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Republicans Look To Upend Home Rule On County Supervisor Districts
Guest post via Johnson County Supervisor Kurt Freise. The Iowa Senate is considering a bill that would force Iowa’s 10 most populous counties (and only those 10) to use districts to elect Supervisors. Not only that, but supervisors would be elected only by the people in those districts, not by everyone in the county. It’s…
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GOP’s Campus “Free Speech” Bill Actually Targets LGBTQ Students And More
Guest post via Keenan Crow of One Iowa “There’s something insidious about this bill,” warned Independent Senator David Johnson during the Senate floor debate on SF 2344, a bill which purports to be about free speech on Iowa’s college and university campuses. “I can read the lobbyist declarations for myself,” Johnson continued. “The Family Leader…
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Why This Former Republican Attended His First Democratic Caucus
A guest post from Mark Masterson (pictured on the right) I would like to introduce myself. I’m Mark Masterson, and Monday was my first caucus experience as a Democrat. I work as a state employee (a correctional officer) at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility, and after I saw what the Republicans at the Capitol did…
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The Death Penalty Bill Is Dead. It Should Stay That Way
Yesterday a piece of legislation that would have reinstated the death penalty in Iowa advance after an initial hearing, but it appears to be dead for this session with a lack of support from key Republican committee members. Des Moines attorney John McCormally passed along to Starting Line the statement he had planned on making…
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Be Angry Over Shutdown – GOP Played Games With Kids And Immigrants
This guest piece from Robert Lyons posted literally just as the deal to keep the government became known. The sentiments still stand for how we got into the shutdown and for any future one in the next few weeks. There is no choice to be made between Children and Dreamers. There is no choice to…
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How A GOP Legislator Distracts, Inflames In A Year Of Facebook Posts
A guest post from Matt Chapman, an activist from Dallas County, with an in-depth look at one Iowa Republican senator’s Facebook posts. It’s a long but interesting consideration of how legislators use their social media during the legislative session. Some politicians are embracing Facebook to reach out to constituents and some are not. Some home…
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What The Iowa Senate Map Looks Like In 2018
The following is a memo written up last year by Nick Conway of the Austin Frerick (IA-3) campaign. It’s an interesting look at how the Iowa Senate map is set up for the 2018 elections, and which districts will be the most competitive. This was written in mid-2017, so there’s obviously been a lot of…
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Iowa Can’t Waste Another Year On GOP’s Water Quality Facade
These are not normal times, with real concerns about interference in our elections by a hostile foreign power, powerful voices seeking to legitimize sexist, racist and other discriminatory actions at a level not seen in decades, and what at least feels like wholesale attacks on working families and the middle class. Yet, other serious challenges…
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Eddie Mauro: Need True And Fair Tax Reform, Not David Young’s Handouts To The Rich
A guest post from 3rd Congressional District Democratic candidate Eddie Mauro. It appears that David Young has come down with Trump’s disease — the inability to tell fact from fiction. In a newsletter titled “Myth vs. Fact on the Tax Plan” sent out a week ago, the Third District congressman said the Republican-authored tax bill…
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Candidates Show Real Progress, Concern In Mental Health Forum
The Des Moines Register held a mental healthcare forum this week, where 12 gubernatorial candidates discussed their ideas on the critical matter. All seven Democratic candidates were there, as well as two Republican challengers, two Libertarian contenders and a left-leaning independent. Governor Kim Reynolds was on vacation that week, but she recorded a video address…
