Abortion case ends, summer food fight begins, Iowa Congressional races, and more
August 19 "Capitol Week" is online
I had a wonderful trip to Chicago last week. I hadn’t been to the city since well before the pandemic, and I’d never spent any time in Hyde Park, where our gracious host Marcia Rogers lives. I will be back for sure.
It was also nice to spend quality time with Doug Burns and Nik Heftman. On the drive back to central Iowa, we stopped for lunch in Dixon, Illinois, and popped over to Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home before getting back on the road. Check it out if you’re ever in the area, and check out Doug’s work at The Iowa Mercury and Nik’s work at The Seven Times.
Things slowed down a bit on the Iowa political scene last week, but Spencer Dirks and I still didn’t get to everything on our format. The audio from Monday night’s program is at the top of this message, or you can find it on podcast platforms and smart speakers as “KHOI’s Capitol Week.” Our full archive (going back to February 2021) is available on KHOI’s website.
Here’s the rundown:
We started with a brief preview of the Democratic National Convention, which opened on Monday. I confirmed last week that no Iowans are scheduled to speak on the main stage. Welcome to life in no-longer-a-swing state;
Governor Tim Walz held a rally in Omaha on Saturday. I recommend watching his very tight stump speech if you haven’t seen it yet. That’s probably the closest the Democratic ticket will come to Iowa between now and November;
We went over which presidential tickets have qualified for the ballot in Iowa, in addition to the major parties. The window hasn’t closed yet, but so far, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is listed under “We The People,” and there are Libertarian and Party for Socialism and Liberation tickets as well. Cornel West’s campaign was supposed to hold a virtual convention for Iowans on Saturday. It didn’t happen, but a campaign spokesperson told me they still plan to qualify for the ballot here (I’m skeptical);
Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic dropped their legal challenge to Iowa’s abortion ban last week. I explained the reasoning at Bleeding Heartland;
We reminded listeners what the legal limits are on abortion in Iowa, now that the near-total ban is in effect, and options for Iowans who want to terminate a pregnancy;
Governor Kim Reynolds caught a lot of heat for rejecting $29 million in federal funds to feed kids over the summer. Last week she indicated that she wants to accept the funds for 2025, but instead of participating in the USDA’s established program (Summer EBT or “Sun Bucks”), Iowa will ask for a waiver to set up a new state-run program. Families would not receive funds they could spend on food in any store or farmers’ market. Instead, families would receive one box of supposedly nutritious food each month;
Leaders of food banks and the Iowa Hunger Coalition reacted cautiously to the governor’s plan. They welcomed the decision to receive federal funds, but it’s clear they would prefer for Iowa to participate in Summer EBT;
It’s not clear whether the USDA will grant the waiver Iowa is requesting. A spokesperson for the federal agency said in a statement last week that the current program has a proven track record, adding, “Through this waiver request, the governor is asserting that the State (of Iowa) knows better than its own families do about what their needs are.”
Reynolds sounds ready to fight about this, saying in response to the USDA’s comments, “We have proven that we have robust infrastructure across our state to make this work for Iowa families. If the purpose is truly to make sure kids don’t go hungry in the summer, the USDA will, in good faith, work with Iowa on this demonstration project.”
A recent policy change for Iowa Medicaid is a big win for Iowans who use wheelchairs. They will no longer need to wait for a prescription and an in-person doctor’s visit in order to get their wheelchair repaired. State Representative Josh Turek pushed for legislation on this issue, and although he wasn’t able to get his bill through the process, his advocacy produced results;
Turek isn’t done working on this front: Iowans still face delays because Medicaid “requires recipients to receive prior authorization for the repair from their managed care organization or the insurers that provide Medicaid coverage to Iowans.”
We spent some time on campaign news this week. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced on Monday that it has reserved a lot of tv time for two of Iowa’s U.S. House races: $534,000 in the Cedar Rapids market (covering part of the first district), $438,000 in the Quad Cities market (also part of IA-01), and $1,551,000 in the Des Moines market (probably mostly for the IA-03 race, but could include some IA-01 spending as well);
Large independent expenditures like this one will help Democratic challengers Lanon Baccam and Christina Bohannan (who didn’t receive any air support from the DCCC in 2022). We don’t know details about the planned ads, but it’s likely that outside group spending will go largely toward negative advertising about GOP incumbents Zach Nunn (IA-03) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01);
We recapped the Iowa State Fair Political Soapbox speeches by Sarah Corkery (Democratic challenger in IA-02) and Baccam;
We spent a couple of minutes on the record number of LGBTQ candidates running for the Iowa legislature this year. You can read more about all of them and the districts where they are running in my write-up. In case anyone is wondering: I did touch base with all of these candidates to make sure they didn’t object to being mentioned in this context;
I wanted to flag for Iowans the most important judicial retention election coming up this year. As Rekha Basu has reported, some reproductive rights advocates are urging Iowans to vote no on Supreme Court Justice David May;
We talked about the judicial retention election process and what happens if Iowa voters force out Justice May (the governor get to appoint the successor, choosing from nominees selected by a commission);
Incidentally, guest authors have submitted two columns to Bleeding Heartland, which make the case against voting no on Justice May (see here and here). If anyone wants to submit a counterpoint, I would be happy to publish it;
Robin Opsahl reported for Iowa Capital Dispatch last week that Miller-Meeks came out in favor of CO2 pipelines as a way to support the ethanol industry;
I reported at Bleeding Heartland last week that Miller-Meeks and 17 other U.S. House Republicans are trying to save energy tax credits they voted against. The Democratic-backed Inflation Reduction Act established these tax credits two years ago, and some industries are concerned they could go away if Republicans keep control of the House and capture the Senate;
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee held a “field hearing” at the Iowa State Fair on Friday to talk up the Trump tax cuts. This was more of a political show than a fact-finding event. You can watch the whole hearing online, or read the highlights courtesy of the Des Moines Register’s Brianne Pfannenstiel.
Thank you for reading or listening! If you are watching the DNC this week, which speeches interest you the most? I think Wednesday night (Bill Clinton followed by Tim Walz) will be a blockbuster.
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative now has more than 60 members. We know it can be hard to keep track of what everyone is writing, so our Sunday morning roundup links to everyone’s posts over the past week. You can sign up here, for free.
We are proud to have an alliance with Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Due to the strings that most likely go with Big Brother money, I have read a couple, I have to agree with Gov. Reynolds decision on turning down the fed food money. Fed govt plans are historically a waste and a bureaucratic mess, our state can do a better job. I personally know of the many food panties, Hacap food distribution for families in my county. The carrot on the fed stick is usually bad in the long run.