Surprise Iowa Senate resignation, new role for Iowan in Congress
and J.D. Scholten steps back on the mound
Nothing like an Iowa legislative surprise on a Monday morning! Fortunately, Spencer Dirks and I had plenty of time to cover State Senator Waylon Brown’s resignation on this week’s show. It helped that there wasn’t much Iowa political news over the long holiday weekend.
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On to Monday evening’s broadcast.
Spencer was rested and ready after a week in Okoboji (more on that in a moment). Topics we covered:
We began with the state of play on Iowa’s abortion ban. Even though Dennis Hart and I spent half of last week’s show on the Iowa Supreme Court ruling and its aftermath, there’s a lot of confusion about when the ban will go into effect and what happens next;
Stephen Gruber-Miller reported for the Des Moines Register on Monday about prospects for a more extreme abortion ban during next year’s legislative session. Of course a lot depends on how many House and Senate seats each party has. Notably, House Judiciary Chair Steven Holt told the Register that “if Republicans find a way to protect IVF access, he would support a bill defining life at conception”;
I didn’t see Waylon Brown’s resignation coming. Other Iowa legislators have resigned during an election year, but it’s not normal for someone to spend a lot of money to win a hard-fought primary, only to quit a few weeks later. I’m trying to find out whether Brown has a new job lined up;
A special district convention will select the new Republican nominee in Iowa Senate district 30, which covers several counties in northern Iowa. So if you were ever wondering why someone would want to be a precinct representative on a party’s county central committee, this is an example of why it matters. Those people will decide whether Brown’s primary challenger Doug Campbell or someone else will be on the ballot in November;
We briefly discussed the speculation about President Joe Biden and why there is no path for anyone else to get the nomination unless Biden releases his delegates before the Democratic National Convention makes it official;
I told Spencer I hadn’t seen any elected Iowa Democrats publicly call for Biden to step aside. After the show, I saw a post from Monday afternoon by first-term State Representative Austin Baeth of Des Moines, who wrote, “President Biden did in fact Build Back Better, and for that I am grateful. Now to ensure the durability of his handiwork, he must pass the wrench to the next generation”;
Here’s some news we didn’t have time to cover while the legislature was in session: U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks now chairs the Conservative Climate Caucus, which represents about 80 House Republicans. No one else from Iowa has joined that group;
I have a Bleeding Heartland post in progress about what the Conservative Climate Caucus does. They don’t have real power to move legislation like a House committee. From what I can tell, Miller-Meeks sees her main role as improving GOP messaging and engagement on energy and climate issues;
We circled back to some of the new state laws that went into effect on July 1. First up: House File 2612, making big changes to Area Education Agencies and teacher pay;
House File 2681 restricted how local governments can use traffic cameras that are set up to catch speeders;
Senate File 2385 was the culmination of Governor Kim Reynolds’ effort to scrap numerous state boards and commissions, and give her appointees more power. Some of the changes are not substantial (the Iowa Utilities Board became the Iowa Utilities Commission). But other bodies have been dramatically downgraded, such as the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Ralph Rosenberg explained in April how that body has been neutered;
All of the community-specific boards created to represent marginalized groups were eliminated, which was also unfortunate;
I spent a lot of time in 2021 and 2022 investigating happenings at the Public Employment Relations Board, created through Iowa’s collective bargaining law 50 years ago. That board no longer exists—its duties were transferred to the Employment Appeals Board;
There’s a lot of confusion surrounding House File 2605, regulating consumable hemp products. Administrative rules haven’t been finalized, and two federal lawsuits are challenging some of the law’s provisions;
The law against so-called “misbranding” of meat-free products (Senate File 2391) is in effect, though I’m skeptical that the federal government will grant a waiver to let Iowa ban the use of food assistance to buy egg substitutes;
Senate File 455 prohibits local governments from regulating stormwater and topsoil. I have been wondering lately whether this bill could have gotten through the Iowa House (where there was a lot of opposition) if we’d had massive flooding last year instead of a drought;
We briefly touched on some new criminal laws. House File 2240 and Senate File 2243 make it a crime to use artificial intelligence to create nonconsensual “deepfake” pornography depicting adults or children;
House File 2487 makes “grooming” a crime;
House File 2598 makes “looting” a crime, which struck me as a solution to a non-existent problem in Iowa;
Senate File 2161 increases penalties for making false reports to law enforcement (“swatting”);
One law creating a new state crime is not in effect: as we discussed last month, a federal judge has blocked Iowa from enforcing Senate File 2340, on so-called “illegal reentry”;
Spencer took a few minutes to share his impressions from a week in the Okoboji area. He confirmed what I had heard from others: it was strange to see almost no boats on the lakes in early July, due to restrictions on the speed boats can travel when the lakes are this high. Although it’s possible to drive through the city of Spencer now, the signs of flood damage are everywhere;
Finally, we had to make time for a fun story out of Sioux City, where first-term State Representative J.D. Scholten stepped back on the mound for the Explorers minor league baseball team on Sunday night. The manager reached out to him just a few hours before the game, and Scholten was back on the roster for the X’s for the first time since the 2000s. He pitched 6.2 innings, struck out two batters, and got the win.
Thanks for reading and listening! Spencer and I will be back on July 15.
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Regarding the labeling of meat-free products, I am still confused that Iowa farmers would object to products made with soybeans. Don't they grow soybeans in Iowa as well? Shouldn't we be supporting them as much as we support the corn growers and cattle producers? Maybe more?
I'd love to hear more about the storm water regulation ban. I started reading it and noticed it mentioned not being able to regulate construction. Here in Pella, a housing developer is a big GOP donor. Any coincidence? We also had some flash flooding in town recently.