Iowa Down Ballot

The Iowa Republican gubernatorial race delivered a week’s worth of drama that we could barely contain in a single episode. Dave , Laura , and Kathie break down the wild chain of events surrounding candidate Eddie Andrews and his last-minute petition filing — stolen signatures, a chaotic two-day objection hearing, procedural fumbles by the Secretary of State’s office, and allegations that the Adam Steen campaign orchestrated a ballot challenge through a third party. The trio examines what it all means for a five-person primary where Rep. Randy Feenstra is the presumed front-runner.Also covered this week: a correction on Democratic Senate fundraising numbers, an update on Rob Sand’s now-uncontested primary, Xavier Kerrigan’s exclusion from the 3rd Congressional District Democratic ballot, and the broader trend of candidate attrition since January.AI Generated Transcript Below:Dave Price: Welcome back, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, as we talk to you on a Friday. I’m Dave Price, joined by my Iowa Writers Collaborative’s cohorts, Laura Bellin and Kathy OBradovich. Hello, ladies!500:00:37.970 --> 00:00:39.460Kathie Obradovich: Hello, Dave.600:00:39.460 --> 00:00:40.219Laura Belin: Good to see ya!700:00:40.220 --> 00:00:56.890Dave Price: For those of you who are listening and not watching, you do not get to see that Kathy is decked out in her Cyclone shirt, because we’re recording this late morning on Friday.800:00:57.020 --> 00:01:09.210Dave Price: Which, unfortunately, for Kathy’s bedtime, is nearly 12 hours before the Cyclones actually take the court in Chicago, but by the time that you good folks listen and watch this.900:01:09.380 --> 00:01:13.419Dave Price: We’ll know if they, like Iowa, will make it to the Elite Eight.1000:01:13.420 --> 00:01:15.119Kathie Obradovich: Yes, go Cyclones!1100:01:16.500 --> 00:01:26.930Dave Price: And Laura and I are just wearing, like, regular shirts, so whatever. We don’t get any kind of special praise for us. Okay, Laura, so you would like to…1200:01:26.930 --> 00:01:39.559Dave Price: clarify something from last week. Like, that’s sort of the cool thing, right? I, it is nice when you get to the point where enough people listen and watch these things that if they have issue with something and that they actually reach out, that…1300:01:39.790 --> 00:01:42.449Dave Price: we can respond. So, here we are.1400:01:42.450 --> 00:01:42.830Laura Belin: Yeah.1500:01:42.830 --> 00:01:44.930Dave Price: onto something in one of the previous recordings.1600:01:44.930 --> 00:01:54.039Laura Belin: Yeah, so I misspoke when we were talking about the Democratic race for Senate, and I think I said that Josh Turek had raised more money, and I was thinking about the third quarter.1700:01:54.040 --> 00:02:10.360Laura Belin: of the… of last year, but overall, Zach Walz has raised more money, and he also raised more in the fourth quarter, so that’s… and he has more cash on hand. We’re gonna get a new set of fundraising reports in the middle of April, covering the first three months of this year, but just wanted to make that correction.1800:02:10.479 --> 00:02:15.740Dave Price: Alright, very good, and we appreciate the feedback for that stuff. Okay, ladies…1900:02:16.490 --> 00:02:22.070Dave Price: I was sort of salivating, figuring out, when we emailed back and forth about what to talk to.2000:02:22.300 --> 00:02:39.999Dave Price: When I send out the note to the TV station group for which I work, to let all the stations know what kind of stories we’re turning and all that, I think I literally said in the update, what the what is going on in the Iowa Republican gubernatorial race.2100:02:40.160 --> 00:02:48.290Dave Price: Holy cow, this past week… Is just full of the catnip-type2200:02:48.910 --> 00:02:56.989Dave Price: drama… I don’t even know how to characterize this. I think it’s, like, each day, as we went from…2300:02:57.300 --> 00:03:07.739Dave Price: Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday to Thursday night, like, each day was like a new episode in a Netflix, like, special series, right?2400:03:07.740 --> 00:03:08.190Kathie Obradovich: You can see.2500:03:08.190 --> 00:03:13.240Dave Price: Seriously do multiple ones, and it’s… there’s literally no way to, like.2600:03:13.370 --> 00:03:20.500Dave Price: Boil this down into, like, a 30-second… Recap, because it was…2700:03:20.740 --> 00:03:23.740Dave Price: I mean, it is just out there, right?2800:03:24.680 --> 00:03:43.429Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, it’s… I mean, it just… it sort of tells you that, these candidates are really feeling the pressure, but, you know, I don’t know, one of you guys can describe this, but, you know, this actually started when Eddie Andrews at first didn’t make his,2900:03:43.450 --> 00:03:54.730Kathie Obradovich: You know, his petitions were challenged, and, you know, the way the process works, you have to turn in, so many signatures from so many counties,3000:03:54.730 --> 00:04:09.180Kathie Obradovich: in order to qualify for the primary ballot, and he ran in on the last day, on Friday the 13th, like, 10 minutes before the deadline, the 5 p.m. deadline, with, like, you know.3100:04:09.180 --> 00:04:11.519Dave Price: Like a college kid turning in your final.3200:04:11.520 --> 00:04:12.679Kathie Obradovich: or something, right?3300:04:13.960 --> 00:04:33.720Kathie Obradovich: And, and so, you know, that got challenged, and then he, he did make the ballot. If you guys want to fill in, the state objection panel ultimately decided he made the ballot, but it also sort of brought out, you know, who made that challenge, and why, and then…3400:04:33.720 --> 00:04:40.430Kathie Obradovich: Eddie Andrews accused the STEAM campaign of being behind this challenge. So somebody take it from there.3500:04:40.430 --> 00:04:48.310Dave Price: Well, but then also a couple other little nuggets with that, like, Andrew’s claims that during that whole…3600:04:48.310 --> 00:05:01.959Dave Price: situation where they’re trying to organize their signature petitions and get them all organized, and they’re trying to figure out, do they need to be in alphabetical order, do they not? Are they supposed to be in binders, not in binders? Are they supposed to be organized by county?3700:05:01.960 --> 00:05:08.959Dave Price: like, they left from the Secretary of State’s office, and I think they went down the hall into the old Supreme Court chambers.3800:05:08.960 --> 00:05:27.439Dave Price: to try to lay it all out and organize it, and Andrews said that he then ran into somebody from the Adam Steen campaign, where there was some kind of, like, conversation or something, and the way Andrews explains it, the Steam folks were like, you know, hey, if you want to drop out and support us.3900:05:27.540 --> 00:05:44.609Dave Price: So he doesn’t do that, and he’s kind of perturbed by it, so they turn in their stuff, and he also didn’t fill out the, affidavit that the candidates themselves have to do, so he did that in Pate’s office. So they turn it all in, they think they have enough.4000:05:44.960 --> 00:05:54.760Dave Price: They get challenged, and then we sort of have to go forward some days, and then they have the state objection panel, the three…4100:05:54.760 --> 00:05:58.659Kathie Obradovich: One more thing, though, before you go there. He also alleged that.4200:05:58.660 --> 00:05:59.070Dave Price: Yeah, sure.4300:05:59.070 --> 00:06:06.419Kathie Obradovich: were stolen out of his car, which is… this is a bizarre thing that I have never heard of, anything like that.4400:06:06.420 --> 00:06:07.740Dave Price: I did not file a police report.4500:06:07.740 --> 00:06:27.389Laura Belin: When he… I was trying to press him, was it… I said, were they taken from your home, an office, or somewhere else? And he was really vague. He didn’t want to say that. I mean, I have not heard of candidates’ petitions being stolen. I think it’s more likely that a volunteer or somebody misplaced them, or lost them, or whatever.4600:06:27.800 --> 00:06:37.229Laura Belin: It’s unlikely that a group of county petitions… so he claimed that he had to go back, he and his volunteers had to go back and get several counties, get more than 100 signatures.4700:06:37.720 --> 00:06:53.560Laura Belin: in those several counties just in the last 3 days. But he clearly had not read the rules. I mean, if he didn’t know that they have to be organized by county, and they have to be fastened in some way, I mean, there was a… a certain lack of preparation was evident in that.4800:06:53.560 --> 00:07:01.949Kathie Obradovich: There are actually rules about the paper size, you know, and this is a very picky, picky little process, so…4900:07:01.950 --> 00:07:10.929Laura Belin: But then he was able… he apparently got permission, or I don’t know if somebody, staff in the Secretary of State’s office said it was okay. He had some5000:07:10.930 --> 00:07:28.529Laura Belin: petitions on non-standard paper size, that was wide, so it had extra columns, and that was one of the reasons why some of his petitions were challenged, but that was ruled that that was okay, because I think he had received assurances from the Secretary of State’s staff that he could have that. I mean, I…5100:07:28.530 --> 00:07:52.199Laura Belin: You know, people talk a lot about election integrity, and I know… I understand that it’s very important that candidates meet these thresholds. You want to make sure that there are a significant number of people who want to see a candidate on the ballot. But to me, I mean, whether somebody signed a page that was 8.5 by 11, or a different size paper, I mean, that’s not, to my mind, an election integrity issue at all. I mean, there are people who signed5200:07:52.200 --> 00:07:55.339Laura Belin: their names to say that Eddie Andrews should be on the ballot.5300:07:55.410 --> 00:08:18.749Dave Price: And, just for those who want to follow along with the math, so for this statewide office, a candidate woul

We recorded this one ahead last Friday so Dave can spend some well-earned spring break time with his family. Last week we got into the candidate filing deadline, and we wanted to drill into some of the more marquee races such as governor and senate. The last time Iowa had an open race for governor and a senate seat was in 1968 so almost 60 years.In the senate race the prohibitive favorite on the republican side is Ashley Hinson, although Jim Carlin could pose a challenge. On the democratic side it seems to be a pretty close race between Josh Turek and Zach Wahls.In the race for governor, it’s the inverse. The democrats have a frontrunner nominee in Rob Sand while the republican race is far from settled.Reminder to share us with your friends and family, we appreciate all of you for helping us continue to grow this podcast. We’re getting consistently over 1,000 views and around 750 to over 1,000 video watches. Plus over 200 podcast downloads. It’s great to know people are still looking for and finding real news. Have a great weekend!AI generated transcript below:00:00:34.510 --> 00:00:47.540Dave Price: Hi, everybody, welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I am Dave Price, joined by my fellow Iowa Writers Collaborative columnist, Kathie Obradovich and Laura Bellin. Hello, ladies.1200:00:48.150 --> 00:00:49.000Laura Belin: Hello.1300:00:49.430 --> 00:00:56.140Dave Price: I will… we’re gonna start with a confessional that we are recording this ahead of time.1400:00:56.370 --> 00:00:57.800Dave Price: Totally because of me.1500:00:58.820 --> 00:01:09.999Dave Price: Because I am going to be spending some time with my kids, and I did not want to… not that I don’t enjoy joining you every Friday, but…1600:01:10.160 --> 00:01:28.169Dave Price: I wasn’t going to be able to work that out quite as easily, and didn’t want to stop the fun to do that. So thank you for recording in advance, but your words will transcend time limits. They will just live on your wisdom and insights that we’re going to share with the masses, correct?1700:01:28.170 --> 00:01:28.860Kathie Obradovich: I don’t know.1800:01:28.860 --> 00:01:29.970Dave Price: We’re terrified.1900:01:29.970 --> 00:01:40.130Laura Belin: Well, we just… we just want people to understand that if there’s some massive breaking Iowa politics news story next week, that it’s not that we’ve purposely ignored it.2000:01:40.130 --> 00:01:59.340Dave Price: Exactly, but they can find that, undoubtedly, in your other work. Correct. Which is perhaps not here. So we’re going to talk kind of big picture, and so now that we’ve gone past the filing deadline, we can start to look ahead, and this week, we want to zero in on the U.S. Senate race, because we have an open race.2100:01:59.340 --> 00:02:03.459Dave Price: We have an open primary on both sides, we don’t get that a lot.2200:02:04.530 --> 00:02:15.969Dave Price: I’m trying to do this off the top of my head, and I forget the stat. I wasn’t planning on saying this, but when… somebody already did the research. When was the last time we had open U.S. Senate race and open governor?2300:02:15.970 --> 00:02:17.060Kathie Obradovich: 68.2400:02:17.060 --> 00:02:17.850Dave Price: 68.2500:02:17.850 --> 00:02:19.150Laura Belin: 1968.2600:02:19.150 --> 00:02:42.259Dave Price: Okay. I knew it was a bit. Yep. So, who knows what we’re in store for? Let’s start with the Republican side. So, Joni Ernst, as we know, frankly, she’s honoring her campaign pledge that she said during a debate in 2014 that she said she would not do this more than two terms, right? And I think… was that prompted by Matt Whitaker? Did he say it first in that debate?2700:02:42.970 --> 00:02:43.580Dave Price: Remember that?2800:02:43.580 --> 00:02:54.899Laura Belin: I can’t remember whether it was Whitaker or one of the other candidates, that’s a good… but… and I can’t remember whether the person said it unprompted, or whether there was a specific question about the term limits.2900:02:54.900 --> 00:02:59.329Dave Price: But so, you know, there was all this speculation, but she followed through with it, yeah.3000:02:59.330 --> 00:03:03.569Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, that’s probably the least of the reasons why she’s not running.3100:03:03.570 --> 00:03:21.759Laura Belin: I mean, she did tell several reporters in 2024 that she intended to run for a third term. She’s mentioned that to our Iowa Writers Collaborative colleague, Doug Burns. I’m pretty sure she also mentioned it to Breanne Fonschiel of the Des Moines Register, so something changed during calendar year 2025.3200:03:21.760 --> 00:03:35.289Dave Price: I think in 24, she teased it at the roast and Ride, too, if I remember right, when I was there. I think she had… because Doug had already asked her about running, so yeah, it does seem like, you know, sort of a Kim Reynolds scenario, right? I mean, we…3300:03:35.290 --> 00:03:35.800Laura Belin: Hmm.3400:03:35.800 --> 00:03:39.089Dave Price: It seemed like both were running until they weren’t.3500:03:39.090 --> 00:03:39.410Laura Belin: Right.3600:03:39.410 --> 00:03:48.939Dave Price: Okay, so that’s the dynamics here, so she’s not going to run, so now we have this open primary on both sides. We talked about in last week’s show.3700:03:49.050 --> 00:04:04.389Dave Price: how, while some people maybe don’t look at it like this, we can probably come up with a pretty good list of reasons why a competitive primary could be beneficial for candidates. Now, on the Republican side, we have to see if it will be a Republican primary, right?3800:04:05.400 --> 00:04:16.960Laura Belin: Yeah, I mean, the Democratic primary is a true case where either candidate has a good chance of winning, whereas the Republican primary is much more of a heavy favorite versus a long shot. But Jim Carlin3900:04:16.959 --> 00:04:25.479Laura Belin: He’s… I consider him a serious candidate. He got about a quarter of the vote as a primary challenger to Senator Chuck Grassley in 2022, so that’s…4000:04:25.480 --> 00:04:36.750Laura Belin: Nothing to sneeze at. There are… there’s a big chunk of Republican voters who are not happy with the establishment, and Ashley Hinson is certainly the establishment candidate in this primary.4100:04:36.910 --> 00:04:37.430Dave Price: Can I…4200:04:37.430 --> 00:04:59.139Kathie Obradovich: A big part of Carlin’s, just the last time, though, running against Grassley, is completely different, because I think a big part of his argument, and the one that probably resonated most with voters, was that Grassley had just been there too long. He can’t make that argument against somebody in an open race. And secondly, I would just say.4300:04:59.140 --> 00:05:04.730Kathie Obradovich: Carlin running against Ashley Hinson, from the right.4400:05:04.730 --> 00:05:10.910Kathie Obradovich: Is a much harder path than running against Joni Ernst from the right one about.4500:05:11.780 --> 00:05:14.979Laura Belin: Why, I mean, their voting records aren’t very different, though.4600:05:15.190 --> 00:05:39.180Kathie Obradovich: But they’re a little bit different. I mean, I think Joni Ernst has been a much more reliable MAGA vote than… I mean, Ashley Hinson has been a much more reliable MAGA vote than Joni Ernst was. I think that Joni Ernst upset conservatives on a number of occasions, most recently, with her sort of wavering about Pete Hegsus.4700:05:39.180 --> 00:05:43.410Kathie Obradovich: You know, his… And Elsa.4800:05:43.810 --> 00:06:01.380Kathie Obradovich: She, yeah, his nomination. But she had done also, I think, bipartisan work. She made a point of working with Democrats, especially female senator Democrats over her period, and I just don’t think we’ve seen that same kind of thing from Ashley Hinson.4900:06:01.380 --> 00:06:07.589Laura Belin: I think if you’re a MAGA nihilist, though, I mean, they both voted to certify the 2020 Electoral College count.5000:06:07.690 --> 00:06:19.700Laura Belin: And they both voted for the, what was it, Respect for Marriage Act that acknowledged marriage equality. And so I think that there’s still gonna be a hardcore contingent who won’t be happy with Ashley Hinson.5100:06:20.670 --> 00:06:28.280Dave Price: I… I think that the… there is a chunk in MAGA that definitely did not like Joni Ernst.5200:06:28.540 --> 00:06:31.290Dave Price: I think we really saw that. Maybe Hegseth…5300:06:32.080 --> 00:06:34.130Dave Price: Sort of blew that up, but…5400:06:34.280 --> 00:06:36.920Dave Price: I mean, you know, she faced all kinds of threats.5500:06:37.110 --> 00:06:41.670Dave Price: Both professionally and otherwise, because of her initial stance that…5600:06:41.780 --> 00:06:58.090Dave Price: There’s some revisionist history, I think, with some of her critics on this, too. Never did she say early on with the Hegstass situation that he was terrible, his acts were terrible, the accusations were terrible, or that she could never confirm him, all that stuff.5700:06:58.090 --> 00:07:08.560Dave Price: All she said and called for was the process, which is traditionally what happens in hearings, is the investigatory5800:07:08.740 --> 00:07:17.140Dave Price: process into somebody’s background, and you try to feel them out, what they’re all about. And that is not… that was not what some in the party wanted.5900:07:18.730 --> 00:07:20.729Kathie Obradovich: So, you know, I just think that…6000:07:20.890 --> 00:07:36.169Kathie Obradovich: by saying that Hinson is a little bit more reliably MAGA. Yeah, Joni Ernst went along with the party, you know, the vast majority of the time. She, you know, I think had a…6100:07:38.100 --> 00:07:58.089Kathie Obradovich: I wouldn’t say relationship with Donald Trump, but… but I always got the feeling from her that she was less than enthusiastic about him, you know, that she went along because she felt like that’s what she had to do. Whereas, you know, I don’t see that as much with Ashley Hinson, that there’s6200:07:58.090 --> 00:08:03.149Ka

The filing deadline for deadline for federal and statewide races was yesterday March 13th. We have who’s in and who’s out (as of recording time) and what that means for the races for governor, senate, congress, and state races. We spent most of our time discussing each campaign’s strengths and weaknesses as we get closer to the June 2nd primary date.Towards the back half of the show, the state’s three-member Revenue Estimating Conference projected a $1.2 billion budget shortfall for next year. Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand has called it the ‘fiscal time bomb.’ Uncertainty surrounding the current war in the Middle East and other geopolitical challenges could make the situation worse than expected. We also discuss how these budget issues could effect political races come the fall as well.Thanks so much for following along here with IDB whether that’s listening, watching, or reading. Special tip of the cap to those of you who have become a paid subscriber, that helps tremendously. Have a great weekend!AI generated transcript below:00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:37.359Dave Price: Hi, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Bellin. Hello, ladies, as we record on Friday the 13th.600:00:37.360 --> 00:00:40.520Kathie Obradovich: And what a lucky day it is.700:00:40.520 --> 00:00:45.230Dave Price: Indeed. Fun fact, I got engaged on Friday the 13th.800:00:45.230 --> 00:00:48.219Kathie Obradovich: Yay, lucky for you, and lucky for Emily. Excellent.900:00:48.570 --> 00:00:54.959Dave Price: Yeah, well, I hope she still feels that it was lucky. I’ve not asked her that recently. Perhaps I should.1000:00:54.960 --> 00:00:56.290Laura Belin: filing deadline day.1100:00:57.050 --> 00:00:59.600Laura Belin: Filing deadline day is always very exciting, so…1200:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.350Kathie Obradovich: It may not be lucky for some candidates today, we’ll see.1300:01:02.440 --> 00:01:07.420Dave Price: Indeed, when I was doing, recording my TV show this week.1400:01:07.420 --> 00:01:26.380Dave Price: I was starting off by… and it’s probably because my teenage son is such a sports fan, and follows every sport under the sun, I swear. But, you know, he’s in high school, he has aspirations of playing college baseball, and so, like, National Signing Day is, you know, such a big deal for high school athletes, and for especially the ones that are…1500:01:26.380 --> 00:01:35.880Dave Price: maybe more sought after, you know, they sit at, like, a table, maybe in their high school. Maybe they have the real big ones, you know, they get up there with…1600:01:35.990 --> 00:01:49.539Dave Price: with their family behind them, and they maybe put, like, hats or helmets or something for some of the big schools in front of it, and there’s all this fanfare, and they’re like, da-da, and then they make their… make their big decision. It’s not quite…1700:01:49.670 --> 00:01:52.470Dave Price: As dramatic, perhaps?1800:01:52.680 --> 00:02:08.499Dave Price: But it is sort of, like, it’s… I don’t know what you both think of this, but… I mean, it is sort of fun to watch the candidates come in, and I’m always fascinated with sort of the theatrics of it, and how they each do it.1900:02:08.650 --> 00:02:09.810Dave Price: And…2000:02:10.389 --> 00:02:27.599Dave Price: for the most part, the statewide candidates where I was there, the Republicans, when they filed… Republicans and Democrats, well, one of the two Democrats, when they filed for governor, you know, kind of had supporters with them. Zach Lane.2100:02:27.600 --> 00:02:38.769Dave Price: filed on Friday morning, and he just brought his family. Now, they have, like, 100 kids, in their blended family. I don’t remember how many they have, 6 or 7 or something like that, or if my kids were here, 6, 7, 6, 7.2200:02:38.770 --> 00:02:42.189Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, yeah, no, they’ve got a basketball team, it’s good.2300:02:42.190 --> 00:02:48.930Dave Price: They do. So it was primarily, he just did with his… with his wife and their kids, and some staffers, and a couple of…2400:02:49.100 --> 00:02:50.859Dave Price: A couple of supporters.2500:02:51.020 --> 00:02:55.139Dave Price: But a few of the other ones, you know, really brought in an entourage, and…2600:02:55.140 --> 00:02:55.519Laura Belin: And what?2700:02:55.520 --> 00:03:11.960Dave Price: to have you. But it is also fascinating, because, you know, we just keep checking the Secretary of State’s website, and it’s not like it’s immediately posted when they go in there and drop their signatures, and all of a sudden they’re there. So there is a little kind of drama to the whole thing about, alright, who…2800:03:11.960 --> 00:03:17.679Dave Price: Who collected enough signatures to submit? Who decided, it’s not gonna work?2900:03:18.310 --> 00:03:18.839Kathie Obradovich: It’s odd.3000:03:18.840 --> 00:03:43.820Kathie Obradovich: You know, the theatricality of it, the… I think Rob Sand, wheeling his dolly with the crates of petitions through the Capitol, was probably one of the better, you know, displays that I’ve actually seen. Plus, he was able to announce that he broke a record, for the number of signatures. Now, the Secretary of State’s3100:03:43.820 --> 00:03:56.650Kathie Obradovich: potentially could throw out some of those signatures. But still, I mean, that… the visual of him actually wheeling this dolly full of petitions through the Capitol, I thought was something I hadn’t seen before.3200:03:56.650 --> 00:04:02.410Laura Belin: Well, and I don’t think that Christina Bohannon told anyone when she was coming, am I right about that?3300:04:02.410 --> 00:04:03.620Dave Price: Alright, I didn’t know.3400:04:03.620 --> 00:04:13.309Laura Belin: Yeah, I don’t think that anybody realized that she was coming, because some of the candidates, they put out an advisory ahead of time so people can get pictures, they can ask questions, and…3500:04:13.310 --> 00:04:23.909Laura Belin: I didn’t know, and I haven’t talked to anybody who knew, and then all of a sudden, Christina Bohannon’s name was on the ballot, but… so some people are not seeking out that publicity for when they’re filing.3600:04:23.920 --> 00:04:28.319Dave Price: I’m sort of surprised by that, maybe I’m just, like…3700:04:28.500 --> 00:04:34.510Dave Price: An old, washed-up, outdated media reporter here, but don’t you want that free bite of the apple?3800:04:34.830 --> 00:04:47.690Laura Belin: I would think so. I mean, several of the counties in the first district are in the Des Moines media market. I mean, you… you might think that a lot of the Southeast Iowa counties wouldn’t be getting the Des Moines TV, but some of them, I mean.3900:04:47.690 --> 00:04:52.789Dave Price: But we have state… I mean, I work for a statewide TV network, so we go all over the place.4000:04:52.790 --> 00:04:54.060Laura Belin: That’s right, so you’d be in the clock.4100:04:54.060 --> 00:05:04.400Dave Price: So, yeah, it’s… I’m just sort of… and I’m not just saying her, necessarily, but I guess I’m just sort of surprised that if you’re running for Congress or some other statewide4200:05:04.510 --> 00:05:13.619Dave Price: why you wouldn’t try to get the State House Press Corps there to get that video or picture, or… people just must have different philosophies.4300:05:13.620 --> 00:05:19.969Kathie Obradovich: Especially because that video, you know, gets used as B-roll, it gets used4400:05:19.970 --> 00:05:37.479Kathie Obradovich: I mean, you know, we like to go to those things, not because we really think they’re really news, but it gives us an opportunity to get some fresh pictures of the candidate, etc. So, so yeah, there’s a lot of reasons to let Des Moines media know about that, and I’m surprised that they didn’t.4500:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.400Dave Price: So, our,4600:05:41.130 --> 00:05:49.839Dave Price: when… you already mentioned when Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for governor, he went in there, so he’s got the… the dolly with all the boxes and all that stuff, and…4700:05:49.840 --> 00:05:52.670Laura Belin: And they were holding the signs that said 24,000.4800:05:54.210 --> 00:05:55.110Laura Belin: 56.4900:05:55.110 --> 00:06:12.889Dave Price: So that… and he had… he was on… on message with his… with his campaign t-shirt, with his slogan and all that stuff. So, you know, that was clearly a moment that they wanted to use. I’m curious if either of you two were surprised that Julie Stouch5000:06:13.070 --> 00:06:22.470Dave Price: collected the signatures to submit and to file for that race as well. Did you think she was going to do that, based on what you had heard?5100:06:22.860 --> 00:06:39.670Kathie Obradovich: I mean, we’ve heard zero from her, really, since she announced. There hasn’t been much. She didn’t raise… didn’t raise much money. But she’s an… I mean, she’s a Democratic organizer. It didn’t surprise me that she could raise the signatures. I mean, I think that it’s gonna take5200:06:39.670 --> 00:06:51.430Kathie Obradovich: more than that, for her to be able to make any headway in the race, but, but yeah, she, I mean, this is what she does, right? So it would be…5300:06:51.430 --> 00:07:10.430Kathie Obradovich: it would have been surprising to me if she intended to file and couldn’t. I know it wouldn’t have surprised me if she, at some point, decided not to file or not to run, but but yeah, I mean, she… coming up with those signatures for somebody like her, not that hard, I don’t think.5400:07:10.430 --> 00:07:24.420Laura Belin: I reached out to her after the fundraising reports came out, because I think she had only raised a little more than $30,000, and so I was wondering, and she indicated that she was very committed to staying in the race. And I had just noticed this week on her social media that5500:07:24.420 --> 00:07:34.679Laura Belin: I can’t remember, 2 or 3 days ago, she had a video up about somebody handing over some petitions to her,

Firstly, thanks to all of you that share and post and like and comment. We’re not your typical fire breathing podcast that’s just out for clicks, so it’s been awesome to see our audience grow with your help. So much to cover this week, we start out with Kristi Noem being fired (or transferred) out of the Department of Homeland Security Secretary role. We discuss the numerous blunders that led to her dismissal.Speaking of Trump cabinet members, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was set to appear with Congressman Zach Nunn for a fundraiser on Saturday, March 14th. That event has been postponed, and we discuss the controversy surrounding the announcement.Gubernatorial candidate Randy Feenstra has announced a statewide $1 million ad buy, as he tries to fend off the field of challengers. We fill in the details.We move to the Iowa legislature for the back half of the show. Crime bills have been one of the main focusses of the republican led legislature. House Speaker Pat Grassley discussed the motivation behind these bills with the press this week. To close out, we showcase two bills that are separate but quite similar. One was concerning foster parents’ ability to raise their adoptive children according to their biological sex rather than gender identity, and the other one would prevent local jurisdictions from establishing their own civil rights protections that would differ from the state of Iowa.Thanks so much for being a part of Iowa Down Ballot, and an extra tip of the cap to those of you who have become paid subscribers. We couldn’t do this great show without you.AI generate transcript below:00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:29.279Dave Price: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballad Podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Kathy Obradovich and Laura Bellin, two of my colleagues from the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Hello, ladies, how are ya?500:00:29.480 --> 00:00:30.270Kathie Obradovich: Hello!600:00:30.270 --> 00:00:31.200Laura Belin: Good to see you.700:00:31.620 --> 00:00:34.310Dave Price: Good to see you as well.800:00:34.460 --> 00:00:43.609Dave Price: First of all, can we start with thanks? I know we sort of do at the end, but can we start with thanks? We got to see the metrics. I don’t want to, like, do brags here.900:00:44.070 --> 00:00:44.690Dave Price: That’s just…1000:00:44.690 --> 00:00:45.489Kathie Obradovich: Oh, go ahead.1100:00:45.490 --> 00:00:58.859Dave Price: super egotistical, but it’s… can we just say it’s very humbling that our producer, Spencer Dirks, sent us the metrics for last week’s downloads. It is fun to see this thing1200:00:59.020 --> 00:01:10.359Dave Price: spread like it is. We are not, like, shock jocks. They probably don’t even use that word… those words anymore, but, like, that’s not the style of this. We try to just have normal…1300:01:10.430 --> 00:01:19.630Dave Price: thoughtful conversations about what we see and hear and report on and analyze and all that kind of stuff. We’re not going for clicks and headlines and all that stuff.1400:01:19.910 --> 00:01:37.600Dave Price: Having said that, it is nice to see that this has been growing, this independent venture, so it’s a very humbling experience, and we very, very appreciate all your feedback from this, and we very much appreciate all of you who are clearly helping to spread the word, because it’s not like we have1500:01:37.660 --> 00:01:49.179Dave Price: like Iowa down-ballot billboards out on the interstates, and ads on the radio and TV and everywhere else all over the place to let people know about this. So we very much appreciate1600:01:49.250 --> 00:01:57.810Dave Price: all of you who have helped us grow this little project, it’s been very fun to do this week after week. And of course, because of everything.1700:01:58.280 --> 00:01:59.960Dave Price: Billboards would be cool.1800:01:59.960 --> 00:02:03.649Kathie Obradovich: It would be cool. I had my picture on the back of a bus once.1900:02:03.860 --> 00:02:04.759Dave Price: How’d that feel?2000:02:04.760 --> 00:02:05.620Laura Belin: Wow!2100:02:05.620 --> 00:02:17.180Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, the regis… when I was at the register, they did a big caucus, campaign, and so I… I had my… and they didn’t tell me that they were gonna do it.2200:02:18.040 --> 00:02:32.220Kathie Obradovich: So I’m driving my car, and I come up behind a bus, and there is my giant face, plastered over the back of this bus. I almost drove off the freaking road. I was just like, oh my god, what is this? So, yeah.2300:02:32.220 --> 00:02:45.120Dave Price: That’s when you know you’ve made it, when your face is on a bus. It’s you and, like, the accident lawyers. You know, they’re the ones on some of these buses that you see in cities, so congratulations.2400:02:45.120 --> 00:02:45.680Kathie Obradovich: I hate you.2500:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.790Dave Price: Career has hit its apex.2600:02:47.790 --> 00:02:58.549Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, our nephews were very… were very impressed when they, came to town for the State Fair from Illinois and saw that, so they thought… they thought Aunt Kathy is a big deal.2700:02:58.550 --> 00:03:01.720Dave Price: You are correct, and Kathy is a big deal.2800:03:02.640 --> 00:03:18.339Dave Price: A few big deals that we witnessed this week that didn’t necessarily have a direct Iowa impact, but, Christy Noem, the reason I bring up Kristi Noem is I have been sort of fascinated by the reaction2900:03:19.440 --> 00:03:30.190Dave Price: to what President Donald Trump did to take her off the job. I saw some social media chatter about how she did not get fired.3000:03:30.630 --> 00:03:31.280Laura Belin: Hmm.3100:03:31.280 --> 00:03:35.280Dave Price: And I started thinking about that, and I’m like, alright, is this semantics or not?3200:03:35.760 --> 00:03:42.140Dave Price: She did a couple of committee hearings that clearly were not her finest moments.3300:03:42.540 --> 00:03:50.010Dave Price: And for all of the performance theater we have seen by some in the Trump administration when they go before Democrats.3400:03:50.250 --> 00:04:07.749Dave Price: she had issues with Republicans, as we saw play out, right? Like, that’s not the way this normally goes. And all the stuff that happened in Minneapolis, she stayed on the job for that. When those two people were killed by ICE agents, they did not get rid of her. But it seems like…3500:04:08.440 --> 00:04:27.259Dave Price: the… as she’s standing there talking about the $220 million ad campaign that were… that featured her as a star, that was supposed to promote deportations, or whatever it was about, when she’s riding horses and all kinds of other stuff, and had the exchange with Senator Kennedy from Louisiana, and he’s…3600:04:27.260 --> 00:04:31.490Dave Price: Just baffled when he’s saying, so you’re saying the president approved this?3700:04:31.620 --> 00:04:36.470Dave Price: Just… he’s like, I just… I can’t… I can’t believe this. I’m not saying you’re lying.3800:04:36.790 --> 00:04:48.780Laura Belin: Oh, and the exchange with House Democrat Jonah Goose about that, about how the contract may have gone to someone with a connection. So, I mean, there were many angles on that ad campaign that…3900:04:48.780 --> 00:04:50.360Dave Price: And whatever this…4000:04:50.360 --> 00:04:54.669Kathie Obradovich: back or blankie, oh, they were in the Senate Judiciary. I mean, they were…4100:04:54.670 --> 00:04:54.990Dave Price: Yeah.4200:04:55.020 --> 00:04:59.929Kathie Obradovich: scathing. So, yeah, I think that that whole thing…4300:05:00.050 --> 00:05:13.200Kathie Obradovich: You know, the semantics about whether she was fired, I mean, she’s not on that job anymore. It created a new job for her that never existed, and nobody really knows what it does.4400:05:13.200 --> 00:05:20.690Kathie Obradovich: whatever, so… so they… they found another job for her, so I… I think you could… you could argue that she’s been, you know.4500:05:20.830 --> 00:05:25.119Kathie Obradovich: transferred, as opposed to fired, perhaps. Yeah, perhaps.4600:05:25.120 --> 00:05:27.409Dave Price: She’s been removed from her position, for sure.4700:05:27.910 --> 00:05:52.899Laura Belin: So, a lot of the reporting on the Trump administration reminds me of the old Sovietology, so I got my start in the field of Soviet studies and Russian studies, and a lot of, like, the Kremlin palace intrigue, that’s what you see in quite a bit of the political reporting from White House reporters, so there were rumors that maybe Trump was getting upset with Kristi Noem, and then there were different rumors about why, but when they created that new job, it kind4800:05:52.900 --> 00:06:00.589Laura Belin: of reminded me about how in the Soviet Union, they would, you know, the person technically wasn’t being fired, right? They were being sent to Siberia to do some…4900:06:01.110 --> 00:06:02.740Laura Belin: important thing, right?5000:06:03.340 --> 00:06:05.430Laura Belin: Basically, they’re being sent to Siberia.5100:06:05.430 --> 00:06:12.890Dave Price: The other moment, I don’t know if it stuck out to you, sorry, we’re going off on a tangent here, but it’s the Sort of Iowa Down Ballad podcast at the beginning here.5200:06:13.630 --> 00:06:18.769Dave Price: the… the exchange… normally, I… I don’t…5300:06:19.120 --> 00:06:37.590Dave Price: I guess sometimes I’m torn about this, but a little bit about how much the public really deserves to know about people’s private lives. If they’re having an affair or whatever, is that really… is that really the public’s business? I mean, plenty of people who are not in politics mess around on their spouse, and divorce and all kinds of stuff like that.5400:06:37.940 --> 00:06:44.520Dave Price: But in this case, I thought maybe it was a little different, because you’re talking about Corey Lewandowski, who is her top5500:06:45.000 --> 00:07:03.949Dave Price: aide, or whatever the heck his role is, and that whole exchange probably didn’t look that great either, wh

We start this week with words of support for Dave’s colleague at WHO-13 Jeriann Ritter who recently shared her battle with an aggressive form of ALS.Our political discussion begins with Governor Reynolds’ use of an Iowa State Patrol plane for travel. The plane was purchased with COVID relief funds, and the governor has said it allows for more efficient use of her time. We get into the controversy, as well as a lot of background information.We get into the Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee proposing a measure to provide continuing appropriations that would prevent government shutdowns similar to those in Washington D.C. This is viewed by some observers as limiting the governor’s powers in budget negotiations, and may be in anticipation of Rob Sand winning the governor’s race.Thanks so much for being a part of our show and sharing with your friends! If you are able, we also very much appreciate our paid subscribers that help keep this show going. Have a great weekend!AI generated transcript below: Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

We start this week’s conversation with quick reaction to the US Supreme Court ruling that strikes down President Trump’s blanket tariffs.Then, we’re on to ‘Funnel Week’ discussion. Funnel week is when bills get narrowed down, and all (most) bills must have advanced through committee in the house or senate to move on. Majority Leader Mike Klimesh had a press avail to discuss bills that did or didn’t move forward, so we go through some of the headlines from that gaggle. Kathie and her staff at Iowa Capital Dispatch always do a great write-up of what did and didn’t get past funnel week, and she gives us a taste of some of the headline grabbing bills that did or didn’t get past committee, including no-fault divorce.The Iowa Bears are still a (remote) possibility! The bills that would entice the NFL team to build a new stadium in Iowa made is through funnel week. We also clear up from last week’s show that Kathie is not a bootlegger. Property tax reform continues to be a priority for lawmakers this session, and we dive into a discussion on what ideas have and have not made it through funnel week.We cap of this week’s show with reaction to Rep. Randy Feenstra’s MAGA Nation town hall that may not have gone as well as Feentra’s campaign would have wanted. Laura’s story about Feenstra using tax payer funds to run ads that benefit his campaign was used in a question from the audience.Thanks for being a part of Iowa Down Ballot however you may consume us. Also a major thanks to those of you have become paid subscribers, we wouldn’t be able to do this without your support. Have a fantastic weekend!AI generated transcript below:(00:00:01):Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast.(00:00:04):I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich.(00:00:08):On a Friday, we’re in the Des Moines metro.(00:00:11):We have about eight inches of new snow.(00:00:14):That will mean that all weekend long, we will have many sore backs.(00:00:19):Darn that groundhog.(00:00:21):Seriously,(00:00:22):we have these incredible neighbors,(00:00:24):these two guys who each have these super ginormous snowblowers,(00:00:30):and they put their snowsuit things on.(00:00:33):They get up before the sun comes out,(00:00:36):and they do driveways and sidewalks and the cul-de-sac,(00:00:39):and we’re off the cul-de-sac,(00:00:40):but they do ours too and our neighbors.(00:00:42):They’re just incredibly nice men, and they don’t want anything in return, and(00:00:49):They’re just being kind.(00:00:50):So it’s such a cool way to start the day.(00:00:53):Well, we’re old school.(00:00:54):We shovel by hand and I’m sure I’m going to have sore in arms tomorrow.(00:00:59):It’s heavy.(00:00:59):It’s very heavy snow as well.(00:01:01):It’s not nice and powdery.(00:01:04):I pay a guy to do it.(00:01:05):Because you’re smart.(00:01:07):If he shows up during the podcast, I will hear the noise probably.(00:01:12):He’s not here yet.(00:01:13):All right, so last week I had the prop.(00:01:16):I’m bringing it out.(00:01:17):We’ve made it through Funnel, so congratulations to all of you.(00:01:22):We put the fun in Funnel, right?(00:01:24):We really did.(00:01:25):That should be a t-shirt.(00:01:26):Get Raygun on that.(00:01:27):I left the building at around 5 yesterday, so I wasn’t even there that late.(00:01:32):Yeah, it wasn’t all that aggressive to schedule yesterday.(00:01:36):uh no house judiciary went pretty late didn’t they i mean they were they i i stayed(00:01:42):till the end of house i was surprised i thought i’d be there later i was i just(00:01:48):know i wasn’t done work until after 8 30.(00:01:52):so so you’d like to wrap up this friday before happy hour begins yeah that it was(00:01:59):11 the night before so that’s okay(00:02:02):okay uh so i thought we’d obviously we need to talk about a few things from funnel(00:02:06):week um we have this also this i know this is um sort of related unrelated but it(00:02:13):does impact everybody in iowa this huge u.s supreme court ruling against president(00:02:18):trump’s go it alone tariff strategy that(00:02:23):has been fascinating to watch our Iowa delegation, which is largely stepped aside.(00:02:28):I feel like Senator Grassley is maybe the only one who offers some mild criticism,(00:02:33):you know,(00:02:33):here and there and did early on to say,(00:02:36):hey,(00:02:36):this isn’t my thing.(00:02:37):And I think as the months went by, it was more Donald Trump got elected.(00:02:42):He campaigned on this stuff.(00:02:44):Now we’ll see how it works kind of thing.(00:02:46):I’m fascinated to see how the delegation will respond going forward now.(00:02:52):Well, I think that it puts them in a pretty bad spot.(00:02:55):And Senator Grassley, he has issued some statements casting doubt about the tariffs.(00:02:59):But every time something came to a vote,(00:03:01):he and Senator Ernst voted with Trump to allow Trump to do the tariffs.(00:03:06):So he never really put his money where his mouth was.(00:03:09):But for the four Iowans in the House who just a week or so ago voted to uphold(00:03:14):Trump’s tariffs on Canada,(00:03:16):It looks pretty bad,(00:03:17):especially after they voted multiple times to kick it down the road and not even(00:03:22):have a congressional vote on the tariffs.(00:03:25):There were six others who went against the president on that from the caucus.(00:03:29):Right.(00:03:31):I’ll be interested to see how the Trump administration actually responds to this.(00:03:36):They have been known to, you know, ignore court orders in the past.(00:03:41):So we’ll see what they do.(00:03:43):I’d also be interested to see if this.(00:03:47):actually helps farmers in Iowa.(00:03:50):This isn’t really related to commodity prices or ag trade,(00:03:55):but it does affect the inputs,(00:03:58):things that consumer goods that farmers have to pay for.(00:04:04):Even though it wasn’t farmers who went to court, it was small business owners.(00:04:08):I do think that this could have some beneficial effect on farmers, maybe(00:04:16):It may also help ease some of the retaliatory tariffs if the Trump administration(00:04:20):actually takes them down.(00:04:22):I saw after the oral arguments a few months ago,(00:04:25):I saw some speculation that this case is about using a particular emergency law to(00:04:31):do a lot of the tariffs so that the Trump administration might be preparing to(00:04:35):announce more tariffs under different laws so that the impact might not be as(00:04:41):sweeping as we think.(00:04:42):Yeah, and this is about drug trafficking.(00:04:45):That was one of the premises, drug trafficking.(00:04:49):And now that I’m starting down this road, I can’t remember what the other one was.(00:04:53):But basically,(00:04:54):that was sort of the premise of this international trade emergency that these(00:04:59):tariffs were premised on.(00:05:01):And what happens to, I mean, we’ve already paid these, both as consumers and the U.S.(00:05:07):companies.(00:05:09):And the research that’s come out about this,(00:05:12):despite what people were promised on the campaign trail,(00:05:16):I saw 90% of the costs have been shouldered by American companies and American consumers.(00:05:22):There have already been some preliminary lawsuits filed by business groups.(00:05:26):So what happens to the money?(00:05:28):I mean, Trump has various times claimed that trillions of dollars were coming in,(00:05:33):so will there be refunds of some sort i’m guessing there’s going to have to be more(00:05:38):court not trillions of dollars first of all and i think i i have not had time to(00:05:44):read the ruling but i think i just saw some uh just some early coverage that said(00:05:48):that the supreme court didn’t say whether they have to pay back yeah that’s been(00:05:52):collected yeah okay and i know we’re not doing a supreme court show but there’s(00:05:57):there’s just(00:05:58):like no way to not address that.(00:06:01):I think it’s also interesting,(00:06:02):by the way,(00:06:03):that Roberts,(00:06:05):Neil Gorsuch,(00:06:06):and Amy Coney Barrett joined with Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion.(00:06:14):So that was very,(00:06:15):I thought that was interesting,(00:06:18):which court,(00:06:19):which justices joined on this to actually go against what the president wants,(00:06:24):so.(00:06:26):Okay, so let’s talk funnel now.(00:06:28):And maybe this means we’re halfway through.(00:06:30):Who knows?(00:06:31):Maybe in the future we’ll be more than halfway through if that bill goes through(00:06:34):that Senator Bussolo wants to shorten how the session works,(00:06:39):right?(00:06:39):Maybe they’ll do a two-week one.(00:06:40):You never know.(00:06:41):All right, Laura, so you slogged your way through subcommittees and committees this week.(00:06:49):Give us a rundown of every single bill that’s still alive.(00:06:52):Definitely.(00:06:53):How long do you have?(00:06:55):Wow.(00:06:56):Well,(00:06:57):There were so many.(00:06:58):There were so many.(00:06:59):And I just it’s what the frustrating thing is that they don’t archive and record(00:07:04):the any of the committee meetings on the House side and they don’t do subcommittee(00:07:07):meetings on the Senate side.(00:07:08):So it’s very difficult if you miss it, you miss it and you catch up later.(00:07:12):But I was very are we talking about just what overall takeaways or what surprised us or what?(00:07:18):Oh,(00:07:18):I just wanted to be a smart aleck and throw that at you because I had so many(00:07:22):people at the Statehouse talking about,(00:07:24):dang,(00:07:24):there’ve been a lot of bills this year.(00:07:26):And I was thinking,(00:07:27):man,(00:07:27):a wrap up of what’s alive and what’s potentially dead would be a heck of a heck of(00:07:32):a task.(00:07:33):But how about just do what what sticks out for you by what you watch this week?(00:07:38):Well,(00:07:38):I was surprised that a lot of the library bill

We’re less than a week away from the first funnel week in the Iowa legislature, so Kathie thought it would be fun to talk about our ‘favorite’ bills so far this session. Kathie starts us off with a bill to make it illegal for commercials to be louder than the show on streaming services, and a bill that gets rid of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division.Dave brings up the bill that was introduced to bring the Chicago Bears to the state of Iowa. The team is looking for a new stadium, so some Iowa legislators are trying to seize the opportunity.Laura’s ‘favorite’ so far this session was a bill that was introduced that limits lawmakers to no more than 10 bills per session. She also added a bill that would end county moratoriums on renewable energy installations such as wind turbines or solar panels.We end the show with discussion of republican house lawmakers pushing for new restrictions on public libraries in the state. (A quick note from Laura to correct the record, the bill banning school partnerships with public libraries passed out of the House Education Committee on Wednesday, February 4--not this past Wednesday the 11th.) The team goes over the changes that are being introduced and how that would effect libraries.Thanks for watching/listening/reading we really appreciate all of you! Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if you are able :)Happy Valentine’s Day, have a great weekend!AI Generated Transcript Below: Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

It was a busy week in the Iowa Legislature, and the team starts with the House education committee grilling Des Moines Public School officials on their hiring of former superintendent Ian Roberts. Republican legislators tried to blame DEI for Roberts’ hiring. Officials from the school say they were looking for someone with a history of working with a diverse school population. That conversation segues into Laura giving us an eyewitness report from an explosive House subcommittee meeting focused on eliminating affirmative action, “minority grants”, and nondiscrimination language about citizenship in state licensure.Kathie then highlights the work Clark Kauffman has done for Iowa Capital Dispatch regarding nursing home safety violations. That dovetails with the legislature killing a bill that would have allowed ‘granny cams’ to be used in nursing homes.We finish off this week’s discussion with campaign news. We start with the competitive republican primary race in Iowa’s 4th district in the NW part of the state possibly narrowing down soon. The Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats has endorsed Adam Steen in the governor race, does that help narrow the race to a Steen vs. Feenstra battle?Thanks for being a part of the show however you consume it. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if you are able to help cover our production costs. Have a great weekend, we’ll see ya next week!AI generated transcript below:(00:00:01):Hi, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast.(00:00:04):I am Dave Price, joined by the regulars, Kathie.(00:00:07):They’re not regular, but they are consistent contributors.(00:00:11):Nothing about these two women is regular.(00:00:13):Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin.(00:00:15):Hello, ladies.(00:00:16):Hello.(00:00:16):Thanks for not calling us odd.(00:00:20):I bring the oddity to this conversation.(00:00:22):Thank you.(00:00:24):I had a conversation with somebody a couple of weeks ago, a friend, probably about my age.(00:00:29):And we talked about one of the blessings of adulthood and really middle age hood.(00:00:36):Is that a thing?(00:00:37):Middle age,(00:00:37):dumb,(00:00:38):whatever you call it when you’re in middle age,(00:00:39):is that you just sort of embrace what you are,(00:00:41):right?(00:00:42):Like I remember in high school,(00:00:43):I was in the band and I had good grades and,(00:00:47):you know,(00:00:47):I was a skinny little,(00:00:50):from the beginning of high school especially and so you know it would hurt when(00:00:54):somebody would call you a dork or a geek for being smart or a band geek or what(00:01:00):have you blah blah blah until and then at some point in your life you sort of(00:01:05):embrace being different and you know all those things don’t really matter you’re(00:01:08):like somebody thinks I’m smart cool(00:01:11):They think I’m dorky.(00:01:12):I’ll take that.(00:01:14):Well, you would have been just my type back in high school, apparently.(00:01:18):We would have had much in common.(00:01:19):I was a debate geek.(00:01:21):See, there you go.(00:01:23):There you go.(00:01:24):Well, anyway, happy Friday to you both on a pretty pleasant Friday, right?(00:01:28):I mean, it’s windy, but not all that bad.(00:01:30):This is another thing you talk about once you hit middle age.(00:01:33):You just talk about the weather all the time, right?(00:01:35):Especially if you live in Iowa.(00:01:36):Yeah.(00:01:38):We’re supposedly obsessed with the weather.(00:01:40):Yeah, exactly.(00:01:41):I got a nice long walk yesterday after getting out of the state state house.(00:01:45):It was outstanding.(00:01:47):My dog got a very nice long walk last night, which she desperately needed.(00:01:51):And she slept like a baby overnight.(00:01:53):So it was a gift for all of us, for our whole household.(00:01:56):We do,(00:01:57):just as a little insight for all of you fine folks who join us every week,(00:02:02):we have this email that goes back and forth between the three of us where we kind(00:02:06):of talk about,(00:02:07):hey,(00:02:07):what’s on your mind?(00:02:07):What topic should we talk about?(00:02:09):Whatever.(00:02:10):Laura,(00:02:10):as she frequently does,(00:02:12):ruins the plan because she emails back this morning with this long,(00:02:17):lengthy email that(00:02:19):about the 500 gazillion things that happened at the Statehouse this week.(00:02:24):And she’s not wrong, because all of those things are worthy.(00:02:28):Our challenge is how in the holy heck we’re going to get to all of them, so we’re not.(00:02:33):We’re going to hit as many as we can,(00:02:36):and we try to be respectful of everybody’s time and try to be about 30 minutes or(00:02:40):so,(00:02:41):which means I should shut up now,(00:02:44):and let’s get into some of those.(00:02:45):So, Laura, you and I were at...(00:02:48):the same uh house committee meeting or whatever day that was wednesday wednesday(00:02:55):okay and so they brought in a couple folks from des moines public school so you had(00:03:02):the interim superintendent matt smith and you also had the school board chair um(00:03:11):kim how do you say your last name i think it’s mar toronto(00:03:15):Or Toronto.(00:03:15):Yeah, I think so.(00:03:17):Okay, so they’re sitting kind of at the end of the table, and they had somebody with them.(00:03:22):She’s an attorney for the district.(00:03:24):Okay, okay.(00:03:25):To help out.(00:03:26):Well, I think, is it Allers and Cooney?(00:03:28):She’s with one of the law firms.(00:03:29):Okay, fair enough.(00:03:31):And so, Laura, I’m curious...(00:03:34):What your thoughts were as an observer to this?(00:03:38):I have been, I mean, there are a gazillion things to follow about this, right, with Ian Roberts.(00:03:43):Obviously,(00:03:43):the guy somehow was one of these unique characters who was inspirational to a lot(00:03:49):of people,(00:03:50):but he was a liar about a lot of stuff too,(00:03:53):right?(00:03:53):So he really inspired people,(00:03:55):but he also really,(00:03:56):really disappointed people,(00:03:58):and he broke laws on top of it.(00:04:00):And so in the end, it probably cost Jackie Norris her U.S.(00:04:05):Senate campaign.(00:04:06):She used to be the chair of the Des Moines School Board,(00:04:09):and she took a lot of flack for what happened.(00:04:12):And Republicans had kind of made her sort of a central target, really, with a lot of this.(00:04:16):But, Laura, what did you take from the questioning?(00:04:19):It went on for quite a while, maybe an hour and a half, two hours.(00:04:23):I think it was close to an hour and a half.(00:04:25):Okay.(00:04:26):so i thought the questioning was a little bit strange i mean the republican members(00:04:32):of the house education committee were very focused on a few things first of all(00:04:37):wanting to get the des moines school board or school district representatives to(00:04:42):admit that it was their fault and they made a mistake and they were responsible so(00:04:47):The school board chair walked through this report that they had this third party(00:04:51):investigation of what happened and really laying more of the blame on this(00:04:55):consulting firm.(00:04:55):Which was out in November.(00:04:56):It was the same report.(00:04:57):Right.(00:04:57):The report was out in November.(00:04:59):The school district has sued the consulting firm that was involved,(00:05:03):that recommended Ian Roberts as a candidate and so on.(00:05:07):But the other issue that just kept coming up again and again was pressing the Des(00:05:12):Moines School District on.(00:05:13):Was he hired because of diversity initiatives, the policies that the board had in the future?(00:05:20):Are they going to be looking at DEI when they’re hiring again?(00:05:23):Of course,(00:05:23):they’ve given this interim superintendent,(00:05:26):Matt Smith,(00:05:26):I think he has a two-year contract,(00:05:28):so they’re not actively searching for a new superintendent right now.(00:05:31):But(00:05:32):There was a real heavy focus on that aspect of it.(00:05:38):And I just think it reflects a broader obsession that some of the Republican(00:05:42):legislators have with DEI.(00:05:44):And they had acknowledged that it was a priority for(00:05:49):in their conversations with that search firm to find somebody who had experience(00:05:55):essentially in a diverse district like Des Moines.(00:05:57):And Des Moines is kind of a unique district in our state,(00:06:00):both in its size and the makeup of the student body,(00:06:03):which,(00:06:04):I mean,(00:06:05):they said up front that was a priority.(00:06:06):They never did say(00:06:09):She never did say that they were under any directive to hire a person of color for(00:06:16):this position because you have a lot of students who are of color.(00:06:20):It more so was just you wanted somebody with they just wanted somebody with(00:06:23):experience in a district such as theirs with that makeup.(00:06:28):Yeah,(00:06:28):and State Representative Eleanor Levin,(00:06:30):who’s one of the Democrats on the committee,(00:06:32):she asked for more information just about the diversity of the district and some of(00:06:37):the statistics that they shared.(00:06:39):I mean, they have 15% of the students have some kind of a disability, so they have an IEP plan.(00:06:47):About 25% are English language learners.(00:06:50):The white students make up about 40% of the district.(00:06:54):So,(00:06:54):I mean,(00:06:55):it is a very diverse district and it is,(00:06:58):like you say,(00:06:58):unlike any other school district in the state of Iowa.(00:07:01):Of course, it’s also far larger than any other school district in the state.(00:07:06):I’ve done stories in the past for TV on the diversity of the district.(00:07:11):I will say that that stat about the 25% were ELL surprised me.(00:07:16):I didn’t realize it was that high.(00:07:18):Yeah.(00:07:19):And I think, did they say 70% are on free or reduc

We start this week’s discussion with a recap of President Trump’s visit to Clive on Tuesday. Trump spoke for a little over an hour, and stressed the importance of keeping republican control of congress. The President also highlighted new John Deere jobs being created in other states, while the company has downsized in Iowa in recent years. The team also discusses how to cover a president that stretches the truth as much as Trump. We also get into the effect Trump’s stop will have on Rep. Randy Feenstra’s run for governor. Feenstra was not given a speech slot on stage, and was not highlighted much during Trump’s remarks. Congressman Zach Nunn, who likely will have a tough race in Iowa house district 3, did speak before Trump and touted some of his bipartisan bona fides. Laura has been following the lawsuit Donald Trump filed against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer last year regarding Selzer’s presidential poll in 2024, and she gives us an update on the hearing she attended Friday just before we recorded. Kathie takes us home with information from a piece her reporter at Cami Koons at Iowa Capital Dispatch recently published about the eminent domain/carbon pipeline issue. This has been an ongoing issue in the legislature for several years, and there’s still contention within both the republican and democratic parties in the state.Thanks for following along whether you’re watching, listening, or reading. Please pass us along to a friend, and please consider contributing financially thru a paid subscription if you’re able. Have a nice weekend!AI generated transcript below:(00:00:01):Welcome, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast.(00:00:04):I’m Dave Price,(00:00:05):joined by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin,(00:00:08):a couple of our regular contributors,(00:00:11):like regular,(00:00:11):you’re on like every week,(00:00:13):but also regular contributors to the Iowa Riders Collaborative,(00:00:17):which is just taking over the state by storm.(00:00:19):Hello, ladies.(00:00:20):Happy Frigid Friday to you.(00:00:23):Yes, it is.(00:00:24):It is plenty chilly today.(00:00:27):Oh, yes.(00:00:28):This is going to be one of those conversations we can hopefully park in the back of(00:00:32):our mind for fast forward a couple of months when we’re whining about,(00:00:35):man,(00:00:36):it’s so hot and humid outside.(00:00:38):You can’t go anywhere.(00:00:41):Exactly.(00:00:42):okay so we had a vip visit to our great state this week president donald trump(00:00:49):returned first time in 2026.(00:00:50):i don’t know if they have a do they have a name of this tour thing that he’s doing(00:00:55):all these midterm stops he’s doing all over the place but to my knowledge we are(00:00:59):the first one right we were the first yes okay um there’s a lot of different ways(00:01:07):we can we can dig into this but um(00:01:11):He went, I should have timed it.(00:01:12):It was like an hour and four or five or six minutes or something like that, I remember.(00:01:19):Kathie,(00:01:20):so many ways we can go on this,(00:01:21):so many things he brought up,(00:01:22):but big picture,(00:01:24):his theme...(00:01:27):I don’t know if Walmart still uses low,(00:01:29):low prices,(00:01:30):but he had like lower prices,(00:01:32):I think,(00:01:32):and the signs all over the place.(00:01:34):So while he was kind of mocking Democrats,(00:01:37):not kind of,(00:01:37):he did mock Democrats for using the word affordability,(00:01:40):which he used to talk about when he ran in 2024,(00:01:43):but clearly they’ve realized they need to talk about financial stuff,(00:01:49):right?(00:01:50):Like it wasn’t ice, it wasn’t(00:01:54):election is rigged signs it was lower prices so yeah he i mean he did uh of course(00:02:01):uh complain about uh everything that he complained about before he was elected i(00:02:07):mean it was like it was sort of a i mean if you played this speech um and then(00:02:13):compared it to one that he you know during his um(00:02:18):election campaign here,(00:02:20):you know,(00:02:22):two years ago,(00:02:23):you probably would have trouble figuring out,(00:02:27):OK,(00:02:27):when what was the most recent one?(00:02:29):I mean,(00:02:30):it was all of his greatest hits and,(00:02:33):you know,(00:02:33):including,(00:02:34):you know,(00:02:36):blaming Joe Biden for everything.(00:02:39):So, I mean, I was I listened to it from home because I also had a reporter covering the(00:02:45):uh republican gubernatorial uh debate uh the same night so um so i was you know i(00:02:53):was watching it waiting it’s like okay is this news is this news is this news it’s(00:02:57):like it got pretty far into the speech before i was like okay but this may be all(00:03:01):we get um he did not talk about um the ice uh situation up in minnesota at all he(00:03:09):did you know make mention of(00:03:12):some of the immigration talking points that we’ve heard before.(00:03:16):But so I think that really the point of the speech was to persuade voters that the(00:03:22):economy is,(00:03:23):you know,(00:03:24):great,(00:03:26):or at least much better than they seem to think it is,(00:03:30):and to try to undermine Democrats’ major talking points for the midterms.(00:03:35):Also, he made a very, I would say, very blatant or very(00:03:42):like,(00:03:42):uncoded plea to his base saying,(00:03:46):you know,(00:03:46):all of the things that we accomplish that you like will be undone if we lose the(00:03:52):House or the Senate in the midterms,(00:03:55):which is not exactly...(00:03:57):true because he would still be the president and so legislation that comes through(00:04:02):a democratic house or senate doesn’t have to be signed into law by him but anyway(00:04:05):he’s he is I think a saying and I think he also said several times that the party(00:04:15):who holds the presidency typically loses at least half the Congress during the(00:04:22):midterms and don’t let that happen to me so(00:04:27):The deja vu aspect of it,(00:04:29):I like that he’s still calling former state Senator Brad Zahn the Marlboro man.(00:04:34):And he’s still talking about how Brenna Byrd endorsed him so early.(00:04:38):So that was funny.(00:04:39):I mean,(00:04:40):I think from a news perspective,(00:04:42):to me,(00:04:42):the most newsworthy part was that he said that he’s going to sign,(00:04:47):he’s going to do year-round E15 ethanol.(00:04:49):But I thought he did that when he was running, didn’t he?(00:04:52):Well, he, so here’s the thing.(00:04:54):That was in(00:04:56):There was a year-end funding bill at the end of 2024, and year-round E15 was part of that.(00:05:01):And the members of the Iowa delegation were already posting on social media and(00:05:06):bragging about how they got this into the bill.(00:05:08):And then at the last minute,(00:05:10):this was before Trump was even inaugurated,(00:05:12):but he and Elon Musk basically blew up that funding deal.(00:05:16):in December of 2024,(00:05:17):and when they came up with a new continuing resolution,(00:05:21):it didn’t have E15 in it anymore.(00:05:23):So arguably, it’s Trump’s fault that this isn’t already law right now.(00:05:28):But in any case, he said that he was going to do that.(00:05:31):I thought that was interesting.(00:05:33):He didn’t, though.(00:05:34):He said that he was going to he trusted Speaker Johnson and he basically threw it(00:05:42):back at Congress and he didn’t say he was going to do anything.(00:05:45):You know, he just said he’s for it.(00:05:47):He’ll sign it.(00:05:48):But he’s he is, you know, he trusts Congress to do it.(00:05:51):And guess what?(00:05:52):We’ve got a funding package going through right now.(00:05:55):uh today um which may or may not get through today we’ll see what happens but um(00:06:01):e15 you’re on e15 is not in it um but chuck grassley’s already um you know put(00:06:06):sending guest columns around complaining about it so so he did not get it done well(00:06:12):okay well he anyway he he promised that it’s something that he would sign i thought(00:06:16):it was an awkward moment for me was when(00:06:19):He went on and on, and the Iowa Democratic Party was all over this.(00:06:23):He went on and on about how John Deere,(00:06:25):They’re opening a plant in North Carolina.(00:06:28):It’s going to be really great.(00:06:29):John Deere, great company.(00:06:31):They’re expanding.(00:06:32):And of course, Deere has laid off hundreds of employees this year.(00:06:36):Thousands.(00:06:37):If you go back the last two or three years, it’s thousands.(00:06:40):But just this year alone, it’s hundreds.(00:06:42):So I thought that that was that.(00:06:45):I mean,(00:06:45):the crowd didn’t seem to react to it,(00:06:47):but I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from Democrats about that.(00:06:51):Okay,(00:06:52):there’s so many things I wanna talk to you too about this,(00:06:54):but I would like to talk to you both as reporters,(00:06:59):just to share a challenge I have.(00:07:02):And that is, I struggle with Trump more than any politician I’ve ever covered.(00:07:08):And my role in TV is like,(00:07:10):I’m not an opinion guy,(00:07:11):and we’re trying to,(00:07:12):you try to play,(00:07:13):I don’t wanna say down the middle,(00:07:14):but whatever the right neutrality is,(00:07:16):whatever.(00:07:17):I really struggle,(00:07:20):with especially with trump when he has an hour plus speech there are so many things(00:07:24):you can try to tackle right and for me on tv i get a minute and a half two minutes(00:07:29):to blab about it or do a story on it or whatever so that always is super hard the(00:07:33):one thing though that he does for me that’s challenging is that he says(00:07:40):certain things that are clearly not true in the and it’s not it’s not just that(00:07:46):like um you know Kathie’s sweater is um yellow for those of you watching you know(00:07:53):that it’s not yellow but you know something that’s demonstrably not not no

Hope you’re staying warm and safe wherever you may be. Iowa lawmakers wrapped up their second week of work on Friday, and a bill banning carbon pipeline constructors from using eminent domain has already passed the house. We dive into the bill as well as the politics on both sides. Dave filled in to host Iowa Press on Iowa PBS this week and majority house leader Mike Klimesh was the guest, so Dave also has a fresh perspective on the republican leadership’s plans. We also discuss how the democrats may vote on an eminent domain bill in the senate. Property tax reform is the other priority for republican legislators this session. It’s a complicated issue, so we try to unravel what may end up being in the plan. We close out the show with a quick preview of President Trump’s scheduled visit to Clive on Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for being a part of the Iowa Down Ballot podcast however you consume the show, we’ll see ya next Saturday morning :)AI generated transcript below:(00:00:01):Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast.(00:00:05):I am Dave Price,(00:00:06):joined by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Bell and two of my colleagues from the Iowa(00:00:11):Riders Collaborative.(00:00:12):We are joining you on a Friday where even if we squint super,(00:00:17):super hard,(00:00:18):we cannot see a temperature of zero because it is unfairly cold outside.(00:00:25):It’s ridiculous.(00:00:26):I was out, had a meeting this morning and then another errand and my car just went.(00:00:37):I did not want to start.(00:00:40):That is your car’s way of telling you, hey, dummy, go back in the house.(00:00:44):It’s too cold.(00:00:46):Go home and go in and put your slippers on.(00:00:49):I did,(00:00:50):I filled in on Iowa Press today and I wore my winter coat,(00:00:54):which my mother-in-law fixed for me because I had popped a button off.(00:00:58):So they’re in town and she fixed it for me, which was super nice.(00:01:01):As I’m walking from the parking lot out at Iowa Public TV or Iowa PBS now,(00:01:07):I’m walking to the building realizing as I reached into my pockets,(00:01:11):I did not put in my gloves for the winter because I haven’t worn this coat the(00:01:15):whole year.(00:01:16):I was thinking,(00:01:17):You are really dumb.(00:01:18):It’s 10 below zero.(00:01:20):And I have a long walk and carrying all my stuff.(00:01:23):I can’t even put my hands in my pocket.(00:01:24):And I was thinking, man, that is not a good move.(00:01:29):And we’re Iowans.(00:01:30):We should know better.(00:01:32):But we also know that it’s temporary, right?(00:01:35):Like I told my mother-in-law, I mentally prepare for this every year.(00:01:38):Like,(00:01:39):You know,(00:01:39):there’s going to be one butt-kicking,(00:01:43):obnoxiously cold day that you question all of your life’s choices.(00:01:50):And you’re thinking, can I do this from a warm climate just for a little bit?(00:01:54):But then, you know, whatever.(00:01:56):We get through it.(00:01:58):I’m just glad I didn’t have to go up to the Capitol today.(00:02:03):So I’m just glad because that long walk uphill from where I parked.(00:02:08):up to the capitol building it’s freezing and there’s always ice and you’ve got that(00:02:14):howling wind and you’re thinking is this really worth it couldn’t i just watch the(00:02:19):live stream of something happening today why must i be there all right enough of(00:02:24):the weather report um we had so we just wrapped up week two of the iowa legislative(00:02:30):session and there are two biggies that are on my mind and to set the stage i(00:02:35):mentioned(00:02:36):as I was yakking here early that I filled in on Iowa Press,(00:02:40):and this week the guest was the new Senate Majority Leader,(00:02:44):Mike Clemish.(00:02:45):So truthfully,(00:02:46):a few of these topics are right at the top of my mind because I just talked at(00:02:49):length with him.(00:02:50):But I’d like to start this week our chat with where things are with eminent domain(00:02:59):which feels like one of the, sexy is not the right word because we’re talking about politics.(00:03:04):What’s the right word?(00:03:05):Most intriguing, the juiciest, like the parlor intrigue kind of story, the house of cards stuff.(00:03:13):I don’t know what the right thing is.(00:03:14):Yeah, it’s buzzy.(00:03:16):Yeah, Buzzy.(00:03:17):Buzzy.(00:03:18):All right, so Kathie, set the stage for us here.(00:03:20):So we’ve heard some ideas now.(00:03:22):House has actually already passed something remarkably quick.(00:03:27):The Senate Republicans have an idea of what they want to do, particularly Klemish.(00:03:34):And Klemish,(00:03:34):by the way,(00:03:35):said that he’s told us today that he will be the floor manager for eminent domain(00:03:41):on the Senate side.(00:03:42):So he will lead this through.(00:03:43):Maybe a little bit unusual as...(00:03:46):as the majority leader, but he’s going to kind of take the lead.(00:03:49):So kind of set us up here, Kathie, where do things stay?(00:03:52):So I am not clear yet whether the House and Senate have even a conversation about(00:04:00):being on the same page.(00:04:01):So the House moved away from the bill that the governor vetoed last year.(00:04:08):And this this strikes me as being kind of an in your face to her.(00:04:13):It’s like, well, you didn’t like(00:04:15):our sort of complicated look at restricting or dialing back eminent domain.(00:04:21):So we’re just going to give you a flat ban on eminent domain for carbon pipelines.(00:04:30):And that is what they passed.(00:04:31):I mean, already raced through the House and they pass it on the floor this week.(00:04:39):And I sent it to the Senate where it will die.(00:04:43):I’m fairly confident in predicting that.(00:04:45):And as you said, Senator Clemish has actually proposed two bills.(00:04:51):He is the only sponsor of those bills,(00:04:53):at least as of the last time I looked,(00:04:55):and he was not saying how many of his colleagues are willing to vote with him on(00:05:01):these bills,(00:05:03):one of which I think we may have talked about a little bit.(00:05:06):It’s basically a version of an amendment that was offered last year in the Senate(00:05:12):that would let the carbon pipelines,(00:05:14):and we’re talking about summit here at this point,(00:05:17):Summit Carbon Solutions to take the route that the utilities,(00:05:22):Iowa Utilities Commission approved for them and,(00:05:25):you know,(00:05:26):sort of color outside the lines a little bit to try to go around,(00:05:32):you know,(00:05:32):never,(00:05:33):you know,(00:05:33):the the never,(00:05:36):never,(00:05:36):never property owners who are never,(00:05:39):ever going to sign.(00:05:41):no matter how much money they offer.(00:05:43):So to color out the sidelines a little bit and try to go around some of those(00:05:47):property owners and to limit to what extent you have to use eminent domain to force(00:05:53):easements on unwilling property owners.(00:05:55):So that’s the one idea, which he talked about before the legislative session.(00:05:59):The second one,(00:06:00):which is really interesting,(00:06:02):and it’ll be really interesting to see how many of his colleagues support him on(00:06:05):this,(00:06:06):is actually taxing the carbon that is running through this pipeline.(00:06:11):Um,(00:06:12):and,(00:06:13):uh,(00:06:13):so,(00:06:14):um,(00:06:15):so a new tax,(00:06:17):um,(00:06:17):first of all,(00:06:17):um,(00:06:19):something that the summit people,(00:06:20):I can’t imagine that they would want,(00:06:23):um,(00:06:23):this,(00:06:24):uh,(00:06:24):although maybe he’s,(00:06:25):he’s,(00:06:26):um,(00:06:26):framing it as we’ll take this,(00:06:29):you know,(00:06:29):if you want,(00:06:30):if you want any sort of wiggle room on eminent domain,(00:06:32):take this,(00:06:33):I don’t know.(00:06:34):So a tax on carbon.(00:06:37):And so, like I said, neither of these bills have been in subcommittee yet.(00:06:42):We don’t know how many Republicans would actually support this legislation and the(00:06:49):pressure on them from even Republican groups.(00:06:56):in very Republican counties, Republican, you know, are putting pressure on this issue.(00:07:02):So I think it’s, as you said, there’s a lot of intrigue.(00:07:07):There’s a lot of inner party drama here.(00:07:12):That didn’t end last year when 12 senators said,(00:07:16):we’re not voting for budget bills until you deal with this.(00:07:18):So...(00:07:20):Well,(00:07:21):at the press conference where Senator Klemish laid out this plan,(00:07:25):I asked,(00:07:28):do you have 26 votes for this proposal?(00:07:31):And he said he wasn’t going to comment on internal politics of the Senate Republicans.(00:07:37):i think it’s a pretty safe bet that he doesn’t have 26 republican votes for that(00:07:40):because a dozen republicans i think it ended up actually being 13.(00:07:44):there was a dozen who promised not to support any budget bills until there was this(00:07:49):eminent a vote on eminent domain but i think in the end 13 republicans voted for(00:07:54):that house bill last year so i think the senate democrats actually hold a lot of(00:07:59):cards here because(00:08:01):There are quite a few Democrats who support the pipeline in principle because it’s(00:08:06):something that labor unions want,(00:08:09):but they also want to say that they’re protecting property rights.(00:08:13):So I think Klemish may have to make some kind of a deal with(00:08:17):the senate democrats and i don’t know what they would want in exchange but i think(00:08:21):that we’re headed toward another stalemate because there’s no way the house(00:08:24):republicans are going to take this klemish proposal assuming it does get through(00:08:29):the senate i just can’t see it getting anywhere in the house and the last thing i(00:08:33):wanted to say about that the severance tax i think that he was calling it the fee(00:08:37):o

We spend the bulk of the show with Governor Reynolds’ penultimate condition of the state address. Protestors in the rotunda made their presence felt during the speech, and property tax reform was a big theme. We discuss the details and possible ramifications of the governor’s plan. Another focus in the speech was tackling the state’s cancer problem, so we get into the proposals and their possible effect. We cap off the show with what stories the gang are working on for the week ahead.Thanks for listening, watching, or reading we really appreciate all of you for following along. We’ll be back next Saturday, see ya then!AI generated transcript below: Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

The gavel drops to begin this year’s legislative session on this Monday, January 12th. We have a full breakdown of the changes in leadership to start off our discussion, as well as the incentives for the legislators to wrap up the session on time this year. Governor Reynolds and republican House Majority Leader Bobby Kaufmann quarreled over the governor’s veto of the eminent domain bill last year, so we’ll see if that battle carries over into this year’s negotiations. Iowa Down Ballot is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Our eminent domain preview segues into likely the biggest issue of this year’s session, property tax reform. Republicans have promised property tax changes for a couple years now, and it seems it will be difficult again this year to get a bill done and passed.Thanks to everyone for the welcome back and welcome to our new subscribers. We’ll see ya next Saturday!AI generated transcript below:(00:00:01):Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast.(00:00:05):I am Dave Price,(00:00:07):joined by our regulars,(00:00:09):Kathie Obradovich of the Iowa Capitol Dispatch and Laura Bellin of Bleeding(00:00:14):Heartland.(00:00:14):Hello, ladies.(00:00:15):Happy Friday.(00:00:17):Happy Friday.(00:00:18):Good to see you.(00:00:20):Good to see you both.(00:00:23):All right, we look ahead to next Monday, which starts the Iowa legislative session for 2026.(00:00:29):And then all kinds of speeches.(00:00:31):You have the condition of the state address by Governor Reynolds on Tuesday.(00:00:35):We have condition of the judiciary, condition of the guard.(00:00:38):So a lot of speeches for week one.(00:00:41):Not a heck of a lot necessarily gets done, as we know, but it does perhaps lay out(00:00:46):some themes of the week.(00:00:48):Kathie,(00:00:49):we want to get into some of the topics that we pretty much know will be big ones(00:00:55):this session.(00:00:55):But before we get into issues,(00:00:58):what is the thing that kind of piques your curiosity about 2026 as far as the(00:01:04):legislative session goes?(00:01:06):Well, we all want to know as reporters how long it’s going to be.(00:01:10):And they always hate that question, right?(00:01:11):That is,(00:01:12):you know,(00:01:14):the old saw,(00:01:15):and well,(00:01:16):actually,(00:01:17):it is literally supposed to be 10 days shorter than the first year of the two-year(00:01:24):General Assembly.(00:01:25):And,(00:01:26):you know,(00:01:27):it ends 10 days early so that lawmakers can get out on the campaign trail as an(00:01:32):election year.(00:01:33):However,(00:01:34):we have learned that it being an election year does not always mean that they will(00:01:39):get done even on time,(00:01:41):let alone early.(00:01:43):And they’ve got some really big issues on their plate,(00:01:45):which will go through issues that they are not going into session with.(00:01:50):you know, hand-holding and singing kumbaya about.(00:01:54):So I do, and you add to that a tough, what I think is going to be a very tough budget year.(00:02:01):And so you’ve got all of those things working against them.(00:02:06):So I’m not currently making any vacation plans for even the second week of May yet.(00:02:13):I think that we’re(00:02:14):We’re in for maybe a long haul here,(00:02:17):trying to get enough of these issues resolved so that lawmakers feel like they can(00:02:23):go out onto the campaign trail with some accomplishments.(00:02:26):And of course, we should point out that after 100 days, they lose their per diem.(00:02:32):So there is a financial incentive to wrap things up on time,(00:02:38):if you will,(00:02:39):and a financial disincentive.(00:02:41):Especially if you’re not a Des Moines metro legislator and you have to pay for a(00:02:45):place to stay and all of that kind of stuff.(00:02:48):I mean, that does tend to maybe up the pressure a little bit.(00:02:51):Well,(00:02:52):and even bigger financial disincentive is that they can’t raise money during the(00:02:56):legislative session.(00:02:57):You know, they can’t accept donations.(00:03:00):Yeah.(00:03:02):Any of them that have primary races are going to want and need to get out of(00:03:07):session and be able to collect donations.(00:03:11):Yeah, that’s why I think they are going to be done before May.(00:03:14):I’m just going to be bold and predict that even though the budget’s going to be(00:03:17):hard and I don’t think they...(00:03:20):I think it’ll be harder to get to a property tax agreement than they imagine it will be.(00:03:24):But so many of the Republican incumbents have primary challengers.(00:03:29):I think that they are not going to let it stretch into mid-May.(00:03:32):But what I’m most watching is whether relationships between the Senate Republicans(00:03:38):and the House Republicans improve at all under new leadership in the(00:03:44):They just the lingering resentments over eminent domain and other issues make it(00:03:50):hard for them to cooperate.(00:03:52):I would take that and add the governor into that to make a trifecta of(00:03:56):relationships for exactly the reason you point out about eminent domain.(00:04:03):And she’s a lame duck, which last year she only announced in April.(00:04:06):So the last month or so of the session,(00:04:09):she was a lame duck,(00:04:10):but she didn’t go into last year’s session as a lame duck.(00:04:12):We all thought she was running again.(00:04:15):So let’s talk about the leadership dynamic, because both chambers have a new leader in the mix.(00:04:20):Bobby Kaufman in the House and Senator Clemish as the majority leader in the Senate.(00:04:28):Kathie, what do you make about the leadership changes?(00:04:30):Maybe to piggyback off what Laura said about the kind of bad blood that we saw last(00:04:35):year with eminent domain debate.(00:04:37):Does that does that maybe help things get off to a clean slate?(00:04:42):Not necessarily.(00:04:43):I mean,(00:04:44):Bobby Kaufman,(00:04:45):before he was elected majority leader,(00:04:47):I think boldly declared that nothing with the governor’s name on it was going to(00:04:51):get through the House if he had anything to say about it.(00:04:55):And now he has a lot to say about it.(00:04:57):Now, you know, maybe he was just blowing off steam and, you know, that’s entirely possible.(00:05:04):It seems unlikely that...(00:05:09):None of the governor’s initiatives will make it through the House and certainly not.(00:05:14):I mean, there’s there’s bound to be.(00:05:16):She always will come up with some bipartisan,(00:05:19):for example,(00:05:21):proposals,(00:05:23):you know,(00:05:23):so I kind of doubt that that will happen.(00:05:26):But.(00:05:27):We also haven’t necessarily seen any public displays of unity at this point.(00:05:36):The Iowa Capitol Press Association had a legislative forum this week and couldn’t(00:05:42):get the Republicans to come to the table.(00:05:46):And I think that the House would have if the Senate had agreed.(00:05:53):So I think they’re still not in unison.(00:05:55):Yeah.(00:05:57):Bobby Kaufman makes a lot of bold statements and doesn’t always follow through on them.(00:06:03):So he’s not going to hold up absolutely everything.(00:06:06):But the governor,(00:06:07):I think the fact that the governor created this nuclear energy task force last week(00:06:12):indicates that she knows that her energy bill,(00:06:15):which nuclear energy was a big part of her energy bill that she introduced last(00:06:20):year.(00:06:20):And I think she senses that’s not going anywhere.(00:06:23):She’s just going to try to do bits of it on her own by executive order.(00:06:28):And it wasn’t the nuclear part of that that was really controversial.(00:06:31):I think it was electrical.(00:06:32):But I mean, it was but it was all it all got tangled up in the same problem.(00:06:38):Yeah.(00:06:38):And I should mention,(00:06:39):by the way,(00:06:40):that bills that were introduced last year,(00:06:42):by and large,(00:06:42):are still alive this year.(00:06:45):You know,(00:06:45):they some of them get re-referred to committee and some may have to start,(00:06:51):you know,(00:06:51):anew.(00:06:53):But, you know, a lot of the issues that we talked about last year as being(00:06:58):you know, dead bills, whatever.(00:07:02):Most of those still have some life left in them.(00:07:05):It doesn’t mean that they’re likely to move because,(00:07:07):you know,(00:07:07):a lot of them,(00:07:08):if they didn’t have the support last year,(00:07:10):they’re not going to have it this year.(00:07:13):But it does mean that some of those bills don’t have to start from scratch,(00:07:16):including the governor’s energy bill.(00:07:19):Always a reminder to me that I always recommend to staff that we do not waste a lot(00:07:25):of time on what’s dead because things come back from the dead.(00:07:32):as we have seen different times, whether it’s that year or the next year.(00:07:37):Laura,(00:07:39):now you mentioned about Bobby Kaufman making bold predictions and what have you,(00:07:43):but I would have loved to be a fly on the wall.(00:07:48):I have no idea if this has even happened yet,(00:07:52):but a one-on-one conversation,(00:07:54):whether it would be on the phone or sitting down face to face between the governor(00:07:59):and(00:07:59):and Leader Kaufman.(00:08:01):I don’t know if such a thing has happened,(00:08:03):but the things...(00:08:05):I don’t know what you two thought,(00:08:08):but he was so outspoken about her and against her after her veto last year of the(00:08:18):eminent domain bill that...(00:08:23):I think I was really surprised how much he said publicly.(00:08:26):Like,(00:08:27):I get it,(00:08:28):you know,(00:08:28):if you’re really ticked off behind the scenes and you blow off before,(00:08:32):maybe in caucus or in front of the staff or whatever,(00:08:35):but to be wil

We are glad to be back! Thanks to all of our subscribers, new and old, we are beginning our first post-hiatus show with a general preview of what our reporters think will be the headline stories of the new year.We all agree this 2026 election cycle may be one of the most exciting in decades with competitive primaries on both side of the aisle. With Governor Reynolds and Joni Ernst out of the race we’ll have open primaries for both governor and senate this year. That republican primary for Governor could be especially hard to handicap at this point, and we do a deeper dive on that race towards the tail end of the show.The economy, as always, will be a big story both locally and nationwide. We’ll see how the effect of tariffs will continue impact the state. Also, the cost of healthcare continues to rise, including for farmers and self-employed individuals on the Affordable Care Act options. How will those increases effect the electorate this year?We’ll be back next week with a legislative session preview for 2026.Thanks for watching, listening, and reading, we appreciate you!AI generated transcript below:(00:00:01):Hi, happy 2026.(00:00:04):The Iowa Down Ballot podcast is officially back.(00:00:10):We need like balloon drops, right, ladies?(00:00:13):Confetti.(00:00:14):Happy New Year.(00:00:15):It's been a minute.(00:00:17):Welcome back to Laura Bellen and Kathie Obradovich.(00:00:20):How are you both?(00:00:22):Fabulous, thank you.(00:00:23):Good.(00:00:25):As we were joking before we started recording,(00:00:27):we all just tore it up for New Year's Eve,(00:00:30):as we are known to do,(00:00:32):so we needed two days to recover.(00:00:35):It's hard for me to even say that out loud because it's so ridiculous for anybody(00:00:39):who knows me that those days are long gone.(00:00:45):I did not see the New Year ring in.(00:00:46):Oh, you did not.(00:00:49):I may have celebrated New Year in London or something like that, which was six hours earlier.(00:00:58):Okay, Grandma, you're in bed by six.(00:01:03):I was finishing my write-up of the special election in Senate District 16,(00:01:07):thanks to somebody who scheduled the election for December 30th.(00:01:11):I was finishing an article on New Year's Eve, so that was very exciting.(00:01:15):You can ring in the new year like that.(00:01:17):That will have significance in 2026, which kind of tees us up.(00:01:21):I thought that for our welcome back gathering as we begin 2026,(00:01:26):and we'll have extensive coverage in the weeks ahead of the Iowa legislative(00:01:31):session,(00:01:32):which starts,(00:01:33):as we record,(00:01:33):about a week and a half from now on Monday.(00:01:36):But I thought maybe let's more broadly look at 2026, midterm election, legislative session.(00:01:43):We have some economic things to think about.(00:01:45):And I thought we would start off maybe by just hitting, let's pick one thing to start us.(00:01:53):Laura,(00:01:53):as I look at my screen,(00:01:54):you're in my top left,(00:01:55):so I'm going to make you go first as our leadoff hitter.(00:01:57):But pick one thing that piques your curiosity for 2026.(00:02:04):It's just going to be the most fascinating election cycle ever, Dave.(00:02:08):But if I can only... You sound like a politician.(00:02:11):The stakes could not be higher.(00:02:13):But really, truly, I mean, it is going to be a wild election year.(00:02:17):But I would say if I could only pick one thing...(00:02:21):it would be this republican primary for governor because it is a weird primary(00:02:27):shaping up don't do two good ones in one thought you're supposed to limit one(00:02:32):thought can you please save the save the republican primary lady that's on my list(00:02:36):here that's for later okay sorry do just the overall election and why is it so(00:02:43):fascinating and maybe compared to the last couple(00:02:47):Well,(00:02:47):there are a lot of competitive primaries for a lot of offices,(00:02:50):federal and state on both sides.(00:02:52):So,(00:02:52):I mean,(00:02:52):I think a lot of people stepping up to run for office and I'm interested to see how(00:02:56):it all shakes out.(00:02:58):Okay.(00:02:59):We'll take that.(00:02:59):Thank you.(00:03:00):All right, Kathie, what's top of your list?(00:03:02):Okay.(00:03:02):This is a kind of a subset of Laura's, but I know you're going to let me get away with it.(00:03:08):Where's the mute button on this thing?(00:03:12):And that is, will the success that Democrats have had in the special elections of 2025(00:03:20):carry into 2026?(00:03:21):And if so, how?(00:03:24):So, I mean, these were legislative races.(00:03:28):I wouldn't necessarily expect them to have legs above,(00:03:34):you know,(00:03:34):this is a down ballot podcast,(00:03:36):right?(00:03:36):But there's a lot of top of the ticket stuff to talk about.(00:03:40):But,(00:03:40):you know,(00:03:40):whether the special elections,(00:03:43):which frankly did generate a lot of life and momentum for Democrats,(00:03:48):does this(00:03:49):you know,(00:03:49):translate to,(00:03:50):you know,(00:03:51):above the legislative races on the ballot and how or whether that momentum and life(00:03:58):and spark carries through to legislative,(00:04:02):important legislative races here in 2026.(00:04:06):Laura, you did that deep dive.(00:04:08):We already talked about it.(00:04:09):You know,(00:04:09):the way you rung in 2026 by living it up and writing out an extensive piece on that(00:04:15):special election in the Des Moines Metro for the late Senator Claire Celci's seat.(00:04:21):What did you see in there to piggyback off what Cathy said?(00:04:26):where there was there something in there that you believe could give democrats some(00:04:31):hope and i'm i have kind of a two-parter for you because i also want to tease(00:04:34):something you wrote several months back when you were looking at particularly(00:04:39):statewide the big big hole that democrats find themselves in when it comes to(00:04:45):registered voters and that was sort of your caution to some of the activists about(00:04:50):Hey, let's chill a little bit.(00:04:52):You can be excited about 2026, but this is a big mountain to climb.(00:04:56):How do you maybe connect those two things?(00:04:59):Well,(00:04:59):I think Cathy's right that it can be hard to see a special election as predictive(00:05:04):of the next general election.(00:05:05):But I do think that this election that just happened in the western suburbs of Des(00:05:09):Moines is quite important because a lot of battleground legislative races will be(00:05:14):in the Polk County suburbs.(00:05:16):And we saw when Cindy Axne was elected in 2018 and reelected in 2020,(00:05:22):strong turnout in the suburbs of Polk County was very important for her.(00:05:26):And Democrats ran a really good ground game, and they're very fired up.(00:05:30):And this trend that we've seen of suburbs becoming more Democratic,(00:05:35):I mean,(00:05:35):there's no sign of it slowing down right now.(00:05:37):So I do think that that's important,(00:05:39):and those Polk County suburbs are gonna be critical for a lot of races,(00:05:43):including even the statewide races,(00:05:45):because statewide candidates for Democrats are gonna need to get every last vote(00:05:50):they can out of precincts like these Democratic ones in Polk County.(00:05:54):But this voter registration hole that you brought up, I first wrote about this in June.(00:05:58):The situation is basically no better for Democrats now.(00:06:02):So at that time,(00:06:03):I was thinking,(00:06:04):OK,(00:06:04):Democrats have about a year and a half to start chipping away at this massive voter(00:06:08):registration lead that Republicans have and really minimal changes.(00:06:13):And so if you compare it to the 2018 midterm, when Democrats had a pretty good election and(00:06:19):Across Iowa, Fred Hubble only lost the governor's race by about three points.(00:06:23):But at that time, the party registrations were closer to equal.(00:06:27):I mean, the Republicans had a very slight advantage.(00:06:30):Now it's almost a 200,000 advantage.(00:06:34):And that's not to say that everybody votes according to their voter registration,(00:06:37):but it's just hard if you start out(00:06:40):that much in the hole,(00:06:41):even with high turnout among Democrats,(00:06:44):it's just hard to overcome that natural Republican advantage.(00:06:47):So I still see Republicans as favored in all of the statewide races next year.(00:06:51):I would say one thing, Dave, and that is(00:06:55):You know,(00:06:55):we just touched on the fact that there are a lot of really,(00:06:59):really competitive primary races coming up in June.(00:07:03):And that,(00:07:03):to me,(00:07:04):is an opportunity both for Republicans and Democrats,(00:07:09):but to build up their party registration,(00:07:11):because getting people to vote in primaries,(00:07:14):obviously,(00:07:15):you have to declare a party here in Iowa.(00:07:17):We have closed primaries and getting people to declare a party for those primary(00:07:21):elections and the fact that they're they're competitive and interesting.(00:07:25):Could help some of that settle out,(00:07:28):or at least we'll know after those June primaries or maybe leading up to the June(00:07:33):primaries,(00:07:34):how successful Democrats are likely to be in rectifying that gulf in party(00:07:40):registrations.(00:07:41):Kathie, earlier in your career, you primarily focused on Eastern Iowa.(00:07:45):Now,(00:07:45):of course,(00:07:46):for years,(00:07:46):you've really focused,(00:07:47):even at the Register,(00:07:48):you were pretty statewide in the way you viewed a lot of things.(00:07:51):Now you especially are, really, you're regionally now.(00:07:54):I'm curious what you make about the reddening of Iowa politically.(00:07:59):What do you think's been behind all that?(00:08:02):Yeah,(00:08:02):I mean,(00:0

This will be our last episode before our Summer hiatus. We are hoping to be back with new episodes in the Fall, but we do need more financial support to defray the costs of production. If you are able, please consider a donation or paid subscription. We really enjoy doing the show, and believe that many of you find it valuable.On to the show! Christina Bohannon has officially declared her candidacy for the 1st congressional district in southeast Iowa. Will the third time be the charm? It certainly was for Mariannette Miller-Meeks. That leads in to a discussion of Joni Ernst, Randy Feenstra, and MMM trying to tie their wagon to the MAGA/Trump Republicans but they also have a fairly tepid past with Trump; Laura Belin wrote a deep dive at Bleeding Heartland concerning Democrats’ statewide chances in the 2026 cycle, and we discuss the apparent uphill battle for the dems. We also discuss how the trends in Iowa mirror what’s been going on in other states since about 2014; Our central Iowa viewers will be familiar with our last topic. High nitrate levels in Des Moines and Raccoon rivers prompted Central Iowa Water Works' first-ever lawn watering ban. Kathie and her team at Iowa Capital Dispatch have been all over this story so she gives us the details on how nitrates in water can impact our health. We appreciate you guys, and hope to see you again soon. Have a nice summer and stay cool this weekend.AI generated transcript: Dave Price (00:00:01):Hi,Dave Price (00:00:01):everyone,Dave Price (00:00:01):and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast,Dave Price (00:00:04):a production of the Iowa Writer's Collaborative.Dave Price (00:00:07):I'm Dave Price,Dave Price (00:00:07):joined,Dave Price (00:00:09):as always,Dave Price (00:00:09):almost always,Dave Price (00:00:11):Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin,Dave Price (00:00:13):and happy Friday to you both as we talk on a Friday afternoon.Dave Price (00:00:16):It is 150,000 degrees outside, and it'll be that way all weekend long.Kathie Obradovich (00:00:24):They say it's not the heat, it's the humidity, right?Dave Price (00:00:27):uh apparently so man we had the des moines area we had a pretty good storm earlyDave Price (00:00:32):this morning my poor doggie got all freaked out as she does in the storms and cameDave Price (00:00:36):up to the bed and that's when i knew things were about to get ugly outsideDave Price (00:00:44):All right, let's talk about a few things.Dave Price (00:00:46):I think maybe possibly on here somewhere several weeks back,Dave Price (00:00:52):we may have said Christina Bohannon's name.Dave Price (00:00:56):It has been a long kept secret that not so good secret,Dave Price (00:01:01):I suppose,Dave Price (00:01:02):that she was going to run again in Iowa's first congressional district.Dave Price (00:01:07):As she told me when we were talking earlier this week,Dave Price (00:01:09):she claims that third time will be a charm here.Dave Price (00:01:13):um it is an interesting way to I saw the National Republican campaign uh committeeDave Price (00:01:19):had uh said something about Iowans have already rejected her or something likeDave Price (00:01:23):which is true that's that's true she lost both times but it might not be the rightDave Price (00:01:27):way to come after her when Marianne Miller Meeks lost three times before she won aDave Price (00:01:32):fourth time so this is like the race of persistence if these two become ourDave Price (00:01:36):nominees rightKathie Obradovich (00:01:39):Yeah, yes, absolutely.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:40):I mean, so Christina Bohannon has come very, very close to knocking off Marianette Miller Meeks.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:51):We had the last...Kathie Obradovich (00:01:55):election i think the difference ended up being something like 800 votes 599 i thinkKathie Obradovich (00:02:02):right right yeah 799 799 okay yeah so that you know percentage wise is is prettyKathie Obradovich (00:02:08):small um the legislature you say it sort of prompted the legislature to actuallyKathie Obradovich (00:02:13):come back and change the recount rules um because that that um race did go to aKathie Obradovich (00:02:20):recountKathie Obradovich (00:02:21):um and you know obviously did not change the results um but you know you look at itKathie Obradovich (00:02:27):you know if you look at the fact that that was a presidential year um that wasKathie Obradovich (00:02:32):frankly punishing for democrats and i know we're going to get into that a littleKathie Obradovich (00:02:37):bit later with laura but um but you know the fact that she could come so close in aKathie Obradovich (00:02:42):presidential year and now the the midtermsKathie Obradovich (00:02:46):which, you know, typically would be better for the party not in power.Kathie Obradovich (00:02:49):So,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:49):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:51):I don't,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:53):I'm not necessarily going to discount her chances as certainly being better thanKathie Obradovich (00:02:59):they were two years ago.Kathie Obradovich (00:03:01):But I also didn't hear a lot from her in her announcement about what she might beKathie Obradovich (00:03:08):planning to do differently.Kathie Obradovich (00:03:10):So I would be interested in hearing more about that.Laura Belin (00:03:13):I did.Laura Belin (00:03:13):I asked her a little bit about that.Laura Belin (00:03:15):She thinks that this whatever you want to call it,Laura Belin (00:03:18):I think she was calling it the big,Laura Belin (00:03:19):bad bill,Laura Belin (00:03:19):the big,Laura Belin (00:03:20):beautiful bill.Laura Belin (00:03:21):And that is going to be a central issue for her in the midterm elections.Laura Belin (00:03:25):But I want to put this in context of how badly Marianne Miller Meeks underperformedLaura Belin (00:03:30):in that district.Laura Belin (00:03:31):That's a district that Donald Trump carried by about eight and a half points thatLaura Belin (00:03:36):Miller Meeks won by 0.2%.Laura Belin (00:03:38):So she was one of the absolute worst performing Republican incumbents in theLaura Belin (00:03:43):country relative to how Donald Trump did in the district.Laura Belin (00:03:47):And I think that's why Democrats are targeting that first district again,Laura Belin (00:03:51):because even though there has been so much slippage in Democratic performance,Laura Belin (00:03:55):I mean,Laura Belin (00:03:55):you just have to say that Christina Bohannon is in this for a real chance.Dave Price (00:04:00):And we're assuming Marianne Miller-Meeks is going to run again.Dave Price (00:04:03):I do not believe she has said that yet.Dave Price (00:04:06):We do know that if she does run,Dave Price (00:04:08):she has a Republican challenger,Dave Price (00:04:09):David Pouch,Dave Price (00:04:11):who made a race of it last time around,Dave Price (00:04:13):right?Dave Price (00:04:13):I think it was 55-45.Laura Belin (00:04:16):It was 56-44.Laura Belin (00:04:17):And he raised almost no money, less than $40,000.Laura Belin (00:04:20):And she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.Laura Belin (00:04:22):And then outside groups were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.Laura Belin (00:04:26):I think the American Action Network is already, that's a conservative...Laura Belin (00:04:29):group.Laura Belin (00:04:30):I think they're already up with some ads for her.Laura Belin (00:04:32):I don't know if they're digital or broadcast, but she's going to need a lot of help.Laura Belin (00:04:36):She could lose the primary.Laura Belin (00:04:37):That's realistic.Dave Price (00:04:39):I'm going to make a very TV-like generic blank statement,Dave Price (00:04:44):blanket statement,Dave Price (00:04:44):as we TV people do when we try to make a point in 10 seconds.Dave Price (00:04:48):But do you all agree with me on this,Dave Price (00:04:51):that Marionette Miller-Meeks,Dave Price (00:04:54):to me,Dave Price (00:04:55):has something in common kind of with Joni Ernst and Randy Feenstra?Dave Price (00:04:59):they're not like a super perfect mega match necessarily and they have to kind ofDave Price (00:05:08):work for it right like randy feenstra who is running for governor but not quiteDave Price (00:05:14):running for governor and it's all this semantics thing he's got this exploratoryDave Price (00:05:18):committee but man his stuff is so trump trump trump trump trump trump trump trumpDave Price (00:05:24):and i'm going to support trump and all of this stuff and as we well know before theDave Price (00:05:28):last caucus cycle he was planning on endorsing somebody that somebody wasDave Price (00:05:36):supposedly not donald trump then he changed and he didn't endorse so that whateverDave Price (00:05:42):thatDave Price (00:05:44):environment thing was happened and marionette miller meeks had we just talked aboutDave Price (00:05:49):she had to deal with her republican primary joanie ernst also did not endorse trumpDave Price (00:05:54):and seemed more aligned with nikki haley although she never never endorsed her andDave Price (00:05:58):now she's trying to figure out with elon and hegseth and dc and all this stuff andDave Price (00:06:04):is she running not running and whatever it just feels like the three of them likeDave Price (00:06:09):there's something not quite hand in glove what do you thinkKathie Obradovich (00:06:14):I totally agree.Kathie Obradovich (00:06:15):And we've seen that more,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:18):I think,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:19):with Joni Ernst recently,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:21):especially with the qualms that she showed early on with Hegseth and how very vocalKathie Obradovich (00:06:31):the MAGA right was in threatening her into essentially saying she was going to voteKathie Obradovich (00:06:37):for him and then voting for him.Kathie Obradovich (00:06:41):And Randy Feinster,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:42):I mean,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:43):come on,Kathie Obradovich (0

We start off with Gov. Reynolds’ veto of the eminent domain bill. We discuss the reasons for the veto, including what the governor said, and what she doesn’t want to say. Also, what kind of political ramifications might this end up unleashing between the governor and the republicans who helped pass the bill? This may also hamper the governor’s agenda, especially property tax relief, going into the next session; Then, as promised, we discuss the 2026 governors race for the state. We have one new democrat and one new republican in the race, Julie Stauch and Eddie Andrews, respectively. We dive in to each of their chances running against better known candidates. We wrap up with what we’re working on, including Laura’s deep dive at Bleeding Heartland on the democrats’ chances in statewide races overall in 2026. Happy Father’s Day, and thanks for watching/listening/reading!AI Generated Transcript:Dave Price (00:00:02):Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast.Dave Price (00:00:06):I am Dave Price, joined by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin.Dave Price (00:00:10):We need to start this week.Dave Price (00:00:12):By the way,Dave Price (00:00:13):today is Friday the 13th,Dave Price (00:00:14):and if I can do a personal point of privilege here,Dave Price (00:00:18):I was engaged on Friday the 13th.Kathie Obradovich (00:00:20):Hey, turned out to be a lucky day for you.Dave Price (00:00:23):Yeah, I need to have my wife on here and see if she would say that it was lucky for her.Dave Price (00:00:28):We'll see.Dave Price (00:00:28):I hope she still feels that way.Laura Belin (00:00:30):In Russia, it's Monday the 13th that's unlucky, not Friday the 13th.Dave Price (00:00:34):Okay.Dave Price (00:00:37):Hey, let's begin with the veto heard around the world, or at least within our borders.Dave Price (00:00:43):I don't know that this would come as a surprise.Dave Price (00:00:46):Perhaps there are some out there who thought that somehow...Dave Price (00:00:49):Governor Kim Reynolds was going to veto this complicated bill that dealt withDave Price (00:00:55):eminent domain when it came to the carbon sequestration pipeline.Dave Price (00:00:59):I feel like though that, I mean, the whole process was confusing, right?Dave Price (00:01:03):Because some people probably looked at that as it was this anti-pipeline bill.Dave Price (00:01:07):It was gonna save all the landowners.Dave Price (00:01:09):It was far more complex than that.Dave Price (00:01:12):Which one of you wants to begin by saying that you were shocked with the veto?Dave Price (00:01:17):Perhaps Kathy's cat.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:18):No, yeah, Samo's joining us today.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:22):We'll see if he weighs in on any of these.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:25):He's not surprised by much.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:27):And, you know, I felt like she could have gone either way.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:33):So I can't say I'm truly surprised by the veto.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:35):But the fact that she's leaving office, to me, potentially neutralized the special interest ofKathie Obradovich (00:01:45):part of this where one of her biggest donors,Kathie Obradovich (00:01:49):Bruce Rastetter,Kathie Obradovich (00:01:51):is owning Summit Carbon Solutions,Kathie Obradovich (00:01:55):and obviously their relationship goes back a long way.Kathie Obradovich (00:02:03):But that loyalty sometimes doesn't survive when somebody is getting ready to leaveKathie Obradovich (00:02:09):office and not running again.Kathie Obradovich (00:02:10):In this case, I think it did.Kathie Obradovich (00:02:12):Also,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:14):I mean,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:14):I think that there were some legitimate issues in the drafting of the bill thatKathie Obradovich (00:02:21):gave her,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:22):I think,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:24):an excuse to say what she said in her veto message,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:27):which is that she is concerned about landowner rights,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:30):but that she felt like this legislation would have...Kathie Obradovich (00:02:34):a variety of unintended consequences,Kathie Obradovich (00:02:36):including to an ethanol producer whose pipeline project had actually signed up allKathie Obradovich (00:02:44):of its easements without having to resort to eminent domain.Dave Price (00:02:49):And the horse is out of the barn on this, right?Dave Price (00:02:51):I mean,Dave Price (00:02:51):this would have been,Dave Price (00:02:52):perhaps this is less complicated had Summit not already received permission forDave Price (00:02:59):eminent domain,Dave Price (00:03:00):right?Laura Belin (00:03:02):Well, they did, butLaura Belin (00:03:03):On the other hand,Laura Belin (00:03:04):they can't start building the pipeline until the route is approved in both NorthLaura Belin (00:03:08):Dakota and South Dakota,Laura Belin (00:03:09):and they're having real trouble in South Dakota.Laura Belin (00:03:11):So I think, I mean, I was very confident all along she would veto the bill.Laura Belin (00:03:16):I was only surprised that some of the key House Republicans like Stephen Holt wentLaura Belin (00:03:21):out publicly and said that he felt he was confident that the governor would sign.Laura Belin (00:03:25):I thought that was maybe a little bit of wishful thinking to throw out there.Laura Belin (00:03:29):But not only was Bruce Rostetter a big donor to her campaigns, butLaura Belin (00:03:34):Her mentor,Laura Belin (00:03:34):Terry Branstad,Laura Belin (00:03:35):to whom she owes pretty much her entire political career,Laura Belin (00:03:39):is a senior policy advisor or whatever his title is.Laura Belin (00:03:44):He has some kind of a title position within Summit Carbon Solutions.Laura Belin (00:03:47):So I just never saw any real possibility that she would veto the bill.Laura Belin (00:03:52):I think that it was complicated.Laura Belin (00:03:54):There were a couple of different bills that the House sent over to the Senate.Laura Belin (00:03:58):This was the one that was really complex that included a lot of differentLaura Belin (00:04:02):provisions related to pipelines and the Iowa Utilities Commission.Laura Belin (00:04:06):And then there was a second bill that was very short that was similar to what SouthLaura Belin (00:04:10):Dakota enacted that just would have said,Laura Belin (00:04:13):you can't use eminent domain for a hazardous liquid pipeline that's carbon dioxide,Laura Belin (00:04:19):basically just a one or two paragraph bill.Laura Belin (00:04:22):And that was the one thatLaura Belin (00:04:23):that the Senate Republicans made sure not to vote out of committee or rather theLaura Belin (00:04:27):Mike Boussolo,Laura Belin (00:04:28):the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee.Laura Belin (00:04:29):He kept that one bottled up in committee and then move forward on this moreLaura Belin (00:04:33):complicated one that they thought they were going to be able to amend to theirLaura Belin (00:04:37):liking.Laura Belin (00:04:38):And they ended up stuck with this House bill that the governor raised a number ofLaura Belin (00:04:42):questions about it.Laura Belin (00:04:43):It was very predictable.Laura Belin (00:04:44):that she's not going to come out and say, oh, I would never go against my big campaign donor.Laura Belin (00:04:50):So she could point to other things and say,Laura Belin (00:04:53):this could affect different pipeline projects,Laura Belin (00:04:55):this could affect eminent domain.Laura Belin (00:04:57):And I thought,Laura Belin (00:04:58):as a little bit of window dressing there,Laura Belin (00:04:59):I thought it was interesting that she said in her veto message that she'sLaura Belin (00:05:03):instructing the Iowa Utilities Commission to enact some of the reforms that theLaura Belin (00:05:07):bill would have called for,Laura Belin (00:05:08):like saying that all of the commissioners have to be present,Laura Belin (00:05:12):at evidentiary hearings and that at least one of them has to be present for anLaura Belin (00:05:16):informational meeting,Laura Belin (00:05:17):which is something that a lot of the landowners were upset about.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:20):The Utilities Commission has already sent out an order basically announcing thatKathie Obradovich (00:05:26):they're enacting that and thanking the governor for her timely suggestion.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:31):But here's the thing.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:35):The governor was sitting up there in her office the entire legislative sessionKathie Obradovich (00:05:41):And, you know, including the past four years when they've been debating this bill.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:47):I just one thing I don't understand is why she didn't make her opinion known soonerKathie Obradovich (00:05:54):than a veto message.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:56):I mean, I think.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:58):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:05:58):given the serious fissures in the Republican caucus that this caused and the badKathie Obradovich (00:06:06):feelings and the kind of ugly debates and things that have been said that can't beKathie Obradovich (00:06:11):unsaid.Kathie Obradovich (00:06:13):I mean, it seems like she could have headed off some of this by just saying, look,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:19):You know,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:20):this pipeline is important to Iowa,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:21):and I'm not going to clip it,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:24):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:25):this far along into the process.Kathie Obradovich (00:06:27):And she chose not to do that.Kathie Obradovich (00:06:29):And so I do understand,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:31):and not to step on Dave's next question,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:35):but the really angry response that we're getting from the Republicans who were,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:42):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:42):in favor of this bill.Dave Price (00:06:45):I wonder, though, is there, I totally understand what you're

The governor still hasn’t made a decision whether to sign the eminent domain bill, so not much to discuss concerning the state government this week. We focused mainly on the recent candidate announcement for US Senate on this week’s show (editor’s note Dave mentions at the top we’ll be discussing the governor’s race announcements as well but we spent too much time on the senate and we wanted to get Kathie’s Minnesota story in. We’ll go in depth on the governor’s race next week). The biggest political news in the state started last Friday with Sen. Joni Ernst’s “We all are going to die” response to a constituent’s statement during a town hall in Parkersburg. The senator also announced the hiring of a campaign manager for her 2026 reelection bid. We dive in to what it all means; Former Republican State Senator Jim Carlin announced early Friday that he will seek the US Senate nomination for his party, and it appears he’ll try attacking Ernst from the right in the primary; Ernst’s controversy encouraged Democratic State Rep. J.D. Scholten to enter the US Senate race earlier than he may have planned. We discuss his credentials and early campaign; Kathie is in Minnesota with some of her States Newsroom colleagues and they had Governor Tim Walz as a guest Thursday so she shares a report from that event. Hope you have an enjoyable weekend, we’ll see you next week!AI generated transcript (I wish I could teach it to spell Kathie’s name right every time)(00:00:01):Hi,(00:00:01):everyone,(00:00:01):and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast,(00:00:05):a production of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.(00:00:07):I am Dave Price.(00:00:08):I write Dave Price's perspective.(00:00:10):Joined, as always, this week, Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin.(00:00:15):Hello, ladies.(00:00:17):Hello.(00:00:17):Good to be here.(00:00:19):Kathie, are we allowed to say you're on the road?(00:00:21):Yeah, if you notice the background, it's a hotel room in Minneapolis.(00:00:25):So I'm hitting the road as soon as we're done here to drive back to Iowa.(00:00:30):But I've been with all of my fellow editors from the State's Newsroom Network this week.(00:00:36):So it's been an interesting week.(00:00:42):And you'll have a nugget to share about...(00:00:45):A VIP speaker.(00:00:47):Yeah, we have a special guest.(00:00:49):So I'll be happy to tell you.(00:00:52):I thought this week.(00:00:54):Well,(00:00:55):we have had some bill signings and such this week by the governor,(00:00:59):still not the eminent domain one.(00:01:01):We'll see when that thing happens.(00:01:03):But since we had so many announcements this week,(00:01:05):I thought maybe we should catch up a little bit on where things stand.(00:01:10):And we are recording this on Friday morning and just a couple hours before we all gathered here.(00:01:18):We got another new candidate.(00:01:21):So we'll work Jim Carlin into our conversation as well.(00:01:24):But we'll primarily focus on the US Senate race and the governor race.(00:01:29):And all of these are interesting to me in their own unique ways.(00:01:33):But since the Jim Carlin thing is the new one, maybe let's start with the newest one.(00:01:39):Let's start with the US Senate race.(00:01:42):I am curious, first of all, ladies,(00:01:47):What is going on with Joni Ernst?(00:01:49):And let me set it up this way.(00:01:51):Obviously,(00:01:52):we're going to have to backtrack and look at what she said last Friday,(00:01:56):follow that up with what she said the day after,(00:01:59):and then even into this week as well.(00:02:01):And we will try to have this discussion before we all die.(00:02:06):And we're going to talk about whether that comment had staying power here too.(00:02:10):Before we get on all of that goodness, I am curious what you're reporting...(00:02:17):and your sources have been telling you for a while.(00:02:20):I have a couple of pretty usually reliable Republican sources who led me to believe(00:02:28):that Joni Ernst was not going to run for re-election.(00:02:32):And as Laura helped remind me, Senator Ernst(00:02:39):when she was in a debate in 2014,(00:02:42):when she was in that crowded Republican primary debate,(00:02:45):when she ran for the first time,(00:02:47):during a debate on Iowa PBS,(00:02:50):she followed Matt Whitaker,(00:02:51):who was right before her,(00:02:52):and she said that 12 years would be what she wanted to spend in the Senate.(00:02:57):In other words, two terms.(00:02:59):It appears there hasn't been a big hoopla announcement,(00:03:04):a rally,(00:03:06):whatever,(00:03:06):a tweet,(00:03:08):whatever,(00:03:08):however you wanna do it,(00:03:10):to say that she is formally running for reelection,(00:03:12):but she did announce,(00:03:13):the campaign did announce that they have a campaign manager.(00:03:17):So you would assume this would mean that she's running for reelection.(00:03:22):And I'm trying to figure out what this all means because it was sounding like she(00:03:28):wasn't going to.(00:03:29):I was led to believe she's going to do something else.(00:03:33):And that was why the Roast and Ride was delayed.(00:03:36):We weren't hearing any news on that.(00:03:38):Now,(00:03:39):within the last couple of weeks,(00:03:40):they've announced it's going to be in October,(00:03:41):which is later than normal.(00:03:44):Two years ago,(00:03:44):I remember specifically it was on June 6th because that was my last day at my(00:03:48):former TV employer.(00:03:50):And it was also a year away from the...(00:03:52):about a year away from the primary so that date kind of sticks in my head so I knew(00:03:55):that it was earlier before anyway sorry there's a super long wind up here but I(00:04:01):think that probably gives you a sense into my confusion in my head because I was(00:04:05):hearing some pretty prominent voices who did not believe she was going to run again(00:04:09):and it looks like at least at this point she's running again(00:04:12):Any thoughts?(00:04:14):Yeah, I would say it looks that way.(00:04:15):I mean, you announced the hiring of a campaign manager.(00:04:19):You don't do that unless you're planning to run.(00:04:23):At my guess,(00:04:24):and I can only speculate about this,(00:04:26):but my guess is that Joni took a while to think about whether she was going to run.(00:04:34):And that, you know, she is...(00:04:39):you know,(00:04:39):had been,(00:04:40):you know,(00:04:40):kind of on the on the outs with the Trump administration as she publicly kind of(00:04:48):wavered on the Pete Hegseth nomination for secretary of defense.(00:04:53):I think she probably is surprised as anyone that there wasn't a mega Republican who(00:05:02):has popped up to run against her at this point.(00:05:05):And so and I think,(00:05:09):frankly,(00:05:10):that as we'll talk about her very odd non apology to her comment about we're all(00:05:18):going to die.(00:05:19):was probably for an audience of one,(00:05:23):trying to persuade Donald Trump not to endorse somebody against her.(00:05:27):So I think after that, the non-apology, I thought, well, she must be running.(00:05:35):But yeah, I think for whatever reason, she took a while to think about whether she was going to(00:05:43):Well,(00:05:44):last year she told Doug Burns and a few other reporters that she was likely going(00:05:49):to run for a third time.(00:05:51):Right.(00:05:51):That was before Trump won the election.(00:05:54):So then,(00:05:55):I mean,(00:05:55):I did hear speculation this year that maybe she was holding out to try to get a(00:05:58):Trump administration job and maybe the delay in announcing the Roaston ride,(00:06:03):which,(00:06:04):as you said,(00:06:04):Dave,(00:06:05):normally happens in June.(00:06:06):This year is happening in October.(00:06:08):Maybe when SignalGate blew up, you know, there were questions about maybe Trump might(00:06:13):ditch Pete Hegseth, and who knows, maybe she wanted to keep the door open.(00:06:17):I would add, though, I think she's going to run.(00:06:19):I've always felt that she's going to run,(00:06:21):but Kim Reynolds had already hired a campaign manager,(00:06:25):and I think even a finance director,(00:06:27):and she then suddenly decided not to run.(00:06:30):So I don't, who knows, but I expect that Senator Ernst will seek a third term.(00:06:36):I agree.(00:06:36):To me, when I saw that non-apology video, I thought, oh yeah, she wants to make sure that(00:06:42):she's showing Trump that you never apologize and you never show weakness.(00:06:45):Although I know people who interpreted it the other way,(00:06:48):like the fact that she didn't try to clean up that mess that suggested to them that(00:06:53):maybe she's looking for another option and that maybe she doesn't care because when(00:06:58):you're in the middle of a national firestorm like that,(00:07:01):normally you would try to diffuse it instead of then pushing the story further.(00:07:08):I appreciate what you said there because(00:07:12):I'm with you on,(00:07:13):after what we just watched with Governor Reynolds,(00:07:17):just because you say,(00:07:18):and I have no firsthand knowledge,(00:07:20):I haven't sat down with Senator Ernst in a long time,(00:07:23):so we haven't had an in-depth talk about this.(00:07:25):So this is just pure speculation,(00:07:28):but since we just went through this thing with Governor Reynolds,(00:07:32):just because they're running at one point doesn't mean that they will be later.(00:07:37):Something can clearly change.(00:07:38):Maybe Senator Ernst finds something else she wants to do more or what have you or(00:07:42):doesn't like the way things are going or whatever.(00:07:45):I have no idea, so it's just conjecture, but I think that's a worthy point to emphasize that(00:07:52):She's whatever she's doing right now may not be doing may not be what she's doing later.(00:07:57):OK, can we back up to those comments?(00:08:00):Because I'm trying to remember when we r

We start the show this week with good news for the Perry community as they continue to rebound from the Tyson plant closure. JBS USA has announced a new pork processing facility in the town, which could bring over 500 jobs; Governor Reynolds is still signing bills from the 2025 legislative session. One of those is designed to address the healthcare worker shortage in the state. We discuss what the bill does and how successful it may be; The governor also signed the paid family leave bill that effect public workers in the state. All 3 of our reporters were at least a bit surprised that one got past the finish line this session; Senator Joni Ernst has announced her annual Roast and Ride date. It’ll be taking place in October, and we discuss the announcement and try to read the tea leaves; Thanks for listen/watching/reading. Remember to share with friends and family, and if you’re able please consider becoming a monthly or yearly paid subscriber.AI generated transcript below:Dave (00:00:01):Hi everyone and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast.Dave (00:00:04):I am Dave Price, joined as always by Laura Bellin and Kathie Obradovich.Dave (00:00:09):This podcast is a production of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.Dave (00:00:14):Hopefully you're supporting the work of the independent journalists who are part ofDave (00:00:18):the Iowa Writers Collaborative.Dave (00:00:21):If you're not, like do it right now.Dave (00:00:23):Maybe when the podcast is done.Dave (00:00:25):But if you can support what we're doing here and growing and growing and buildingDave (00:00:29):and spreading this information,Dave (00:00:31):that would be much appreciated.Dave (00:00:33):Whether you can justDave (00:00:35):Like and subscribe, send to others.Dave (00:00:38):Maybe you're able to become a paid subscriber as well.Dave (00:00:41):That helps as well.Dave (00:00:42):Whatever you can do to help this entity grow as we go from border to border in theDave (00:00:47):state of Iowa.Dave (00:00:48):So for the last several months,Dave (00:00:49):we have focused a lot on what the Iowa legislature has done,Dave (00:00:53):this legislative session.Dave (00:00:55):The session's done, but now we're starting to see some of these things happen.Dave (00:00:59):Get signed into law.Dave (00:01:01):So we are going to look at some of that this week.Dave (00:01:04):But we had and we're going to start with a little bit of business news because overDave (00:01:07):the past what year,Dave (00:01:09):year and a half,Dave (00:01:10):it seems like we've had a lot of headlines about this place is closing.Dave (00:01:14):They're laying off several hundred here, laying off here, laying off, laying off.Dave (00:01:18):Well,Dave (00:01:18):in Perry,Dave (00:01:20):where they are dealing with a bunch of layoffs,Dave (00:01:23):there's about 1,300,Dave (00:01:24):if memory serves,Dave (00:01:25):when Tyson Foods shut down the pork processing plant in Perry.Dave (00:01:30):And on this week, on Thursday, JBS USA confirmed that it is...Dave (00:01:39):working to build a $135 million pork sausage plant,Dave (00:01:45):not at the same physical location where Tyson was.Dave (00:01:48):They're going to build their own thing,Dave (00:01:49):providing they get all the necessary approvals from the city.Dave (00:01:53):But you'd have to think that's going to happen, right?Dave (00:01:55):You probably wouldn't make this big announcement if you don't think the cityDave (00:01:57):council is going to go along with this.Dave (00:02:00):But maybe up to 700, 750 jobs or so.Dave (00:02:02):It's kind of two shifts of 250 workers plus another...Dave (00:02:08):250 construction jobs.Dave (00:02:10):Either way,Dave (00:02:10):it's a little bit more than half of the workers that the community lost when TysonDave (00:02:16):shut down.Dave (00:02:18):Kathie,Dave (00:02:18):as always,Dave (00:02:19):the Iowa Capitol Dispatch was all over this,Dave (00:02:21):and you had a good in-depth story about this,Dave (00:02:24):but kind of big picture,Dave (00:02:25):we've seen so many blows to the agricultural industry,Dave (00:02:29):especially in our state,Dave (00:02:31):over the last year,Dave (00:02:32):year and a half.Dave (00:02:33):So this could definitely be a positive one for that community.Kathie (00:02:36):Yeah,Kathie (00:02:37):not only for the people who physically would be working in the plant,Kathie (00:02:41):but the pork producers who,Kathie (00:02:44):after Tyson shut down,Kathie (00:02:45):had to find some other place to take their pigs to the market.Kathie (00:02:50):And, you know, that comes at additional cost.Kathie (00:02:53):You have to drive them along longer distance.Kathie (00:02:56):A lot of those packing plants don't necessarily have openings for more animals.Kathie (00:03:01):So you might end up feeding these pigs longer than you intended.Kathie (00:03:07):There was just a big financial hit all the way around.Kathie (00:03:11):The cost of the community has been significant as well.Kathie (00:03:15):Kids coming out of school, et cetera.Kathie (00:03:19):I think though,Kathie (00:03:20):one of the things I'm interested in seeing is how many of those former TysonKathie (00:03:24):workersKathie (00:03:25):are still hanging around the community and haven't moved,Kathie (00:03:29):you know,Kathie (00:03:30):to other plants,Kathie (00:03:31):either in other cities or out of state.Kathie (00:03:35):I assume JBS must think they are going to have a workforce somewhere in Perry,Kathie (00:03:40):and perhaps they can draw some of those people back to the community.Kathie (00:03:44):And I think it was,Dave (00:03:45):I think it was your reporting that showed it's like a hundred and something kidsDave (00:03:49):who have left the public school district,Dave (00:03:51):right?Dave (00:03:52):Since Tyson shut down.Kathie (00:03:55):I think that it was significant.Kathie (00:03:59):I mean,Kathie (00:03:59):it was a significant number of kids,Kathie (00:04:01):maybe more than I would have expected,Kathie (00:04:05):considering that a lot of people who worked at the plant weren't necessarily livingKathie (00:04:10):in Perry proper.Kathie (00:04:11):Some of them were driving in from nearby communities, et cetera.Kathie (00:04:17):And now with this sort of culture of fear that we have,Kathie (00:04:23):with the Hispanic community in particular and immigrants in general, I think it will be harder.Kathie (00:04:32):It will be harder to hire workers in mass for a business like this.Laura (00:04:40):I was just going to say,Laura (00:04:41):I remember when the Tyson announced they were shutting down that plant,Laura (00:04:45):hundreds,Laura (00:04:45):I can't remember the exact number,Laura (00:04:47):but certainly hundreds of the people who worked there didn't live right in Perry.Laura (00:04:50):They were coming in either from the Des Moines metro or from other smaller towns.Laura (00:04:55):And so many of those people may have already found other employment,Laura (00:04:59):but certainly it's always a good thing for a community when there's a hugeLaura (00:05:03):construction project that's gonna create hundreds of permanent jobs.Dave (00:05:07):And we should point out that I think they're thinking this would still be almost aDave (00:05:12):calendar year before this would open.Dave (00:05:15):So while this could be a significant number of jobs for Perry, it's still down the line here.Dave (00:05:22):Now, maybe that's a good thing.Dave (00:05:23):I mean, maybe that gives people a chance to apply and potentially move back to town.Dave (00:05:28):But you have to wonder what these folks have been doing.Dave (00:05:31):If they lost their job at Tyson, that could be almost a two-yearDave (00:05:37):absence from the workforce,Dave (00:05:39):that's a heck of a long time to go without a job if people are still stickingDave (00:05:42):around.Laura (00:05:43):And Iowa used to have an extra 13 weeks of unemployment payments if you wereLaura (00:05:48):working for a facility where the whole facility shut down.Laura (00:05:51):But that was ended.Laura (00:05:53):And also the regular unemployment benefits,Laura (00:05:55):which used to be available for up to 26 weeks,Laura (00:05:59):are now available only for up to 16 weeks.Laura (00:06:01):So, I mean, I would imagine that many people have moved on.Laura (00:06:04):I just wanted to add one quick thing.Laura (00:06:06):Because you had mentioned the declining enrollment in the schools.Laura (00:06:09):And just for listeners to understand that when a school district loses students,Laura (00:06:14):that's real money that they're losing because the state is most of the stateLaura (00:06:18):funding is going per pupil.Laura (00:06:20):And so maybe the state increased per pupil funding by 2% for the coming year.Laura (00:06:25):But if your school district has declining enrollment, you're going to be actually getting 50%.Laura (00:06:30):fewer dollars than you did last year, even if the amount per pupil bumped up a little bit.Laura (00:06:35):So it's very significant for a school district the size of Perry to be losingLaura (00:06:40):dozens of students or scores of students.Kathie (00:06:43):Yeah,Kathie (00:06:43):I would be,Kathie (00:06:44):you know,Kathie (00:06:45):I think it would really be wise for the city of Perry to,Kathie (00:06:48):you know,Kathie (00:06:49):hopefully,Kathie (00:06:50):if they've kept track of where some of these folks have gone,Kathie (00:06:54):to encourage them to move back.Kathie (00:06:56):And, you know, it's a nice little community.Kathie (00:06:59):It's a friendly community.Kathie (00:07:01):It's possible that people would really consider that if they had a job.Dave (00:07:05):And you'd have to think they did that.Dave (00:07:06):I think Newton has gone through a lot of these kind of ebbs and flows ever sinceDave (00:07:11):Whirlpool and Maytag pulled out.Dave (00:07:13):And they've had TPI composites and some others kind of in the

Governor Kim Reynolds didn’t get to sign the bill she wanted addressing child care this legislative session so she’s decided to take steps on her own; Speaking of the governor, she was also a guest on Iowa Press this weekend and Kathie peeked at the transcript. She didn’t commit on signing or not signing the eminent domain bill and may be bailing on no state income tax; US District Judge Stephen Locher upheld parts of the state’s ‘don’t say gay/trans’ law that was passed in 2023 while finding others unconstitutional. Laura helps us understand the decision and the reasoning behind it; We discussing Attorney General Brenna Bird’s visit to the US/Mexico border; We cap things off with reaction to Randy Feenstra’s first ad for governor. Anybody want to count the Trump references for us? Thanks to all veterans and those that paid the ultimate price to uphold and defend our freedom this Memorial Day weekend. Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe

The 2025 session is in the books and we’ll focus on the last day (technically two days?). Firstly, the second day after pulling an all nighter is always worse than the first. Dave and Kathie get into the weeds on last minute negotiations and amendments that ended up in the final budget bill that officially passed before adjournment at 6:31am Thursday. The state will be over budget and we discuss how the legislature is closing that deficit. Also the house gets their paraeducator pay raise in the budget, but decided not to play hardball on the governor signing the eminent domain bill. Republican Muscatine Senator Mark Lofgren wrote a scathing email to his fellow state legislators complaining about his own party’s leadership that was leaked to the press. Dave had the scoop and he and Kathie discuss how rare this is. Property tax reform punted to next year at the earliest. Kathie had a great nugget on possible property tax changes in another Midwest state. Dave and Kathie share what surprised them most in the final days of negotiation. Have a nice weekend, and we’ll see you next week!AI generated transcript:Dave Price (00:00:01):Welcome,Dave Price (00:00:01):everybody,Dave Price (00:00:02):to the newest Iowa Down Ballot podcast,Dave Price (00:00:05):a production of the Iowa Riders Collaborative.Dave Price (00:00:08):Here on the podcast for the last four and a half months or so,Dave Price (00:00:13):we've tried to bring kind of a deep dive look at what's going on with the IowaDave Price (00:00:18):legislative session.Dave Price (00:00:19):And guess what, Kathie Obradovich?Dave Price (00:00:22):This week,Dave Price (00:00:22):we can finally say that session is officially complete,Dave Price (00:00:26):minus the bill signing or vetoing or whatever the governor's going to do,Dave Price (00:00:30):right?Kathie Obradovich (00:00:30):It's a beautiful day.Dave Price (00:00:33):Sing it.Dave Price (00:00:35):Laura Belin on assignment, so she will not be joining us this week.Dave Price (00:00:38):I will warn you,Dave Price (00:00:39):Kathie,Dave Price (00:00:41):a legislator who apparently tunes in each week to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast wasDave Price (00:00:49):saying that I am not relaxed enough toDave Price (00:00:55):During these podcasts.Dave Price (00:00:57):So I've brought a beverage.Dave Price (00:01:00):Excellent.Dave Price (00:01:01):Although it would seem appropriate,Dave Price (00:01:04):although,Dave Price (00:01:04):frankly,Dave Price (00:01:04):a caffeinated beverage may be the appropriate drink of choice after this.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:10):I don't know about you, but the second day after getting no sleep is worse than the first day.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:16):I mean, there's only a few times a year when this happens, like election night, you know.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:21):And it seems like the very next day,Kathie Obradovich (00:01:23):not so bad because you're kind of running on caffeine and adrenaline.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:26):And it's the second day where you're just kind of going home.Kathie Obradovich (00:01:30):But I will try to stay awake here.Dave Price (00:01:33):That's exactly what happened on Wednesday into Thursday.Dave Price (00:01:36):So the house got done about 630.Dave Price (00:01:38):It was either 630 or 631 a.m., whatever the official time was.Dave Price (00:01:42):And, you know, then you're wrapping up, you're getting your story put together.Dave Price (00:01:45):And I came home.Dave Price (00:01:47):I...Dave Price (00:01:49):I had breakfast.Dave Price (00:01:51):My son had already taken off for school before I got home.Dave Price (00:01:53):So I totally missed him.Dave Price (00:01:55):I did get to have breakfast with my daughter.Dave Price (00:01:57):Then she heads out for school.Dave Price (00:01:58):And, you know, there's nothing like going to bed for a nice extended nap at 9 a.m., right?Dave Price (00:02:03):Yes.Dave Price (00:02:05):Wake up around lunchtime, eat a little bit, suck down some caffeine.Dave Price (00:02:09):But I totally agree.Dave Price (00:02:10):It's like the day after.Dave Price (00:02:12):it just hits you like you've gone out on a bender, you know?Dave Price (00:02:16):Dehydrated and tired and wondering where your life's gone.Kathie Obradovich (00:02:21):Yeah, you start saying to yourself, I'm too old for this.Dave Price (00:02:24):I said that about 423 times, I think.Dave Price (00:02:25):There have been a few of these...Dave Price (00:02:31):obviously,Dave Price (00:02:32):but what I felt like was so unique with this is that we go in there WednesdayDave Price (00:02:38):morning and there had been kind of this optimism that they were going to wrap upDave Price (00:02:43):Wednesday,Dave Price (00:02:44):right?Dave Price (00:02:44):You know,Dave Price (00:02:44):that it was kind of,Dave Price (00:02:47):it was like that carrot we couldn't quite grab for a while,Dave Price (00:02:50):but it finally felt like they were going to power through.Dave Price (00:02:53):And then it's just like in Wednesday evening, things just kept going not...Dave Price (00:03:00):the way people were telling me they thought it was going to go there were theseDave Price (00:03:04):like extended breaks where the house would be out the senate would be out and andDave Price (00:03:10):it was it you know it's one thing where you're thinking okay they're pow wowingDave Price (00:03:13):over here because they're figuring out what they're going to do right but then youDave Price (00:03:16):start walking around the capitol just to get your legs moving and it's just randomDave Price (00:03:21):people here and there and lobbyists here lobbyists there a legislator here let andDave Price (00:03:26):you're going what the heck is even going on at this pointKathie Obradovich (00:03:29):Yeah.Kathie Obradovich (00:03:30):And,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:31):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:31):the longer that goes on,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:33):the opportunity for something weird to happen at like two in the morning,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:38):because,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:38):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:39):up until the very end,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:40):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:41):that the lobbyists who wanted the pesticide immunity bill,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:46):for example,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:47):I mean,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:47):they were pushing to get that into the standings bill,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:49):I think,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:50):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:50):until the very last minute,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:52):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:03:52):that utilities wanted that right of first refusal provision that was in theKathie Obradovich (00:03:57):governor's energy bill.Kathie Obradovich (00:03:59):And I think probably the reason that the governor's energy bill didn't move forwardKathie Obradovich (00:04:02):was just because of that provision.Kathie Obradovich (00:04:05):You know, people were pushing to get that into legislation up until the very last minute.Kathie Obradovich (00:04:10):And had either one of those amendments gone on to the standings bill,Kathie Obradovich (00:04:16):we'd still be sitting in the Capitol right now.Dave Price (00:04:20):And the standings bill,Dave Price (00:04:21):in case you're not familiar with it,Dave Price (00:04:23):it's kind of the catch-all,Dave Price (00:04:24):the thing at the end.Dave Price (00:04:25):There's all kinds of stuff in there.Dave Price (00:04:27):But it's always the thing that is so hard,Dave Price (00:04:29):I feel like,Dave Price (00:04:30):as a reporter,Dave Price (00:04:31):because you think,Dave Price (00:04:32):okay,Dave Price (00:04:33):this is going to be approximately X billion dollars or whatever the heck's going toDave Price (00:04:37):be in there.Dave Price (00:04:37):But it's the amendment here, amendment there.Dave Price (00:04:40):Somehow a pesticide bill can be in,Dave Price (00:04:43):you know,Dave Price (00:04:44):that pesticide legislation protection thing you're talking about.Dave Price (00:04:47):That could somehow be tucked into a budget bill, which doesn't really make sense.Dave Price (00:04:51):Or that facet of her energy bill that overall wasn't going to happen,Dave Price (00:04:56):but the right of first refusal part.Dave Price (00:04:58):Like you just had to keep wondering and there'd be like a little rumor that would pop up.Dave Price (00:05:05):And we had this extended break and he kept thinking,Dave Price (00:05:07):okay,Dave Price (00:05:07):we got to see when this thing finally drops.Dave Price (00:05:09):What's the amendment going to be?Dave Price (00:05:10):What's the amendment going to be?Dave Price (00:05:12):The one thing that the House Republicans did kind of stand firm on would be thatDave Price (00:05:17):$14 million for the paraeducators.Dave Price (00:05:20):And that was something that they had told me for a while.Dave Price (00:05:23):They were...Dave Price (00:05:24):going to insist would make it in there the senate didn't want to do it but they hadDave Price (00:05:29):kind of backed off on the educational funding earlier on so they were determinedDave Price (00:05:34):that was going to be in there and you know then of course it has to it can't justDave Price (00:05:38):be like a normal appropriation it's got to be out of the sports wagering side ofDave Price (00:05:43):this and it's a one-time funding source which is what they've been saying for yearsDave Price (00:05:47):you can't do as a one-time funding sourceKathie Obradovich (00:05:49):Yeah,Kathie Obradovich (00:05:50):it is interesting how some of these principles start to peel away when you've gotKathie Obradovich (00:05:56):what is technically a deficit spending situation.Kathie Obradovich (00:06:00):I mean,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:00):yeah,Kathie Obradovich (00:06:01):you've got you're essentially spending more in out of general fund programs thanKathie Obradovich (00:06:0

Starting off this week we have some fun personal experiences with pets during interviews, updates on the overtime legislative session and budget negotiations, and discussions about education funding and budget cuts. The group also addressed political maneuvering within the Senate regarding eminent domain restrictions (after multiple caucuses on Friday, the Senate didn’t debate eminent domain). Finally, they discussed recent political announcements and potential candidates for upcoming elections (we had a slew of announcements this week and could get quite a few more in the coming weeks including the one that may be most awaited Rob Sand). The gang closes it out by considering the implications of primaries on general election outcomes. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms!AI generated transcript below:Dave Price (00:00:01):Hi, everyone.Dave Price (00:00:02):Welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, a production of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.Dave Price (00:00:08):We are joining you on a Friday afternoon when all kinds of stuff is going on andDave Price (00:00:15):it's driving us crazy.Dave Price (00:00:16):So Laura Belin and Katie Obradovich and IDave Price (00:00:21):We'll have to figure out how to talk about stuff that's not yet resolved,Dave Price (00:00:26):even though it's all so ridiculously fascinating.Dave Price (00:00:31):Meanwhile, Laura and I are both dealing with uncooperative pets.Dave Price (00:00:36):We are not sure if they will make an appearance in this podcast.Dave Price (00:00:41):Perhaps they will, but ladies, good afternoon.Laura Belin (00:00:44):Good to be here.Dave Price (00:00:45):It's much more peaceful at Kathie's house apparently right now.Kathie Obradovich (00:00:49):A cat who could fly through the frame anytime.Kathie Obradovich (00:00:52):So we'll see.Dave Price (00:00:53):I did have one common random thing that happened this week.Dave Price (00:01:03):You couldn't see this happen on camera.Dave Price (00:01:06):This is for my TV gig, but her dog, they have two dogs.Dave Price (00:01:10):One of her dogs was barking off in the distance.Dave Price (00:01:12):I didn't hear it, but we had to stop and then I had to re-ask a question.Dave Price (00:01:15):No big deal.Dave Price (00:01:16):So that was on Monday.Dave Price (00:01:18):And then when I was talking to Jennifer Conferst,Dave Price (00:01:21):We were doing literally the last question and her dog comes up sort of behind herDave Price (00:01:28):in the background and kind of moves around a little bit,Dave Price (00:01:31):gets comfortable,Dave Price (00:01:32):and then just lies down on the floor,Dave Price (00:01:34):which was so cute and peaceful and didn't disturb anybody.Laura Belin (00:01:39):Well, Dave, when I interviewed Jennifer Converse, her dog started barking in the middle.Laura Belin (00:01:42):I think somebody rang the doorbell.Dave Price (00:01:47):Clearly I'm biased because I have a home studio, but it makes it so much more real.Dave Price (00:01:52):I feel like when we're at home rather than some sterile,Dave Price (00:01:55):boring office where the worst thing that can happen is like a coworker coughing orDave Price (00:02:00):like the power goes out or something,Dave Price (00:02:01):you know?Laura Belin (00:02:04):I think ever since COVID, people are very tolerant of child interruptions.Dave Price (00:02:08):It's all real.Kathie Obradovich (00:02:09):Yes.Kathie Obradovich (00:02:09):Although they judge you about your books.Dave Price (00:02:11):So I think, you know, good point.Dave Price (00:02:15):Good point.Dave Price (00:02:16):All right.Dave Price (00:02:16):So we have to address.Dave Price (00:02:19):whatever the heck is going on,Dave Price (00:02:21):which is so fascinating,Dave Price (00:02:23):but yet unpredictable as we gather here to talk about what could be near the end ofDave Price (00:02:30):the legislative session.Dave Price (00:02:32):So lawmakers shut things down.Dave Price (00:02:36):Then they the House at least came back on Thursday started some budget stuff andDave Price (00:02:40):sent instead some some subcommittee and committee work on the budget stuff too,Dave Price (00:02:44):but so the House comes back fully on the floor yesterday there had been talk.Dave Price (00:02:49):That they were going to get everybody in there,Dave Price (00:02:51):they were going to go all out they were going to power through everything that remained.Dave Price (00:02:58):and blow through the weekend and i talked to one member of the house who wasDave Price (00:03:04):telling me yes i'd like to finish b i really don't want to have to tell my wifeDave Price (00:03:11):that i will be gone for mother's day on sunday but then i heard all these differentDave Price (00:03:16):scenarios there were a couple of them who were optimistic that they were going toDave Price (00:03:19):power through on friday some other ones are like no way no way well now we knowDave Price (00:03:25):Well,Dave Price (00:03:25):now we're putting this on tape here,Dave Price (00:03:27):so I guess we're going to know one way or the other when this comes out,Dave Price (00:03:29):but they're not going to finish Friday night barring something cuckoo that we don't imagine.Dave Price (00:03:35):So it looks like they're going to start some work in the Senate,Dave Price (00:03:39):potentially one of the sexiest unresolved issues out there with this eminent domain situation,Dave Price (00:03:45):which we'll get to in a sec,Dave Price (00:03:47):and then break and then come back early next week and see if they can go through stuff.Dave Price (00:03:52):SoDave Price (00:03:53):Can we, let's save the group we call the Defiant Dozen.Dave Price (00:03:58):Let's push them off just for a sec,Dave Price (00:04:00):but let's do the budget because it seems like we're getting,Dave Price (00:04:06):we're starting to figure out how this is all going to shake out.Dave Price (00:04:09):Laura, do you want to take a first crack at this?Laura Belin (00:04:11):Sure.Laura Belin (00:04:11):So we finally got this week a budget agreement on Thursday afternoon between theLaura Belin (00:04:16):House and Senate Republicans.Laura Belin (00:04:17):And then later, Governor Reynolds released a statement saying she was on board.Laura Belin (00:04:21):We talked about last week how they were about the two sides were about thirty sixLaura Belin (00:04:26):million dollars apart,Laura Belin (00:04:27):which really is not very much.Laura Belin (00:04:29):And the House was the higher number.Laura Belin (00:04:32):so what they ended up doing was they they funded some of the house prioritiesLaura Belin (00:04:36):instead of through the general fund budget they're using some sports wageringLaura Belin (00:04:40):revenue to cover for instance the 14 million dollars for para educator pay which weLaura Belin (00:04:45):talked about and the house was able to get a little bit more money for communityLaura Belin (00:04:50):colleges not as much as they wanted but it's interesting to me because i thoughtLaura Belin (00:04:55):that for many many years the gambling revenue was supposed to be usedLaura Belin (00:04:59):for infrastructure type capital projects, not ongoing expenses like paraeducator pay.Laura Belin (00:05:07):So this seems to be another Rubicon that we're crossing here.Laura Belin (00:05:10):But in any case,Laura Belin (00:05:11):the final budget number is a lot closer to what the Senate and governor wanted thanLaura Belin (00:05:15):it is to what the House Republicans were asking for.Laura Belin (00:05:18):But then through this sports betting money,Laura Belin (00:05:21):they're going to be covering some of those other Republican priorities.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:26):We're getting to the point nowKathie Obradovich (00:05:27):where it's time to just acknowledge that that wagering,Kathie Obradovich (00:05:33):it does not have to be one time money,Kathie Obradovich (00:05:35):that that revenue can be used for other things.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:39):They stretch those limits all the time.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:42):And of course,Kathie Obradovich (00:05:43):the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund is mostly gambling money from the casinos,Kathie Obradovich (00:05:47):et cetera.Kathie Obradovich (00:05:49):And it's beenKathie Obradovich (00:05:52):uh decades now um and that money has been you know in some years you know a littleKathie Obradovich (00:05:58):less some years a little bit more it kind of comes and goes with the economy justKathie Obradovich (00:06:02):like the the revenues for the general fund it i think they should just acknowledgeKathie Obradovich (00:06:07):that this is real money and you know stop saying that they have to set it asideDave Price (00:06:13):imagine if way back in the day when they approved gamblingDave Price (00:06:20):and this was supposed to go towards schools, right?Dave Price (00:06:24):Yes.Dave Price (00:06:24):Imagine if we would have kept funding and operating our schools the same way,Dave Price (00:06:30):and all of that gambling money was the icing on top,Dave Price (00:06:35):we would have like the best paid teachers in the history of the world.Dave Price (00:06:39):We'd have class sizes that were 12,Dave Price (00:06:42):you know,Dave Price (00:06:43):instead of 28 and everything else you want to come.Dave Price (00:06:47):Every school in Iowa would look like these Taj Mahals they built in some of the newDave Price (00:06:53):schools in Waukee,Dave Price (00:06:54):but it clearly does not work out that way.Kathie Obradovich (00:06:59):Play these games,Kathie Obradovich (00:07:00):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:07:01):so,Kathie Obradovich (00:07:01):you know,Kathie Obradovich (00:07:01):what we're talking about,Kathie Obradovich (00:07:02):and this has been a long time principle,Kathie Obradovich (00:07:04):for Republicans is not putting one-time money, as they call it, into ongoing expenses.Kathie Obradovich (00:07:13):And that is exactly what