Last night the Iowa Senate voted 49-0 to approve a bill that makes changes in Iowa laws dealing with sex offenders. This afternoon, the Iowa House voted 93-3 to pass the bill.
UPDATE: If you want to read more about or listen to today's 58 minute House debate, click here. To listen to last night's Senate debate, click here. Senate debate — albeit with a short Republican Caucus thrown in the middle so the GOPers could meet in private to discuss the bill — lasted 12 minutes.
There was discussion of the politics of the issue today in the House debate. Here is what State Representative/retired state trooper/competitive sharp shooter/backroom bill crafter Clel Baulder had this to say: "Because of the emotion surrounding this issue some of you have had some concerns about the politics of this during the next election. I will give you my word here today that if that happens…you just call me, and I will be there and I can almost guarantee you that the law enforcement community will be with me."
Finally, an observation from yours truly. The three "no" votes in the House today were Representatives Christopher Rants, Doug Struyk and Dawn Pettengill. Rants was the House GOP leader when Struyk and then Pettengill left the Democratic Party and converted to the Republican fold.
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
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