Stories

With Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty coming to Des Moines next weekend, coupled with the strange dust up over Sarah Palin’s speaking fee for a speech she never intended to give, 2012 prognosticators have had plenty to keep them busy.
Now, throw former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee into the mix.

It was a mistake for his presidential campaign to skip Iowa, and it likely cost him his party’s nomination, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in a recent interview with New York Magazine.

 
While insiders spent time recently thinking about what has made Obama’s campaign successful, most talk of the McCain campaign more was about its missteps than its successes.

ANALYSIS: While being careful to tell us up front that he thinks the question is a bit premature, Republican David Oman, a key figure in the last two GOP gubernatorial administrations in Iowa, says Sarah Palin has the makings of a front-runner in the 2012 Iowa caucuses.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s acceptance of the GOP nomination for Vice President of the United States raises questions about rural voting patterns that outsiders seem to misunderstand. In small town Iowa, at least, the assumptions I hear made on television aren’t likely to prove true.

In its spring edition, the Rural Report led with a story about the Barack Obama campaign’s success at reaching out to voters in the Iowa caucuses through community newspapers. At the same time, the Center For Rural Strategies published details on a poll (below) showing presumptive Republican nominee U.S. John McCain, R-Ariz., with a 9-point [...]

“I honestly haven’t decided when I’ll say something,” Iowa Democratic Party chair Scott Brennan told party activists in Iowa City Sunday. As party chair, Brennan is also a national convention superdelegate, and he and Senator Tom Harkin are the only two Iowa superdelegates who are still uncommitted.

“I’m a Pollyanna, but I still have some hope [...]

Former Iowa Democratic Party communications director Carrie Giddins, who for more than a year dealt with the hordes of national and international media in Iowa for caucuses coverage, had a front-row seat for the calendar wars with Florida and Michigan.

At the Democratic County Convention in Iowa City on Saturday, John Edwards supporters kept him in the running and kept alive their bargaining power at the district and state conventions.

In interviews with Iowa Independent this week, several delegates discussed the tough choices they may have to make at Saturday’s county convention.