Stories

CEDAR RAPIDS — After hours of debate and voting Wednesday night, Democratic central committee members in Iowa House District 33 chose Kirsten Running-Marquardt as their candidate in a special election scheduled for Nov. 24.

After some controversy over the rules, a nominating convention will be held tonight by Democratic precinct members in Iowa House District 33 to elect a candidate for the special election set for Nov. 24.

Gov. Chet Culver has set Nov. 24 as the date for a special election to fill the vacancy in Iowa House District 33. The election was made necessary by the resignation of Rep. Dick Taylor (D-Cedar Rapids).

State Rep. Dick Taylor, 78, officially announced Monday that he would resign from House District 33, effective immediately, but the news wasn’t necessarily unexpected. Taylor, a Korean war veteran, cited family health concerns in his official announcement. The Taylor family also continues to grieve for their son, Linn County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Taylor, who died [...]

State Rep. Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola) has announced his candidacy for the Iowa Senate seat currently held by state Sen. Staci Appel (D-Ackworth).

Democrats in the Iowa House raised the specter of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh’s past drug use in an attempt to combat Republican criticism of labor legislation that will be debated this week.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Iowa House have launched online tools that allow Iowans to submit ideas for cutting waste from the state’s budget.
In doing so, they have embraced the wisdom of ‘Web 2.0′ marketing: the key to driving traffic to a web site is not paid advertising, it is simply building an interactive [...]

House Democrats seem to have made strategically smart decisions in assigning their members to committees for the 2009 legislative session.  I have come up with some examples, listed below.

State Rep. Royd Chambers, R-Sheldon, has notified his constituents that he has been called to active duty and will likely miss all of Iowa’s 2009 state legislative session.

After leading Iowa House Democrats to pick up three seats this year, House Speaker Pat Murphy and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy were retained in their leadership positions by the House Democratic caucus today.
House Speaker Pro Tem Polly Butka will also remain in her position, but there are some new names among this year’s assistant majority [...]