School shooting aftermath, legislature back to work, Iowa caucus countdown

Jan. 8 "Capitol Week" is online

Jan 09, 2024

It was a busier Monday than usual, with the legislature beginning its 2024 session. Over at Bleeding Heartland, I published my annual guides on Who’s who in the Iowa House and Who’s who in the Iowa Senate. I also wrote about the most interesting part of the opening day remarks by legislative leaders: House Speaker Pat Grassley indicated Republicans may take additional steps to remove “sexually explicit material” from schools.

Every week, I publish much more material at Bleeding Heartland than I’m able to share on this Substack. So if you don’t want to miss any articles and commentaries from the main site, subscribe to my other free email newsletter.

If you are planning to attend your precinct caucus next Monday night, check the Iowa GOP’s or Iowa Democratic Party’s website ahead of time to confirm your caucus location. It probably isn’t the same as your regular polling place. Plan to arrive early, because parking may be scarce, and you need to be at your precinct by 7 pm. And bundle up, because the forecast anticipates high temperatures in the single digits across Iowa on January 15.

Other than the election years when I lived overseas, January 15 be the first time I will not attend my own Democratic precinct caucus. Dennis Hart and I will be live on KHOI, as usual at 7 pm on Mondays.

Speaking of which, here’s the audio from our January 8 show. Remember, the whole “Capitol Week” archive is available for free on KHOI’s website.

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Topics Dennis and I covered this week:

We began with the latest news and reaction related to last Thursday’s horrific school shooting at Perry High School. This Associated Press profile of Ahmir Jolliff, the 11-year-old killed at the scene, was particularly heartbreaking;
As you would expect, President Joe Biden and the Republican presidential candidates all issued statements of sympathy following the tragedy in Perry. Former President Donald Trump’s comments in Sioux Center were shocking, though: after saying the incident was “very terrible” and “just horrible,” he added, “But we have to get over it. We have to move forward”;
A traumatic event like a school shooting can ramp up anxiety or other mental health challenges. Free resources are available at YourLifeIowa.org and NAMI Iowa’s website. The Polk County Health Department shared a link to this guide for parents on age-appropriate ways to talk to kids about school shootings;
The Iowa House and Senate convened in Des Moines on Monday. Republicans plan to enact more tax cuts and speed up the reductions they’ve already approved. They are also planning some kind of overhaul of the Area Education Agencies, which provide services to school districts and children with disabilities;
Session timetable: the first “funnel” deadline is February 16, which means that aside from tax and spending bills, any bill not approved by at least one Iowa House or Senate committee will be dead for the year. The second “funnel” is March 15; in most cases, bills not approved by one chamber and at least one committee in the other chamber will be dead for the year;
Governor Kim Reynolds is scheduled to give her Condition of the State address to a joint session of the legislature at 6 pm on Tuesday, January 9. For decades, governors delivered that speech in mid-morning, but Reynolds moved the event to prime time during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued the practice;
Moving to presidential campaign news: the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to keep Trump off the GOP primary ballot;
All of the GOP presidential candidates campaigned in Iowa last week. On Saturday, I attended Trump’s rally in Newton (normally I watch his rallies online). I tried to convey what it’s like to listen to him riff for more than an hour on various grievances, but it’s hard to communicate that in a brief radio segment. He says so many outrageous or nonsensical things;
At one of his Iowa rallies, Trump claimed immigrants crossing the southern border are the real “insurrection” and described those charged with crimes after the January 6 coup attempt as “hostages”;
Sometimes it seems like Trump is just thinking out loud, as when he mused during his Newton speech that the Civil War “could have been negotiated”;
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ramped up his criticism of the former president in recent days, but it seems like too little, too late to me. Also worth noting: last year, groups seeking to derail Trump’s comeback tested dozens of negative messages about Trump with Republican voters and found most had no impact whatsoever;
DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley appeared on CNN town halls in Des Moines last week. They are still criticizing each other more than attacking the front-runner who’s going to trounce them both on January 15;
Haley told a New Hampshire audience last week that Iowa goes first, and “you correct.” Team DeSantis is blowing that up into some huge insult of Iowans. It was a gaffe, but the fact is that more often than not, the winner of the Iowa caucuses does not go on to win the New Hampshire primary. Haley’s trailing by much less in New Hampshire than she is here. DeSantis is basically a non-factor in New Hampshire;
Vivek Ramaswamy was excluded from last week’s CNN town halls and won’t be on CNN’s televised debate this Wednesday. I remain convinced that his campaign strategy is almost entirely about positioning himself for a job in a Trump administration;
Ramaswamy again promised last week to pardon Trump if elected, and posted on the anniversary of the January 6 attacks, “Happy Entrapment Day.” The problem for him is, the Republican voters who will most appreciate this pandering are going to caucus for Trump, not Ramaswamy;
Ramaswamy has been touting his endorsement by former U.S. Representative Steve King. I don’t know how influential King is these days, but he’s been very active in the effort to stop CO2 pipelines, and Ramaswamy has been outspoken in opposition to the use of eminent domain to seize land for the pipelines;
The U.S. Supreme Court will resolve a clash between the federal government and the state of Idaho, which wants to enforce its abortion ban even though federal law requires hospitals to perform abortions when necessary in medical emergencies;
The Iowa Board of Medicine held a public hearing last week to hear comments on draft administrative rules to implement Iowa’s near-total abortion ban (which remains blocked by court order). I listened to the testimony at the hearing but don’t plan to write about the public comments until later this week, when the board will adopt final draft language on how doctors should apply the law’s provisions;
The governor held a virtual “public budget hearing” last week. I listened in, but the news value was minimal, as the hour mostly consisted of business lobby groups telling Reynolds what a great job her administration is doing.

Many thanks for reading or listening! A programming note: Dennis and I will be live on the radio on January 15 at 7 pm. We will be up early the next day to record another live show at 6 am, when KHOI would normally rebroadcast the Monday evening show.