Gibbons, who coached ISU to an NCAA championship in 1987, said he will leave his job at Wells Fargo Advisers to campaign full time. He has never held public office.

Zaun told CQ Politics he will make a formal announcement of his intentions to run in the GOP primary Dec. 1. Zaun is a former Urbandale mayor and is serving his second term in the Iowa Senate.

The two join retired pilot Dave Funk, who declared his intentions to run earlier this year.

Jill Kozeny, communications director for Grassley, was responding to an Iowa Independent story in which Kiernan attacked the senator’s comparison of civilian trials for terror suspects to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson. Kiernan called Grassley’s comparison “fear mongering” designed to “distract from the larger national security issues facing our country.” He said Grassley was calling into question the constitutional right to a trial by jury.

While questioning U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Grassley was attempting to make the point that assurances from the administration that the suspects would never be acquitted were not enough.

Holder said in response to Grassley’s questions that the likelihood of acquittal is remote, and if it were to happen, the suspects would never be released in the U.S. Justice Department officials told the New York Times that even if suspects are acquitted, the Obama administration will keep them locked up forever as a “combatant” under the laws of war.

“As Sen. Grassley revealed with the questions he asked yesterday, the administration’s argument for trying the terrorists in a federal court is a hollow one because the Attorney General pledged to keep the terrorists as enemy combatants regardless of the outcome in the courtroom,” she said. “The real questions are, why are terrorists being given more rights than U.S. service members fighting overseas, and why are Americans being subjected to an expensive security risk on U.S. soil if the terrorists could end up being held by the United States under military detention, just as they are being held today?”

Kozeny said Holder’s promise that the suspects will be convicted has “threatened the fairness of the trial by jury that is the bedrock of the U.S. Constitution,” a fact she says undermines Kiernan’s attacks.

While questioning Attorney General Eric Holder about the idea of prosecuting five men accused as co-conspirators in the Sept. 11 attacks in a federal court in New York, Grassley said assurances that they will be convicted ring hollow since “I think a lot of Americans thought O.J. Simpson ought to be convicted of murder, rather than being in jail for what he’s in jail for now. It seemed to me ludicrous.”

“I’m a farmer, not a lawyer, but I just wanted to make an observation,” Grassley said.

Kiernan said Grassley is engaging in “Karl Rove-style fear-mongering tactics” that are designed to “distract from the larger national security issues facing our country.”

“Trial by jury is the bedrock of the US Constitution,” Kiernan said. “Grassley calls this constitutional right into question and insults the American people, who every day make difficult and complicated decisions. There is simply no place for Grassley’s disrespectful politicization of this issue in today’s debate.”

After Grassley’s statement, Holder assured Iowa’s senior senator that even if acquitted terror suspects would not be released in the U.S.

Liberal blog Talking Points Memo has video of the exchange between Grassley and Holder.

During an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Harkin said no one in the Democratic caucus wants to be the person who derails health care legislation.

“We’ve all had our input. We’ve had our debate. But I believe now that the team is together,” he said. “And our team is going to hold together and we’ll have those 60 votes to move ahead.”

Harkin said the bill, which includes a public insurance option that states can opt out of, is not what he would have written. But in order to get the votes needed to move forward it was necessary to put the opt out in the bill, he said.

“I think it’s a reasonable compromise,” Harkin said. “Whether or not a state will opt out or not is up to the states. I would think a majority in every state would want to have that competitive edge a public option would present.”

Here’s video from Harkin’s appearance. His segment starts at 3:45.

The national phone survey of 772 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, found that 52 percent believe government action would do more harm than good, and the remaining 48 percent supported change.

The poll showed a distinctly partisan split, as government action was preferred by 54 percent of Democrats, compared to only 40 percent of Republicans.

Women were far more likely to support health care reform. Nearly 58 percent of women would like to see change, compared to only 41 percent of men. The majority of both Republican and Democratic women supported reform (65 percent and 54 percent, respectively). Most Democratic men also supported reform (60 percent), but most Republican men did not (37 percent support).

“Women tend to align with the Democratic Party and its initiatives more so than men,” said Frederick Boehmke, associate professor of political science in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and faculty adviser for the Hawkeye Poll. “Fifty-three percent of women in our sample voted for Obama, compared to only 34 percent of men.”

Just over half of individuals with a high school education or less, some college, or a college degree believed health care reform would do more harm (51 percent, 52 percent and 53 percent, respectively). Those with advanced or professional degrees were most in favor of reform, with 54 percent agreeing that change is needed to control costs and expand coverage.

Respondents under age 35 appeared to be most opposed to health care reform, with 61 percent indicating that it would be a bad move, but the polling team cautioned that the number of respondents in this group was small. Adults ages 55 to 69 were most supportive of reform, with 53 percent saying they prefer it.

The poll also found that 52 percent of respondents disapprove of the job President Barack Obama is doing, a number that doesn’t surprise pollsters.

“It appears that Americans are frustrated by the lack of tangible legislative results, particularly on health care reform, and the lack of significant turnaround in unemployment since Obama took office,” said Nathan Darus, a UI doctoral candidate in political science. “New presidents are inexperienced as national-level executives. As they learn the ropes, they experience policy failures that play into disapproval.”

Of the 772 respondents, 46 percent were women and 54 percent were men. Twenty-nine percent were Democrats, 40 percent were independents, and 31 percent were Republican. Nearly 64 percent considered themselves moderate, while 20 percent were liberal and 16 percent were conservative. Reported results are weighted by state population.

The State Police Officers Council (SPOC) has agreed that its 640 members will take five furlough days during the remaining 7 months of FY2010, a move that will create approximately $847,435 in savings.

The state would also suspend contributions to a deferred compensation retirement plan, according to the agreement. The governor’s office estimates this provision will create approximately $226,232 in savings.

The agreement mirrors one reached by the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 61 last week that saved 479 jobs.

By agreeing to these measures, SPOC members will be safe from layoffs during the current fiscal year, which ends July 30, 2010.

Next week , the SPOC Board will submit the agreement to union members for a full vote. An announcement on the outcome of the vote is expected close to the AFSCME vote on Nov. 25.

“I want to thank the leadership at SPOC for joining with us to protect essential public safety jobs,” Culver said in a statement. “This understanding will help to keep Iowans safe while meeting our obligation to balance the state budget.  I am very pleased by the agreement and I encourage the membership to vote yes on this measure.”

Last month, Culver ordered a 10 percent across-the-board cut to the state’s budget. Initial budget cut proposals called for more than 800 layoffs. Culver announced that unions representing employees from the Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections would have to open up their contracts in order to avoid layoffs. Two of the three unions have now come to understandings with the state government, with the third, Iowa United Professionals (IUP), deciding to accept 55 layoffs.

IUP represents 3,000 members, including social workers and corrections counselors.

According the report, Iowa families earning less than $20,000 a year — the poorest fifth of Iowa non-elderly taxpayers — pay 11 percent of their income in state and local taxes. Middle-income families — those earning between $37,000 and $56,000 — pay 10 percent of their income in Iowa state and local taxes.

The richest Iowa taxpayers, with income averaging $989,200, pay 7.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes.

When a state tax law that allows residents to write off federal taxes on state returns is factored in, the wealthiest Iowans pay only 6 percent of their income in state and local taxes. Low-income taxpayers see no benefit from the deduction.

“No one would ever design an income tax with lower tax rates for the best-off taxpayers,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and lead author of the report. “But that is exactly what Iowa’s tax system overall does. It allows the very wealthiest individuals to contribute less of their income, on average, than middle- and lower-income families must pay. In other words, Iowa has an unfair, regressive tax system.”

Peter Fisher, research director of the Iowa Policy Project, said the report shows the need in Iowa for dramatic income-tax reform. He said the report confirmed Iowa’s reliance on “regressive” taxes — sales, excise and property taxes — which fall heavier as a share of income on lower-income families, and the weak progressivity of the state income tax.

During the 2009 legislative session, Democrats proposed to end federal deductibility and rework the tax code to lower the overall tax rate for every citizen. However, those making more than $125,000 a year would have ended up paying slightly more under the new system, up to $1,400 a year for Iowans making $250,000 or more a year.

Fierce opposition from conservative groups like Iowans for Tax Relief ultimately killed the proposal. The Muscatine-based group, which helped derail a similar proposal in the 1980s when it was pushed by former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, said ending federal deductibility “flies in the face of common sense Iowa values and is simply unfair.”

Iowa State University economist David Swenson told the Iowa Independent during the session that federal deductibility was an “archaic holdover from a long ago time that nobody really knows why it exists anymore.”

Iowa, Alabama and Louisiana are the only states that allow federal taxes to be deducted on state returns.

The ruling could have bigger ramifications down the road, as several filmmakers who have been denied tax credits weigh legal action against the state.

Iowa Eye Entertainment LLC sued the Iowa Department of Economic Development earlier this month alleging the state breached its contract regarding issuing tax credits to finance their work. The company received initial approval from the state to receive tax credits, but after Gov. Chet Culver suspended the film credit program in the wake of alleged misconduct, the filmmakers were told they were never under contract to get the credits.

District Judge Glenn Pille agreed with the company’s assertions and said he will hold a hearing Friday before he orders the state to issue the credits.

“The court finds that the underpinning facts surrounding plaintiff’s request are relatively undisputed,” Pille’s ruling said.

The state contends that the projects are among 109 that received initial approval but were not under contract to receive funding. Therefore, because there was no contract, the state is not required to provide funding. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has said that may not be true.

Miller’s spokesman, Bob Brammer, said the attorney general’s office is “considering all our options, including whether to ask the Iowa Supreme Court to review the decision.”

The latest attack was delivered in Dubuque by state Rep. Chris Rants against former Gov. Terry Branstad. Rants said he spoke earlier in the day with activists who wanted him to support an increase of the gas tax.

“I told him ‘if you’re looking for someone to raise taxes, I’m not your candidate,’” Rants said, adding: “You’re not going to find a candidate that is going to tell you what you want to hear. And he told me that’s not true – Terry Branstad will raise the gas tax.”

Rants said he defended Branstad by saying “just because he raised it once doesn’t mean he’s going to raise it again.”

“He said, ‘No, he’s already told us he’s going to raise the gas tax,’” Rants said.

Iowa Democrats posted video of the speech on their “Iowa Knows Better” Web site. IDP Chairman Michael Kiernan called the speech “deeply troubling in that it would seem Terry Branstad has not learned his lessons about tax increases on Iowans and intends to be a repeat offender.”

This isn’t the first time the IDP has highlighted GOP intra-party conflict. In September, Democrats pointed to Rants’ criticism of rival Bob Vander Plaats’ tenure as CEO of the nonprofit Opportunities Unlimited and his statements regarding paying off state bonds. Last month, a meeting between Branstad and social conservative leaders resulted in two separate IDP attacks against the four-term governor.

The Democrats’ strategy also points to one of the dangers posed by a contentious GOP gubernatorial primary. Observers have said a nasty primary fight could create fissures within the party structure that may not heal before Election Day. However, there are also those who believe the eventual nominee will benefit from a rigorous primary, as all potential attacks will be made public, avoiding an “October Surprise” in 2010.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

Not only will the Senate be working weekends through December on health care reform legislation, but it could also spend the upcoming weekend in session, Sen. Tom Harkin told D.C.-based newspaper The Hill.

Harkin, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said Democrats will have the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. And if Republicans try to stall debate by asking that the entire bill be read on the Senate floor he promises a delay to Thanksgiving break.

If that happens, Harkin said, the majority party is likely to use a procedural maneuver to keep the Senate in session this weekend.

“If the Republicans want to stay here this Saturday and Sunday to read the bill, then let them stay here,” Harkin said, adding that Democrats would hold a “live quorum,” where the sergeant at arms requests the presence of all absent senators.

“I’ll tell you, we’re going to do something like that,” Harkin said. “We are planning to do something that would require Republicans to be there 24 hours a day, and if they leave the floor, we’ll ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading, and that’ll be the end of it.”

The goal, Harkin said, is to pass a bill before the Christmas holiday. He predicts a motion to proceed to a vote will be held Friday.