What Iowa can do to keep its caucus first
Make caucus day a holiday. Close the schools. Close the stores (as if it is a Sunday). Close everything that can possibly be closed. Start the caucus at 9:00am. Maybe 10:00am. Maybe 2:00pm.
Political Note #257 Abby Finkenauer IA CD 01
Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. Bill Clinton’s Trial in the Senate 2020 General Election Iowa used to be a man’s world. In 2014, Republican Joni Ernst was elected to the US Senate. She was the first woman to be elected to either branch of Congress from Iowa. After the 2016 election, Joni Ernst was still the only woman representing Iowa. In 2018, the Republican incumbent (by way of the Governor having resigned) Kim Reynolds was elected in her own right, bringing transformation to the Iowa State House. Democrats joined that transformation in…
Political Note #242 Theresa Greenfield Iowa US Senate
You know someone like her. Good fortune. Has a great life. Misfortune. Even a tragedy.
Political Note #240 Rita Hart IA CD 02
Iowa nice. No one criticizes how Rita Hart treats her staff. Iowa famous. She was the 2018 Lt. Governor candidate. The ticket lost, but she didn’t.
Political Note #236 J.D. Scholten IA CD 04
.D. Scholten is a phenomenon. He is nothing like a conventional candidate for Congress.
Political Note #226 Cynthia Axne IA CD 03
Lucky Thirteen Cynthia Axne's https://cindyaxneforcongress.com win in 2018 was the thirteenth closest Democratic Congressional victory of the year. She won by 7,709 votes. Not much
Political Note #204 Cynthia Axne IA CD 03
Cynthia Axne belongs to only one political caucus -- the New Democratic Coalition. Moderate. Moderate fiscally. She s clear about her political home. Proud of her "sharp elbows," she has prize committee assignments for a freshman Member of Congress from Iowa.
Political Note #163 Fred Hubbel IA Governor
In another country, he would be Sir Fred. He might be the Earl of Terrace Hill. Terrace Hill is the Iowa Governor's Mansion. Formerly a Hubbell home, it was donated (not by Fred) to the state of Iowa to become a museum and the home for the Governor. Fred Hubbell has been a central civic figure in Des Moines and philathropist. As Acting Director of Iowa's Department of Economic Development, he identified $160 million of ineffective tax credits and incentives and targeted them for elimination. He served as Board Chair of the Iowa Power Fund which was authorized to invest $100 million in wind and solar energy. In this land of ethanol production, wind now provides nearly 40% of Iowa's electricity generation. Coal's share has dropped from about 75% to 45%.
Political Note #157 Cynthia Axne IA CD 03
Cynthia Axne Cynthia Axne was a back of the house person for several agencies in Iowa. She focused on budgets, personnel management, technology -- unglamorous work. “I made sure state agencies had proper processes and strategies in place to implement their services in a tighter fashion — making sure they used taxpayer dollars wisely.”"It's not policy, it's problem solving." Not always. She was fired by a Republican governor. Her views about health care and gun safety are very different from the views of the incumbent she is running against.
Political Note #123 Abby Finkenauer IA CD 01
After college graduation, Abby Finkenauer spent nearly two years running for the state legislature. She cherishes the conversations she had with people as she went door to door campaigning for herself. The campaign itself, she thinks, was a right of passage, a process of becoming a genuine grown up taking on adult work. As a legislator in her twenties, Abby Finkenauer did the work. She sought relief for people with college loans, urged that people be able to testify about legislative proposals via the internet, and fought to protect women's right to control their bodies.