Iowa caucus race, Satanic controversy, governor's salary hikes, and more
Dec. 18 "Capitol Week" is online
This recap is reaching you a bit later than usual, because I was tied up with other obligations for most of Tuesday.
My dog Sammy made his presence known at the beginning of last night’s show, so I thought I’d share a picture of him instead of the “Capitol Week” logo.
Dennis Hart and I may have some time to answer listener questions during our year-end show, so leave a comment or shoot me an email if you have a question about how we put the show together, or any Iowa political topic.
Dennis and I move things along at a rapid pace, but I’ve had a few in-depth conversations recently on other podcasts, in case anyone would like to listen:
Rachel Parker, Jess Piper and I talked about abortion restrictions in Iowa and Missouri on The Heartland POD last week.
George Clark interviewed me yesterday for Podcast by George (Facebook link, YouTube link). We talked about Governor Kim Reynolds’ big raises for top staffers, lax oversight of Iowa nursing homes, the shell game going on with the governor’s office budget, and racial disparities in juvenile justice in Iowa.
Arnie Arnesen interviewed me for an episode of The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen, which will go out on Wednesday, December 20 on podcasting platforms and the Pacifica Radio Network. We mainly talked about the draft administrative rules on Iowa’s abortion ban and the two lawsuits filed in late November challenging a discriminatory education law. UPDATE: Here’s the link to that show.
Unless some breaking news pre-empts us, I’m scheduled to be on CNN This Morning along with Galen Bacharier from the Des Moines Register near the top of the 7:00 am Central hour on Wednesday, December 20. We’ll be talking about the Iowa caucuses. UPDATE: The segment was pushed to another day due to the big Colorado Supreme Court decision.
Final programming note: KHOI will broadcast “Capitol Week” on Monday, December 25, but Dennis and I plan to record that program this Friday, instead of doing a live broadcast on Christmas.
On to our December 18 edition! Remember, the full “Capitol Week” archive going back to early 2021 is available for free on KHOI Community Radio’s website.
Topics we covered this week:
We started with Congressional news: how the Iowans voted and what they said about opening a formal impeachment inquiry. Iowa’s U.S. House members also supported the latest defense authorization bill, even though some conservative Republicans rebelled against that measure;
Moving to the Iowa caucus campaign, two more new polls (from Civiqs and YouGov/CBS News) indicated the Republican presidential race is over. Wishful thinking notwithstanding, there’s never been any reason to believe Donald Trump won’t win the caucuses by a large margin. As I’ve mentioned before, I expect Trump to outperform his polling numbers on January 15;
The Des Moines Register continues to publish findings from the latest Iowa Poll by Selzer & Co. Likely Republican caucus-goers say Trump is the best candidate to handle every issue mentioned in the survey. A plurality say Trump’s incendiary statements (calling political opponents “vermin,” claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country) make them more likely to support him for president;
We talked briefly about Trump’s rally last week in Coralville, where he repeated his litany of grievances and again attacked Governor Kim Reynolds and others as disloyal;
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sounds increasingly desperate and has claimed polls showing him way behind are not accurate;
Vivek Ramaswamy delved deeper into conspiracy theories last week and seems more interested in pandering to Trump than anything else;
Ramaswamy met with Iowa Libertarians in late November, but my read on that is he was trying to get Libertarians to caucus for him on January 15, as opposed to seriously considering a presidential bid as a third-party candidate;
DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley have agreed to participate in a CNN-sponsored televised debate five days before the Iowa caucuses. Trump will skip the event, and it appears no other candidate will qualify;
The Iowa Democratic Party released most of their Iowa caucus locations. You can look yours up here if you plan to participate on January 15. At the same website, you can request a card to mail in your presidential preference;
Iowa State University Democrats seem to have patched things up with state party leadership after a dispute in October;
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the challenge to the FDA approval of mifepristone, the medication used in most abortions in the U.S. We talked about the case and how the court may sidestep a decision on the merits;
I’m sick of hearing about the Satanic Temple’s display at the state capitol, but it was a big Iowa political story last week, so we talked about the controversy. It’s important to understand that there’s a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the state capitol rotunda. Yes, it’s secularly decorated, but everyone knows that is a big endorsement of the importance of Christmas. The other displays by outside groups were off to the side near a staircase, and if not for the massive conservative freak out, few people would even have noticed the satanic display;
Reynolds didn’t heed calls to remove the display, but in a written statement, she urged Iowans to pray and depicted a nativity scene in the capitol as “the true reason for the season”;
DeSantis pandered in a ridiculous way, blaming the Trump administration for the display and saying he would contribute to the legal defense fund of the zealot who beheaded the satanic statue;
Last Thursday, Iowa Senate Democrats called for an oversight hearing regarding conditions in nursing homes, but Republican leaders immediately ruled that out. Advocates John Hale and Terri Hale wrote more about this at Bleeding Heartland;
Iowa’s Revenue Estimating Conference projected last week that state revenues will decline, largely because of tax cuts that continue to phase in. GOP legislative leaders and Reynolds plan to forge ahead with more tax cuts anyway;
We spent some time talking about my exclusive reporting on Reynolds giving some of her senior staffers big raises in September. The governor’s office asserted these salary hikes were needed to recruit and retain top talent, but the numbers they provided didn’t support their claims these staffers were underpaid;
State Representative Phil Thompson, who represents part of KHOI’s listening area in Boone County, confirmed last week he won’t seek another term in the legislature. He’s at least the third Iowa House Republican to announce plans to retire at the end of 2024 (the others are Brian Best and Dave Deyoe);
Former State Representative Andy McKean, who switched from the GOP to the House Democratic caucus in 2019, will run for the legislature again next year. The race will be a rematch against Republican Steve Bradley, who beat McKean in 2020.
Thanks for reading or listening! Have a restful holiday week.
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Wow, so much information to chew on. Thanks for keeping us informed.
Thank you..