On Election Night, Paustian looked victorious, with early returns showing him with a narrow lead over Gayman. But when absentee ballots were counted, Gayman overcame that deficit and held on to her seat by a comfortable 800-vote margin.

The campaign took a nasty turn in its final days, with Gayman running an ad accusing Paustian of being sentenced to jail in 1993 for failing to pay child support. Paustian immediately condemned the ad as “an outright lie.”

Republicans responded with a mailer against Gayman that featured pigs on the cover with the text “These little piggies went to Des Moines.”

The race also promises to be expensive. While reports filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board prior to Election Day show Paustian only spent $27,000, he received $209,152 in in-kind contributions from the Republican Party of Iowa for advertising. Gayman spent nearly $20,000 but received almost $280,000 from the Iowa Democratic Party.

Gayman won the district, which consists of west Davenport and Scott County, by scoring a 273-vote upset against Jim Van Fossen in 2006.

Conservatives contend that leadership in the state senate did not push as hard as Republicans in the state house to overturn the court’s decision.

Christian radio host Steve Deace criticized Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, during his drive-time program on Iowa’s largest radio station for “feeding constituents a line of bull” about doing everything possible to stop same-sex marriage.

He continued the assault on his blog.

“McKinley’s stubborn refusal to push the Senate rules for a vote on marriage like what was done in the House is either a classic case of Bob Michel disease, or a classic case of the smartest guy in the room not wanting to do the right thing because it wasn’t his idea,” Deace said.

Robert Michel is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois who was criticized by conservatives for being too easy-going and not fighting hard enough for Republican goals in the House during its long period of Democratic control.

Deace said that when the Republican caucus in both chambers decided on new leadership this year, many social conservatives considered McKinley one of their own and House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, a “puppet of the establishment.”

“Turns out the exact opposite, at least during the 200[9] session, was true,” he said.

The liberal blog Bleeding Heartland reports anti-McKinley fliers were being distributed in Pella paid for a Virginia-based conservative group called Public Advocate of the United States.

“Like a chicken, Sen. McKinley refuses to do what it takes to get a vote on the Iowa Marriage Amendment. He says he supports it, but he won’t force those who support the destruction of Iowa families to make their position public,” the flier says.

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn also received criticism from Deace, who wondered why Strawn sent out an “Action Alert” e-mail to supporters on Friday that did not mention same-sex marriage.

“There is a disconnect,” Deace said. “Why in the world would you put a plank in your platform, and when that plank is under assault from your political opponents, and it is the number one story in the state, why wouldn’t you want to alert people that this is what we stand for and this is what we believe?”

Deace also questioned why McKinley and Strawn would not speak out in support of state Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, during his push to encourage county recorders to deny same-sex couples marriage licenses as an “act of conscious.”

When contacted last week by the Iowa Independent about Bartz’s efforts, a spokesman for McKinley declined to comment and said all inquiries should be directed to Bartz.

Republican leadership seemed to respond to Deace’s admonishment Monday, with Strawn, McKinley and Paulsen issuing a joint statement on same-sex marriage blaming Democrats for the lack of action.

“Republicans in the Iowa Legislature made repeated attempts to begin the process of bringing to Iowans a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman only to be stopped cold by Democrat obstructionism and a lack of executive leadership from Governor Culver,” they said. “Whether it be the pursuit of a constitutional amendment to give Iowans the right to vote on this issue; the establishment of residency requirements to obtain marriage licenses; or the appointment of future judges–none of these options are possible as long as Chet Culver remains Governor and Democrats control the Iowa Legislature.”

In the House, Republcian lawmakers tried several times to force a vote on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, with each attempt ruled out of order. Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, even attempted to insert language in a Democratic tax plan defining marriage as between one man and one woman. In the Senate, McKinley made one attempt at forcing a vote on a constitutional amendment, requesting that Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, joining him in crafting the legislation. Gronstal refused and the matter was dead.

Iowa social conservatives have attempted to introduce a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage for several years, but Democrats have successfully blocked it from coming up for a full vote.  Supporters of same-sex marriage rights say that Iowa’s relatively difficult amendment process helps ensure that, if the Supreme Court issues a ruling that is favorable to same-sex couples, a constitutional amendment that would reverse the ruling would take years to write into law.

But not every constitutional amendment becomes such a political hot potato, and some constitutional amendments move forward with almost no controversy attached.

Just this week, a proposed amendment that would devote a portion of a future sales tax increase to natural resources projects received its second round of approval from the state legislature, winning by wide margins in both the House and Senate.  In 2010, it will be on the general election ballot for voters to approve.

And just last year, Iowans approved the so-called “idiot” amendment, which removes the word “idiot” from the state constitution’s voter eligibility requirements.  That may not have been the most cleanly executed example of passing a constitutional amendment in Iowa, but the actual amendment did not spark much controversy.

U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, R-Ames

With 85 percent of precincts reporting, the Ames Republican has received 60 percent of the vote, compared to 40 percent for Greenwald, a Democrat from Perry. That includes winning every one of the north-central district’s 28 counties.

In a speech to supporters at the Gateway Hotel in Ames, Latham said the campaign was successful because it never took victory for granted

“This campaign was run like we were 10 points behind,” he said.

The 4th District race was widely considered to be one of the nation’s most competitive, with Greenwald receiving support form the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and EMILY’s List. Time Magazine named it as one of 12 key races to watch.

Latham was elected as the congressman for Iowa’s 5th District in 1994 as part of the wave that allowed Republicans to take over the House for the first time since 1955. The 2000 round of redistricting, however, significantly altered Iowa’s congressional map and placed Latham in the new 4th District retained only a small portion of his old district.

Since redistricting, Latham has consistently received roughly 60 percent of the vote.

In closing remarks in the KCRG-sponsored debate, Miller-Meeks criticized Loebsack for voting with the Democratic leadership “98 percent of the time” and for accepting political action committee money. “America is not divided,” Miller-Meeks said, “Congress is divided.”

Loebsack said that despite Miller-Meeks’ contention, he had never taken a no PAC money pledge, and that he listens to his constituents. “I’ve been back to the district every weekend, except for the times I went over to Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Loebsack, citing trips to the war zones he made as a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

“You didn’t listen to your constituents on the bailout bill,” Miller-Meeks retorted.

The candidates clashed on Social Security and health care. Miller-Meeks favored a move toward at least partial individual accounts on both fronts. Loebsack endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s health care plan, and said any move toward privatizing Social Security was risky. “Right after he was re-elected, George Bush pushed this risky scheme, and it was rejected by the American people,” he said.

Panelist James Lynch of the Cedar Rapids Gazette cut to the chase and asked about Miller-Meeks’ nickname for Loebsack, “Do-Nothing Dave.” “We haven’t seen leadership… when it comes to flood relief or the bailout bill,” said Miller-Meeks.

“As a freshman, I think I’ve accomplished quite a lot,” said Loebsack, citing the $4.6 billion Midwestern Disaster Tax Relief Act he cosponsored with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley that was included in the revised bailout plan.

At that point, Miller-Meeks tossed out a well-rehearsed “You’re no Chuck Grassley” line.

The two-candidate format in a TV studio, with questions from journalists rather than the public, made for a more formal debate than the previous four-way debate in Coralville. Longer responses gave the major party candidates more opportunities to flesh out their proposals.

Green candidate Wendy Barth and independent Brian White participated in the earlier debate, but were not invited by KCRG. Barth liveblogged her responses to debate questions from an Iowa City coffee shop.

Loebsack took many opportunities to mention communities in the southern tier of the district. “I’ve been to Ottumwa 41 times,” he said, citing Miller-Meeks’ home town.

Loebsack also named Obama four times, and Republican nominee John McCain once. Miller-Meeks did not mention McCain’s name.

Iowa Independent’s Lynda Waddington contributed to this report.

“I think you could put it down like that,” Schulte said in an interview tonight.

As it stands she would make the Democratic primary here in western Iowa into at least a three-person contest as retired Presbyterian minister Rob Hubler of Council Bluffs and retired businessman Bob Chambers of Essex are in the race.

Schulte, 65, has lost two elections by wide margins to U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron. In 2006,  a weak year for Republicans that even saw the outster of Iowa icon Jim Leach in eastern Iowa, King pulled 58 percent of the vote to Schulte’s 36 percent in the sprawling, 32-county western Iowa district. King spent $620,000 compared to just $73,000 for Schulte. A largely self-financed Independent, Roy Nielsen of Orange City, spent $150,000 but failed to break into double digits with just 5 percent of the vote.

In 2006, Schulte beat Chambers to get the Democratic nod, and in 2004, Schulte bested former State Rep. Gene Blanshan of Panora in the primary.

During the interview Schulte, retired as the director of support services for Southwestern (Iowa) Community College in Creston, said she is working on collecting the necessary signatures for a run.

“I generally don’t start things that I don’t think are feasible,” Schulte said. “This is one of those things I want to do. I think its feasible.”

What would make 2008 different for Schulte than her earlier two failed bids against King, presuming the congressman doesn’t seek to trade up with a Senate run against Tom Harkin, D-Iowa?

“I wouldn’t want to divulge everything,” Schulte said.

Last week, Hubler told Iowa Independent he was well funded for a primary race with more than $80,000 raised. For her part Schulte said she’s not stared on that yet.

“I haven’t put my energies into that,” Schulte said.

On Tuesday night, Schulte noted that Iowa has never elected a woman to a congressional seat or to the U.S. Senate, and the Hawkeye State has never had a female governor.

She touched on that theme in an earlier interview on women in politics.

Is there any way a female candidate can win in the most conservative district in the state?

“That’s a fascinating way of putting a question, that women aren’t electable in Iowa,” Schulte said last spring.
Schulte said she knows the electoral history with women for top political positions in Iowa.

“Yeah, I know what the rule is at the moment,” Schulte said. “We’ve gone all the way up the ladder except moving into those top three.”

Why is that?

“It beats my five aces,” Schulte said. “You know, women are good to keep home and whatever. We brag about them in every way except. And I just don’t know whether it’s a figment of our imagination in a sense that women can’t do those top pieces in government. We do the top pieces in raising families. We do some of the top pieces in business.”

She noted that women are fighter pilots and astronauts.

“Why we can’t do it in Iowa for those congressional and senatorial pieces I’m not sure,” she said.

Sioux City Journal reporter Bret Hayworth has reported that Chambers has the signatures needed to enter the race. Here is Hayworth:

It was just a formality, but Iowa 5th District cogressional candidate Bob Chambers of Essex has gotten the necessary petition signatures to officially file nomination papers for the post held by Republican Steve King. Democrat Chambers met the requirement of getting 16 counties with 793 signatures. The 5th District is composed of 32 counties.

On Oct. 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn found Ferlinghetti not guilty, ruling that Howl and Other Poems was not obscene but contained “redeeming social importance” and was therefore protected by the First Amendment. “The authors of the First Amendment knew that novel and unconventional ideas might disturb the complacent, but they chose to encourage a freedom which they believed essential if vigorous enlightenment was ever to triumph over slothful ignorance,” Horn wrote his judicial opinion.

In 1955, Ginsberg began writing the nearly 3,000-word poem that helped define the Beat Generation. The poem was inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Notes from the Underground,” which captures the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, nameless narrator who rants from his basement window about all the ills infecting Russian society. Ginsberg also attributes Walt Whitman for the free-verse style of the poem and his sympathy for Carl Solomon, whom he met while visiting his mother at a mental institute, for the emotional drive behind the poem.

Read commentary and tributary poem below the fold.
(Commentary) Fifty years later, Ginsberg’s “Howl” still resonates in America, obscene words and all, as Americans grow increasingly frustrated with the political paralysis surrounding them. The citizens howl against the daily injustices in America, but their words fail to resonate in D.C., merely reverberating within the hollow, empty chambers on Capital Hill. The best way to capture the spirit of “Howl,” while simultaneously paying homage to Ginsberg’s timeless words, is by way of a contemporary adaptation of the poem itself.

Howlin’ in the Wind (Abridged)

For Allen Ginsberg: The Beat Goes On