Stories

Two central Iowa men, both members of the Libertarian Party, have filed papers to form an exploratory committee for Iowa’s 2010 gubernatorial race. And, unlike other candidates, the two readily admit their goal is not necessarily to win residence at Terrace Hill.
Eric Cooper, 43, of Ames, and Nick Weltha, 30, of Des Moines, will hold [...]

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.

Is it feeling like 1964 out there? Richard Cohen of the Washington Post thinks so: “Powell walked away, and others will follow — the second time that a senator from Arizona has led the GOP into the political wilderness.”

On the first day of in-person early voting two weeks ago, a staffer friend of mine was marking his ballot and wondering aloud about the plethora of socialist options among the nine presidential candidates on the ballot. Socialist, Socialist Workers, and Party of Socialism and Liberation, not to mention the Peace and Freedom Party and the Green Party.

As one considers the minor arcana of dogma that separates these groups from one another, it’s easy to recall a scene from Monty Python’s Christ parody, “Life of Brian.”

Joe Biden got lucky Wednesday. He made the first of his guaranteed half dozen off-message remarks of the campaign, going over the top with praise and saying, in his effusive, Joe Biden way, Hillary Clinton would have been a better vice president than he would. Nobody (except a couple of PUMA bloggers) noticed, because there was so much other good Silly Season Stuff happening.

Barack Obama and Ron Paul were the two winners in the Hamburg Inn’s Coffee Bean Caucus, held at the politically famous Iowa City diner.

Hamburg Inn patrons could vote as many times as they visited the diner by dropping a coffee bean into their candidate’s jar.  The Coffee Bean Caucus was featured on TV’s “The West [...]

With only a few shopping days left until the Iowa Caucus, Ron Paul’s state chairman said this weekend that a giant question mark for the campaign is whether his enthusiastic supporters will actually turn out to vote on January 3.

“Clearly the majority, meaning at least 51 percent, of the Ron Paul people have never been [...]

After serving Iowans for 30 years in Congress, Jim Leach’s professional life outside the beltway doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Leach, a Republican who lost his Second District congressional seat to Democratic rival Dave Loebsack of Mount Vernon last November, was unanimously voted chairman of Common Cause’s National Governing Board on Monday.

“We’re so busy [...]

Over the weekend, the Libertarian National Committee passed a resolution inviting Ron Paul to seek their nomination.  But a Paul spokesman, while not making a Sherman statement, backed away from the invitation.

“Ron has no intention to run third party whatsoever,” said Paul spokesman Jesse Benton.

The Libertarian resolution reads:
“In the event that Republican primary voters [...]

The Ron Paul campaign has started automated phone calls to registered Democrats, urging them to register as Republicans for a day to caucus for Paul.

A 31 year old female registered Democrat reported receiving the call on Thursday at her home number in Marion, and provided a recording of the call to Iowa Independent.

The male voice [...]