October 31 edition of "Capitol Week" is online

Court hearing on abortion law, Iowa Poll and campaign news, and more

A quick programming note: Dennis Hart and I usually record “Capitol Week” live every Monday evening at 7:00 pm Central, and KHOI rebroadcasts the show Wednesdays at noon.

Next week, we will broadcast our usual 30-minute show on November 7, focusing on campaign news. We will also be on the air for an hour on election night, beginning at 9:00 pm, to discuss the early returns. Finally, we will do a live show for the noon hour on Wednesday, November 9, to recap what happened in the key federal, statewide, and state legislative races.

You can find the audio files for any episode of “Capitol Week” on this page. Here’s the October 31 edition:

Here’s what Dennis and I talked about:

• Friday’s hearing in Polk County District Court about the state’s motion to reinstate the 2018 abortion ban, which was permanently enjoined in 2019;

• How the abortion issue may affect turnout (and in particular youth turnout) for this year’s general election;

• The significance of former President Donald Trump coming to Sioux City for a rally on November 3;

• Why Senator Chuck Grassley and other Iowa Republicans may be concerned about GOP base turnout in northwest Iowa;

• The latest Iowa Poll findings for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom on Trump’s favorability (note that those numbers came from a sample of Iowa adults, not the subsample of “likely voters”);

• The latest internal polls from Grassley’s campaign and his Democratic challenger Mike Franken;

• President Joe Biden holding a virtual fundraiser for Representative Cindy Axne, who’s seeking a third term in Iowa’s third Congressional district;

• Axne’s latest television commercial, which responds to GOP ads attacking her proxy vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, while she was on a family vacation in France;

• The massive spending in the IA-03 race (widely considered Iowa’s most competitive U.S. House race this year) on behalf of Axne and her Republican challenger Zach Nunn;

• Iowa legislative fundraising and spending on key races, and why GOP candidates are outspending Democrats by so much this year, compared to 2020 (Ian Richardson and Stephen Gruber-Miller published a big story on this in the Des Moines Register);

• The latest news from the second Congressional district race between Representative Ashley Hinson and Democratic challenger Liz Mathis;

• The Iowa Poll findings on the attorney general race, showing incumbent Tom Miller way ahead of GOP challenger Brenna Bird;

• The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee scheduling a vote on the 2024 presidential calendar for early December;

• The Iowa Poll findings on whether our state should remain first in the presidential nominating process;

• How the early voting numbers are looking in Iowa so far (I am updating those numbers daily at Bleeding Heartland and published a piece over the weekend comparing this week’s early vote with the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections).

Final note: it’s too late to request a mailed ballot in Iowa (contrary to what a senior Republican legislator told an elderly voter last week). But there’s plenty of time to vote early in person. I cast my ballot last Tuesday at a satellite location in Polk County, and the whole process took only thirteen minutes. All 99 county auditor’s offices are open this week and next Monday for early voting, and some of the larger counties have satellite voting options.

Remember to bring some form of valid ID, and (if you’ve moved recently) proof of address. This post lists the documents that qualify under Iowa law to prove a voter’s identity or residence.