2024 caucuses, election fallout, school vouchers, and more

Nov. 21 "Capitol Week" is online

KHOI Radio gave Dennis Hart and me an hour again this week, instead of our usual 30 minutes. But before I recap our latest show, I want to put in a pitch for KHOI. As non-commercial radio, they broadcast no advertising and rely on listeners to cover their operating expenses. Not only do they give Dennis and me space to discuss Iowa politics in depth, they air lots of diverse local talk and music programming as well as some nationally syndicated shows.

If you have cash to spare, please consider donating to support community radio.

Speaking of donations, November 25 is the last Friday of the month, which means it’s time for the next “Office Lounge” Zoom meeting featuring Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists. To join the meeting, which will start at noon and end at 1 pm, you have to be a paying subscriber to at least one of our newsletters. (The full list is at the end of this post.) I’ll send the Zoom link to my paid subscribers on Wednesday.

You can find the audio files for any episode of “Capitol Week” on this page. Here’s the audio link to our November 21 show, where Dennis and I talked about:

• Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announcement, and what it means for the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses;

• Why prominent Iowa Republicans including Senator Chuck Grassley, Representative Ashley Hinson, and former Governor Terry Branstad didn't endorse Trump, even though they have all benefited from Trump’s backing;

• The significance of Bob Vander Plaats opposing a Trump candidacy;

• Possible running mates for Trump if he becomes the nominee again (I’m not a believer in the Kim Reynolds scenario);

• The Democratic National Committee’s upcoming decision on whether to keep the Iowa caucuses first in the 2024 presidential nominating calendar;

• Why Iowa Democrats will probably need to hold caucuses in early 2024, even if the DNC bumps us out of the early states;

• Todd Halbur conceding the state auditor’s race to Rob Sand, the only Iowa Democratic statewide official to survive the red wave;

• Recounts underway in several Iowa House races (I wrote about this in more detail at Bleeding Heartland);

• Iowa’s process for recounts, which could be improved in many ways (Stephen Gruber-Miller wrote a good explainer on this for the Des Moines Register);

• The upcoming challenge to Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver’s voter registration (the top Iowa Senate Republican appears to still be living in his old Ankeny-based district and not in the Grimes apartment where he registered to vote so he could run in safer GOP territory);

• The leadership elections in the Iowa House and Senate Democratic caucuses;

• Why Iowa seems to have drifted so far toward being a red state, when we were considered a swing state for many years;

• Governor Kim Reynolds’ policy priorities and how the GOP-controlled legislature may approach tax cuts;

• Prospects for Reynolds’ school voucher plan and Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley’s decision to lead a new committee to consider the most important education reform bills (I had more to say about the speaker’s power play at Bleeding Heartland);

• Whether the legislature will pass a new abortion ban next year or wait for current litigation over reinstating the 2018 ban to play out;

• Last week’s U.S. Senate vote on debating a bill to protect same-sex marriage rights (Iowa’s senators landed on opposite sides, and I wrote more about this at Bleeding Heartland);

• The Iowa Supreme Court oral arguments related to a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Polly Carver-Kimm, who was fired as the Iowa Department of Public Health’s longtime communications director early in the COVID-19 pandemic (the justices are considering the state’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit, not the merits of Carver-Kimm’s claims);

• The state of play in federal litigation over President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief plan;

• What U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks said at the recent UN climate summit known as COP27, where the Iowa Republican was part of a House “Conservative Climate Caucus” delegation (you can find videos, partial transcripts, and reaction from the environmental community in my Bleeding Heartland post).

---

Here are the members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, in alphabetical order. Please check them out and consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to support this project. To receive an invitation to the monthly “Office Lounge” Zoom meetings, you need to be a paying subscriber to at least one of our newsletters.

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport