Stories

When news broke that U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., had officially reversed his position on legislation he once co-sponsored making it easier for labor unions to organize, a prediction from Iowa’s senior senator seemed to be proven right.
Two weeks ago, Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley said the bill, known as the Employee Free Choice Act [...]

A bill making it easier for labor unions to organize will never become law because Republicans will filibuster it, Sen. Charles Grassley told reporters Tuesday.

Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin ranks 8th among senators in the value of earmarks he won in the 2009 omnibus spending bill, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The non-partisan watchdog organization identified 8,570 disclosed earmarks totaling $7.7 billion in the spending bill currently in the Senate. Harkin is solely responsible for 56 earmarks totaling nearly $67 [...]

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley has put to bed a rumor that he may challenge Gov. Chet Culver in 2010.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said Wednesday that he will vote for President Barack Obama’s $900-billion economic stimulus bill if an amendment providing low-interest mortgages is added.
“We have an alternative of 4 percent mortgages for 30 years, fixed,” Grassley said, adding: “If this is adopted, I will vote for it, regardless of what else is in [...]

Much is being said — some praise and some criticism — of the bipartisan outreach that’s marked the first weeks of the Obama administration. But you won’t convince Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that’s it’s happening everywhere.
Grassley, the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said this week that his counterpart, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), [...]

A television ad campaign by a coalition of progressive and labor groups is asking Iowans to press Sen. Charles Grassley to support President Barack Obama’s economic plan.

In its first official report on the 2010 campaign, Swing State Project has deemed Iowa’s senate contest as “a race to watch.”

Almost as quickly as it started, the idea that Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin might challenge Republican Sen. Charles Grassley in 2010 has been quelled.

Perception is reality, and a good example of that old adage is a recent teleconference about President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan involving the mayors of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.
Both The Des Moines Register’s Jason Pulliam and Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson were listening in, but when it came time to write a story, both [...]