Remembering Jimmy Carter, a new job for Vilsack, and Iowa politics takeaways from 2024
Dec. 30 episode of "KHOI's Capitol Week"
Happy new year! I’m working on several year-end compilations of Bleeding Heartland coverage from 2024, as well as some original reporting that I hope to share with you soon after January 1.
is taking some well-deserved time off for the holidays, and I was thrilled to do this week’s radio show with “the OG,” Dennis Hart. Dennis taught me just about everything I know about putting together a format and pacing for a live radio show.Just like the old days, Dennis and I covered a lot of ground in our 30 minutes together. The audio file is at the top of this email, or you can find “KHOI’s Capitol Week” on any podcast platform or smart speaker. The full archive (going back to February 2021) is available on KHOI’s website.
Remembering Jimmy Carter
As soon as I heard the news on Sunday, I knew we needed to lead the show by discussing President Jimmy Carter and his legacy. The 1976 Iowa caucuses put him on the map, and he elevated the importance of the caucuses by inventing the style of retail campaigning that many candidates later copied. Larry Osweiler recalled in a 2023 essay how he had met Carter on the University of Iowa campus in 1975 and later became a Carter delegate to the Johnson County Democratic convention.
Carter is remembered as a failed president and the greatest ex-president in U.S. history. He dedicated his life to work for charities and humanitarian causes. Randy Evans wrote last year about attending church one Sunday in 2011 with the Carters in Plains, Georgia.
Some of Carter’s accomplishments as president aren’t appreciated enough. He left a lasting mark on the federal judiciary, making the bench more diverse and the selection process more professional. He appointed many women to judgeships and other influential positions; for example, he named Roxanne Conlin the first woman U.S. attorney in Iowa.
Carter was ahead of his time on some other issues, like the need for the U.S. to move toward renewable energy. Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan undid those efforts.
We quoted some of the Iowa political reaction to Carter’s passing, but you can read more here.
A new job for Tom Vilsack
Julie Gammack had a good scoop in this Sunday morning’s roundup of news from the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. After former Governor Tom Vilsack winds up his work as U.S. secretary of agriculture, he is coming back to Iowa to lead the World Food Prize Foundation. (Former Governor Terry Branstad left that role in November.)
I read a short excerpt from the holiday letter that Julie shared. No word yet on what former First Lady Christie Vilsack will do when the couple return to Iowa. Christie Vilsack spent a lot of time this year campaigning for Lanon Baccam, who was a childhood friend of the Vilsacks’ son in Mount Pleasant.
Biden veto tanks new federal judgeship for Iowa
Last Monday, President Joe Biden vetoed the JUDGES Act, which would have created 66 new federal judgeships around the country over the next twelve years. One of those new positions would have been in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Since 1991 there have been two District Court judges in Iowa’s Northern District and three in the Southern District.
I covered this story in more detail over the weekend. I think this was a bad veto, in part because we do need more federal judges to handle rising caseloads. In addition, I am concerned that Republicans will manage to create new judgeships as part of a filibuster-proof bill. That would give President Donald Trump a chance to appoint even more federal judges on a shorter timetable.
Feenstra talks about priorities for new Congress
The Des Moines Register’s chief political reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel interviewed U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra (R, IA-04) about the work of the next Congress. We talked about challenges Republicans may face as they try to agree on new immigration policy with small majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
Extending Trump’s tax cuts from 2017 will be a high priority for the GOP trifecta. But at least two tax-related issues will divide House Republicans. Some Republicans in states with high taxes and high property values want to change the State and Local Tax deduction provisions. Other Republicans vehemently oppose expanding the SALT deduction, which would mostly benefit high earners. (Ed Tibbetts wrote about this issue a few months ago.)
A group of House Republicans including Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) have urged Speaker Mike Johnson not to repeal all of the energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act. But much of the GOP will push for total repeal.
Republicans can’t afford to lose more than a handful of votes on any of their budget or tax bills.
Health insurance premiums may spike in Iowa after 2025
Speaking of problems facing Congress next year, I wanted to flag some important reporting by Charles Gaba, a health care policy analyst and advocate. In 2021, as part of the American Rescue Plan, Congressional Democrats and President Biden enhanced subsidies for insurance plans people can purchase through Affordable Care Act exchanges. The Inflation Reduction Act extended those subsidies through 2025.
If Congress lets the enhanced subsidies expire, it could become way more expensive for the millions of Americans who buy subsidized health insurance through the ACA. That group includes about 98,000 Iowans. Charles ran the numbers for four different types of households in the Des Moines area and found scenarios where Iowans’ monthly health insurance premiums would increase by 90 percent, more than 300 percent, or tenfold.
You can read much more about Charles’ analysis and methodology in the post he allowed me to publish at Bleeding Heartland.
Homelessness rising nationally and in Iowa
New government statistics indicate that more people are unhoused across the U.S., and Iowa has experienced the same trend. National Public Radio reported that more than 100 municipalities around the country have passed ordinances banning sleeping outside since the U.S. Supreme Court published its Grants Pass decision in June. Des Moines, Iowa was one of them.
Spencer and I had intended to cover the new Des Moines ordinance in September, but we knew the story merited more than a brief mention and we never managed to fit it in with some much news to cover during the 2024 campaign. Banning public sleeping is not going to solve the problems facing people who lack stable housing.
Warming trend in Des Moines
Chris Gloninger continues to write about climate change in Iowa, even though he relocated to the east coast last year. I wanted to flag his latest post on the Weathering Climate Change newsletter, about the long-term warming trend in Des Moines. Some striking findings:
With just five days to go, the city is tied for the second warmest year on record. Highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s ensured the year would cement its place in the top three warmest years since record keeping began in 1879. […]
Of the top 10 warmest years in Des Moines, seven have occurred since 1951. Even more telling, six of those years have happened since 2010. That’s not just a trend—it’s a flashing red warning light.
Democrat declares in Iowa Senate district 35
It’s election season already in a small part of eastern Iowa. The first declared Democratic candidate for the January 28 special election to replace Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer is Mike Zimmer. He’s likely to be the Democratic nominee, though other candidates could compete at the district nominating convention.
Zimmer is a longtime Clinton County resident and president of the Central DeWitt School Board.
As I explained during the show and in more detail at Bleeding Heartland, Republicans are favored to hold this Senate district. But Zimmer has a strong biography for an Iowa legislative candidate, and anything can happen in a low-turnout special election.
Reviewing the year in Iowa politics
Dennis and I had about seven minutes to talk about our takeaways from Iowa political happenings in 2024. For the legislative session, we highlighted passage of a flat income tax, big changes to Area Education Agencies, and the wave of bills targeting LGBTQ Iowans.
What political story surprised us the most this year? For Dennis: Governor Kim Reynolds endorsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis before the Iowa caucuses. For me: Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg’s sudden resignation, which even seems to have surprised Reynolds.
Least surprising political news for Dennis: Trump’s massive margin of victory in Iowa. For me: Republican legislators passing punitive (and probably unconstitutional) immigration bills, and the total loyalty to Trump within Iowa GOP circles. That was a big contrast to states like Wisconsin and Michigan, where quite a few prominent Republicans endorsed Kamala Harris for president.
Most important political trends of the year: Dennis mentioned the ongoing Republican domination of the state legislature. Mine was related: the continued erosion of Democratic support in mid-sized cities, which has become Iowa Democrats’ biggest problem in my opinion. I can’t emphasize enough how shocked a time-traveler from the 20th century would be to learn that Republicans hold the Iowa House and Senate seats in places like Fort Dodge, Newton, Ottumwa, Burlington, Clinton, and after the 2024 election, Marshalltown and Mason City.
Final takeaways: for Dennis, the demise of the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll. I talked about the methodological choices that contributed to the biggest miss of Ann Selzer’s career.
Thanks so much for reading or listening! I’m grateful to KHOI Radio for giving me a platform, and to everyone willing to join us on this journey. Happy new year.
Re: "...continued erosion of Democratic support...Mason City."-----Brief Explanation by one lifelong Iowa Democrat!
Since the 1970s, the traditional private sector manufacturing-industrial foundation of the U.S. economy has been eroding. One-half of the traditional U.S. "public-private economic partnership" has broken-away from, and abandoned, a 200 year-old plus economic partnership--the U.S. Constitution-rooted, informal, America-first, public-private economic partnership, which was created by/for the American people, through the U.S. Constitution!
The private sector manufacturing-industrial foundation of the U.S. economy, in 2024, now consists of all "multinational corporations", or global-centered corporations-- unlike 1900, when that foundation consisted all of "national corporations, or American-centered corporations. This structural change, in the foundation of the U.S. economy--from national to multinational corporations (see U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data and corporate "Mission Statements") marks a new, unprecedented, economic era in the history of the U.S. economy.
With the above dissolution of the traditional economic foundation of the U.S. economy, since, at least the 1970s, and the resulting growing economic dissatisfaction/distress of the American people---Mr. Trump and "his brand of America First" now rushes-in, in 2016, and, again, in 2024, to fill the above "economic partnership-void"----all without any strong, popular, counter-economic agenda by the Democratic Party, which reflects/embraces the above, real, America first economic agenda--- the U.S. Constitution-rooted America first commitment by/for the American people: "We the people...promote the general Welfare...". There are the words of the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution.
To win elections, again, in my view, the Democratic Party must return to, and implement, the above-described U.S. Constitution-rooted America first economic policies/agenda. Indeed, in my view, given the 21st century global economy, and, given the new, "technological race" with China (see China's "Made in China 2025" economic program)---the Democratic Party has the Constitutional responsibility to do so!
In my view, the above circumstances, generally speaking, explain the "continued erosion of Democratic support", not only in Iowa, but throughout the United States---and the new challenges before the Democratic Party.
Richard Sherzan