 5-9pm to celebrate Barack Obama’s 47th birthday! We will be making…

Celebrate, Communicate, Change! (Barack’s Birthday House Meeting: August 4th)

Friday, August 8 at 5:00 PM

Campaign for Change Headquarters (Fort Dodge, IA)

Senator Obama will be turning 47 and we are having a party in his honor. We would like as many people to attend this celebration…

Sunday, August 10

There’s a fundraiser for Rob Hubler in Carroll, which former Governor Tom Vilsack will attend. Reception starts at 6pm; dinner at 7pm. Crossroads Bistro, 12012 Hwy 71 in Carroll. To RSVP for this event, please call the Hubler campaign headquarters: 712-352-2077.

If you were negotiating an employment agreement, you might consider taking an outstanding benefits package in exchange for a lower starting salary or a wage freeze. How would you feel if many years later, in retirement, some of those benefits were taken away from you?

About 3,000 former Maytag workers and family members have received letters from Whirlpool this week informing them that they are about to get cheated. Here’s the background:

Whirlpool Corp. has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to cut the medical benefits of thousands of retired Maytag workers.

The lawsuit, dated July 24 and filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Des Moines as a class action complaint, names the international and local chapters of the United Auto Workers union and three retired Maytag workers as representatives of the class. […]

Whirlpool bought rival Maytag in 2006 for $1.7 billion and assumed the negotiated union contracts and related benefit plans. […]

Whirlpool said in the lawsuit that a contract negotiated between the union and Maytag in 2004 expires on July 31. Whirlpool said it plans to change the retiree medical benefits on Jan. 1, 2009, to bring the benefits in line with the same plan that more than 10,000 current employees, retirees and their dependents have.

I hope that Whirlpool’s lawsuit will fail, but unfortunately, the federal bench is so full of Republican-appointed judges that I don’t expect much in the way of protection for union members.

Barack Obama released this statement today in connection with the controversy:

Des Moines, Iowa – Below is a statement from Senator Barack Obama on the letter Whirlpool sent to Maytag union retirees this week about changes in their health benefits.

“In America, we believe that if you work hard, you should be able to build a better life for yourself and your family.  But today, this American dream is slipping out of reach for too many working Americans. Whirlpool’s decision to cut the health care benefits of 2,200 Maytag retirees is the latest sign that we need to change the broken system in Washington.  

“It’s not right that Maytag’s CEO walked away with a multi-million dollar buyout while the hardworking men and women who built the company lost their jobs and are now facing health care cuts. I’ve had the privilege of meeting with Maytag workers in Newton, and I know they negotiated those benefits in good faith, giving up pay increases and other benefits.  Now it is time for Whirlpool to show good faith to their former employees.  

“As President, I will fight for our workers every day because when our workers do well, America does well.  In the Senate, I’ve fought to protect pensions, and I will continue that fight in the White House.  I will make sure our workers get the fair wages, affordable health care, and secure retirement that they deserve.  And I’ll change our tax code so it rewards companies that create jobs here in the United States instead of companies that ship jobs overseas. I’ll be a President who looks out for Main Street, not just Wall Street and who fights to put the American Dream within reach for every American.”

I certainly hope Obama will work to strengthen labor unions and workers’ rights in this country if he gets elected.

But ultimately, Whirlpool’s action is yet another indictment of our health care system. Even Americans who have good employer-based health insurance can get screwed.

To get more informed about the failures of our current health care system and the benefits of moving to a single-payer “Medicare for all” model, read nyceve’s diaries at Daily Kos or the Guaranteed Healthcare group blog.

At Guaranteed Healthcare, you can also find a list of Democratic candidates for Congress who have endorsed HR 676, which would establish a single-payer health care system.

Mike Glover of the Associated Press wrote a piece this week on the huge money advantage that Senator Tom Harkin and Iowa’s five U.S. House incumbents have over their opponents.

I’ll have more to say on this topic in future posts, but for now I want to note one thing: although nearly all incumbents are able to outspend their opponents, that advantage is not always enough to overcome a national tidal wave toward the other party.

Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack and Leonard Boswell all represent districts with a Democratic tilt (of varying degrees) in what is likely to be a very big Democratic year.

The odds-makers might favor Tom Latham and Steve King now, but in a big year for the challenger’s party, money and the other advantages of incumbency are not always enough to win.

Just ask Neal Smith, who was an 18-term incumbent and had more clout than any Iowan currently serving in the U.S. House. I can’t find campaign finance statistics going back that far, but I would bet that he spent more trying to keep his seat in 1994 than Republican Greg Ganske spent in taking him down.

Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley spent “what aides say may total $1.5 million to $2 million, a staggering amount for a House race” in 1994, but he still lost to George Nethercutt in Washington’s fifth district.

Chris Bowers had the most accurate final House forecast in 2006. But what did he write in his first forecast following several states’ primaries in September of that year?

NH-01 drops off the board since upset winner Shea-Porter has only 3% of her opponent’s cash

And in his final House update, published on November 6, 2006, Bowers still had Shea-Porter’s race in the “likely Republican” category, commenting, “If she wins, Carol Shea-Porter will become a legend.”

Her shocking victory in New Hampshire’s first district over an entrenched Republican incumbent was indeed legendary.

Obviously, it’s better for a challenger to have as much money to spend as possible, which is why you should donate to Rob Hubler and Becky Greenwald, and why I would like to see our ultra-safe Democratic incumbents giving more to the DCCC and DSCC.

But I strongly disagree with the contention that a money advantage makes Tom Latham and Steve King as safe as Iowa’s Democratic incumbents this year.

UPDATE: In the comments, riverdog9 asked why I would encourage people to give to the DCCC instead of directly to the candidates. That was not my intention, and I apologize for any misunderstanding.

To clarify, individual Democratic voters should give directly to the Congressional candidates, unless you’re one of those people who can afford to give more than the maximum donation of $2,300 to a candidate for federal office. In that case, you should give $2,300 directly to the candidate and any extra money to interests groups that are supporting that candidate.

Safe Democratic incumbents should give more to the DCCC and DSCC, because campaign finance law allows unlimited transfers of funds from members of Congress to those committees, and unlimited expenditures by those committees on behalf of candidates in individual districts.

Via Iowa Politics, I learned that the Iowa Democratic Party has created a new website called McCain vs. Iowa:

This website will be strictly issues-focused and will be updated regularly with Iowa-specific information to be used by Iowans as they make their decision come November. Today’s rollout focuses on Senator McCain’s attacks on Iowa biofuels and the Farm Bill. Future rollouts will include issues such as renewable energy, health care, and taxes, to name a few.

Click the link to read the rest of the press release announcing the IDP’s new site.

Meanwhile, Neil Sinhababu, who has also blogged under the name Neil the Ethical Werewolf at Ezra Klein’s place and Kevin Drum’s Political Animal blog, launched a fabulous new blog this week called War or Car? Neil explains the concept:

Welcome to War or Car !

According to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard public finance professor Linda Bilmes, the total cost of the Iraq War will be over $3 trillion.  That’s enough to buy a new Toyota Prius for every household in America. Here are some other things we could’ve done for the price of the Iraq War.  

You’ll want to bookmark this one, because Neil will be updating it every day between now and the November election. So far, the posts explain how for the cost of the Iraq War, we could have

–covered the land area of Vermont and New Hampshire in gold leaf;

–powered a jukebox since the time of the dinosaurs; or

–supplied the people of Ireland with beer for 1,000 years.

Neil is a great blogger, and this will be a fun site to watch.

I’ve been enjoying La Vida Locavore, the community blog for people interested in food and agriculture issues launched by orangeclouds115 last month. You can find good recipes and advice on kitchen gear as well as the latest news related to salmonella outbreaks, genetically-modified foods, growth hormones in meat and dairy products, etc. I highly recommend you check in from time to time.

The EENR progressive blog, founded by a bunch of Edwards supporters several months ago, is going strong. It’s a good blog to check to keep up with news on some good progressive candidates for Congress, as well as substantive issues that got crowded out on other blogs during the presidential primaries.  

The State Fair opens on Thursday morning and runs through Sunday, August 17.

This is an open thread for sharing any advice or memories related to the Iowa State Fair. What’s your favorite thing to do at the fair? What food can’t you resist at the fair?

As I wrote earlier this week, my number one tip is to buy lemonade from the Iowa honey producers on the second level of the ag building. They usually charge about half of what the kiosks around the fair charge.

For ice cream at the fair, hit the Bauder’s truck that is parked near the ag building.

I also like the popcorn with real butter. Food on a stick is not my thing.

The fair is an ideal place to carry your baby or toddler instead of using a stroller. First, your baby will get a better view of everything when riding on your back, front or hip.

Second, you won’t have to worry about animal excrement getting on your stroller wheels if you take your kids to the animal barns (always a highlight of the fair for my family).

Third, you won’t have to worry about your preschooler stepping in poop when you’re in the barns. Just bring a soft carrier (like an Ergo or an Asian carrier) in your bag. It doesn’t take up much space. Your child can walk around the fair for most of the day and just ride on your back while you’re in the barns. A lot of young kids get tired anyway and appreciate the break from walking.

Speaking of the fair, I got this e-mail from the Polk County Democrats today:

A group of Democrats are informally organizing a protest for the McCain event at the state fair and asked that we send this out:

Sen. John McCain will be speaking at the Iowa State Fair on Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. He will no doubt proclaim that he is a friend of rural Iowans in spite of his opposition to the farm bill that Sen. Harkin recently worked so hard to pass in addition to his well-known opposition to ethanol production, which has become a major Iowa industry.

If you’re planning to attend the fair on Friday, or are able to do so, we’d like to invite you to show up at the Des Moines Register’s “Soapbox,” located at the Northeast corner of the Varied Industries Building, with an appropriate sign.

A few ideas:

McCain Rejects Farmers, Iowa Rejects McCain

McCain is No Friend of Iowa’s Farmers

We Don’t Need A Third Bush Term

John McCain — Just Like Bush, But Older and Shorter

Be creative and have a little fun!

Thanks for your help.