Just got this e-mail from the Biden campaign.

Town Hall on Iraq with Senator Joe Biden

Senator Biden will be making his fifth trip to Iowa since announcing his candidacy for President in January, and as part of this trip he’s coming to Ankeny this Saturday, May 5th for a Town Hall with local Democrats. All of the details are below, and hopefully you will be able to attend.

Senator Biden Attends an Iraq Town Hall

Hosted by the Ankeny Area Democrats

Saturday, May 5, 2007

10:30am-11:45am (Doors Open at 10:00am)

Ankeny Historical Society, (515) 965-5795

301 SW Third Street, Ankeny

They’d like RSVPs either by phone to Gary Schmidt, (515) 333-4184 or by e-mail to TimEmrich AT JoeBiden.com.

If you live near Ankeny and can attend this event, please put up a diary afterwards. My Saturday is packed already.

I hate it when journalists ask politicians stupid questions. No matter what they pick, journalists will try to make it fit whatever script they are pushing about the person (too elitist, too dumb, too wonky, whatever).

However, this was too amusing not to pass along.

The Associated Press asked the presidential candidates what item he or she would most like to have if stranded on a desert island. Political Wire has the candidates’ answers here.

I won’t spoil the punch line, but I have to agree with Kevin Drum, who writes, “Oddly enough, Tom Tancredo gave the best answer.”

I’d put in a word for Brownback’s answer as well.

We environmentalists have been pretty downbeat about the 2007 legislative session. Even with Democrats in power, there was no action on local control over the siting of CAFOs and little progress on other issues related to water and air quality.

Some good news arrived in my in-box today, however. I had not realized that on the last day of the session, the legislature had approved and funded the Farm to School program, which will make locally-produced, nutritious food available in more Iowa schools while increasing the market for farmers using sustainable methods.

Stephanie Weisenbach, program coordinator for 1000 Friends of Iowa (website under reconstruction), fills us in on the details:

Senate File 452, introduced by Senator Joe Bolkcom from Iowa City, was stalled out for many weeks at the  legislature but ended up being amended onto other legislation at the end of the session last week.

Policy language creating the program and establishing a Farm to School Council was added to the “standings bill,” SF 601, the last bill of the session. An $80,000 appropriation to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) was added to Agriculture and Natural Resources budget bill, Senate File 551. IDALS will administer the program with two full-time staff.

The Farm to School program was established to encourage and promote the purchase of locally and regionally produced or processed food in order to improve child nutrition and strengthen local and regional farm economies. A seven-member Farm to School Council will seek to establish partnerships with public agencies and non-profit organizations to foster communication between farmers and schools, and will seek financial or in-kind contributions to support the program.

The Farm to School Program is a wonderful starting point that will address many of 1000 Friends of Iowa’s concerns about how we use our land in Iowa and pass the benefits of that knowledge on to our most precious resource…future generations.

Although I know quite a few people in the sustainable agriculture community, I wasn’t following this bill closely. Last I heard, it wasn’t going anywhere. Weisenbach lets us know who helped the most at the statehouse:

Big thanks should go to Senator Joe Bolkcom from Iowa City and Senator Robert Dvorsky from Coralville for getting the policy language in the standings bill. Representative Mark Kuhn from Charles City advanced the $80,000 appropriation and Senator Staci Appel from Carlisle was a persistent supporter during key times in the legislative process.

To thank these legislators, you can e-mail them at:

firstname.lastname AT legis.state.ia.us

I’m posting the relevant language from the bill after the jump, but I want to call particular attention to one point.

The bill establishes a farm to school council with seven members, one of whom has to be an “Iowa organic meat producer.”

Sounds like the Farm Bureau isn’t going to be able to sabotage this program by putting a CAFO operator on that council!

Also sounds like we’ve got a better chance of getting organic meat products in Iowa schools.

I’m still fairly disappointed in the legislative session overall, but this is a great step for farmers, kids, local economies and the environment.

Wonks who like to read legislative text, you’ll find the relevant portions after the jump.

American Research Group has just released new polls of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina .

Click through if you want to read about the results from the other states. The new ARG Iowa numbers are:

Edwards 27 percent

Clinton 23 percent

Obama 19 percent

undecided 16 percent

Biden 6 percent

Richardson 5 percent

Dodd 2 percent

Kucinich 2 percent

Gravel and Clark, less than 1 percent

You may recall that in December and January ARG released polls showing Clinton way ahead in Iowa. No other polling firm ever found Clinton ahead of Edwards in Iowa.

Now ARG’s results are more in line with the other firms. I don’t know if ARG changed its likely voter screen or if Edwards has just gained a lot of ground on Clinton since January.

ARG notes that Edwards leads Clinton among women in Iowa, 32 percent to 26 percent. This is not at all surprising to me.

The undecided figure still “feels” low to me. I talk to a lot of Democrats, and I think way more than 1 in 6 tell me they don’t know yet who they will caucus for.

Click through if you want all the Republican numbers for Iowa, but the highlights are:

McCain 26 percent

Giuliani 19 percent

Romney 14 percent

Fred Thompson 13 percent

undecided 12 percent

Seems like Romney’s numbers are not moving in Iowa, despite his early tv ads and the DVD he mailed out to 70,000 Iowa Republicans. Click the link if you want to read the Cyclone Conservative analysis of that DVD.

UPDATE: Check out rob’s diary at the right for more info about these polls. One figure jumped out at me. ARG’s sample in Iowa was taken from “600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely Democratic caucus goers living in Iowa (475 Democrats and 125 no party (independent) voters).”

Now, we had a few independents change their registration on caucus night 2004 so that they could participate. But does anyone really think that 1 in 5 people attending the Democratic side of the Iowa caucuses next January will be registered independents?

MoveOn.org is holding rallies across the country tomorrow to protest President Bush’s planned veto of the Iraq War supplemental funding bill that sets a timetable for withdrawal. The Des Moines library will be outside the new downtown library between Grand and Locust.

If you don’t live in central Iowa, this message contains a link you can click to search for protests near your zipcode:

Dear MoveOn member,

Congress is about to send an important bill to the White House-it would require the president to start bringing our troops home from Iraq this year. President Bush has said repeatedly he’s going to veto it. It’s outrageous. Most Americans support a timeline and he’s standing in the way.

This will be a pivotal moment on Iraq-it’s not clear what Congress or the president will do after the veto. We need to make clear that President Bush is really vetoing the will of the American people. And we need to tell Congress to hold firm.

There are already more than 200 rallies planned and it’s really important to turn out in big numbers to get our message across. There is one right near you in Des Moines. Can you make it tomorrow?

Here are the details:

Outside the Downtown Library

Wednesday, May 2 2007, 5:00 PM

RSVP: http://pol.moveon.or…

If this event doesn’t work for you, click below to search for another rally near you:

http://pol.moveon.or…

Four years ago today, President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq. Now there is a plan on the table that will finally start bringing our troops home-but the president is going to veto it. By doing so, he’s vetoing the will of the people.

Congress has two options on how to respond-they can either cave to the president’s pressure or stand strong and demand accountability from him on Iraq. Members of Congress are going to be gauging public reaction in the next few days to decide which path they’ll follow.

There’s also a fun twist to these rallies: We’ll be using noisemakers to demonstrate that President Bush and Congress cannot ignore us any longer-our voices must be heard.

As Senator Feingold recently wrote:

By carrying out his veto threat, the President will mark yet another sad day in the history of this war. But that veto should be seen as a rallying cry for the vast majority of Americans who believe that the time has come to again stand up, and stand together, with one voice, and demand a policy that makes sense-one that puts our country and our national security first. A policy that makes America safer, not weaker.2

Now is the time to take a strong stand against the president’s reckless policy in Iraq. Together, we’ll show the media and Congress that we won’t stand for another blank check for the president on the war. Can you join us?

Click below to search for a rally near you.

http://pol.moveon.or…

Thanks for all you do,

-Nita, Anna, Matt, Justin and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
  Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Sources

1. “GOP’s Base Helps Keep Unity on Iraq,” Washington Post, April 30, 2007

http://www.moveon.or…

2. An Important Step to Ending the War in Iraq, Progressive Patriots

http://www.moveon.or…

Representative Dawn Pettengill has made it official. She stood next to House Minority Leader Chris Rants today and announced that she is joining the Republican Party.

In a really classy move, she told the press before she told her former colleagues in the Democratic caucus.

Cue gloating from Republicans and hand-wringing from some commentators that the Democrats are allegedly outside the mainstream.

Pettengill said she wants to better represent her district in the House, which is fine by me. If she thinks her political future is safer by hitching her wagon to the Republican Party, we are better off without her.

The Des Moines Register adds,

Even worse for Democrats, Pettengill said there have been talks among some of the half-dozen or so other conservative Democrats of switching parties. She would not give names.

I consider this unlikely to happen with Democrats in control of the Iowa Senate and Terrace Hill, but just to be on the safe side, we’ll all have to work a little harder in 2008 to elect more progressive Democrats to the Iowa legislature.

John Deeth asks some important questions, including will she give back the money she got from Democrats (I doubt it) and how long has she been planning this.

House Speaker Pat Murphy and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy are saying that Pettengill’s move is unlikely to affect their ability to get things done, since

Rep. Ray Zirkelbach, a Monticello Democrat, is expected to return from serving in Iraq next year. That means their majority lead will remain about the same. In addition, they noted that Pettengill frequently voted against the Democratic majority anyway.

“This is more of a shift on paper then something significant that will affect our ability to govern,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy also told reporters today that the Democratic Party spent $250,000 helping Pettengill defeat a Republican incumbent in that House seat in 2004.

Murphy added some fighting words as well:

“The bottom line is, we feel we can win that seat back,” Murphy said. That is a Democratic seat and we expect to win it back. We’re going to go after it very aggressively.”

I’d rather try to win that seat with a real Democrat than be continually trying to placate someone like Pettengill, who clearly does not share the core beliefs of most Iowa Democrats.

Let the recruiting begin! Anyone have any ideas about who would be a good candidate for that district?

When I see that David Yepsen has written another column about Iowans being over-taxed, I usually don’t get past the first couple of paragraphs. These columns show up a few times a year, whenever Yepsen gets hold of a press release from some right-wing think tank. I figure, I know what he’s going to say without reading the whole piece.

But fortunately, West Des Moines resident John Norwood actually read Yepsen’s latest column on the subject (link no longer available on the free portion of the Register website) and put together a devastating rebuttal that appeared in the Des Moines Register’s Sunday edition:

David Yepsen’s April 17 column once again beats the drum that somehow Iowa’s state and local tax burden is driving our state to ruin (“Lighten Growing Tax Burden”). We’re a state with the 18th-highest tax burden in the nation.

Having grown up in Massachusetts and later having lived 10 years in the San Francisco Bay area, two of the country’s most expensive areas, I have trouble reconciling my personal experience with the conclusions of the Tax Foundation that Yepsen cites.

Even if we take the Tax Foundation report as gospel, the chart presented next to Yepsen’s column notes that there is really very little difference between the 44th most-taxed state, which is South Dakota at 9 percent, and Iowa, which comes in 18th at 11 percent.

The variance in state rates is actually pretty narrow across most of the distribution. Move to Missouri, save 0.9 percent and you’re in the driver’s seat at 34th.

How many Iowans, who have access to superior education and other community services, are ready to leave for South Dakota or Missouri for that 1 percent to 2 percent difference? There’s an old saw, Yepsen, “You get what you pay for.”

Iowa is doing pretty well, if you ask me.

– John Norwood,

West Des Moines.

The idea that anyone is deciding where to live based on a 1 or 2 percent difference in tax rates is laughable. Thanks to the letter-writer for spelling out why.

I’m not the kind of blogger who spends a lot of time on conservative sites, trying to figure out what “the other side” thinks about this or that issue. My time on the computer is limited, and I would rather spend it reading blogs I enjoy and learn from. If Instapundit or Michelle Malkin or some such hack says something particularly noteworthy, I will probably run across it at one of the blogs I read regularly (e.g. Atrios’ “wanker of the day”).

But when John Deeth called attention to the University of Iowa College Republicans’ plan to hold a capture-the-flag game between the “illegal immigrants” and the “border patrol,” it piqued my interest.

Back when I was growing up, Dinesh D’Souza was just an annoying bigot at Darthmouth College, planning stunts and then playing the martyr when people called him on his racism. Seems like College Republicans haven’t evolved much since then, and why should they? Distort D’Newsa and others have parlayed this “victim of political correctness” act into lucrative careers.

So I wandered over to Cyclone Conservatives to see what they are up to these days.

Didn’t find any cheap stunts, but I did find an amazingly ignorant and malicious post whining about Democratic “sob stories.” Join me after the jump if you have any interest in hearing more.

The Iowa Democratic Party will be holding its annual Hall of Fame dinner in Cedar Rapids on June 2, and the award-winners who will be honored that evening are listed below:

Outstanding Elected Official Award

Governor Bob Fulton, Waterloo

Hall of Fame Outstanding Supporter Award

Roxanne Barton Conlin, Des Moines

Edward Campbell, Des Moines

Minette Doderer Award for Outstanding Leadership

Phyllis Thede, Bettendorf

Jim Lodwick Award for Outstanding Democratic State Central Committee Member

Ken Sagar, Des Moines

Bob Creech Award for Outstanding Democratic Party Chair

Cheryll Jones, Bloomfield

Dixon Terry Award for Outstanding Democratic Party Activist

Dori Rammelsberg-Dvorak, Clutier

Warren Yaple, Council Bluffs

Rising Star Award

Megan Simpson, Dubuque (University of Iowa Student)

I like the activist awards because they aren’t limited to those who have vast financial resources. I know someone who won one of those activist awards a couple of years ago, and it was nice for her hard work over many election cycles to be recognized.

As rob reported in a diary last week, so far Clinton, Dodd and Edwards plan to attend this event, and the other candidates are not currently scheduled to be there.

I know that Roxanne Conlin was supporting Edwards last cycle, and I know that Ed Campbell is in the Clinton camp. Ed and Bonnie Campbell were among the few Iowa supporters of Bill Clinton during the 1992 primaries, when Tom Harkin was also running. Bill Clinton also appointed Bonnie Campbell to a senior position in the Justice Department after she lost her gubernatorial bid in 1994.

Anyone out there know if the other award-winners have picked a presidential candidate?

I haven’t even watched the debate yet–we videotaped it and will watch after the kids are in bed.

If you watched, what were your impressions?

Take the poll and comment.

The passage of the Civil Rights bill by the Iowa legislature is undoubtedly a victory for progressives.

I was very disappointed, though, when I opened up the Des Moines Register today and read the article on page 1 of the Metro section. Here’s the third paragraph:

“It is a historic vote,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Des Moines Democrat. “I also think it was a mainstream vote. This was not some sort of liberal social agenda. This is just saying that under housing and employment, people should not be discriminated based upon their real or perceived sexual orientation.”

What have Des Moines Register readers just learned?

1. the “liberal social agenda” is outside the mainstream

2. mainstream = good, “liberal social agenda” = not so good

3. even that Democratic guy is kind of embarrassed about the liberal social agenda

I understand what McCarthy was trying to say: this is not gay marriage, this is not even civil unions, this is no-brainer anti-discrimination protection. This should not be controversial.

But when Democratic Party leaders reinforce the idea that things supported by liberals are outside the mainstream, they are continuing the work of those like Newt Gingrich who have tried for decades to demonize liberals.

Imagine Chris Rants bragging about the passage of a bill by saying, “This was a mainstream vote. This was not some sort of conservative social agenda.”

That would never happen, because Republican leaders know better than to frame their party’s base as on the fringe of public opinion.

McCarthy could have said something along the lines of, “This was a mainstream vote. This reflects the growing consensus in the United States that it’s not ok to discriminate against someone because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.”

As you may know, the first Democratic candidates’ debate is tomorrow evening. I just got an e-mail from the Polk County Democrats, who passed along a release from the Edwards campaign:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 25, 2007

CONTACT:

Dan Leistikow

515-288-0766 (office)

515-508-9965 (cell)

JOHN EDWARDS CAMPAIGN TO HOST DEBATE WATCH PARTIES ACROSS IOWA ON THURSDAY

Des Moines, Iowa – As Senator John Edwards participates in a presidential debate in at South Carolina State University on Thursday, April 26th, the John Edwards for President Iowa Campaign will host debate watch parties across the state.

These parties are open for both supporters and undecided caucus goers to watch the debate and discuss the issues facing America.  Afterward, participants will get an update via phone from National Campaign Manager David Bonior.

  The debate will be broadcast live from South Carolina State’s Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium on Thursday, April 26, at 6:00 p.m. CST with live coverage on MSNBC.

  All events are open to the press. For members of the media seeking more information, please contact Dan Leistikow with the John Edwards for President Campaign.

  Details of the debate watch parties are:

  Des Moines

John Edwards for President Campaign Office

712 E 2nd St

Suite A

Des Moines, Iowa

Cedar Rapids

Home of Judy Ahrens

124 24th St SE

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Davenport

Home of Camellia Pohl

1216 N Concord St

Davenport, Iowa

Waterloo

Home of Bill Draper

941 Wendy Road

Waterloo, Iowa

Sioux City

4th Street Bar & Grill

1107 4th St

Sioux City, Iowa

All events are open to the press. For more information, please contact Dan Leistikow at 515-288-0766 or 515-508-9965.

Please post information about other candidates’ debate-watching parties in the comments section.

Sadly, I won’t be able to attend any of these parties, and I won’t even be watching the debate live, because we have a rule about not turning on the tv when our children are awake. So I’ll have to settle for recording the debate and watching it after the kids are asleep.

In the end, it wasn’t even close!

Here’s the e-mail I just got from The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa:

Dear Friends and Activists,

I am so thrilled that the Iowa House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights bill tonight, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Code.  The bi-partisan vote was 59 – 37!  What a tremendous accomplishment for this Legislature and what an amazing step forward in making Iowa a truly welcoming state!

Your calls, emails and contacts with Legislators made a difference!  Thank you so much for ALL of your work on this important and historic legislation.  It was so important that Legislators heard our collective progressive voice standing for Civil Rights for all people.

The Civil Rights bill adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Code to prohibit discriminatory employment, public accommodation, housing, education and credit practices.  An amendment was added to the bill so it will need to go back to the Senate but it is expected to pass and the Governor is expected to sign the bill into law.

Don’t forget to contact the Representatives that voted yes for Civil Rights and thank them for their vote!  The Yes votes include:

Democrats

Abdul-Samad, Bailey, Bell, Berry, Bukta, Cohoon, Dandekar, Davitt, Foege, Ford, Frevert, Gaskill, Gayman, Heddens, Hunter, Huser, Jacoby, Jochum, Kelley, Kressig, Kuhn, Lensing, Lykam, Mascher, McCarthy, Miller H., Oldson, Olson D., Olson R., Olson T., Palmer, Petersen, Reasoner, Reichert, Schueller, Shomshor, Smith, Staed, Swaim, Taylor D., Taylor T., Thomas, Wendt, Wenthe, Wessel-Kroeschell, Whitaker, Whitead, Winckler, Wise, Murphy

Republicans

Clute, Forristall, Hoffman , Jacobs , Miller L., Raecker, Schickel, Struyk, Wiencek

Thank you for making a difference!

Connie

Connie Ryan Terrell

Executive Director

The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa & Action Fund

“promoting the positive and healing role of religion in public life…”

PO Box 41086

Des Moines, IA  50311

Office: 515-279-8715

Fax: 515-279-2232

www.iowatia.org

tiaiowa@dwx.com

Thanks to everyone who contacted their legislators.

I am so pleasantly surprised that my Republican House rep, Dan Clute, and my Republican Senator Pat Ward both voted for this bill. I honestly didn’t expect it.

I got this e-mail from Public Campaign Action Fund today. Three Democrats in the Iowa House need to hear from as many people as possible in the next two days:

The legislative session in Iowa is winding down. The General Assembly is scheduled to recess this Friday and the House leadership is trying to stall passage of the Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections (VOICE) Act that would bring full public financing to the state’s elections. The bill is currently sitting in the House Appropriations Committee. We have the votes to bring the legislation to the floor, but we need your help.

Please call the following representatives and tell them to allow the VOICE Act, HF 805, to go to the floor.

Speaker of the House Patrick Murphy

(515) 281-3221

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy

(515) 281-3221

Rep. Jo Oldson, House Appropriations Committee Chair

(515) 281-3221

The VOICE Act would make elections in your state about voters instead of big campaign donors. House leadership would prefer to see this bill just die in committee, but we can’t let that happen. The legislation deserves a fair debate on the floor of the House.

We need your help today. Please take a few minutes to call the following legislators and tell them to support HF 805, the VOICE Act:

Speaker of the House Patrick Murphy

(515) 281-3221

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy

(515) 281-3221

Rep. Jo Oldson, House Appropriations Committee Chair

(515) 281-3221

With so much special interest money flowing into the elections in 2006, these legislators are feeling pressure to bow to their big donors instead of the interests of all voters. Put on a little pressure of your own with a few calls. Thanks for all you do.

Jeannette Galanis

National Field Director

I just received an e-mail from The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa. The Civil Rights bill hangs in the balance, and the time to e-mail your representatives in the Iowa House is now (Tuesday or Wednesday). Or, you can call during the day on Wednesday.

After the jump, I’ve posted the full text of the e-mail, as well as talking points about the legislation and information on how to contact your legislator by phone or e-mail.

If you believe in ending discrimination against the GLBT community, please act on this appeal.

I posted the latest installment on “How the Iowa caucuses work” at Daily Kos and MyDD today. I’m not cross-posting here because you people all know how the caucuses work.

My main reason for writing that diary was to debunk Mark Kleiman’s idea that Obama could win Iowa by hiring 2,000 field organizers to work here during the final two weeks of the campaign.

If you feel like joining the discussion about GOTV and how hard it is to turn out new voters for the caucuses, head on over to MyDD, where the diary is on the rec list.

Bill Richardson is running tv ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, and you can view them here at his campaign’s website.

There’s a 60-second biographical ad and a 30-second ad on foreign policy. My favorite line: “I approved this message because being stubborn isn’t a foreign policy.”

We don’t watch much tv aside from The Daily Show and Colbert Report, so I have no idea how often these ads are running. Anyone out there seen them on tv? Hear anyone mention seeing them? Do you think they will be effective?

Barack Obama spoke in Iowa City today before a crowd of several thousand. John Deeth liveblogged the event, and you can read all about it here.

If you’ve got a report about this event, or some other campaign appearance by any of the presidential candidates, please consider putting up a diary. Even if you’re not liveblogging or vlogging, it’s still interesting to hear about the stump speeches, the Q and A, and the reactions of the crowd.

I went down to Valley Junction in West Des Moines today, but their Earth Day event was rained out. I did notice that the Edwards supporters were out there talking with lots of people before everyone packed up their tables and tents, though.

Bill Richardson is on a two-day campaign swing through Iowa, and according to the Des Moines Register, he will be going up on tv here next week.

I don’t recall any of the candidates going up on tv this early last cycle. Dean put up some tv ads around June 2003, and at that time political ads before Labor Day were unheard of. The Register says Mitt Romney ran some ads here earlier this year, but I didn’t see any of those because we pretty much only watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Join me after the jump for some thoughts about Richardson’s strategy.

Noneed4thneed of Century of the Common Iowan put up this important post about the Permanent Bases Project.

He urges people who are going to see the presidential candidates to ask them if they support having permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, and if so, how many troops would be stationed there.

This is an easy thing to do, and the candidates will notice if they start getting this question often enough. An old peacenik who was active in the Nuclear Freeze movement of the 1980s told me that they had a bunch of supporters asking candidates all over Iowa about one of their issues–I think it was the Trident missile.

One of the candidates (it may have been Babbitt, I can’t remember) later was quoted as saying how knowledgeable Iowans were about foreign and military affairs, because everywhere he went he kept getting asked about the Trident missile!