September 5 edition of KHOI's "Capitol Week" is online

Political ads, voting deadlines, a lawsuit dismissed, and more

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend! I took most of the holiday off from writing, but Dennis Hart and I were on KHOI Community Radio for the live broadcast of “Capitol Week.” The show airs from 7:00 to 7:30 pm Central on Mondays. KHOI rebroadcasts the show on Wednesdays at noon, and producer Mike Murphy uploads the audio files, so anyone can listen to any of the 70+ shows we’ve recorded anytime on the station’s website.

During our September 5 broadcast (audio file), Dennis and I discussed:

• New television commercials that Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic challenger Mike Franken released this past week;

• Some of Grassley’s comments at his last town hall meeting in Taylor County;

• Franken finishing his own 99-county tour with a stop in Grassley’s home town;

• Mike Pence’s political advocacy group spending big on a tv ad attacking Representative Cindy Axne in Iowa’s third Congressional district;

• Axne’s latest commercial, which opened a new line of attack against GOP challenger Zach Nunn;

• Challenges in modeling turnout for this November’s election;

• Iowa House and Senate districts that are uncontested (I will be reporting later on the legislative races most likely to be competitive);

• Rules surrounding voting in Iowa: important early voting deadlines, tips on registering to vote, how to request an absentee ballot, and what counts as a valid ID, which Iowans will need to vote early or on election day;

• The unusually large number of challenges to voter registrations in Black Hawk County and Linn County;

• A District Court dismissing former Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven’s wrongful termination lawsuit;

• My exclusive reporting on Governor Kim Reynolds reappointing Cheryl Arnold to the Public Employment Relations Board, continuing her pattern of playing “musical chairs” to keep people on the board who haven’t been confirmed by the Iowa Senate;

• The Iowa Corn Growers Association endorsing proposed carbon capture pipeline projects, despite opposition from many farmers and landowners.

The link to the whole 30-minute program is here. You can listen to this week’s show and any past editions of “Capitol Week” at your convenience on KHOI’s website.

Over at Bleeding Heartland, I hope to publish more campaign coverage this week, and will be watching for developments in the litigation seeking to reinstate Iowa’s 2018 abortion ban. (Planned Parenthood is supposed to file a response to the state’s motion by next Monday.)