A busy week in Iowa politics, despite the holiday

Sept. 4 "Capitol Week" is online

Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend in Iowa and managed to stay cool!

Before I get to tonight’s show, I want to say a quick thanks to everyone reading this newsletter. Dennis Hart and I have been recording “Capitol Week” for more than two and a half years, but Substack has helped us expand the audience beyond those who were already regular listeners to KHOI Community Radio.

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On to the latest “Capitol Week.” Dennis commented tonight that we haven’t had a quiet news week all year. The long holiday weekend didn’t change that. Here’s the audio from our September 4 program. (Past episodes are all available on KHOI’s website for free.)

We led the show with news that broke on Monday: the passing of David Wolnerman, the last known Holocaust survivor living in Des Moines. He led an incredible life, and I highly recommend the feature Courtney Crowder wrote about him last year for the Des Moines Register.

Back to the week in Iowa politics:

• Beginning with the Iowa caucus news, former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to state charges in Georgia last week. He may have the 2024 nomination almost locked up by the time the first of four pending criminal trials begins next March;

• Miami Mayor Francis Suarez became the first Republican to leave the presidential field. I never attended any of his Iowa events but did write up the speech he gave at a big Iowa GOP fundraiser in July;

• Former Vice President Mike Pence was back in Iowa next week, and he threw some shade at fellow third-tier candidate Vivek Ramaswamy;

• Ramaswamy was back in Iowa over the weekend, and he is sticking with those faux “ten commandments” that have been a staple of his stump speech;

• The Never Back Down super-PAC, which is handling most Iowa caucus campaign activities for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has been targeting Ramaswamy, in what is widely interpreted as more evidence they see the newcomer as a threat;

• DeSantis is investing lots of time as well as money in Iowa. He’s working his way through a 99-county tour in the hope that retail campaigning will pay dividends with caucus-goers who expect to be courted. It probably won’t work, but it’s also the best strategy for him at this point, given that Trump’s lead over DeSantis is smaller in Iowa than in just about every state poll;

• Senator Tim Scott also came back to Iowa recently, and we talked about his support for a 15-week federal abortion ban;

• The next GOP presidential debate will be on September 27. I expect more candidates to drop out in the coming weeks as it becomes clear they won’t qualify;

• A new nationwide poll showed the majority of Democrats think President Joe Biden is too old to run for president again. I cautioned against interpreting that result to mean Biden can’t win again if he’s on the ballot;

• The Iowa National Guard deployment to Texas has ended, and the Iowa State Patrol deployment has begun. Republican State Senator Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs is among the 31 law enforcement officers who will spend most of September assisting colleagues in Texas;

• Last week, a state panel controlled by Governor Kim Reynolds released its first draft recommendations for culling Iowa’s boards and commissions. A public hearing is scheduled for September 6, and the panel will finalize its recommendations by September 30. I will have much more to say about the plans at Bleeding Heartland, but Dennis and I spent a few minutes on some key points;

• The draft recommendations say very little about what’s going to happen to some of the boards that are being merged or reorganized. I learned by attending last week’s meeting that all of the commissions representing marginalized communities (African Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, Latino Affairs, Native Americans, women) will be combined into one Human Rights council, but that’s not clear from the document released to the public;

• I flagged one other thing that jumped out at me: the boards representing corporate agricultural interests are all being left unchanged, but the boards that are supposed to represent other concerns (the environment, organic food, local food initiatives) will all be reorganized or eliminated;

• Last week’s special election for Warren County auditor received national news coverage. I wrote a deep dive for Bleeding Heartland about the surprisingly large margin for Democrat Kimberly Sheets;

• Attorney General Brenna Bird confirmed last week that she will appeal a Polk County District Court ruling that found Iowa must allow voting materials to be published in languages other than English;

• Bird also joined four other Republican attorneys general in warning big law firms not to use any race-based policies in hiring;

• The Iowa Utilities Board is continuing its hearing on Summit Carbon Solutions’ application for a permit to build a CO2 pipeline across Iowa. Dennis and I weren’t able to get into all of the complexities of the issues at hand, but Bleeding Heartland guest author Nancy Dugan has written some deeply-researched pieces on some of the legal arguments. She has also raised questions about whether the CO2 will actually be sequestered in North Dakota. Nancy’s latest post highlighted how some obscure LLCs linked to Summit have applied for permits to use huge amounts of Iowa well water;

• Officials at the U.S. Department of Labor agreed with Iowa Senate Democrats that some provisions of Iowa’s new child labor law conflict with federal statutes;

• Governor Reynolds announced last week that she won’t let any more COVID lockdowns or mandates happen on her watch; it seems to be part of a coordinated GOP communications strategy;

• Finally, a topic I just wrote about at Bleeding Heartland: the small southwest Iowa town of Essex (Page County) blocked a local LGBTQ group from participating in the community’s Labor Day parade. The ACLU of Iowa warned city officials over the weekend that this is a First Amendment violation.

Thanks again for reading and listening! Dennis and I will be back next Monday.

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Current roster of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, in alphabetical order:

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

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

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters from Iowans, Iowa

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities

Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Wini Moranville, Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

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

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

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

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

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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