Candidate pitches and news from Iowa courts

July 13 edition of "KHOI's Capitol Week"

Secretary Pete Buttigieg takes questions from reporters after the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration on July 12 (photo by Douglas Burns)

No slow news weeks in these parts! Spencer Dirks and I had a full plate for the latest “KHOI’s Capitol Week.” We spent more than half the show on news from the campaign trail, and finished with updates on several court cases, including the latest on the legal entanglements of State Representative Derek Wulf, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.

The audio from our July 13 show is at the top of this post. I enclose below the written summary, for those who would rather read than listen. If your email provider truncates this message, you can read it without interruption here.

This Thursday, July 16, at 1 pm Central, I’ll be going live with Seth Masket of The @smotus Report to talk about Iowa’s 2026 campaign landscape. Here’s a link to the livestream.

Back to the show.

Pete Buttigieg headlines Iowa Democratic fundraiser

We spent the first half of the show on highlights from the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration (the event formerly known as the Jefferson-Jackson dinner) on Sunday. State party chair Rita Hart said it was the party’s best-attended event since 2019, when more than a dozen presidential candidates were competing in Iowa. Pete Buttigieg, who edged out Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Iowa caucus delegate count, gave the keynote.

Buttigieg said “It feels very, very, very good to be back in Iowa,” and he got a warm welcome from the crowd. I snapped this photo of some superfans (former volunteers in Ankeny) who made their own t-shirts to wear for the occasion.

Buttigieg predicted Iowa Democrats would “defy assumptions around the country and challenge the rest of the country to follow your lead.” He praised several of the candidates individually, especially Rob Sand (whom he endorsed in May 2025) and Josh Turek (whom he endorsed before this year’s primary election).

Speaking to reporters after the event, Buttigieg said Sand can tap into what he called a “widespread frustration with the sense of corruption right now and the sense that the system is broken.” He said a lot of Democratic policies are more popular than Democratic politicians, so that makes the “go everywhere” strategy (which he employed in his caucus campaign) important. Buttigieg praised the lengths that Turek will go to to get to a voter’s door, and Sand’s commitment to holding 100 town halls every year.

He also believes “there’s no such thing as a permanently red or blue state.” He saw Indiana go blue for Barack Obama in 2008, and he believes Iowa can go blue this year. He’s encouraged to see Democrats reaching out to Trump voters, because winning elections will require reaching voters who haven’t always supported the party’s candidates.

Buttigieg wants to see major reforms to campaign finance, the electoral college, and the Supreme Court. (He’s been on board with court reform for a long time, and I interviewed him about that topic in 2019.) He dismissed the idea that Democrats should only talk about affordability and economic issues and not threats to our democratic system. “Don’t tell me we can’t take big swings, take real risks, do big work. Don’t tell me it’s bad politics to talk about diesel prices and democracy in the same breath because they are all part of the same picture.”

This speech was nearly 30 minutes, so there was no way we could cover every important point he made. You can watch it all here:

Buttigieg doesn’t tip hand about 2028 plans

Buttigieg is a big fan of the Iowa caucuses. He sees “incredible value” in the process, where everyone from the former vice president to a total unknown has to go to the diners and backyards, and convince people to stand up in front of their neighbors on their behalf. During the press gaggle after the event, he told Douglas Burns that the time spent here made him a better candidate and public servant.

But he didn’t wade into whether the Democratic National Committee should put Iowa first on the calendar again, telling reporters “I respect that I don’t have a role in that process.”

And when Isabella Luu of Iowa Public Radio asked a one-word question: “2028?” Buttigieg answered in one word: “2026.”

Iowa Democrats building strong “coordinated campaign”

Kendall Manning, the Iowa Democratic Party’s regional director in Polk County, spoke to the Liberty and Justice crowd near the beginning of the event and made a big pitch for volunteers to sign up. It’s the first on the ground, statewide coordinated campaign for Democrats in Iowa since the 2018 cycle, and Manning said it’s the largest coordinated campaign in the country right now.

Rita Hart told reporters that Democrats already have about 25 field offices open around the state and 65 field organizers hired, with more to come. Having spoken to activists in many parts of the state, I can vouch for the fact that those organizers are already knocking on doors and making calls to recruit volunteers.

Hart said organizers are being trained to listen to voters on the doors, not just read from a script of messages Democrats want them to hear. She said Democrats can’t move the state forward unless we listen and learn.

Since not everyone is able to (or wants to) knock doors, Hart said are many other ways people can help Democrats. Neighborhood groups like the Urbandale Democrats have had great success finding all kinds of volunteer roles, from driving canvassers to writing postcards to stuffing the bags of campaign literature people leave at the doors.

Muhlbauer: Iowans not happy with state’s direction

Dave Muhlbauer, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, spoke from his experience as a county supervisor. He said that when people are upset, local elected officials hear about it first. “And Iowans are not happy with the direction our state is headed in.”

Running mates often assume more of an “attack dog” role, and while introducing Sand, Muhlbauer devoted part of his remarks to troubling statistics about Iowa. The state is number one in cancer growth. We aren’t taking care of our soil and water. Public schools, backbone of rural communities, are being drained by private school voucher program. The economy is in decline, and the state is running a $1.3 billion budget deficit. Farmers are struggling due to tariffs and high costs for fuel and fertilizer; farm bankruptcies are on the rise.

Meanwhile, Muhlbauer said, our Republican opponent praised Governor Kim Reynolds’ legacy and chose a running mate who voted to gut the auditor’s powers, to create school vouchers, and to defund water monitors.

Sand hails divided government

Rob Sand is known for being pretty concise at party functions, but on Sunday, he gave the longest speech aside from Buttigieg’s. He said a lot of people (even some Republicans) have complimented him for choosing Muhlbauer as his running mate.

He brought up the defunding of water quality sensors again. How do you fix a problem that you refuse to measure? For Republicans, Sand said, the answer seems to be, we don’t have to fix it if nobody knows how bad it is.

As he routinely does at his town halls, Sand praised the divided government Iowa has had for most of his life, electing Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley to the U.S. Senate for decades. He recalled hearing then Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (a Democrat) and House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer (a Republican) say legislators do their best work when they have to work together.

Sand talked up his grassroots support, with 65,000 individual donors to the campaign, and three times as many GOP donors as the Republican nominee, Zach Lahn.

While making his own pitch for volunteers, Sand picked up on what Hart had said about listening to people when you are knocking doors. Ask voters: What’s bothering you? What scares you? What’s making life hard? What’s keeping you up at night?

He also told Democrats that if they encounter Iowans who are scared of ending up like states with Democratic trifectas, they should remind voters that if Sand wins, he will be working with a GOP legislature (though he hopes the majorities will be smaller).

Sand drew big applause by repeating his promise to veto every culture war bill Republicans send to his desk.

Turek emphasizes working class background

Senate candidate Josh Turek emphasized his working class background and said he knows the struggles Iowans are feeling now, “because I have felt it myself.” As he often comments during his campaign stops, “It’s working families who bear the brunt of Washington’s corruption right now.”

Turek pledged to take on corruption in both parties and described Washington as “fundamentally broken.” He spoke about his family’s experiences having to fight insurance companies for health care.

As for Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, Turek said she has become much more wealthy while serving in Congress. (A lot of that is because of the stock in the privately held company we mentioned on last week’s show.) He said Hinson has taken millions of dollars in corporate PAC money, including hundreds of thousands from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Alluding to a recent report about, Turek said Hinson spent $50,000 in taxpayer money on a luxury DC apartment.

“She got rich while ripping away our health care, supporting a war that is driving up gas prices,” and supporting tariffs that make everything more expensive. No wonder she hasn’t held a public town hall since launching her Senate campaign, he added.

Turek promised to fight for many broadly popular policies, such as a livable wage, lower health care and prescription drug costs, and women’s reproductive freedom.

Bohannan: Welcome voters who haven’t always backed Democrats

Some candidates appeared in brief videos rather than speaking at the Liberty and Justice event. In her recorded message, Christina Bohannan, the nominee in the first Congressional district, emphasized the “once in a generation” opportunity for Democrats in Iowa. She noted that tens of thousands of people who voted for Trump in 2024 also voted for her for Congress.

Bohannan said Democrats need to welcome “with open arms” people who haven’t always voted for the party’s candidates. She said she’s seen Republicans and independents come to her campaign events saying they are ready for change.

Before the program started on Sunday, I talked with activists from one of the smaller counties in IA-01. They confirmed that volunteers are already out on the doors every weekend canvassing for Bohannan.

James highlights “impossible choices” facing Iowans

Lindsay James, the Democratic candidate in the second Congressional district, highlighted the “impossible choices” people are making because basic needs are too expensive.

As a state legislator for the past eight years, she has knocked thousands of doors, and hears the same story over and over again: economic realities are forcing “impossible choices” on people. Should they pay their utility bill or buy a winter coat for their child? She said one man told her he could choose between paying rent to keep his home or paying for insulin to keep his foot.

She told a story about calling out one of the for-profit insurance companies that manages Iowa’s Medicaid program on the floor of the Iowa House during her first year as a legislator. A lobbyist told her that wasn’t how things were done. But they did end up approving the care her constituent needed.

She characterized Joe Mitchell, the Republican nominee in IA-02, as a former state representative turned lobbyist and real estate developer, and a member of the “ultra-wealthy class.” James said Mitchell “has used every ounce of privilege and power to enrich himself and his business interests.”

Trone Garriott touts importance of “showing up”

Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic nominee in the third Congressional district, highlighted health clinic closures, high costs for farmers, and the incumbent Zach Nunn’s support for tariffs and the war in Iran.

She characterized Nunn as someone who follows orders to protect a corrupt system. In contrast, she promised to change the system.

A recurring motif of her remarks was “showing up.” Nunn hasn’t held any town halls as a member of Congress. Trone Garriott said she learned to show up for people as a chaplain and a minister in a rural church, and has continued that practice as a state senator.

Dawson running 36-county strategy

Dave Dawson, the Democratic nominee in the fourth Congressional district, told the crowd it’s time for change after 40 years of Republican representation of northwest Iowa. The last Democrat to win in that part of the state was Berkley Bedell, who served six terms but did not seek re-election in 1986.

Dawson grew up in a small town in Cherokee County and lives in a small town in Woodbury County. He’s been a prosecutor in Woodbury County for 20 years and served two terms in Iowa House.

He acknowledged that IA-04 is a very tough district, but said Washington D.C. is broken. He wants to overturn Citizens United and get corporate money out of politics. He also favors term limits, banning stock trading by members of Congress, and an enforceable code of judicial conduct for U.S. Supreme Court.

Dawson has held 36 town halls already and said that by November, he will have visited all 36 counties in the district at least four times. Meanwhile, Republican candidates are not showing up to hear from people firsthand.

The race in IA-04 has been relatively quiet. The GOP nominee, Chris McGowan, was unopposed in the primary and hasn’t been very visible on the campaign trail. Dawson has challenged McGowan to three debates in three cities. (The district is enormous, spanning the entire length of the Missouri River, and encompasses all of the Sioux City media market as well as parts of the Omaha and Des Moines markets.)

Dawson confirmed to me on Monday that McGowan hasn’t responded to his letter or press release calling for three debates “with logistics and moderators to be coordinated by mutually agreed local civic organizations and media partners.”

The last time there was a debate in this district was in 2020, when the seat was open and Republican Randy Feenstra debated Democrat J.D. Scholten. Feenstra refused to debate Democratic challenger Ryan Melton in 2022 or 2024.

Willems calls for holding bad corporate actors accountable

Aside from Sand and Muhlbauer, Democrats running for statewide offices didn’t speak in person to the Liberty and Justice crowd. They provided videos making their case in around two minutes or less.

Since Spencer and I didn’t have time to cover most of the statewide candidate remarks after last month’s Democratic convention, we took some time to summarize all of these clips.

Nate Willems talked about his work as a labor lawyer and said the Attorney General’s office should be protecting Iowans and holding bad corporate actors accountable. Instead, he argued, the Republican incumbent Brenna Bird is busy chasing headlines and filing political lawsuits. For instance, she sued to block the Biden administration’s staffing standards designed to improve conditions in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. And soon after taking office in 2023, Bird halted reimbursements for emergency contraception for rape victims.

Follow Willems on Facebook and learn more by watching a recent meet and greet, where he gave a brief stump speech and answered audience questions, and his remarks to the Democratic Party’s state convention.

Jones: Impact of large-scale ag is “issue of our time”

In his video, Chris Jones said he is running for secretary of agriculture out of a sense of duty, “because I believe the degraded quality of life and human health consequences of large-scale agriculture is the issue of our time in Iowa.”

His video included footage of Senator Harkin’s endorsement, which we covered on last week’s show. Harkin said he’s never seen anything like Jones’ campaign, which is getting people excited to vote for a secretary of agriculture.

Follow Jones on Facebook or learn more about his campaign by watching his speech to the Democrats’ state convention or his remarks at his kickoff event in January.

Wettach vows to be “independent watchdog”

In his video for the Liberty and Justice event, Taylor Wettach said he is running to “keep an independent watchdog in the office of state auditor.” He talked about his Iowa upbringing and career as an attorney “negotiating with major corporations and the federal government on some of the most critical legal and policy issues facing our country today.” But when the Trump administration went after his former firm, the partners cut a deal to do $125 million of free legal work for Trump’s preferred causes.

Wettach resigned from the law firm in protest. He was raised not to look away when you see something wrong. He said a lot of things are going wrong here in Iowa, and the last thing people should have to worry about is “whether their hard-earned tax dollars are being wasted, misspent, or stolen by corrupt politicians.”

He criticized Governor Kim Reynolds and Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer (the GOP nominee for state auditor) for enacting a law to undermine the authority of the State Auditor’s office. (As a state senator, Cournoyer voted for that 2023 law.) He said Cournoyer would be “a fox guarding the hen house.”

Follow Wettach on Facebook and learn more about his campaign from his remarks at the state convention and my interview with him in February.

Norwood promises to protect IPERS

In his video, John Norwood said he’s running for state treasurer “to bring an independent, visible voice” to the position. He wants to encourage investing in Iowa, keeping more taxpayer funds circulating in state.

The biggest applause line for Norwood was his promise to protect the public pension program known as IPERS, which has more than 420,000 IPERS members. He promised, “I am going to be a strong defender of IPERS. I don’t want to see it privatized.”

He also called for more transparency around the state budget and criticized the “billion-dollar structural budget deficit.” One way to get out of it, he said, would be to address the “private school vouchers that are eating our budget alive.”

Follow Norwood on Facebook and learn more about his campaign from his remarks at the state convention and a press conference he held in May. He has criticized the incumbent, Republican Roby Smith, for being silent on recent problems at IPERS, even though he sits on the pension fund’s investment board.

Peterman promises to protect Iowans’ personal data

Ryan Peterman, the nominee for secretary of state, opened his video by talking about his service to our nation, from his time at the Naval Academy to his service as a Navy helicopter pilot to his work in the U.S. Senate, advising on defense and national security policy. “We’re not getting good leadership” from Iowa’s elected officials now, he said.

In particular, Peterman criticized the Republican incumbent Paul Pate for making it harder to vote in Iowa, “doing nothing to stand up to the constant attacks on mail-in-voting,” and now “sending our sensitive, private information to a partisan Department of Justice.”

He promised to fight for the people’s right to vote by mail, to extend the early voting window, to make election day a state holiday, and protect personal data.

Follow Peterman on Facebook and learn more about his campaign from his introductory campaign video and my interview with him from May 2025, shortly after he launched his campaign. The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State has put Iowa on its target list this year.

Hinson touts “Working Families Tax Cut”

Republicans gathered on Friday for a sold-out fundraiser that honored Governor Kim Reynolds’ legacy as governor. I didn’t attend the Lincoln Dinner—the Iowa GOP won’t credential me for their events—but I did watch the replay on C-SPAN.

The centerpiece of the event was a tribute to Reynolds, which included videos by current and former governors from around the country and a casual conversation with Reynolds and some of her family members. Dave Price talked about that angle on the latest “Iowa Down Ballot” podcast.

Spencer and I focused on the political speeches by Senate nominee Ashley Hinson and Zach Lahn, the candidate for governor. (Republicans didn’t give all of their statewide and federal candidates speaking time at the dinner.)

Hinson told the audience that “Iowa is going to be the center of the political universe.” It’s a notable shift in tone—a year ago, Republicans barely acknowledged that Democrats could be competitive in key 2026 races.

Praising Reynolds’ leadership, Hinson said Iowa has become a model for the rest of the country. Mostly, though, she touted her work in Congress, especially on the budget reconciliation bill that Republicans now call the “Working Families Tax Cut.” (They ditched the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” moniker late last summer.) Speaking to Iowans in all 99 counties over the past year, she said families were saying they wanted affordable child care, the ability to buy a home, access to quality health care, and to keep more of their hard-earned paycheck. She characterized the “Working Families Tax Cut” as solving those real problems.

Republicans attack Turek’s missed legislative votes

At the Lincoln Dinner, Hinson and others (such as Iowa GOP state party chair Jeff Kaufmann) raised their latest argument against Hinson’s Democratic opponent, saying Turek missed nearly 60 percent of the votes during the latest legislative session. “Iowa deserves a leader who will actually show up for those votes and actually deliver results,” she said.

It was a well-coordinated attack that first emerged in a Fox News digital report by Leo Briceno on July 8. Hinson mentioned Turek’s missed votes the next day on Simon Conway’s WHO Radio show, the Senate Leadership PAC posted about it, and it was a recurring theme at the GOP fundraiser.

Many legislators (from both parties) have missed lots of votes while running for higher office. I don’t know whether this talking point can gain a lot of traction, especially since Turek is part of the minority. No bill was riding on his vote.

The Fox News story said Turek “has taken over $20,000 in per diem payments while missing more than half of his 2026 votes.” Hinson echoed that point, prompting me to dig into my email archives. I looked into this issue four years ago, during Zach Nunn’s first Congressional campaign. (He missed the entire 2021 legislative session while on active duty at the U.S. Air Force’s Air War College in Alabama.) Other legislators have been gone for long stretches for health or family reasons.

The Iowa House chief clerk told me in 2022 that Iowa Code says members of the legislature “shall receive” per diem for the whole session. They can’t be paid for parts of the session or parts of a week, even if they are absent.

The Turek campaign declined to give me any comment for the record about the latest Republican attacks. But a spokesperson for Turek told Fox News, “Just last week, Ashley Hinson skipped votes on the annual defense funding bill to attend a ritzy D.C. fundraiser.” (Fox confirmed “Hinson was absent for a portion of the 2027 defense bill markup while at a fundraiser on June 24.”) The Turek spokesperson also criticized Hinson for not holding any town halls since launching her campaign for U.S. Senate.

In addition to calling out Turek on missed votes, Hinson depicted him as a “stooge of Chuck Schumer” after a super-PAC (she didn’t name VoteVets) spent more than $10 million supporting Turek in the primary. Moving into her comfort zone of anti-trans rhetoric, she bashed her opponent for voting to allow kids to change their gender at school without telling their parents. That was a reference to a wide-ranging 2023 bill containing a school book ban and “don’t say gay or trans” provisions. The bill also required school staff to notify parents if students want to use a different name or pronouns at school.

Lahn touts Trump endorsement, “outsider” status

Introducing the GOP nominee for governor at the Lincoln dinner, state party chair Kaufmann said “The people brought us Zach Lahn.” He described Lahn as “on the outside looking in” and “a fresh voice” who “won’t run away from being a Republican” but will help grow the party.

Lahn characterized himself as an outsider who would build on the leadership of Governors Terry Branstad and Reynolds. He also said he was proud to be endorsed by Donald J. Trump earlier that day. The president’s Truth Social post offering his “Complete and Total Endorsement” didn’t mention that he had backed Randy Feenstra for governor before the June primary.

Lahn likes to talk about 19th-century history and spent a few minutes telling the Lincoln Dinner crowd about the 1880 GOP convention in Chicago and how James Garfield eventually won the nomination for president. (I learned about that by watching the Netflix series “Death by Lightning.”)

Lahn threw a few barbs toward Rob Sand but didn’t dwell on that angle. He told the audience, “our campaign is different. It’s about not just what’s at risk, but even more so, what the opportunity is.” He wants to take the mantle of Branstad and Reynolds and make Iowa best place to raise a family, start a business, grow a family, build a community, and participate in your church.

Lahn accuses Sand of attacking his children

At the Lincoln Dinner, Lahn accused Sand of not being honest and authentic about who he is, posing as a moderate while he is actually an “extreme liberal.” And on the Iowa PBS program “Iowa Press” this past weekend, Lahn claimed Sand had “chosen to make this campaign about personal attacks against me and specifically my children.”

He added, “Let me just be very clear here: He is a candidate for the governorship of Iowa and he has personally mentioned my children, my minor children, many, many times on video, on the campaign trail. It’s not an Iowa value that we hold. This is something that is off limits, that’s been known to be off limits for a very long time.”

Erin Murphy of the Cedar Rapids Gazette reviewed audio from several recent Sand appearances. What he found is consistent with my on recordings of Sand on the campaign trail: “Sand did not mention Lahn’s children specifically at any of the events; at each, he said ‘God bless Zach Lahn and his family down in Kansas,’ or something similar.”

Lahn not sure whether he’ll keep flying if elected

Lahn is a private pilot and often flies his own plane between Iowa and Kansas. So “Iowa Press” moderator O. Kay Henderson asked the Republican nominee if he would continue to fly himself as governor, or if he would have state troopers pilot. She asked because since 1954, when Iowa’s governor died in a traffic accident, state troopers have been driving the governor.

Lahn replied, “You know, it’s something I haven’t even thought about yet. Just be very be very open with you. I do know that we do have state troopers that are pilots. Actually, some have reached out to me and said they do look forward to working with me should I become governor. And I think we have a rich history of aviation in our state. […] I’ve been flying since I was a little kid. I got my pilot’s license in Webster City. I’ll tell you, I will always be a pilot and I will always fly. But you know, I haven’t even really got that far to think about that part of part of it yet.”

GOP accuses Sand of blocking Republicans from his town halls

The Iowa GOP leveled another charge against Sand last Friday, posting a video showing a campaign staffer denying a Republican operative entry to one of Sand’s town halls. (It’s funny to see them point fingers after Iowa GOP staff prevented me from covering the state convention, even though Lahn’s campaign put me on their media list. In addition, Republican members of Congress routinely exclude me from their press calls, which government officials are not supposed to do.)

I sought comment from Sand’s campaign, because near the beginning of every town hall, he asks Republicans in the room to raise their hands and encourages the crowd to clap for them. Which Republicans are and are not allowed at his public events?

Staff told me,

As stated in the video, our policy is to not permit Republican operatives at our campaign events.

Rob’s town halls are open to everyone — Democrats, Republicans, independents, and anyone else who wants to participate. Republicans and independents regularly attend our town halls, ask questions, and engage in the conversation. The only people we do not permit are staff and operatives working on behalf of opposition campaigns.

My follow-up question was how do they identify Republican operatives? Do they research everyone who registers for an event to see if they have worked for Republican candidates or committees?

They told me, “We do not pre-screen or research anyone who attends our events. We simply recognize the Republican operatives who consistently attend our events, many of whom have been showing up throughout the campaign.”

The operative who filmed this video is Makenna Seven, whose Facebook profile identifies her as Grand View University Campus Coordinator for Turning Point USA and former schedule and logistics coordinator for Adam Steen’s gubernatorial campaign.

Update on Derek Wulf’s legal entanglements

I’ve continued to follow the litigation involving State Representative Derek Wulf, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. He was ordered to appear in Sioux County District Court on Monday, July 13 for a “debtor’s exam.” The creditor Four County Pig Placement requested the hearing because in April, the court issued a default judgment for them for about $182,000, and Wulf never paid it.

Last month the judge ordered Wulf to appear in court and bring documents related to his finances. He didn’t show up and didn’t send a representative. But I was able to obtain a transcript of the hearing from the court reporter on Monday afternoon.

We didn’t have time to read much from the transcript during the show. But the attorney for the creditor entered into the record that Wulf’s attorney had made several promises to pay by early July, saying Wulf was getting a bridge loan. The money wasn’t wired until July 13. (During the hearing, the attorney for Four County Pig Placement logged into her bank account and told the judge it showed a pending wire in the amount of $185,137.98. That would cover the default judgment amount, plus interest and fees.)

The wire transfer came from the Des Moines law firm representing Wulf, not from him directly.

So that resolves this issue and there is no need for a debtor’s exam in the Sioux County case. Wulf has other pending cases, including a foreclosure petition with a court hearing scheduled for July 17. I’ll follow up on that next week, because Wulf may be settling other debts as well.

Change in Wulf’s legal strategy

We reported last month that Wulf wasn’t being represented by any attorney in some of this litigation over his farm’s debts. Default judgments were entered in separate cases in April and June because no one filed any response on behalf of Wulf or his farm, Shallow Creek Land and Livestock, LLC.

Shortly after Lahn selected his running mate, a campaign spokesperson told me, “Derek is in the middle of a routine re-financing. When that is completed, all creditors will be paid. In the meantime, he’s not going to enrich litigation attorneys with rounds of needless back and forth. He’s focused on getting the re-finance done.”

A couple of weeks ago, after I saw a Des Moines attorney had entered filings on Wulf’s behalf in a couple of the pending cases, I asked the Lahn campaign why the strategy changed and who is paying Derek Wulf’s attorney fees.

The spokesperson told me, “We’ve addressed this issue and answered the questions we’re going to answer. We don’t have any additional comment at this time.”

Libertarian ticket for governor/LG go to court

I logged quite a few hours at the Polk County courthouse last week. Last Tuesday I attended a lengthy hearing in the case involving the Libertarian candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, Nicholas Gluba and Jules Cutler. They are appealing the State Objection Panel’s decision to kick them off the ballot.

We didn’t have time to discuss all of the relevant questions. There are factual disputes over what happened when the Libertarians submitted their nominating papers on June 2. They say Cutler tried to submit her affidavit of candidacy, but an election staffer told her it wasn’t needed. The Secretary of State’s office disputes that.

There are also several legal questions, such as: should the court allow them to appear on the ballot because they relied in good faith on erroneous advice from an election official?

The next step in this case will be an evidentiary hearing on July 21. It will be wide-ranging, and I plan to be there.

Ballot access cases for Libertarians running for Congress

We mentioned last week that Marco Battaglia is going to court to get back on the ballot in Iowa’s third Congressional district. The first hearing in that case was on Friday. (It was my first time being at the courthouse on a Friday afternoon, and I saw three different women in wedding dresses, which was awesome.)

It turned out to be two cases for the price of one, because a Republican voter in Linn County is trying to overturn the state panel’s ruling that allowed Rick Stewart to stay on the ballot. (That appeal was filed on July 2, but didn’t appear in Iowa Courts Online for several days due to the July 4 holiday.)

Attorneys for Republicans and the State Objection Panel wanted to consolidate the Battaglia and Stewart cases because both are related to candidates’ names. (The state panel said Rick Stewart and Richard Stewart are versions of the same name, so he can stay on the ballot. But the panel said Marco Battaglia is a fictitious name, too different from his legal name, Mark Andersen. Libertarians say Iowa law doesn’t specify that you have to use legal names, and the candidate has been on a statewide ballot three times as Marco Battaglia, so it would be unfair to exclude him now.)

Libertarians wanted to keep the cases on separate tracks, and that dispute was the focus of Friday’s hearing. Judge Patrick Smith issued an order consolidating the two cases. The court will hear arguments on July 22, and I plan to be there.

Everything is happening on an accelerated timetable so the Iowa Supreme Court can hear the appeals and decide by August 31, ideally.

Court hears arguments in Trump v. Selzer lawsuit

I spent most of Friday morning at the courthouse for the latest hearing in Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and its former pollster, Ann Selzer. We only had a couple of minutes to talk about this, but I live-tweeted the hearing, and you can find those play-by-play threads here and here. I’m working on a full-length article about where things stand.

It’s hard to believe, since this case has been going on for more than a year, but we are still at a relatively early stage in litigation. The lawsuit alleges that the Register and Selzer violated the Iowa consumer fraud law when the newspaper published a poll three days before the 2024 presidential election showing Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump in Iowa.

The judge is not considering the merits of the arguments, but whether this suit should be dismissed now (for lack of any valid legal claim) or allowed to proceed so the plaintiffs can conduct discovery, obtaining internal communications from Gannett, the Register, and Selzer.

The defendants have a two-track legal strategy. One rests on First Amendment arguments: they say reporting on an opinion poll is protected political speech, not “commercial speech.” It would have a chilling effect to allow the case to go forward.

Also, the defendants argue that this case doesn’t fit with Iowa’s consumer fraud statute. There’s no consumer transaction here, Trump and the other plaintiffs didn’t buy the newspaper, never relied on the poll to make a purchase, and didn’t suffer any economic damages. All of those are mandatory elements of a consumer fraud claim.

The plaintiff’s attorney argued that they need to conduct discovery to find out whether fraud happened. How was the poll conducted? Was a poll even conducted, or was the whole thing “concocted” in some way? What did the Register’s political reporters think about the poll? They say under Iowa’s rules of civil procedure, there’s no burden on them right now to prove the poll was fraudulent: the court should let the case go forward.

Judge Scott Beattie said it will take him several weeks to issue an opinion. Either way, this case will be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Dave Price, Kathie Obradovich, and I had more to say about Trump v Selzer on “Iowa Down Ballot.”

That’s all for now—thanks for reading or listening!