Voting field in the extended entry.

Do you approve of the way Iowa Governor Chet Culver is doing his job?

UPDATE by Chris (12:05 PM): I just got done watching Sen. and Mrs. Edwards’ press conference.  She looks amazing and is going to be a fighter the rest of her life.  Treatment starts soon for the cancer that is in a rib bone on her right side.  Meanwhile, the campaign goes on and life goes on.  Truly, they are one courageous family.

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It looks like Sen. John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth might be headed for another health issue.  If you’ll remember, back in 2004 just a few days before the general election Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer.  After a rigorous course of treatment and recovery, she was diagnosed as healthy.

However, something must be up, as Edwards has scheduled a press conference tomorrow with his wife at 11 AM CDT, according to Ben Smith at the Politico.  Yesterday he canceled a house party in event to be able to make it to an appointment Elizabeth had with her doctor this morning, according to a release issued by the campaign.

I met Elizabeth last year at a bloggers meeting and I also met the Senator himself and I can say they’re both courageous individuals and leaders.  I respect both of them and hope and pray for the best for Elizabeth and their family.

As Common Iowan noted on Monday, Rep. Tyler Olson of Cedar Rapids had introduced a bill creating what were called “Energy City Designations” for cities to create and implement innovative and efficient energy programs.  His bill, HF 773, passed the Iowa House today on a vote of 92-2.  The bill doesn’t directly create amounts or options for state grants for cities that receive this designation, however it calls on the DNR to create these regulations and implement the bill.

From the House, the bill was messaged to the Senate, were it was referred to the Natural Resources and Environment Committee, where Sen. Dennis Black is the chair.  He lists his occupation as conservationist — and he’s from Grinnell — which leads me to believe that he and his committee will work hard to make sure this bill passes the Senate and truly creates a program that works with the Iowa Power Fund and other legislative and executive projects to help Iowa achieve energy independence and become the renewable fuels capital of the world, while at the same time achieve efficiency in the way our cities and towns operate.

When we have days like today where former Vice President Al Gore testifies before a House Committee and has to confront Republican climate change skeptics, it clearly shows just how far we have to go in this country to make sure that global climate change is a problem and that we must work harder to become energy independent, efficient, and innovative.  At least Iowans can be proud that this bill passed in a bipartisan manner.

By a vote of 54-45 the Iowa House of Representatives approved of election day voter registration.  You can tell how desperate were the opponents of this bill by the fact that they raised this argument:

“Support the Troops!”

It’s just incredible.  One representative said that since soldiers died for the right to vote, we all could at least bother to register an arbitrary 10 days before the election. 

How much more charitable it would have been to reverse the argument, saying “Voting is a right worth dying for, so don’t try to keep people from the polls by throwing up needless roadblocks.”  Actually, Rep. Wessel-Kroeschell  did answer the troop argument by reminding opponents that young adults are most of the missing voters as well as most of the war casualties. 

A generation ago the US Supreme Court said registration deadlines could not be set except as a way to manage the workload of election officials.  Yet we never heard the case made that removing the deadline makes elections unmanageable.  Instead we heard attacks on the diligence, awareness, and honesty of voters.

Shameful.

Congratulations to those who advanced election law by voting for this bill.

On Friday, March 9th the first-ever Drake University-IowaPolitics.com Luncheon was held.  The Luncheons will be monthly features at Drake with leaders from both parties, possibly presidential candidates, and other political big-wigs talking about issues, strategies, and everything else.  The first luncheon featured Iowa Democratic Party Chair Scott Brennan and Republican Party of Iowa Co-Chair Leon Mosley.  Chris Dorsey, Bureau Chief for IowaPolitics.com, acted as the moderator.  You can listen to an MP3 of the event here through IowaPolitics.com (be warned: it is very scratchy).

My initial opinions of the two leaders was that Brennan clearly came prepared and ready to talk about the issues as a seasoned political professional while Mosley was the down-home Republican who said what he meant, even if it was offensive or wasn’t politically correct.  Largely, it made me wonder how this man could possibly be chosen to represent a party as their chairman.  While his down-home style, seemingly like most ordinary Iowa Republican caucusgoers, might be appealing to some I think it was a big turnoff to those in the audience seeking a more enlightened and vigorous discussion about the issues, not just gut reactions.  He did frustrate a lot of people who asked questions and did get confrontational with some in the audience over Iraq.  But with such a divisive issue, that’s to be expected.

My friend Matt Clark has a write up of the event here for IowaPolitics.com (Matt’s got an internship with them and has been doing some great reporting) and I think it demonstrates Mosley’s approach to the discussion.  If that doesn’t clearly show it, the audio of the event will.  I’m not sure if any of you readers were there, but if you were, I’d like to hear your thoughts.  Or after you listen to some of the audio, feel free to leave your reactions as well.

After the event, the staff of IowaPolitics.com collected surveys filled out by those in attendance with questions relating to who they’d want to see at future events and asking for an overall rating of the event.  My suggestion for the next luncheon was to attempt to get the Caucus Directors for both the IDP and the RPI to come in and talk strategy a bit.  While this early most strategy would still be speculation, talking about what has worked in the past and what hasn’t could be mighty interesting to see.

I’ll openly admit this is me copying Markos’s work over at Daily Kos, but I think that if we started doing leadership polling in the Iowa blogosphere, we can start to determine just how responsive our Democratic leaders are to the concerns of the people at the grassroots and netroots level in Iowa.  While at the early stages these polls will likely not mean a lot (only 40 or so votes for each position isn’t scientific nor fairly representative) I think that the results could help us hone in on the leaders we feel are problematic or less than responsive.

In my eyes, doing polls on Governor Culver, Speaker of the House Pat Murphy, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, and IDP Chairman Scott Brennan would be the best way to look at and judge the leadership of the Iowa Democratic Party at the Executive and Legislative level.  Going beyond five different leadership polls begins to dilute the polling, in my opinion, and would be pushed off the front page too quickly.

What are your thoughts?  Depending on the comments, I’m likely going to put the polls up by the end of the week.  Oh, and to start off measuring support, make sure to take the poll in the extended entry.

Ed. Note: Partially cross-posted at Political Forecast.

So, I’ve been absent a lot lately from the blogging scene, but not the entire political scene.  Basically, my life interrupted my blogging with student government stuff, fraternity stuff, and the usual excuses I spew when I disappear from the blogging scene.  Anywho, this time instead of saying I’m alive or I’m back, let’s just say I’ll be posting again with some frequency.  Maybe not the 5-6 post/day ratio that I’ve been on in the past, but hopefully the 2-3 substantive posts and maybe a reminder post or two.

Moreover, since Drew’s gone, I’ll likely be the main front-pager for a while, but I’m going to seek to promote stuff to the front page from the diary section whenever I can.  You guys are the ones who make the Iowa blogosphere go round with your on the ground reporting and common sense questions and approaches to politics in Iowa.  So, keep up the good work.

And now that I’m back and glad to be emerging myself back into all of the political news, leave me some comments and tell me what I should catch up on.

Legis.News

Inside the Iowa Legislature, March 16, 2007

By Speaker of the House Pat Murphy

CIGARETTE TAX = SAVED LIVES

Two days after the House provided bipartisan support to stop kids from smoking and save lives, Governor Culver signed Senate File 128 in the rotunda at the Iowa Capitol. The bill increases the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 36¢ to $1.36 per pack, and from 22 to 50 percent of wholesale price for other tobacco products, up to an extra 50¢ per cigar.  The bill changes the tax on snuff from a percent of price to $1.19 per ounce. 

The legislation, managed in the House by Rep. Pam Jochum (D-Dubuque), was vigorously promoted by the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Iowa Medical Society and other health advocacy groups.  The benefits of the bill are widespread and had overwhelming support from Iowans. Most importantly, the bill will keep 42,000 kids from picking up the smoking habit in the first place, which is critical since 90% of smokers started before the age of 18.

Yesterday, I attended the Community Meeting John Edwards held in Newton. The event was held at the UAW Hall and close to 200 people were there. Check out Iowa for Edwards for video of the event and links to news stories.

Edwards opened by saying that our next president needs real ideas and vision, but more importantly needs to be someone with honesty, openess, decency, and someone we can trust. Edwards showed that he is going to be open about his ideas throughout this campaign saying…

When you to caucus in January of 2008, which I hope is for me, you will know where I stand. Not just on health care, but also Iraq, energy, jobs, and global warming. You will know where I stand.

I’ve taken a job with the Iowa Democratic Party, so I can’t blog independently anymore.  I’m going to try to recruit a few more front-page writers to take over for me.  If you’re interested, shoot me an email or just leave a comment.

Here’s the audio, once again!

There is a new map at Verified Voting.  It shows Iowa in red.

Red states have fallen behind in the open elections department.  Verified Voting’s map used to concern itself with whether states had paper trails for their balloting.  Now they have moved on to asking whether states with paper trails are conducting audits to see if the machine count actually reflects the real count on the paper ballots.

States in red (danger!) on the new map have neither an audit nor even a paper trail. 

Woe is Iowa.

I teach 2nd grade and occasionally have to settle arguments that take place on the playground. The incidents usually begin with 2 students disagreeing with each other over little things. Then the students will say they don’t want to be friends with each other and one says the other can’t play with them anymore.

This is basically what happened in the Iowa House last week when Minority Leader Christopher Rants (R-Sioux City) kicked out Walt Tomenga (R-Johnston) from the Republican Caucus debate on raising the cigarette tax. Tomenga favors a $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax, a move that Rants has been working hard to stop.

I skipped the blogger meeting in Des Moines that idiosyncratic was able to make it to, but I did get the opportunity to interview him on his drive time from Ames to Boone for two house parties.  Richardson’s campaign has been by far the most accommodating in terms of one-on-one contact with the candidate, and I think that’s something that will generate a lot of good will for him.  Kos likes him, he is continually moving up in the Daily Kos and MyDD straw polls, and he is raising at a fairly brisk clip on actblue. 

I’ll have more impressions in one or more posts tonight or tomorrow, but I wanted to post the first half of my interview with the Governor.  A (probably pretty bad) transcript is included in the extended text.  You should see an mp3 player for audio of the interview – let me know if you don’t.  This is my first interview ever, so go easy on me.  🙂

The IDP has released its draft version of the delegate selection process (pdf) for the caucuses and beyond.  It seems pretty similar to how things worked last time, although it is long and boring so there might be some bombshells in there that my glazed-over eyes didn’t catch.

In section VI, subsection L, it says:

All steps in the delegate selection process, including the filing of presidential candidates, must take place within the calendar year of the Democratic National Convention…

As far as I can tell though the actual timeline starts in October, so I think they must mean a twelve month period rather than a January 1st-December 31st timeline.  There is definitely nothing here that precludes the possibility of the caucuses being moved up to January 7th, and there isn’t much to stop an even earlier date.

Mike Milligan, Executive Director of the IDP, has been named to Business Record’s 40 under 40 in Des Moines.  And while they have apparently missed out on a synergistic advertising opportunity with Olde English (union made!), Mike managed to get a plug in for his new restaurant.  Shane’s Rib Shack is opening on Thursday, at 12695 University Ave. in Clive.  They have both ribs AND wings, so I am pretty sure I will be living there when I’m not at work.

As annoying as I find Iowans for Sensible Priorities and their goddamn pie chart mobiles, they have put together a useful little site on Presidential candidate appearances for both parties.  I just wish I could stop hearing the same question at every freaking event.

The Press-Citizen is for it.  It will be interesting to see how the Ames Trib weighs in, since we’ve got one Regent school paper for and one against now.

The Register does a real disservice to its readers by putting up what is essentially a point/counterpoint article between the Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation.  Both are conservative think tanks, with Cato also having a libertarian twist.  They argue about mandating health insurance, with Cato against it and Heritage nominally for it.

As one of the major universal health care plans to come out of the states (Massachusetts in this case), it is certainly an idea to be debated.  But is it too much to ask that a liberal viewpoint be heard as well?  At the very least, most liberals can agree that such a system should allow people to buy into a government-sponsored program, such as Medicare or maybe some sort of state or federal employee benefits program.  Also, the Heritage foundation plan completely skirts over issues such as mandating community rating or other things that would help people with preexisting conditions or other impediments to quality private health care.  I’m sure we’ll hear a lot about these ideas in the primary, but our biggest paper shouldn’t be cutting out an entire half of the political spectrum on such an important issue.

I’ve been down at the Capitol a couple of days this week, lobbying for Election Day Registration.  On Monday the bill passed out of its House State Government subcommittee, where my own Rep. Wessel-Kroeschell headed up the effort.  It passed out of the full House committee on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday I was there to see it pass party-line out of the Senate State Government full committee.  The Republicans were vociferous in their opposition, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try to make a big issue out of it.

Today the Register came out in support of same day registration, while a few days ago the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier recycled Republican talking points against it.

The Republicans have basically two arguments they are using against it – We shouldn’t pander to uninformed voters, and it will increase the possibility of fraud.  Both of these reasons are stupid.

The idea that voters unregistered in their current precinct are uninformed voters is obnoxious and insulting.  It assumes a perfect correlation between understanding election law minutia and important decisions, when people who feel very strongly about issues might not know that moving across the state requires them to reregister.  Students, who tend to move almost every year, are especially affected by this.  So are young people in general.  You don’t have to take my word for it though – compare voter turnout in same-day registration state Minnesota vs. Iowa.  Anyone who makes the effort to go to the polls on election day ought to be able to vote – any argument against that is really an argument against American democracy.

The Republican argument of fraud is getting kind of stale, seeing as how they have trotted out for every attempt they make to restrict voting, from cutting poll hours, reducing access to absentee ballots, to forcing every voter to bring a photo ID to the polls.  We haven’t done any of those things, and we haven’t had any voter fraud in Iowa.  Minnesota has had same day registration since 1973, and they haven’t had any fraud.  (There was one case of a developmentally disabled man trying to vote twice – hardly what I would call fraud.)

The fact is, if someone really wanted to commit fraud in Iowa, they could already.  They could vote under the name of someone who has moved out of state, they could register under the name of anyone whose social security number they know and vote for them either absentee or at the polls, and any number of other ways to cheat the system.  The benefit for doing this is so low though (one extra vote) and the penalty so high ($7500 fine and five years in prison per offense) that no one would do it.  While you would only probably be caught using those methods of fraud, you would be GUARANTEED to be caught if you tried to game same-day registration.  You have to show a Photo ID, proof of residence, sign an oath, and fill out a registration form to vote.  If you did this at more than one location, you WILL be caught.  In the event that someone did decide to commit election fraud, there is NO CHANCE that they would try to do it under this system.

Election Day Registration is basically badass, and I believe it will pass on party line votes.  I just wish Republican legislators weren’t all either idiots or liars, and they would either be honest about their reasoning (they hate voting) or they could pass the bill in a bipartisan fashion.

If you are represented by any Republicans, I strongly encourage you to contact them and give them some shit on their talking points.

Tim Gannon (who some might remember from the Blouin campaign) is heading up the state effort to get the major investors in Iowa government – IPERS, 411, the Regents, and maybe a few others.  I was at the Senate state government committee meeting on Wednesday, where the bill was passed onto the floor by a unanimous voice vote.  The house subcommittee hasn’t acted yet, but this is a good amount of progress for this early in the session, and the bipartisan support certainly doesn’t hurt.

The bill would instruct these investors to divest of any direct investments in a small number of offending companies (25 or so), as well as encourage them to move away from mutual funds and other indirect investments that support these companies.

Things are looking pretty positive for the bill, but I encourage you to write or call your Senator or Representative and let them know your feelings on the bill.