Mitt Romney’s PAC is burning through money — the PAC reported a 78 percent overall burn rate as of Dec. 31 — but he has plenty of cash to spare. Romney’s PAC reported $1,125,375 cash on hand as of Dec. 31, beating out both Sarah Palin’s SarahPAC and Tim Pawlenty’s Freedom First PAC in cash available, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

Romney has raised a total of $3,565,311 and spent $2,777,912, since he first formed his PAC months after exiting the presidential race in 2008.

Pawlenty only formed his PAC in October 2009, so his totals were expected to be less robust than the those of Palin and Romney (who recently vied for vice president and president, respectively). Pawlenty’s burn rate was just about 31 percent overall and he reported $884,075 on hand. He raised $1,279,906 and spent $395,831 total through Dec. 31.

Since SarahPAC was first formed in Jan. 2009, the committee has raised $2,132,119, spent $1,203,782 and reported $928,337 on hand as of Dec. 31.

While most of SarahPAC’s money was spent on consulting, fundraising and other typical campaign expenditures, the committee reported spending tens of thousands on photographs, books and trinkets in the last half of the year. SarahPAC spent $13,668 on photos, $63,498 on books, $6,455 on t-shirt design and printing and nearly $3,000 on pens and rubber bracelets in the latter six months of 2009. These and other items contributed to SarahPAC’s overall burn rate of 56 percent.

Julissa Treviño contributed research to this post. ]]> http://iowaindependent.com/26860/romney-pac-has-highest-burn-rate-but-leads-palin-and-pawlenty-in-cash/feed 0 http://iowaindependent.com/25521/one-agriprocessors-supervisor-to-remain-in-jail-another-likely-heading-there http://iowaindependent.com/25521/one-agriprocessors-supervisor-to-remain-in-jail-another-likely-heading-there#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:30:45 +0000 Lynda Waddington http://iowaindependent.com/?p=25521 The day-to-day manager at a Postville meatpacking plant will stay in federal prison following a decision by U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to deny him bail while he awaits sentencing. The plant’s operation manager also entered a guilty plea Monday to his role in aiding undocumented workers find work at the now defunct slaughterhouse.

Sholom M. Rubashkin, son of Agriprocessors founder A. Aaron Rubashkin, was found guilty in November 2009 on 86 charges of financial fraud and money laundering. His counsel had requested that he be released on bail pending formal sentencing on those charges; however, a panel of three judges from the St. Louis-based Appellate Court denied the motion late last week. An exact sentencing date for Rubashkin has not yet been set, but is anticipated to take place this spring.

Counsel for Rubashkin can continue to appeal the decision.

On Monday, former plant operations manager Brent Beebe admitted in a plea arrangement with federal prosecutors that he brokered deals between Rubashkin and undocumented workers, effectively providing the workers with falsified documents for a cost. The transaction of more than $4,000, according to court records, took place one week before a massive May 2008 immigration raid at the Postville facility.

Beebe remains free on bond, pending sentencing.

Since the raid several members of management at the plant have been probed by federal authorities, and many have been convicted of wrongdoing. The plant itself was sold through bankruptcy and now operates under new leadership as AgriStar. Some former members of plant management, including Rubashkin’s brother, Heshy Rubashkin, continue to provide services to the new plant owners, although the exact extent of their involvement remains unclear.

Due to the trial process, several undocumented workers were detained in Postville as possible key witnesses. Wearing ankle GPS tracking devices, some hoped only for deportation while others began their own legal battles to establish residency in the U.S. Just days following Christmas, most of those detainees were brought to Cedar Rapids where their ankle tracking devices were removed by court officials.

The Rubashkin family and friends, who have rallied around Sholom throughout the process, have hired a New York-based communications firm to represent the interests of an established defense fund. The company has reached out to members of the press and has began a presence on social networking sites.

University of Iowa Libraries Federal Documents Librarian Marianne Mason has developed a digital exhibit in honor of the 125th anniversary of the partnership between the agency and the Government Printing Office.

In honor of the anniversary, Marianne Mason, federal documents librarian at the University of Iowa, has developed a digital exhibit.

The Federal Depository Library Program was established by Congress to ensure that the public has access to government information. In 1884, roughly 30 years after the program was enacted, the annual report from the University of Iowa noted that the first shipment of federal laws was received by the university. Those documents formed the basis of the library’s government information section — which has now expanded to more than one million pieces in print and digital formats.

Through the program, the university receives government information at no cost and, in turn, provides local, no-fee access to the information in an impartial environment with professional assistance. Today, the University of Iowa Libraries is one of nearly 1,250 such depository libraries throughout the nation.

Sholom M. Rubashkin

Rubashkin, who is the 50-year-old son of Agriprocessors founder and president A. Aaron Rubashkin, was convicted of all possible money laundering and mail, wire and bank fraud charges. He was also convicted on 15 out of 20 counts of failing to provide timely pay to livestock auctions and providers.

The verdict followed nearly a month of testimony and evidence in which the government sought to paint Rubashkin as one, if not the, mastermind in a plot to defraud creditors. The defense team, in contrast, chose to portray Rubashkin as inexperienced, naive and unprepared to serve as day-to-day manager for such a large undertaking as the kosher meatpacking plant in Postville.

Following the lengthy reading of the verdict, Rubashkin was taken into federal custody, and his defense attorney, Guy Cook, pledged to appeal. Rubashkin is expected to return to eastern Iowa next week for sentencing and a possible bail hearing pending appeal. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 1,000 years in prison for the guilty verdicts.

An early December trial has been slated for an additional 72 federal immigration-related charges against Rubashkin, and he also faces a trial in state court this spring for possible child labor law violations.

All of the charges stem back to a massive May 12, 2008 immigration raid at the Postville facility. More than 300 immigrant workers detained by federal authorities pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to identity theft within days of their apprehension, and the bulk have been deported after serving brief federal prison sentences. Some immigrant workers, however, continue to live in and around Postville and are expected to be called by the prosecution in the upcoming trial.

The road between the actual raid and the federal trial in Sioux Falls, S.D., was long and has often wound its way through traditionally uncomfortable conversations for Americans regarding immigration, civil rights, religious expression and the composition and worth of charity.

The Rubashkin family, all ultra-orthodox Jews affiliated with the Hasidic Chabad Lubavitch movement, have at times suggested that the charges against them stem not from any alleged illegal activity, but from anti-Semitism. Throughout the investigation, and especially following the initial arrest and jailing of Sholom Rubashkin, many of the Jewish religious faithful, either through their own conscience or through the prodding and help of Chabad, have defended the Rubashkins from wrongdoing and stood as character witnesses for the family’s contributions.

Both inside and outside of Jewish circles, however, the Rubashkins have drawn criticism, many believing that generosity was born of ill-gotten-gains, harvested on the back of an underpaid and often mistreated immigrant workforce. Media reports, which prompted the move of the trials from Iowa to South Dakota, have given supposed victims of child labor and sexual harassment at the Postville plant a voice.

The company known as Agriprocessors fell into bankruptcy last year, and has re-emerged as AgriStar under the new ownership of SHF Industries, a venture of Canadian businessman Hershey Friedman. Heshy Rubaskin, brother to Sholom and son of Aaron, continues to work at the reborn business.

At least six former members of plant management or the human resources department have pleaded guilty in the wake of the 2008 immigration raid:

April 13, 2009 — Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48 and the former human resources manager, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards.

March 19, 2009 — Penny Ann Hanson, 41 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false statements on immigration documents.

Dec. 10, 2008 — Karina Pilar Freund, 29 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented aliens.

Oct. 29, 2008 — Laura Althouse, 38 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Aug. 27, 2008 — Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43 and a former plant supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens.

Aug. 20, 2008 — Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35 and a former plant supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to hire illegal aliens and one count of aiding and abetting the hiring of illegal aliens.

Former plant operations manager Brent Beebe, 51, will soon be tried on immigration-related charges in federal court. Two additional plant managers — Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi — also face criminal charges, but have yet to be apprehended by authorities.

Stewart has represented the northeastern district since 2003. In 2006, he easily won re-election with 65 percent of the vote.

He has served as chair of the Senate Economic Growth Committee and serves on the Commerce, Environment & Energy, Rebuild Iowa, and Ways and Means committees.

A state task force is preparing to tour the facilities and meet with local residents in an attempt to evaluate levels of care and cost effectiveness. Specifically, the task force will need to consider if the state would benefit from closing one of the facilities, a duty steeped as deeply in history as it is in state economics.

Kirkbride, a founding member of the organization that would later become the American Psychiatric Association, promoted standardizing not only care for those with mental health issues, but for the architectural design of the facilities in which such persons would be housed. Kirkbride believed that surroundings played a large role in the treatment of those described at the time to be “insane” or “feeble-minded.”

Kirkbride buildings were often sprawling structures that would allow patients to be segregated first by gender and then by degree and intensity of illness. In particular, the philosophy related to the architecture believed that nature — fresh air, sunlight — was an important element to treating mental illness, and many of the asylums based on his philosophy were constructed well outside of urban areas and on large lots where residents would be required to help not only with facility maintenance, but with ground-keeping, farming and other tasks.

The end result was state purchases of large tracts of rural land and construction of hulking brick and mortar facilities. Some of the structures closely resemble castles of Old Europe.

Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute

The facility in Mount Pleasant was the first built by the state. (Photo courtesy of the IAGenWeb Project)

The Mount Pleasant facility is the oldest of the four state-run facilities that serve individuals affected by mental illness. The state made its first appropriation for the location and erection of the facility in 1855. Kirkbride himself recommended Boston architect Jonathan Preston to design the structure. The 50,000-square foot building formally opened as “The Iowa Lunatic Asylum, Mount Pleasant” on March 6, 1861.

“This is first permanent building erected in the state,” a reporter for the Burlington Hawkeye wrote at the time. “It is of large size. We have not the exact dimensions before us, but it is sufficient to say that when fully completed it will accommodate between 300 and 400 patients and will compare creditably with similar structures in other states…

“Before diminishing the subject, we think simple justice to the Directors and builder, and to all parties concerned, under the circumstances, renders it proper for us to say something further in regard to this building and the manner in which the public have been expended upon it. When we look at its extent, at its massive walls and firm foundations that nothing short of an earthquake could move, at its innumerable rooms and dormitories, all the partition walls being of brick — at its miles of iron pipe for heating purposes, hot and cold water and gas — at is pipes and flues in every part of the building for purposes of ventilation — at its engine and boilers, kitchen and laundry, et cetera, et cetera, our wonder was that so much had been done for the sums appropriated by the State. … We hope, now that it is open and receiving patients, that all citizens of the State who can make it convenient to do so, will visit the Asylum. They will find it a very pleasant place to spend an hour or two, and, notwithstanding its grated windows, and unfortunate inmates, having a cheerful, orderly and happy look.”

Within a year, however, The Hawkeye, began to publish articles on the overcrowded conditions within the asylum, violence and skyrocketing expenses. (According to the American Medical Association, the facility had 11 miles of iron pipes, 425 rooms above the basement, 900 doors, 1,100 windows, a 2,100-foot Artesian well and cost the state $600,000 to construct.) The facility had treated nearly 1,100 people, many of them from other states, during its first 21 months of operation.

In those early years, all of Iowa’s facilities were used for long-term care. Many patients who entered the wards likely never again lived outside an asylum.

According to the Department of Human Services, peak capacity was reached in 1946 at more than 1,500 patients. Since that time, however, and with the invention of better medications and different therapies, most patients’ stays are between 30 and 120 days.

For some time the grounds have been shared by the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison designed to provide treatment to male offenders with character disorders and substance abuse issues. In 1999, a separate facility opened for women offenders who also had such specialized needs.

The Mount Pleasant facility currently provides inpatient treatment to adults, and it is the only dual-diagnosis program — psychiatric and substance abuse — run by the state. Although substance abuse patients throughout the state come to Mount Pleasant for treatment, it’s primary service area is limited to 15 counties in southeast Iowa.

Independence Mental Health Institute

The facility in Independence was Iowa's second asylum, and the structure continues to be used for the same purpose today. (Photo courtesy of KirkbrideBuildings.com)

The second of Iowa’s facilities began in 1868 with a state allocation for land and structure in Independence. The state hired S. Shipman of Madison, Wis., to serve as the architect and the building was given an Italian flair, complete with a mansard roof. It was built from limestone quarries in Epworth, Farley and Anamosa, which was considered to be quite an extravagance despite its local availability, and contained several fire-prevention amenities.

Construction began in 1869, and a portion of the building was opened in 1873, although the entire structure was not opened until 1884. Full cost for the structure, which contained 24 wards and could hold 600 patients, neared $1 million — nearly twice the cost of the Mount Pleasant facility.

Originally known as the “Iowa Hospital for the Insane, Independence,” it is now called the Independence Mental Health Institute, and, according to the Department of Human Services, it provides inpatient psychiatric treatment for adults, adolescents and children. The facility’s specialty, however, is its work with children and adolescents.

This facility currently serves 28 counties in eastern and northeastern Iowa, and children and adolescents from 43 counties primarily to the east of I-35.

Clarinda Mental Health Institute

The Clarinda facility was built by the state in the late 1800s to help alleviate crowded conditions in the other two state hospitals. (Photo courtesy of KirkbrideBuildings.com)

The facility in Clarinda, originally named the “Clarinda Asylum for the Insane,” was began with state appropriations (of $50,000, although many more appropriations followed) in 1884 primarily to relieve over-crowding at the other two facilities. Construction began in July 1885 with plans from Des Moines architects William Foster and Henry F. Liebbe, and patients were accepted beginning in 1888. In the beginning, Clarinda was a male-only facility that sat on 513 acres. By 1933, according to the Clarinda Chamber of Commerce, the complex occupied 1.055 acres.

Clarinda, just like all four of Iowa’s facilities, has also been mentioned in conjunction with American eugenics, which was comprised primarily of compulsory sterilization laws for those deemed “mentally deficient” or criminal. Roughly 1,900 people were sterilized in Iowa, and, although the law allowing the procedure was passed in 1911, most of those occurred between 1941 and 1953, after the 1929 creation of a State Eugenics Board. The 1929 legislation called on the superintendents of state institutions to submit quarterly reports to the eugenics board that listed viable candidates for sterilization, which included members of the general public who were provided free legal counsel, according to author Nancy Ordover.

In 1980 the Clarinda Correctional Facility, a medium-security, all-male prison serving primarily chemically dependent, mentally retarded and socially inadequate offenders, was established on the grounds.

Today, the facility at Clarinda offers a wide range of diagnostic and treatment services through is Acute Psychiatric Program. It is also well-known for its geropsychiatric work, providing nursing home beds for individuals with mental illnesses such as Alzheimer’s. The acute program serves 15 counties in southwestern Iowa. The geriatric program serves the entire state and is the only one of its kind at the state-run facilities.

Cherokee Mental Health Institute

During the mid-1940s the Cherokee facility housed about 1,700 patients. (Photo courtesy KirkbrideBuildings.com)

Just six years after Clarinda opened, the state asked architect Liebbe to plan another hospital in western Iowa. The “Cherokee State Hospital for the Insane” opened in 1902 and was the last of Iowa’s large state-run mental hospitals. Similar to the Mount Pleasant facility, the hospital in Cherokee had a peak population of roughly 1,700 patients in the mid-1940s.

The Cherokee facility, like nearly all state hospitals at that time, was host mid-century to infamous lobotomist Walter Freeman. The man had perfected the technique of completing a lobotomy with a device similar to an ice pick that could be pushed through the thin bone in an individual’s eye sockets and into the brain. Freeman felt that this type of procedure could be especially helpful in the state-run asylums because it did not require drilling holes into the skull or a surgeon.

Freeman, who enjoyed the attention of the media and often invited reporters to watch his surgeries, was performing one such lobotomy at the Cherokee facility when he stepped back to have his photo taken. As a result of Freeman’s camera mugging the patient died, the instrument plunging too far into the brain.

Today, the facility provides both inpatient and outpatient care to adults, adolescents and children. It serves adults in 41 northwestern Iowa counties, as well as children and teens in 55 counties primarily west of I-35. The vast majority of the patients admitted to Cherokee are there by order of the court. A correctional facility is also on the site.

The speculation started when Des Moines Register columnist Marc Hansen wrote last week about a “well-known mystery candidate who’s about 75 percent ready to join the race.”

Washington, D.C.,-based news site Politico immediately latched on to U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, based in part on several sharply worded rebukes released by the Waterloo Democrat in response to Grassley’s statements regarding health care legislation.

The conservative blogosphere has focused on former Principal Financial Group Inc. CEO Barry Griswell, who currently serves as president of the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines. Griswell would certainly have the money to finance a run. In 2008, he was paid $11.83 million in total compensation, down 29.7 percent from his 2006 earnings of $16.84 million.

Cityview gossip columnist Civic Skinny says Griswell is a non-starter, though, since he has been a registered Democrat for less than two years and was a big financial supporter of Grassley in the past.

Skinny points to another potential candidate: Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin.

Conlin is a political pro — she ran (and lost) for governor in 1982, she was United States Attorney for this district in the 1970s and 1980s, she founded the Iowa Women’s Political Caucus, she was the first female president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and on and on. She’s also rich and articulate and passionate, and she regularly bemoans the fact that Iowa has never elected a woman governor, Senator or Congressperson.

Another name floating around political circles is Fred Hubbell, former chairman, president and CEO of Equitable of Iowa Cos. He also served as chairman of insurance and asset management for ING Group, a Netherlands-based banking, insurance and asset management company.

He is currently chairman of the Iowa Power Fund Board.

Name recognition would not be an issue for Hubbell, since his family has played a leadership role in in the state since the Civil War. Three commercial buildings, a school and a major street bear the family name in Des Moines. The Hubbell’s even owned Terrace Hill from 1884 until 1973, eventually giving it to the state of Iowa to serve as the home for Iowa’s governors.

Each of these individuals brings much more money and name recognition than the current field of candidates — Bob Krause of Fairfield, Tom Fiegen of Clarence and Sal Muhammad of Sioux City. But with approval ratings that still hover around 60 percent, Grassley’s seat is still considered to be difficult, bordering on unlikely pickup for Democrats in 2010.

Participants at a health care forum hosted by U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley in Independence did not let high emotions keep them from asking questions and hearing answers from their federal lawmaker.

INDEPENDENCE — Amid news reports of emotional outbursts and violence at Congressional health care forums across the nation, one hosted by U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley Wednesday afternoon stood out not for its content, but for its context.

No individuals with signs lined the streets adjacent to the Independence Public Library in anticipation of the meeting. Inside, few spoke out of turn as Braley walked participants through a 28-slide presentation regarding where reform currently is in Congress, what’s been done so far and the various myths associated with proposed reform measures. When the room for the presentation and forum filled, at least 100 participants politely and quietly stood in the library foyer or on the front lawn and listened via a speaker system.

Those attending held very strong opinions about the prospect of reform — some as passionately in favor as others were against — but the differences of opinion did not disintegrate the meeting into a shouting match. Participants sat or stood, mostly in respectful silence, while Braley went through the presentation and then opened the meeting up for questions. During the question-and-answer session, members of the audience were quick to offer applause when they agreed with a speaker, but were just as quick to quiet down and listen to Braley’s response.

The many questions were similar if not exact to those that have been poised at other forums: Euthanasia, abortion and overall cost-effectiveness of proposed reforms. At one point, while answering a question posed by a Marine about “excessive government spending” and the perceived fast-track of health reform, Braley experienced one of his few audience interruptions.

“A lot of people have already forgotten where we were at the start of this year. We were facing the next Great Depression and tough choices had to be made,” Braley began before he was cut off by a ripple of laughter.

“And people … people can make fun of that all they want to, but that is the reality of what we were presented by the last President and our current President. When you have to make tough choices in a short amount of time you can make mistakes. I’ll be the first to admit that. However, I will argue that some of the things you are talking about have not been boondoggles, but have been very helpful to the economy. … The other thing is that when you don’t do something and things get really bad, you get criticized for that too.”

Braley acknowledged that reform measures, if passed, may have unforeseen consequences or might need further Congressional review.

“If this thing doesn’t work out and we have to go back and adjust what we’re doing, I will be the first one there arguing to do it,” he said.

“I’ll be real honest with you. I don’t take votes in Congress because I’m holding them up to a mirror to be re-elected. I’ve had a lot of other great life-experiences before. If you decide the job I’m doing is not worth sending me back to Congress — that’s your choice in a democracy. But you elected me to go to Washington and to be engaged in these important issues, which is why I did highlight this bill and I read it and I wrote notes and I asked tough questions. [I did that] so that when I had to vote on these things, I’m at least thinking about what I believe is in the best interest of the people I represent. You can tell just by this meeting today that there is a lot of diversity of opinion about what is wrong with this country.”

The two issues discussed by Braley which drew the largest swath of contention among the audience were measures intended to make health care more affordable for small businesses and a revamp of the federal formulas that place Iowa, a state with quality medical outcomes, at the bottom of the payment scale for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

Under the current House bill (HR 3200), businesses with 25 or fewer employees will receive a tax credit and will be allowed to purchase health insurance through the proposed Exchange, which will be a marketplace of both public and private insurance plans. Braley said that small businesses in Iowa could save between 25 and 37 percent per year on health care costs under House reform proposals.

Reconfiguration of current federal reimbursement rates to health care facilities and providers is a much more complex and difficult subject. The current formula rewards states based on the quantity of medical services they provide in lieu of quality of medical services as determined by medical outcomes. The state with the highest reimbursement rate, according to Braley, is Louisiana, which is also the state that has the worst medical outcomes.

“I have had some of the most heated discussions on health care reform with the chairman and the leadership in my own party, who didn’t want to do anything to make sure that Iowa health care providers got a level playing field,” Braley said. “They had a vested interest because they had to go tell their doctors, their hospitals and their nurses that they have been overpaid from what they should have been based on the lousy results they are getting.”

Because Iowa providers are so negatively impacted by the current formula, nearly the entire federal delegation has been working on reform in that area. Only recently the Iowa delegation, by partnering with members from other adversely impacted states, were successful in initiating a two-year plan for reconsideration of the current payment formulas.

The Iowa Family Policy Center’s political outreach arm has sent a vitriolic, four-page letter to voters on Burgmeier’s behalf, mostly focusing on accusations that Democrat Curt Hanson’s campaign is being funded by “out-of-state pro-homosexual groups” who are “clamoring” to impose their “radical agenda” on Iowans. Because neither candidate has had to file a campaign finance disclosure report, this claim cannot be verified. (Even after a report is filed, it’s not like it will display donors’ sexual orientations next to their names.)

The Burgmeier campaign’s Web site also now lists a political operative who has been connected to the Iowa Family Policy Center as one of its volunteer contacts.

Mark Doland, who is also pastor of a church in Mahaska County, was a 2008 campaign staffer for former state Rep. Danny Carroll (R-Grinnell), who wrote the pro-Burgmeier letter on IFPC’s behalf. Doland’s email address, as listed on the Burgmeier site, is an acronym for “Let Us Vote,” the slogan of opponents of the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage last year. Because campaign finance reports haven’t been filed, it is unclear whether the conservative operative is being paid (and who is paying him). On his own site, Doland says he is IFPC’s “Field Coordinator.”

For Iowans for Tax Relief’s part, the group had already supplied two staffers to the Burgmeier campaign, and now they have released a new television ad attacking Hanson.

The ITR ad is striking not for its message, which is fairly conventional, but for its inexplicably over-the-top yonic imagery. If you don’t know what yonic means, watch the ad below and take a guess:

The race between Burgmeier and Democrat Curt Hanson to fill the seat left open when Democratic Rep. John Whitaker accepted an appointment to serve as the Iowa director of the Farm Service Agency could become a showdown between special interests and political parties on both sides, and it is seen by many as a blueprint for the general election battles that will take place in 2010.

Stephen Burgmeier (Photo: stephenburgmeier.com)

The Iowa Independent has already reported that conservative group Iowans for Tax Relief is involved in the campaign already, with two members of its leadership team making up Burgmeier’s campaign organization.

The race also marks the first real challenge for the Republican Party of Iowa’s new leadership team. RPI chairman Matt Strawn has already sent out e-mails calling the district a “must win” for his party.

Everyday America’s endorsement should come as no surprise. While serving as a member of the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors, he introduced a resolution asking lawmakers to take a stand against same-sex marriage. The board passed the resolution unanimously, but did so after the legislature had already adjourned.

Gay rights group One Iowa issued an “Extreme Right Watch” about Burgmeier when he announced his intentions to run, saying he hopes to “undermine the Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous decision that everyone in Iowa deserves equal protection under the law.” They also asked members to support Hansen’s candidacy.

Democrats are calling out their heavyweights as well, with U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin stumping for Hansen last month to help kick off his campaign.

Independent Douglas William Philips and Fourth of July Party member Dan Cesar will also be on the ballot for the special election scheduled for Sept. 1.