After several hours of delay due to a suspicious powder mailed to State Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, the Iowa House passed a bill last night to ban local governments from using "automated traffic law enforcement systems." The 58 to 40 vote didn't fo... »
The nice thing about a large majority, like the 60 to 40 Republican advantage in the Iowa House, is not needing every vote in your caucus for every bill. Members can oppose the party line when local interests are threatened without derailing the legisl... »
Senate District 15 Registration: D 15712, R 13370, N 13494, total 42611, D +2342 Incumbent: Dennis Black, D-Grinnell; holdover seat Dennis Black's turf has consistently shifted west along I-80 over his three decades in office. He was first elected to t... »
Iowa Senate Democrats finally announced their challenger to first-term Republican Tim Kapucian last week, setting up a potentially competitive race in the new Iowa Senate district 38. The new Senate district 38 covers all of Benton, Iowa, and Poweshiek... »
Although the 60 Republicans and 40 Democrats in the Iowa House haven't changed since last year, I thought it was worth updating this post, because some committee assignments have changed, and House Democrats reshuffled their ranking members somewhat. M... »
Talk about your last-minute bombshells: Representative Michele Bachmann's Iowa campaign chair, State Senator Kent Sorenson, just endorsed Representative Ron Paul in Des Moines this evening. Background on Sorenson's connections to prominent Paul support... »
The U.S. House and Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 this week. I can't say I'm surprised to learn that President Barack Obama backed off on his threat to veto the bill over provisions relating to alleged terrorist detainee... »
