DNC to decide, Iowa House recounts, 2022 election turnout, and more
Nov. 28 "Capitol Week" is online
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I’m grateful for readers who help me preserve my editorial independence, and made a Thanksgiving Day resolution not to let my ongoing ankle problems keep me from spending more time outdoors next year.
This “Capitol Week” recap is going out a little later than usual, because as I was sitting down to write on Monday evening, I noticed the governor's office had emailed a public schedule at 8:28 pm with a single event listed for the entire week: serving breakfast at a shelter at 6:30 am Tuesday morning.
I felt compelled to report on the latest startling example of Governor Kim Reynolds' lack of transparency right away. She hasn’t held a press conference since early July, and since the election has avoided public appearances where journalists could ask her informal questions.
Dennis Hart and I are back to our usual 30-minute format. Here’s the audio for our latest show. (The entire archive is available here; we’re closing in on our 100th program!)
Topics we covered during the November 28 show:
The Democratic National Committee’s meeting later this week, and why they are likely to replace Iowa on the presidential nominating calendar;
The Libertarian Party of Iowa’s success in gaining major-party status, and what that means for the next election cycle;
The final outcomes in three Iowa House races where GOP candidates requested recounts, with some background on each district (I wrote more about this at Bleeding Heartland);
Warning signs for Democrats in the unexpectedly close race in House district 72, covering part of Dubuque;
The remaining Iowa House races where recounts are happening this week (only one of them, House district 81 in Davenport, is genuinely close);
Signs pointing to low turnout as a big problem for Iowa Democrats in key counties (I covered this in more depth at Bleeding Heartland);
Governor Kim Reynolds being chosen to chair the Republican Governors Association next year (great timing for her, given the electoral terrain in 2023);
The governor’s outgoing chief of staff Sara Craig Gongol being tapped as the group’s next executive director, and Reynolds’ choice of Taryn Frideres as the next chief of staff (incidentally, Craig Gongol and Frideres are the third and fourth women to serve as chief of staff for an Iowa governor);
Iowa’s upward trend of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, along with numerous RSV infections.
Here are the members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, in alphabetical order.
Thank you for this informative discussion. I appreciate hearing about the election outcome histories in districts where Dem narrowly won. Your description of the low turn out was distressing. Given the seismic shift in Iowa’s politics I hope we can hear discussion about why Iowa has turned red.