Boswell has raised $309,184 this year, with nearly 75 percent coming from Political Action Committees. As of June 30, the Des Moines Democrat had $296,451 cash on hand.

Next up with Republican Rep. Tom Latham of Ames, who has raised $299,180 this year, nearly half of which came from PACs. Latham has $303,241 cash on hand.

First District Democrat Bruce Braley has raised $298,614, nearly 60 percent from PACs. Braley has the most cash on hand of any of Iowa’s congressmen, with $348,125.

Republican Rep. Steve King brought in $200,956, with less than 20 percent coming from PACs. He has $216,301 cash on hand.

Bringing up the rear this quarter is Second District Rep. Dave Loebsack with $60,558, more than half of which came from PACs. Loebsack has $144,317 cash on hand.

The presidential campaigns paid much more attention to Iowa in 2004.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are still all over the airwaves, and on the heels of McCain’s Iowa visit last weekend, Obama will campaign in Des Moines today.

This has led more than one observer to wonder if the candidates know something that public polling has not told the rest of us.  Obama has had an advantage in every poll of Iowa voters, most by large margins. Both campaigns must think Iowa is still neck and neck, or else why spend so much time here?

Iowa ceases to feel like a battleground, however, when this year’s campaign is compared to 2004, when both parties and their presidential nominees practically camped out in Iowa and battled ferociously for the states seven electoral votes.

That year, President George W. Bush visited the state eight times in the month before the election. In fact, he was in Iowa the day before voters went to the polls, campaigning in Des Moines and Sioux City.  Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, visited Iowa four times, including spending the weekend before Election Day campaigning in Fort Dodge and Davenport. The McCain-Palin ticket has visited only twice this month, and Palin will visit once more Monday.

Democratic nominee John Kerry visited Iowa six times in the final month, and John Edwards, his running mate, visited five times. Obama’s Friday event will be his first visit here since August.

Granted, 2008 is a very different election than 2004. The electoral map is much more wide open, and the candidates are competing in many more states this year than they were four years ago.

But much of the credit for Bush’s ability to flip Iowa, which narrowly supported Al Gore in 2000, was given to the fact that he and his surrogates spent an enormous amount of time here. It helped to drive up turnout from the Republican base, specifically the large segment of Iowa’s evangelical voters.  And that was a year when the Republicans were not facing nearly as many disadvantages as they seem to be facing in 2008.

Four years ago, the GOP had 10,000 more registered voters than the Democrats, according to the Iowa Secretary of State’s office. Coincidentally, Bush won Iowa by 10,000 votes. This year’s voter registration totals are dramatically different.  It’s the Democrats with a nearly 100,000-voter advantage now.

In 2004, the Bush and Kerry field operations were more evenly matched than the organizations working for the candidates today. Obama’s campaign has roughly four times as many paid staffers in Iowa as his opponent and more than double the number of offices around the state.

The other big difference is that Obama campaigned vigorously in Iowa in 2007, which carried him to a victory in January’s caucuses. Obama headlined more than 100 events across the state. By contrast, McCain has twice skipped the caucuses, in 2000 and 2008, focusing his campaign’s attention instead on New Hampshire. The result was that McCain finished a distant third in the caucuses behind Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

At a recent rally in Des Moines, the McCain campaign spoke of poll numbers in 2004 that showed Kerry winning the state within 72 hours of Election Day as evidence that Iowa is not lost. But of three polls released on Oct. 30, 2004, only one, The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, gave Kerry an advantage, and that was within the margin of error. Two other polls showed Bush with a slight lead.

Republicans are still optimistic that their candidate can carry Iowa, consistently saying their internal polls have the race much closer. But regardless of polling, it is safe to say that while Iowa was one of the most hotly contested swing states in 2004, this year the focus has shifted elsewhere.

“Gone,” was the word one top McCain insider used to describe those three states.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain addressing a rally in Cedar Rapids last month.

McCain has visited the Hawkeye State three times in the last month and a half, most recently holding a rally in Davenport Oct. 11. His campaign has repeatedly said the race here is still competitive despite recent polls that have shown Obama with anywhere from a nine to 16 point lead in Iowa.

Obama also has a distinct organizational advantage, with 50 campaign offices open around the state compared to 16 for McCain. The Des Moines Register reported that Obama also has four times as many paid staff in Iowa.

Wendy Rieman, McCain’s Midwest spokeswoman, told the Iowa Independent that CNN’s report was “completely inaccurate” and that internal polls show Iowa is “still within striking distance.”

“Obama’s campaign is clearly seeing the numbers as well, otherwise he wouldn’t be spending money here, opening more offices or returning to the state in the final days of the campaign after neglecting Iowans for months,” she said.

Obama will campaign in Des Moines on Thursday. It will be would have been his first visit to Iowa since before the Democratic National Convention in August. [Update: The Obama campaign canceled its Thursday event.]

According to CNN’s King, McCain’s campaign will shift its focus to Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes. Most polls have Obama up around 10 points in that state.

Senate Democrats held off a Republican ambush to advance its own version of a new GI Bill Wednesday, shooting the amendment down by a 55-42 vote.)

During an election year, there is no such thing as a sure thing in congressional politics. The latest uncertainty surrounds Sen. Jim Webb’s 21st Century GI Bill, which met a temporary setback in the House last week when the legislation, attached to the Iraq War funding bill, was pulled from the floor after members of the Blue Dog Democrats threatened a revolt.

Meanwhile, the plot thickens in the Senate after a dose of presidential politics was thrown into the chamber pot, pitting decorated Vietnam War veterans against each other.In a bipartisan effort, combat Vietnam veterans Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., have vowed to improve veterans’ education benefits by introducing a bill, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (S. 22), in the Senate that would substantially increase the educational benefits available to servicemembers who have served since Sept. 11, 2001.

At first, fellow combat veteran and prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, remained silent on whether he would support his colleague’s bill, contending he needed more time to study the bill.

The day after a nonpartisan veterans’ advocacy group, Vote Vets, delivered a petition signed by 30,000 veterans to McCain’ Senate office, McCain broke his silence and followed the Pentagon’s lead, which contends the new GI Bill is too generous and will encourage soldiers to leave military service and pursue a college education.

“We are working on proposals of our own – I’m a consistent supporter of educational benefits for the men and women of the military,” McCain told ABC News. “I want to make sure that we have incentives for people to remain in the military as well as for people to join the military.”

The latter rationale prompted Wesley K. Clark, the former supreme commander of NATO, and Jon Stoltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, to pen an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times.

The White House has voiced concern on the bill, arguing that if returning troops are offered a good education, they will choose college over extending their service. This is as offensive as it is absurd.

First, it is morally reprehensible to fix the system so that civilian life is unappealing to service members, in an attempt to force them to re-up. Education assistance is not a handout, it is a sacred promise that we have made for generations in return for service.

Second, falling military recruitment numbers are just as serious as retention problems. To send the message that this nation will not help you make the most of your life will dissuade a large number of our best and brightest from choosing military service over other career options.

Webb downplayed the political implications of the bill and made a plea for McCain to join the other 54 senators, including his Democratic colleagues Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York, who have already signed on to the new GI Bill.

“John McCain needs to be on this bill,” Webb said in a statement to The Huffington Post. “I have said to him several times that this is not a political issue — this is about providing a fair, deserved benefit to our troops. Based on his own military history and how strongly he speaks about the positive contributions of the people who have served, I hope that he will get on board and support this new GI bill.”

As promised, McCain joined Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., in unveiling an alternative to the Webb/Hagel bill, the Enhancement of Recruitment, Retention, and Readjustment through Education Act.

“We have an obligation to provide unwavering support to our nation’s veterans, and that is precisely what this legislation does,” McCain said in a statement. “Men and women who serve their country in uniform deserve the best education benefits we are able to give them. That is why I am pleased to join with Senators Graham and Burr to announce legislation that significantly enhances the Montgomery GI bill and promotes recruitment and retention which is critical to an All Volunteer Military.”

On the campaign trail Tuesday in Charleston, W.Va., Obama took issue with McCain’s unwillingness to support Webb’s bill.

“John McCain is one of the few senators of either party who oppose this bill because he thinks it’s too generous,” Obama said. “I could not disagree with him more. At a time when the skyrocketing cost of tuition is pricing thousands of Americans out of a college education, we should be doing everything we can to give the men and women who have risked their lives for this country the chance to pursue their American Dream.”

McCain’s campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds quickly fired back in a statement, calling it “absurd” for Obama to question McCain’s commitment to America’s veterans “when Obama himself voted against funding our nation’s veterans, and troops in the field, during a time of war.”

On the Iowa front, Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin has signed on to Webb’s bill, namely because it includes more benefits, whereas McCain’s alternative bill imposes benefit limitations. “The GI bill being led in a major bipartisan fashion by Senators Webb and Warner truly supports our service members with the resources they need to improve and complete their education,” Harkin said in a statement to the Iowa Independent. “Other bills seem to set unnecessary benefit ceilings even though we have asked our troops to go above and beyond the call of duty. We should not limit the progress our returning soldiers can make.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has yet to decide upon either of the proposed bills. “Senator Grassley supports improving the GI bill, but has not committed to supporting any particular bill at this time,” Beth Pellett-Levine, Grassley’s press secretary, told the Iowa Independent. “He’s looking forward to studying the bill recently put forward by Senators Graham, Burr and McCain as well as the Webb/Warner bill.”

Old vs. New GI Bill: What’s at stake for veterans?

The original GI Bill was signed into law in 1944 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help ensure World War II veterans would be able to afford an education. Experts have argued that the GI Bill “reinvented America” after a half-decade of war. A 1988 Congressional study showed that every dollar spent on educational benefits under the original GI Bill added seven dollars to the national economy in terms of productivity, consumer spending, and tax revenue.

Fast forward 64 years to the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have produced over 1.5 million veterans. The current educational benefits offered to veterans, when adjusted for inflation and the rise in tuition and cost of living, are far lower than the original GI Bill. Today, after paying a nonrefundable $1,200 contribution from their first year’s military paychecks, troops receive an estimated $1,101 per academic month for up to 36 months, or four years of college.

Webb’s version of the new GI Bill will waive the $1,200 buy-in component, extend time to use benefits from 10 to 15 years, and will change the benefit proposal to pay for any public university and most private colleges — capping benefits at the rate of the most expensive public university in the state. Moreover, the bill will add $1,000 a year for books and supplies and a stipend to cover cost-of-living expenses (based on DoD’s Basic Housing Allowance rate for E-5 w/dependent and zip code of the college/university).

Veterans attending a public university or select private college in Iowa will receive up to $5,935 based on the tuition cap at the most expensive public university, the University of Iowa. After adding in the living allowance and the $1,000 for books and supplies, veterans will receive an average yearly stipend of $7,674. Ironically, this is $2,226 less than veterans receive through the current GI Bill, but Iowa has the fourth lowest in-state tuition rate, and the intent of the new GI Bill is to provide certainty to veterans transitioning from the military to college, so they don’t have to worry about rising tuition costs outpacing their education benefits.

Another problem with the current GI Bill has to do with structural and bureaucratic delays, which have discouraged some veterans from using their benefits. National Guardsmen and Reservists, including those who have served multiple combat tours, typically receive only a fraction of their GI Bill benefits. Moreover, 30 percent of troops who pay the nonrefundable $1,200 contribution do not end up using the GI Bill at all. These veterans have paid the government $230 million, but received nothing in return.

On the other hand, Keith Pedigo, the Veterans Affairs associate deputy undersecretary for policy and program management, issued a warning last week that meeting an Aug. 1, 2009, effective date for the benefits increases in the new GI bill would be extremely difficult, because the proposal calls for the maximum benefit to be different in each state, payments would have to be processed manually, rather than automatically, Pedigo said.

“VA does not now have a payment system or the appropriate number of trained personnel to administer the program,” Pedigo said in a statement, predicting it would take two years to develop a payment system to provide the new benefits.

Pedigo also warned of fundamental unfairness in a proposed housing allowance that would be based on where a school is located, rather than where a student lives, which could encourage veterans to enroll in online learning programs offered by schools in high-cost areas.

Despite President George W. Bush’s threat to veto the new GI Bill in its current form, both the House and Senate expect to vote on the legislation before the summer recess.

Eric Woolson, Huckabee’s Iowa campaign manager, confirmed to the Iowa Independent that television ads would begin running soon, although he declined to discuss timing of the ads, how much would be spent, or on what stations they would run. The national director of sales at one Iowa TV station said he’s heard Huckabee will concentrate on buying cable television advertising.

The move is significant regardless of where the advertising runs because, until now, Huckabee has concentrated on direct-mail advertising and face-to-face meetings with voters in the state to build support. Several polls last week showed that Huckabee in second place in the state, trailing only Mitt Romney.

As recently as July, Huckabee registered at only one percent in many polls, but a survey of 600 Republican voters released Thursday by the American Research Group showed Romney with 26 percent of the vote, Huckabee with 24 percent, and Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson with 11 percent each. John McCain was at 10 percent, the only remaining candidate in double-digits in the state.

Monday is the first day of a federally mandated 45-day window that requires local television stations to give candidates preferential treatment by allowing them to buy advertising for any time they request, even if it means they have to bump a commercial advertiser. Candidates also are offered reduced rates during the 45 days leading up to the election, but most campaigns choose to pay full rates. That’s because a television station has the option of moving reduced rate political advertising if another campaign requests the same time slot and agrees to pay full rate.Under Federal Communication Commission guidelines, information about political advertising purchases is available for review by anybody who visits the station’s offices to review it. Advertising purchases in Iowa vary geographically depending on the number of Democrats and Republicans in particular viewing areas and how races are shaping up locally, according to internal campaign tracking polls.

The advertising buys at KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, a perennial ratings leader in eastern Iowa, provide a microcosm of sorts for what’s going on across the state and illustrate the huge amounts of money campaigns are spending on television commercials.

According to records at KCRG, Republican Mitt Romney is the station’s largest political advertiser this campaign season. Last week, his campaign ordered 55 spots at a cost of $32,500 at the station. Most of the spots will run during local newscasts. Rival Republicans Fred Thompson ordered 51 spots for the week at a cost of $19,500 and Ron Paul  booked 31 commercials to run over a two week period at a cost of $17,250. All the spots were 30 second long; costs for specific spots vary depending on the time of the day run. Those are the first spots that Paul has run on KCRG-TV, said Steve Lake, the station’s National Sales Director.

On the Democratic side, front-runners Barack Obama ran 49 spots at a cost of $20,000, Hillary Clinton ordered 45 spots at $19,500, John Edwards ordered 48 spots for $18,725 and Bill Richardson booked 20 spots for $17,400. Lake said that an order for Chris Dodd’s campaign was being revised. Dodd had originally booked 20 30-second spots at a cost of $13,400 but was converting the order to a still undetermined number of 60-second spots, spending about the same amount money. Dodd was the only candidate running the longer spots.

Lake said campaign staffers also frequently visit the station to keep tabs on advertising plans of their rivals. Federal law allows campaigns to order advertising with assurances that the commercials appear almost instantly. That allows campaigns to quickly react to trends in the political arena. But that doesn’t mean campaigns wait until the last minute to book time. Lake said several candidates have made orders for December advertising. The Clinton campaign, for instance, has already issued it’s order for the last week of December: 77 spots for $37,500.

Television viewers in Iowa who are weary of campaign advertising will get a bit of a break after the caucuses end. But a report last week by TNS Media Intelligence said that because Iowa will be a key battleground state in the general election, political advertising is expected to be a fixture on Iowa TV stations for much of next year.

Iowa is at the top of its list: “Best Positioned States for 2008 Political Ad Spending.” The study says Iowa is “Ground zero for the Presidential primary, likely general election battleground state as well as competitive House races in the state.”

Other states on the list include: New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Maine, Minnestoa, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Colorado and California.

The New York Times reported in its Sunday edition that candidates have spent about $20 million on television advertising at stations in the state since January 1, 2007. According to The Times, Obama and Romney have each spent $3.5 million for roughly 5,500 television spots on commercial television stations, followed by Richardson ($2 million for 4,200 spots), Clinton ($1.9 million for 3,193 spots), Edwards ($600,000 for 627 spots), and Thompson ($200,000 for 250 spots). The figures do not include advertising on cable television.

Drawing from sources around the state, the exhibit features a large collection of famous and not-so-famous photographs, campaign buttons, and video and film clips.  Visitors will meet a cast of “caucus characters” who will be familiar to anyone who has ever caucused or tried to shake hands with a visiting presidential wanna-be including: reporters, video bloggers, campaign staff, precinct captains, county chairs, politician’s families, photographers, voters, and caucus organizers.

Video available below the fold.The State Historical Museum’s Mark Holub managed the production of “Caucus Iowa.”  In this 3 minute video, he talks about some of the specifics of the exhibit.

Walking through the 10,000 square foot exhibit, look for a campaign button collection found in the area for “retail politics” at a make-believe coffee shop. 

The differences between Republican and Democratic caucus procedures are demonstrated when you shake the fake snow from your boots, step across the front porch of a host house and enter a living room that serves as a Republican caucus center.  In this space a first-time caucus goer appears poised to ask questions while a precinct captain watches over the proceedings.

The Democratic caucus is held in a school gymnasium where one display gives details behind the mathematics of Democratic caucus procedures.

Other areas include a media room with print and broadcast sections, a candidate portrait gallery, and a historical area telling some of the key stories behind each caucus held since 1972, when Iowa became “first-in-the-nation.”

Exhibit designers have taken care to include interactive elements like touch-screen voting stations for voicing opinions on issues like abortion and the Iraq War.  As you leave the hall a final touch-screen has a straw poll voting station with all the candidates.  In deference to the Democratic party, which disallows publication of a straw poll vote, the results will be available after January 2007.

The museum has planned many family-friendly events, including a Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream event Oct. 17 about the non-profit organization, Priorities Action Fund, and “Caucus! The Musical,” which opens in December.

More information about “Caucus Iowa” can be found at http://www.iowahisto…

Regarding last week’s Polk County ruling that allowed at least one gay couple to marry in Des Moines, McCain said, “Smart people tell me that that decision will be reversed by a higher court.”

 

McCain campaigns in Gladbrook, Iowa.

 

The Arizona presidential candidate is in Iowa for a two-day campaign tour.