Another Trump indictment, a Texas deployment, ethanol lawsuit, and more

August 7 "Capitol Week" is online

Aug 08, 2023

Yet again, criminal charges against former President Donald Trump dominated last week’s political news. But Dennis Hart and I found time for more Iowa-specific topics as well.

One thing Dennis and I didn’t discuss may interest some of you: supporters of Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign gathered in Chicago this summer for a reunion to mark 35 years since that historic candidacy. At Bleeding Heartland, I published reflections from John Norris, who managed Jackson’s Iowa campaign, and from Jay Howe, who co-chaired the campaign along with the legendary Evelyn Davis. Both highlighted Jackson’s important decision to set up his Iowa headquarters in tiny Greenfield (Adair County), rather than in Des Moines.

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Here’s the audio from our latest show. Remember, all past episodes of “Capitol Week” are available for free through KHOI’s website.

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Topics we covered on August 7:

We briefly went over the four charges special counsel Jack Smith filed against Trump last week. All were linked to Trump’s efforts to subvert the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election. If you have not read the indictment, I recommend the New York Times’ annotated version of the full document;
I clarified that contrary to what Trump and some of his allies have asserted, this indictment does not implicate free speech; his crimes were conspiring to obstruct the electoral vote count on January 6, 2021;
The indictment listed six co-conspirators; most or all are likely to face criminal charges later;
We didn’t go through every Republican presidential candidate’s reaction to the latest indictment, but we noted that comments from Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence were slightly different from what they have said before;
Only Will Hurd and Chris Christie sharply criticized Trump; neither is poised to gain any traction in the large GOP field;
In a Fox News interview, Senator Joni Ernst characterized the latest indictment as a “nothingburger,” which struck me as odd. I contrasted those comments with what she said in the immediate aftermath of January 6 and following Trump’s second impeachment trial;
I was intrigued that Governor Kim Reynolds didn’t issue a statement about last week’s indictments. She had rushed to defend Trump and attack the Biden administration when previous criminal charges were filed against the former president;
We talked about how the various criminal cases involving Trump and GOP allegations about Hunter Biden may overshadow other issues in the 2024 presidential campaign;
The New York Times published two noteworthy NYT/Siena polls last week. We hit a few points but it’s worth reading the whole write-ups of the national poll showing Trump and Joe Biden tied, and the survey of Iowa Republicans showing Trump leading with 44 percent, and DeSantis in second place with 20 percent;
I noted that Iowa Republicans have been inundated with mailings from outside groups warning that Trump is unelectable; I published a few examples of such mailings near the end of this Bleeding Heartland post last month;
Seven GOP presidential candidates came to U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson’s fundraiser on Sunday. We touched on themes from several of the speeches, which mostly copied remarks the candidates delivered at a recent Iowa GOP fundraiser in Des Moines. You can watch all of the speeches from Hinson’s event at the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s website;
Most of the candidates (aside from Trump and Christie) plan to visit the Iowa State Fair, which opens this Thursday. You can find the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox schedule here, and the schedule for Reynolds’ one-on-one interviews with presidential candidates here;
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is coming to the fair and plans to have a real campaign operation in Iowa. Dennis and I discussed his prospects for gaining ground among Iowa Democrats;
On to non-caucus-related news: Governor Reynolds sent 109 Iowa National Guard personnel to Texas last week. They’ll be there for a month, after which a group of Iowa State Patrol officers will spend almost the entire month of September assisting law enforcement in Texas. Reynolds has tapped the American Rescue Plan to cover all associated costs; at Bleeding Heartland, I wrote a deep dive questioning whether these deployments are allowable expenses under that federal COVID-19 relief measure. (Shortly after our show aired, I received a lengthy response from Reynolds’ spokesperson, which I published as an update to that post);
What happens if state auditors or the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Inspector General determine Reynolds can’t use American Rescue Plan funding for these deployments? Iowa would have to return that money to the feds and use state funds for “Operation Lone Star”;
Attorney General Brenna Bird announced on August 7 that Iowa and Nebraska filed suit seeking to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate rules on year-round E15 sales (15 percent ethanol blends). You can read the whole court filing here. I found it odd that only two states joined the lawsuit, given that eight governors formally requested that the EPA approve year-round E15 last year;
The state released updated numbers showing that 18,627 students have been approved for “education savings accounts”; it’s not clear how many of them will enroll at private schools, which are not required to accept all applicants;
The costs of the voucher program will vastly exceed the $107 million allocated by the legislature for the current fiscal year; I’m trying to confirm whether the legislature will need to pass a supplemental appropriations bill, or whether Reynolds can authorize the use of reserve funds to cover what could be an additional $30 million or more in expenses;
The Iowa Department of Education does not plan to issue detailed administrative rules regarding books that need to be removed from school libraries or classrooms under a new law on “age-appropriate” materials. I explained why it matters. Important background reading: Phillip Sitter on how the Urbandale school district is interpreting the law, and Samantha Hernandez on problems facing small communities where a town and school district share a library;
I reported on Friday that the Jefferson County attorney decided against pursuing any criminal charges against Republican State Senator Adrian Dickey, whose daughter has accused him of fraud and forgery after he took out a lien on her car;
North Dakota’s Public Service Commission denied a permit application from Summit Carbon Solutions to build a CO2 pipeline; the fallout could affect whether the Iowa Utilities Board approves Summit’s application here. Pipeline opponents (who span the political spectrum) have called on Iowa’s board to postpone hearings scheduled for late August;
Voters in Pottawattamie County (containing Council Bluffs) opted last week to keep their current system for electing supervisors at large, which will ensure continued GOP dominance of that board. I’ll be watching to see whether Republican lawmakers revive legislation designed to force some Democratic-leaning counties to abandon their at-large county supervisor elections.