New "Capitol Week" and an Iowa Writers Collaborative Zoom

plus a holiday event in early December

Oct 03, 2023

∙ Paid

Dennis Hart and I have covered a lot of absurdities during our 140 shows together, but this week was the most I’ve ever heard him laugh on the air.

Before I get to the program, a preview of a couple of coming attractions:

The Iowa Writers Collaborative monthly Zoom calls for paid subscribers went on hiatus this summer due to many people’s busy travel schedules. But we will be back this Thursday, October 5, for a Zoom open to paid subscribers to any of our columnists. All are listed near the end of this post, and if you’re a paid subscriber to my newsletter, you will find the Zoom link at the very bottom.

Many of you have contributed to support my work through some other means: credit card, PayPal, Patreon, Venmo, or personal check. If you’ve donated to Bleeding Heartland but not through Substack, and you would like to hop on the Zoom this Thursday, please contact me and I will email the Zoom link directly to you.

Also, the incomparable Julie Gammack is organizing a holiday party for anyone who is a paying subscriber to any Iowa Writers Collaborative columnist. That event is scheduled for December 7, from 5-6:30 p.m., at the former governor’s mansion (Witmer House), 2900 Grand in Des Moines.

On to the latest edition of our radio show! Remember, you can listen to all past episodes of “Capitol Week” on KHOI Radio’s website.

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Topics we covered:

We started with some breaking news: just before we went live on the air, U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the position of House speaker. It’s anyone’s guess how this will play out, but take this to the bank: Iowa’s four Republican House members will remain loyal to Kevin McCarthy, as they have been all year;
We spent a few minutes talking about the maneuvering over the federal budget last week, and the surprise deal on Saturday to avoid a shutdown. I wrote about this in more depth at Bleeding Heartland, with a focus on how the Iowans voted on key amendments and bills that came to the floor;
The short-term funding measure (47 days, not 45 as many reported) did not include new aid to Ukraine. I was alarmed last week to see Iowa’s House delegation wavering in its support for military assistance to that country, and I was particularly surprised by comments from U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (IA-03), which you can read about here;
The second televised Republican presidential debate was such a mess that I abandoned my plan to write a post about it. (Dave Price had the same reaction, and Dave Busiek made a strong case for ending these useless debate formats.) Dennis and I briefly summarized notable comments by each of the seven candidates who showed up;
A post-debate poll for 538/Washington Post/Ipsos and a CNN focus group of Republican voters indicated that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had the best performance, and I felt former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley also did well. But it’s hard to see the debate denting former President Donald Trump’s lead over the rest of the field;
Senator Tim Scott was more aggressive in this debate after fading into the background during the first one. He got into an argument with Haley, but I doubt he helped himself much;
Republican audiences don’t seem interested in what former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum had to say;
Trump skipped the debate in order to go to Detroit for an appearance with a non-union employer of auto workers. During his October 1 rally in Ottumwa, he mocked the debate participants and said the tv ratings were low;
Fox News will host a separate debate in late November between DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom;
Trump was in court on October 2 as the trial began in the fraud case initiated by the New York attorney general. Naturally, he attacked the judge in public comments outside the courthouse;
We spent several minutes discussing the recent passing of Senator Dianne Feinstein. Dennis covered her many times as as a broadcast journalist in Fresno, and on our show he recalled being in the newsroom on the day Feinstein rose to national prominence after the horrific assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, the city's first openly gay supervisor;
We recalled some of Feinstein’s signature accomplishments in the Senate and last week’s comments from Senator Chuck Grassley (the two senators worked together on the Judiciary Committee);
Newsom surprised just about everyone when he announced Sunday night he would appoint Laphonza Butler to the Senate seat formerly held by Feinstein. I didn’t mention this on the air because I forgot to check ahead of time, but I think this may be the first time a U.S. governor has appointed both of their state’s U.S. senators (Newsom named Alex Padilla to replace Kamala Harris in 2021);
Moving to Iowa caucus news, Haley held a campaign event in Clive, and I explained why we will probably see a lot more of her in the suburbs between now and January 15. Trump has taken to calling Haley “birdbrain,” and I think this time, his demeaning nickname will backfire;
As we talked about Trump’s Ottumwa rally on Sunday, Dennis just about lost it recounting how the candidate said he would “take electrocution every time” if forced to choose between being electrocuted on a sinking boat or being eaten by sharks;
For the first time in a while, I watched the entirety of Trump’s rambling speech in Ottumwa, and also watched the speakers who took the stage before the former president. What struck me most is that the Trump campaign is focusing more on the nuts and bolts of turning people out for the caucuses, an area where his campaign underperformed in the 2016 cycle;
We finally got to some state government news with about six minutes left in the program. Governor Kim Reynolds promised to push for more tax cuts after announcing another large state budget surplus as the books closed on the 2023 state fiscal year. This surplus was baked into the Republican budget, which allocated far less than 99 percent of projected revenues (the level allowed under state law);
Some breaking news from Monday: Iowa has agreed to settle a lawsuit related to the state’s inadequate mental health services for children;
State Auditor Rob Sand announced results last week from a review that showed Iowa’s public school districts are not dealing with “ballooning” administrative costs. On the contrary, administrative costs rose by an average of 20 percent over the past six years, below the rate of inflation. A bill State Senator Brad Zaun sponsored this year, which would limit school districts’ administrative spending, inspired the special report;
We spent a few minutes talking about U.S. census data on diversity in Iowa (more on that in the Des Moines Register), and a new report showing Iowa remains one of the worst states for racial disparities in incarceration (I covered that in more depth at Bleeding Heartland).

Thank you for reading or listening! Remember, the Zoom link for this Thursday’s Iowa Writers Collaborative call is at the very bottom of this post. You can email me if you want me to send it directly to you.

If you enjoy our radio show, please help spread the word about KHOI’s “Capitol Week.”