ABI endorsements in legislative races

The Iowa Association of Business and Industry has a political action committee which has endorsed candidates in legislative races and the endorsed candidates will receive a donation from ABI’s PAC before November.  The group endorsed a candidate in the 13 of the 25 senate races, including three Republicans challenging incumbent Democratic state senators.  In the House, the group endorsed just one challenger.  In addition, the ABI’s PAC has endorsed the five members of the so-called “six pack” who are seeking reelection.  The six-pack is a reference to the six House Democrats who did not vote for a union-backed bill, killing its chances in the House.

Read details below:

The Iowa Industry PAC, the political action committee of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, has named a number of candidates for the Iowa Legislature as “Friends of Iowa Business”.

The Iowa Industry PAC (IIPAC) evaluates candidates based on their ability to help create jobs in Iowa by supporting a competitive business climate.  Criteria used to make the designations include the candidates’ positions on issues of importance to job creators in Iowa.

“This initial wave of endorsements signifies that these candidates have demonstrated a commitment to improve Iowa’s business climate so that employers can create more jobs and grow the economy,” said Kirk Tyler, President of Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company who chairs IIPAC.  Additional endorsements may be made throughout the election cycle.

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Hot, hot, hot! Feels like 111 degrees

According to KCCI-TV’s website, it is currently 93 degrees in Des Moines, Iowa, but the “heat index” or “feels like” temperature is 111 degrees.  I am quite content inside my air conditioned, windowless Radio Iowa office as I type this at 2 p.m.

A variety of political stories has cropped up over the past few days.  

• Tea Party tempest: a billboard goes up in Mason City; then it gets papered over.  Congressman Bruce Braley (D-Waterloo, Iowa) is scheduled to be on The Ed Show on MSNBC this afternoon to talk about it.
• Financial reform bill:  Grassley said Tuesday he doesn’t know how he’ll vote, then today Grassley announced he’ll vote no on financial reform.

Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley  

I’ll vote against the conference report because of concerns about changes made to the Senate bill, which I supported.

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Gingrich in Iowa (AUDIO)

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is in Urbandale, Iowa, this morning, serving as the “draw” for a breakfast fundraiser for a Republican congressional candidate.  That candidate is Brad Zaun, a state senator who is challenging Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell this year. 

The event is being staged in the Des Moines Christian School cafeteria.  Zaun just took the small stage on the north side of the room.  Flanked by an American flag to his right and the Iowa flag to his left, he is decrying the national debt.

“That is the reason why I’m running.  I’m scared to death…not to mention the take over of the health care system,” Zaun said, to applause.

At 8:17 a.m., Gingrich is introduced.  The crowd rises to applaud.   Gingrich joked about the number of Zaun family members Zaun had introduced, as they’re here this morning.  “I thought maybe we were at a family reunion,”  Gingrich said. 

(Listen to the Gingrich speech, plus Q&A with the crowd: GingrichZaun.)

“…It’s very important to recognize an amazing # of things are going to change based on what’s going to happen in November….We have now had two years….of a secular, socialist machine…and Brad represents one of the key people who can help turn this country around.

Of Obama’s 2008 campaign theme, Gingrich aid this:   “He wanted to change what we believe in.”

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Iowa First? Democrats set 2012 Caucus date

Iowa Democratic Party executive director Norm Sterzenbach has been tweeting from the DNC meeting.  February 6, 2012 would be the date of the Iowa Caucuses. Here are the proposed dates for the rest of the early states, according to Norm’s thumbs:

NH = 2.14.2012; NV 2.18.2012; SC 2.28.2012

The Iowa Jayhawks?

Rons Sims, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, told a small crowd in Des Moines this afternoon that he is making his first visit to the state today.  

During 12-minutes worth of remarks during a news conference at Oakridge Neighborhood Services in Des Moines, Sims mispronounced the name of the city at least twice.  (Advice:  Do not pronounce the “s” at the end — deh MOYN is the proper way to say it.)

He thanked local HUD employees at the end of his remarks.  “I did this morning, as a gift from the HUD staff, get a Iowa Jayhawks jersey which we showed the Omaha, Nebraska staff,” Sims said.  The crowd laughed politely and clapped. 

The Nebraska Cornhuskers will be joining the Big Ten on July 1, 2011 and regularly playing the Iowa Hawkeyes, sometimes nicknamed the Hawks.  But never the Jayhawks.  The Jayhawks, from Kansas, would be the team Sims’ boss — President Obama — picked to win the 2010 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Rants the Analyzer

Analyzer is a very technie word, perhaps appropriate for retiring State Representative Christopher Rants of Sioux City — a Republican who ran for governor, dropping out of the race this past February.  Rants tweets and announced his candidacy about a year ago via Twitter. 

Rants wrote an editorial for the Sioux City Journal’s Sunday edition, analyzing the June 8 Primary results.  It’s very numbers oriented, focused on Chet Culver’s performance/vote tally in the Democratic Primary. 

…In the statewide Democrat primary for the U.S. Senate, 67,802 Democrats voted for either Conlin, Fiegen or Krause.

Contrast that with 55,921 Democrats who voted for Chet Culver.

That means almost 20 percent of the most hardcore Democrat voters chose not to endorse Governor Culver’s candidacy.

…There were 2,150 write-ins against Culver when he was supposed to be running unopposed. That’s a big “uh-oh.”

Here is why: Primary voters are the most loyal subset of all registered voters. They turn out. They are considered the base of the party. They are the folks who work the phones on election day, walk the parade, hand out the literature and turn out their neighbors.

When 18 percent of those folks — not given any other choice on the ballot — choose not to support the incumbent Governor, and 3 percent more take the time to cast a protest vote by writing in a name, the campaign manager says “uh-oh.”

Final tallies on 2010 Iowa Primary

The statewide canvas is complete; the results were certified yesterday. Below you will see the final vote counts on Republican and Democratic Primary races for governor and in the congressional districts.  (You will also notice the recalibration of percentages in the GOP gubernatorial primary.) 

A total of 302,950 voters cast ballots in the Primary Elections.  Republican Primary turnout was 229,732 and Democratic Primary turnout was 73,218.

Republican Gubernatorial Primary:

Terry Branstad       114,450 votes  49.8 percent

Bob Vander Plaats  93,058 votes  40.5 percent

Rod Roberts               19,896 votes    8.7 percent

Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate:

Roxanne Conlin  52,715 votes –  72 percent

Bob Krause              8,728 votes — 11.9 percent

Tom Fiegen             6,357 votes –   8.7 percent

Republican Primary in First Congressional District

Benjamin Lange   14,048 votes — 40.9 percent

Will Johnson            6,067 votes — 17.6 percent

James Budde            3,347 votes –   9.7 percent

Mike LaCoste            3,076 votes –   8.9 percent

Republican Primary in Second Congressional District

Mariannette Miller-Meeks 18,830 votes  – 47 percent

Steven Rathje                            8,155 votes –   20.4 percent

Christopher Reed                    5,365 votes –   13.4 percent

Rob Gettemy                             4,749 votes –   11.9 percent

Republican Primary in Third Congressional District

Brad Zaun                 19,469 votes —  38.7 percent

Jim Gibbons            13,022 votes –  25.9 percent

Dave Funk                   9,989 votes –  19.9 percent

Mark Rees                    1,989 votes –    3.9 percent

Pat Bertroche                 690 votes –   1.4 percent

Jason Lee Welch            572 votes –   1.1 percent

Scott Batcher                   464 votes –   0.9 percent

Democratic Primary in Fifth Congressional District

Matthew Campbell        7,119 votes – 62.3 percent

Mike Denklau                   2,261 votes – 19.8 percent

Gingrich coming to Iowa to train candidates

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be in Iowa on Monday to provide a training session for GOP candidates.  He’ll be with Joe Gaylord, an advisor who recorded the “Aggressive August” tapes in 1994.  As you may recall, the GOP won majority control of the US House in November of 1994.  Details below, from American Solutions press secretary R.C. Hammond:

Newt Gingrich and American Solutions CEO Joe Gaylord will be in Des Moines, IA on Monday, July 12th working with the Republican Party of Iowa, Polk County Republican Party, and the House Majority Fund to lead candidate workshops.  Newt Gingrich will open the workshop at 9 a.m. CT at the Marriott Hotel located at 700 Grand Avenue in Des Moines.

The instruction is based on Joe Gaylord’s new campaign manual: Campaign Solutions.  This is not your average campaign book—it has no gossip, no insider stories, and no behind the scenes looks.  But we believe it will be the most helpful book for any candidate running for office in 2010. 

Campaign Solutions has advice for candidates at all levels, from local to Congressional, and for everyone in the campaign, from the candidate to the press secretary.  Each chapter of Campaign Solutions starts with how-to advice, and ends with what-not-to-do warnings and how-did-you-do scorecards.

American Solutions is Newt Gingrich’s citizen action network which has over 1.5 Million members. Our goal is to promote the next generation of solutions that will ensure that the United States remains the safest, freest, and most prosperous country in the world.

The stop in Iowa is part of American Solutions efforts to help prepare candidates at all levels to run and win in 2010. 

• American Solutions launched an online information portal called the Solutions Academy which breaks down policy problems and presents solutions lawmakers can utilize to create jobs, improve education and expand American energy.    www.americansolutions.com/solutionsacademy
• In addition to the workshop training, Gingrich and Gaylord are distributing a weekly podcast to candidates similar to the GOPAC education tapes that helped prepare a generation of GOP candidates for the campaign trail.

Pawlenty plans trip to eastern Iowa

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a potential 2012 candidate for president, plans to campaign in Iowa in late July/early August on behalf of Republican candidates for the state legislature.

“Governor Pawlenty is working hard to help conservatives around the country win this fall,” Alex Conant, communications director for Pawlenty’s Freedom First PAC, said via email.  “We have great opportunities in Iowa, and Governor Pawlenty is trying to build on that excitement through his new Iowa PAC and this upcoming trip to eastern Iowa.”

Pawlenty has three fundraisers (morning, noon & night) planned on July 31 for Republicans Steve Lukan, Bill Dix and Kraig Paulsen.

He”ll help Republican Jeff Kaufmann raise money on August 1 and on August 2 he’ll speak at the Scott County Lincoln Club in Davenport.

Pawlenty was the keynote speaker at the Iowa GOP’s fall fundraiser this past November (read about it/listen to it here).  Pawlenty was the keynote speaker at the Iowans for Tax Relief “2010 Taxpayer’s Day” event in April (read about it/listen to it here).  In August of 2008, when Pawlenty’s name was among those mentioned as a potential running mate for John McCain, Pawlenty made a campaign appearance in Ames, Iowa, on behalf of Congressman Tom Latham (read about it/listen to it here).

Some “big mo” for Iowa GOP

Secretary of State Michael Mauro held a news conference at the statehouse earlier today (read about it/listen to it here) to announce the ranks of Republican voters swelled by about 47,000 as a result of the June Primary action in Iowa.  About 10,000 of those newly-registered Republicans had been Democrats.  Democrats had held a roughly 100,000-voter registration edge.  That’s been cut in half.

Read the SOS news release and a statement from Iowa GOP below.

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