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!

If you live in central Iowa, you’ll have a lot of fun events to choose from this weekend:

1. Saturday, April 21, “Blues for Greens” event at Water Works Park, Des Moines–10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Water Works Park is west of Fleur Drive and north of George Flagg Parkway.) 

The Iowa Department of Natural Resource, in association with the Iowa Clean Cities Coalition, and the Iowa American Lung Association, is planning an event that will feature E85, electric, hybrid, diesel, propane, natural gas and flex fuel vehicles at Waterworks Park in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday April 21st, 2007. 

“Blues for Greens” features environmentally friendly organizations, with blues music and ethnic food vendors acting as the backdrop for this family-friendly event.

2. Sunday, April 22: Earth Day at Greenwood Park ( 4500 Grand Ave., Des Moines ), 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Several activities that incorporate nature through the arts have been planned for people of all ages.

Go here and click 2007 Earth Day: A Greenwood Experience for more information about this free event sponsored by Metro Waste Authority, Des Moines Parks and Recreation, Polk County Conservation, Metro Arts Alliance and Open Arts.

3. Sunday, April 22: Earth Day in the Junction, Historic Valley Junction, West Des Moines. Click here for more information about this event.

5K Run ~ 10 am

Kids’ Fun Run ~ 11:30 am

Earth Day Celebration ~ 12 – 5 pm

Below are some of the activities planned:

An Inconvenient Truth will be played throughout the afternoon.

Rasmussen Bike will be providing free bike check ups to anyone who bikes to the event.

Heard Gardens is going to be doing a planting demonstration.

Toyota of Des Moines will be bringing hi-bred cars to the event.

Plus…local exhibitors, live music, kids’ activities and food vendors.

Feel free to post information about Earth Day events in your area.

Here’s a link to Trippi’s blog post announcing the move.

And here’s a link to a Daily Kos diary with more background and discussion of this hire.

The former Deaniacs I know in Iowa are largely undecided, with some leaning toward Edwards and others leaning toward Obama. I don’t think anyone will make up his or her mind solely based on what Trippi does, but I think the move sends a positive signal about the change Edwards wants to bring to America.

What are your thoughts, and what have you been hearing from the people you know who caucused for Dean in 2004?

House Democrats are moving forward with a landmark piece of legislation to bring the debate about limits on greenhouse gas emissions to the State of Iowa.  Senate File 485 is being floor managed by Representative Donovan Olson.  This bill creates a “greenhouse gas registry” similar to those found in other states and requires the Environmental Protection Commission and the director of the Department of Natural Resources to quantify the potential for emission of greenhouse gases by applicants for permits for electric power generating facilities.  The registry is considered the first step towards creating a system for carbon emission permit trading in the State of Iowa.

I rarely check in with the conservative blogosphere, but for some reason I clicked on the Cyclone Conservatives link at the right and I found a post proclaiming that for the second month in a row, former Libertarian and Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul has won the site’s presidential straw poll.

And he didn’t just win–he crushed the field, getting 44 percent of the 984 total votes. Wingnut Duncan Hunter placed second with 17 percent and Multiple Choice Mitt Romney placed third with 13 percent.

At first I thought that one person must have voted over 400 times for Ron Paul, but the organizers claim that you can only vote once per month per IP address. Presumably there must be some way to stuff the poll despite this restriction.

Alternatively, nearly half of Cyclone Conservative readers think the Iraq War was a colossal mistake. Ron Paul was one of very few, perhaps the only, Republican serving in the U.S. House who voted against the Iraq resolution authorizing the use of force in 2002.

Or is there some other reason why Ron Paul is dominating the field?

Another fun fact from this poll: anti-immigrant crusader Tom Tancredo got 8 percent of the vote, nearly twice as many raw votes as John McCain (3 percent) and Rudy Giuliani (1 percent) combined.

Think the wingnut base is a little unhappy with the GOP frontrunners?

The organization American Rivers has released its list of America’s 10 most endangered rivers, and the Iowa River is number 3 on the list, thanks to “weak enforcement of the Clean Water Act.”

Here is the short explanation for the ranking:

The Iowa River and its tributaries provide a boon to local economies, offering drinking water to nearby communities and wonderful recreational opportunities. Yet a host of polluters inundate the river with toxins and untreated sewage. Unfortunately, the state of Iowa trails far behind the rest of the country in implementing and enforcing the federal Clean Water Act. Unless the state wants water quality in the Iowa and other rivers to deteriorate even further, Iowa must adequately implement key provisions of the Clean Water Act and provide its Department of Natural Resources sufficient funding to enforce these regulations.

If you click through, you can download a pdf that has more detail about this assessment, and you can watch a video of Susan Heathcote, Water Program Director of the Iowa Environmental Council, explaining why the river is considered “endangered.”

At first I worried about this report, but then I remembered that Iowa is an agricultural state and anyone who doesn’t like it can leave in any of four directions.