Stories

Gov. Chet Culver delivered his second Condition of the State Address Tuesday morning, calling on Iowa lawmakers to “do more with less.”

The legislature will say no to any new spending that isn’t attached to the flood recovery effort, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said this morning.

“I’ve been in the legislature for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a bigger challenge,” Gronstal said of the state’s budget situation. “We will be saying no to just about everything this 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 [...]

With control of the Iowa House hanging in the balance, candidates and interest groups from both sides of the aisle are waging a campaign that has turned decidedly negative.

Nine Republican legislators sent a letter to leadership in the Iowa House of Representatives asking that they poll the 100 state representatives to gauge support for convening a special Legislative session to deal with disaster relief.

As disaster recovery moves forward, it might be helpful to take a look back at the debate that shaped the decisions over a special legislative session.

If you thought there was a rift between Gov. Chet Culver’s office and the Democratic leaders in the state legislature, our reporting indicates you would probably be right.  Ever since the governor vetoed a controversial bill to expand the scope collective bargaining for certain public employees after the close of the 2008 legislative session, tensions [...]

Fundraising in nine Iowa House battleground districts suggests that GOP candidates might be in a stronger position than once thought, but the Democrats still have the upper hand, according to reports filed last month with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Roughly a week before the final primary filing period ended, the state legislative races were number-crunched in relation to gender. At that snapshot in time, it seemed that Iowa might, at best, maintain its mediocre record in terms of percentage of women serving in Des Moines. What a difference a week can make.
While it’s difficult [...]

Republican leaders in the legislature say they are worried that the Democrat-controlled state government will continue on its spending spree without any regard for the taxpayers of Iowa.

Although lawmakers have a full-agenda of issues facing them this year, House Minority Leader Christopher Rants said he doesn’t expect gay marriage to get much attention.

Republicans have shone [...]