Stories

Iowa has been back in the presidential spotlight the last few days, with Saturday’s congressional district conventions and Barack Obama endorsements by superdelegates Richard Machacek and U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley. The state’s next moment in the spotlight, the June 14 state convention, could be one of the final major battles in the nomination fight between [...]

“The headline out of Iowa is going to be ‘Obama gains one,’” I told my fellow delegates during casual conversations in the hours of down time at Saturday’s 2nd Congressional District Democratic convention.

So when I finally got home, and could access the national political blogs that for some reason the Mount Vernon School District’s wireless [...]

Abolish Superdelegates, Don’t Seat Rulebreaking States
Senator Tom Harkin told 2nd Congressional District delegates at Saturday’s convention that he’s still staying neutral in the nomination fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The senator also said rulebreaking states should not be counted at the national convention, and he hopes superdelegates are abolished.

Key quotes from Harkin’s speech, the [...]

Attendance, Tactics Will Shape Results
They say half the game is just showing up, and that’s true for Iowa’s Democratic congressional district conventions. The other half may be tactical politics, as supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama try to deny the other campaign any advantage.
The most important factors in determining how many national delegates Hillary [...]

Republican legislative goals for 2008 seem modest: holding their own in the state senate while focusing on the House.

“The battle’s in the House, that’ll be the hot one,” said State Rep. Jeff Kaufmann of Wilton at last weekend’s 2nd Congressional District convention. Kaufmann’s state senator, Jim Hahn, was standing alongside him and didn’t dispute that [...]

“Nobody wonders where I stand,” Congressman Steve King told 2nd Congressional District Republicans Saturday, making a detour out of his own 5th District to rally the eastern Iowa GOP troops at their district convention in Iowa City.

In a brief Iowa Independent interview, King stood behind the rhetorical style that’s earned him scorn from liberals [...]