Stories

The four-candidate 2nd Congressional District debate seemed fairly congenial — but that may have been because the format left the candidates little time to engage one another. With a strictly enforced 45 seconds an answer, it was hard to stretch out.

Democrat Dave Loebsack has launched a redesigned campaign web site which, while mentioning campaign events, keeps its focus on Loebsack’s re-election strategy of emphasizing his work during his first term.
The previous version of the site had been mostly unchanged since a thank you message on the front page following Loebsack’s November 2006 win. The new [...]

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, will campaign Monday in Burlington for GOP congressional candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa.
Here is the Burlington Hawk Eye:
Second District congressional challenger Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa and 5th District Rep. Steve King, both Republicans, will hold a campaign event Monday in Burlington.
The candidate and congressman will be in town at 6 [...]

When political newcomer Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks squeaked out a victory in Iowa’s 2nd District congressional primary, a few Republican eyebrows raised. None of those eyebrows, however, were attached to the people who met the Ottumwa ophthalmologist and learned her story. When considered in context with the rest of her life, the primary was just one more challenge she met with planted feet.

County canvasses on Monday and Tuesday changed few votes in two close Republican contests from last week’s primary.

Christopher Reed held both his lead in the U.S. Senate race over George Eichhhorn and, more importantly, his percentage above the required 35 percent.

With the potential of recounts looming in the Republican U.S. Senate and 2nd Congressional District races, it’s worth looking at why the numbers you see on election night change later and why the results are “unofficial.”

The results aren’t final on election night. That’s both a formality and a reality.

In a race marked by open loathing of Peter Teahen by Iowa’s conservative bloggers, Mariannette Miller-Meeks overcame a big Teahen margin in Linn County to claim a 109 vote win in the 2nd Congressional District. The Ottumwa doctor will now challenge first-term Democrat Dave Loebsack in the fall.

So did Miller-Meeks win, or did Peter Teahen [...]

In nearly any other primary or general election in recent memory, the accusation that a Republican candidate not only supported abortion but had materially participated in one would have been big news — if not a political kiss of death. Not this year. Rising fuel and food costs have not only squeezed the wallets of [...]

An email from a one-time disaster relief colleague of 2nd Congressional District candidate Peter Teahen, charging the Cedar Rapids Republican with misconduct and dishonesty on a relief mission in Darfur, is false and dangerous to his family, the candidate told Iowa Independent. Teahen also alleged that the campaign of one of his rivals in Tuesday’s [...]

Iowa and Mississippi remain the only two states which have never elected a woman either to Congress or as governor. Iowa has come close a few times — Lynne Cutler’s congressional race in 1980, Roxanne Conlin’s gubernatorial race in 1982, and Elaine Baxter’s run for congress in 1992.

Ottumwa doctor Mariannette Miller-Meeks “absolutely” believes she can [...]