Early voting, toss-up races, and an Iowa angle on Indigenous Peoples' Day
October 14 "Capitol Week" is online
Good morning! After last night’s show I watched the second Congressional district debate live on Iowa PBS and then got caught up watching clips from Donald Trump’s “bizarre town hall episode” in Pennsylvania. Spencer and I will be talking about the Ashley Hinson/Sarah Corkery debate next Monday, but if you can’t wait until then, subscribe to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast (a group effort from the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative). We’re recording the next episode on Wednesday, and it should drop on Thursday.
and have their own podcast, Iowa Revolution. On their latest episode, they covered some presidential campaign developments and how “Arizona's voucher program shows the future in Iowa.”On to the latest “KHOI’s Capitol Week.” You can find us on any podcast platform or smart speaker, but I always send a detailed list of topics covered in this space for those who would rather read than listen. The full radio show archive (going back to February 2021) is available on KHOI’s website.
Topics Spencer and I covered on the October 14 program:
Early voting begins in Iowa on October 16, so we recapped the options for casting an early ballot, and what Iowans need to bring with them when they do. If you haven’t already requested a mailed ballot, I strongly advise making plans to vote early in person;
When you vote early in person, you have to turn in your ballot right there—you can’t take it home and study it. So make sure to research the down-ballot candidates ahead of time;
Bring your driver’s license or non-operator ID, because you will need that number when you request an early ballot. But if you don’t have a license, the election worker should be able to look up your voter PIN number as an alternative;
Iowa Republicans are back to pushing their supporters to vote early, which became a touchy subject because of Donald Trump’s false claims about absentee ballot fraud in 2020;
An enormous number of Iowans voted early in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there will likely be a big drop-off this year;
Republicans plan to encourage and “chase” absentee ballots, but that will be more difficult than in the past, because the voter suppression law Republicans enacted in 2021 makes it illegal to hand-deliver a completed absentee ballot for someone who doesn’t live in your household;
I shared some takeaways from the KCCI-TV debate between IA-03 Republican incumbent Zach Nunn and Democratic challenger Lanon Baccam. If you missed it, watch the replay here;
No big surprise: abortion is set to be the key issue in this race. Baccam repeatedly pointed out that the near-total ban in effect now in Iowa is what Nunn wanted, since he voted for an almost identical bill in 2018. Nunn emphasized that he supports exceptions to abortion bans;
Far more voters see and hear campaign ads on TV or radio than watch debates, so we summarized some of the recent spots in the IA-03 race. I would guess internal Republican polling shows Nunn a little behind, because his last three TV ads have been negative spots about Baccam. I discussed the two focused on immigration here;
Abortion is still the most common theme of the negative ads against Nunn;
Moving to Iowa’s other toss-up U.S. House race, an internal Democratic poll released last week showed challenger Christina Bohannan leading GOP incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks in IA-01 by 50 percent to 46 percent. Bohannan’s favorables are in positive territory, while Miller-Meeks is underwater. I misspoke during the show and said the IA-01 debate was set for last night. I was thinking of the Hinson/Corkery debate. Miller-Meeks and Bohannan are debating on Iowa PBS on October 21;
Outside groups aligned with Miller-Meeks and Bohanan continue to spend a lot of money in IA-01. The latest GOP attack on Bohannan claims she is “dangerous and disturbing” because she voted against a policing bill in 2021. Bohannan has a TV ad up featuring two sheriffs who support her and vouch for her on public safety;
We touched on my post about Iowa Republicans promoting a false narrative about FEMA and hurricane relief in order to pit voters against immigrants. You can read all the details here;
I wanted to highlight the judicial retention elections. I have a couple of Bleeding Heartland posts in progress about the judges who are up for retention this year. You can read the Iowa State Bar Association’s Judicial Performance Review for results from attorney surveys about every judge on the November ballot. During the show, I mentioned the retention ratings from that survey about Iowa Supreme Court Justice David May, the four Court of Appeals judges, and a few District Court judges whose ratings were unusually low;
Last week Attorney General Brenna Bird co-led a new multi-state lawsuit challenging a federal regulation. This one zeroed in on nursing home staffing requirements;
Bird also co-led a bipartisan letter to U.S. House leaders, urging Congress to pass a law that would expand the federal judiciary for the first time since 2003. One of the new District Court judgeships would be in Iowa’s Northern District;
The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in a case related to Summit Carbon Solutions’ CO2 pipeline. I explained the legal issue and the stakes. I am sure this won’t be the last time Iowa’s high court hears a case related to the pipeline;
Iowa House Democrats held a news conference last week to highlight public school closures and new private school openings that they attributed to Iowa’s school voucher program. Some of the data was not accurate, and the governor’s office pointed out that several of the private schools listed were not “new,” but only newly accredited. I explained why it matters that a school is newly accredited: that school may draw more students away from public schools once its students are eligible for Education Savings Accounts;
Democratic State Senator Janet Petersen criticized the Reynolds administration last week for not applying for some large federal grants related to preschool, maternal health care, and summer meals;
In closing, I wanted to flag Rick Morain’s latest column, which was well-timed for Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 14. He discussed the Sauk and Fox treaty, signed in October 1842, which ceded a huge area in central and southern Iowa to the U.S. for about eight cents an acre. When some Meskwaki purchased land in Tama County for the Meskwaki Settlement in 1856, they paid $12.50 an acre.
Thanks for reading or listening! If you vote early this week, let me know how it goes and whether there was a line at your county auditor’s office.
Sarah Scull of Creston is the newest member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Check out her latest post, “Why I Stay.” Click here to subscribe to our free Sunday roundup of columns from the week. We are proud to have an alliance with Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Laura - thank you so much for this comprehensive summary. We appreciate you so much. My husband and I are both voting early tomorrow, reviewing the entire ballot today. Thanks especially for the heads up about judges. Too many Iowans do not understand the retention vote, they never paid any attention until they were misinformed about the gay marriage issue. Will let you know what the auditor’s office in Des Moines County looked like tomorrow. Thanks again!!
Just checked sample ballots for Polk County are online at the auditor's webpage. Google Polk County Iowa Elections and the site will come up. Precincts, polling sites and sample ballots for the specific precinct are online.