Iowa Down Ballot

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Professional political analysts discuss Iowa politics with refreshing, in-depth conversations. iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com

  1. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 4/4/26

    6D AGO

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 4/4/26

    We had a packed week in Iowa politics to break down on this episode with our loyal guests and collaborators Laura Belin of Bleeding Heartland and Kathie Obradovich of Iowa Capital Dispatch. We start at the Statehouse, where health advocates pushing for a tobacco tax increase arrived to find legislators already headed home for Easter — leaving us wondering whether the April 21st adjournment date is anywhere close to realistic, with House budget targets still outstanding and real divisions between the chambers. On the campaign trail, Rob Sand held a news conference rolling out reform proposals including term limits, age limits for officeholders, and changes to primary voting. We dig into the politics of keeping the details vague and what the Republican-controlled legislature is likely to do with any of it. Then we turn to Zach Lahn, whose week felt like an unofficial campaign launch — a new West Des Moines headquarters, an Iowa Press appearance, and 180+ people at a Grimes town hall. We look at his populist “extraction economy” message, how he positions himself as a change candidate without criticizing his own party, and whether two months is enough time to catch Randy Feenstra. A note on Rob Sand’s primary voting proposal: During our discussion, we didn’t have all the details on hand. Sand wants a single open primary ballot — no party registration required. Voters pick their top choice per race, the top three to five vote-getters advance to the general, and the candidate with the most votes wins. Thanks to all of you that make us a part of your weekly routine, we really appreciate it. If you are able to contribute financially, or do already, we are grateful. Have a Happy Passover and Easter, we’ll see ya next Saturday morning :) AI generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballad Podcast. Thanks for tuning in this week. I’m Dave Price, along with my Iowa Riders Collaborative 12 00:01:01.090 --> 00:01:10.019 Dave Price: colleagues, that’s like a tongue twister, Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin joining us on this Good Friday. Hello, ladies. 13 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:10.920 Kathie Obradovich: Hello! 14 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:12.050 Laura Belin: Good to see ya. 15 00:01:12.270 --> 00:01:27.249 Dave Price: I don’t want to get, like, too super personal on these things, but may we please offer a shout-out to Kathie, who is off work on this Friday, but sent a very kind message to us this week. 16 00:01:27.250 --> 00:01:34.720 Dave Price: letting us know she was off, but still committing to yak it up with us. So, thank you very much before you… 17 00:01:35.390 --> 00:01:36.420 Dave Price: holiday weekend. 18 00:01:36.420 --> 00:01:43.740 Kathie Obradovich: This is like a, you know, sitting down with friends, with a cup of coffee, and, you know, so… 19 00:01:43.740 --> 00:01:48.349 Dave Price: What do you mean it’s like sitting down with friends? Is it not sitting down with actual. 20 00:01:48.350 --> 00:01:48.840 Kathie Obradovich: Right, right. 21 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.329 Kathie Obradovich: We’re not in the same room together, but we are sitting down. Fair point. 22 00:01:54.440 --> 00:02:10.600 Dave Price: record, I stand, but whatever. You know, whatever. Hey, a bunch of stuff we want to talk to you about in the race of governor. Rob Sand put out some things this week that we want to talk about this week. Zach Lane, it sort of feels like this is almost like his launch. 23 00:02:10.729 --> 00:02:19.409 Dave Price: In a few ways as he’s, out and about. But I wanted to start with the legislature, and both of you have covered that place for a long time as well. 24 00:02:19.430 --> 00:02:42.910 Dave Price: The one thing I just wanted to mention is that sometimes it’s fascinating to me how their decisions will impact well-intentioned people, and I was standing there at a news conference early Wednesday afternoon, and it’s sort of the second swipe at this for the health advocates who are trying like crazy to get this tobacco tax increase. 25 00:02:43.100 --> 00:02:47.280 Dave Price: push through, and on vaping products and such. And so… 26 00:02:47.570 --> 00:02:51.939 Dave Price: Good speakers, they have doctors, health advocates, 27 00:02:52.070 --> 00:03:17.040 Dave Price: organizational leaders, and a good crowd of several dozen people in front of them, and they were explaining, hey, let’s be respectful, tell your story, when we’re done here, go upstairs, meet with the legislators, lay this all out about why this is important to do this, you know, be good listeners, respect their time, blah blah blah. And it’s almost like this split-screen moment, though, as I’m standing 28 00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:21.069 Dave Price: there, because as they’re going, and we’re on the first floor of the rotunda there. 29 00:03:21.170 --> 00:03:29.200 Dave Price: There are legislators with their satchels over their shoulders, hoofing it out there for the long weekend because 30 00:03:29.260 --> 00:03:41.930 Dave Price: both chambers weren’t really going to do much of anything Wednesday, and definitely not Thursday. You know, there were some, maybe, committee meetings throughout the week, but they’re going home for the long weekend. 31 00:03:41.930 --> 00:03:51.069 Dave Price: And I was thinking, man, that’s gotta suck for these people. The speakers were great, let’s go get them, let’s tell our stories, da-da-da-da-da. 32 00:03:51.460 --> 00:03:54.190 Dave Price: And they go upstairs and find a bunch of empty desks. 33 00:03:54.740 --> 00:03:57.860 Kathie Obradovich: The better advice for those folks should have been stand in the parking lot. 34 00:03:58.370 --> 00:03:58.870 Laura Belin: Yeah. 35 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:06.219 Kathie Obradovich: between the building and the legislator’s parking lot, because then you can talk to them all as they’re heading home for the weekend. 36 00:04:06.220 --> 00:04:25.500 Laura Belin: So, it’s so hard to plan, and you’re at the mercy of what’s happening in the legislature. I’m involved with a nonprofit, A Thousand Friends of Iowa, and we do an annual awards ceremony in the rotunda that is planned 8 or 9 months ahead of time, and in 2023, we had reserved the rotunda for a Tuesday morning, and then… 37 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:33.669 Laura Belin: we got bumped because the governor was signing the school voucher bill that had just passed in the House on the Monday night. So, you know, you just… 38 00:04:33.690 --> 00:04:43.139 Laura Belin: It’s very difficult. You never know what’s… no one would anticipate that that early in January that you would have a major bill signing in the rotunda when it happened. 39 00:04:43.380 --> 00:05:07.949 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, although the Wednesday before Easter, you can’t anticipate that, I think. It’s, you know, the Thursday before Easter is usually dead time at the legislature. Everybody wants to go home and spend the holiday with their families, etc. So yeah, there’s not… there’s not usually much happening, unless there’s a big bill that leaders want to push through, and then they will debate 40 00:05:08.020 --> 00:05:12.909 Kathie Obradovich: you know, they’ll debate it on Thursday, knowing everybody wants to go home, so… 41 00:05:12.910 --> 00:05:26.520 Dave Price: I was also stopped, reminding me on Wednesday that Thursday was supposed to be the University of Iowa Day in the Rotunda. That was the day they were able to get the space and get signed up on the calendar, and they decided 42 00:05:26.740 --> 00:05:34.760 Dave Price: There’s really not going to be much point here, because the legislators are going to be long gone, so they canceled it, so the Hawkeyes don’t get their time in the moment up there. 43 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:39.959 Kathie Obradovich: They should just send Herky up on a random day. 44 00:05:40.330 --> 00:05:59.309 Dave Price: Maybe Hercy could help figure this out. We talked about this in our pregame chat, but I also wondered Wednesday if this is sort of our foreshadowing of what we are going to see. When this drops on the weekend, we will have slightly more than two weeks left in this scheduled session. 45 00:05:59.390 --> 00:06:04.250 Dave Price: Of, this… this calendar year, the 100 days… 46 00:06:04.390 --> 00:06:20.140 Dave Price: That they have in their timetable, and I’m just wondering, with some of these major decisions they still have to make, if they’re gonna have to essentially call timeout here sometime soon, where they send most of the members home, and committee chairs and leadership try to figure out these final agreements. 47 00:06:20.430 --> 00:06:32.270 Kathie Obradovich: I asked a very experienced Republican legislator, after the Pioneer Lawmaker joint session, you know, whether he sees any signs that 48 00:06:32.270 --> 00:06:47.219 Kathie Obradovich: the legislature might be moving toward the exit, you know, in a relatively on-time fashion. And I can’t really repeat the word that he said, but it was… he said, this is a something show. 49 00:06:47.220 --> 00:06:49.619 Dave Price: What could that four-letter word be? 50 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:57.120 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I’ll just let you guys ruminate on that, but yeah, you know, he was like, no, no. 51 00:06:57.570 --> 00:07:06.070 Kathie Obradovich: And it, you know, basically because of the divisions between House and Senate, which I think will… everybody will want to tune in and hear us talk more about that next week. 52 00:07:06.080 --> 00:07:18.080 Dave Price: Yeah, and we should get, in this coming week, the House Republican budget targets. The governor’s put hers out, obviously, a while ago, and the Senate Republicans put theirs out, so now we’re kind of waiting on the House, and… 53 00:07:18.080 --> 00:07:27.750 Dave Price: We will see if the math will further show the divisions between the… betwe

    37 min
  2. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/28/26

    MAR 28

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/28/26

    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! 5 00:00:37.970 --> 00:00:39.460 Kathie Obradovich: Hello, Dave. 6 00:00:39.460 --> 00:00:40.219 Laura Belin: Good to see ya! 7 00:00:40.220 --> 00:00:56.890 Dave 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. 8 00:00:57.020 --> 00:01:09.210 Dave 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. 9 00:01:09.380 --> 00:01:13.419 Dave Price: We’ll know if they, like Iowa, will make it to the Elite Eight. 10 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:15.119 Kathie Obradovich: Yes, go Cyclones! 11 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:26.930 Dave 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… 12 00:01:26.930 --> 00:01:39.559 Dave 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… 13 00:01:39.790 --> 00:01:42.449 Dave Price: we can respond. So, here we are. 14 00:01:42.450 --> 00:01:42.830 Laura Belin: Yeah. 15 00:01:42.830 --> 00:01:44.930 Dave Price: onto something in one of the previous recordings. 16 00:01:44.930 --> 00:01:54.039 Laura 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. 17 00:01:54.040 --> 00:02:10.360 Laura 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. 18 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:15.740 Dave Price: Alright, very good, and we appreciate the feedback for that stuff. Okay, ladies… 19 00:02:16.490 --> 00:02:22.070 Dave Price: I was sort of salivating, figuring out, when we emailed back and forth about what to talk to. 20 00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:39.999 Dave 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. 21 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:48.290 Dave Price: Holy cow, this past week… Is just full of the catnip-type 22 00:02:48.910 --> 00:02:56.989 Dave Price: drama… I don’t even know how to characterize this. I think it’s, like, each day, as we went from… 23 00:02:57.300 --> 00:03:07.739 Dave Price: Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday to Thursday night, like, each day was like a new episode in a Netflix, like, special series, right? 24 00:03:07.740 --> 00:03:08.190 Kathie Obradovich: You can see. 25 00:03:08.190 --> 00:03:13.240 Dave Price: Seriously do multiple ones, and it’s… there’s literally no way to, like. 26 00:03:13.370 --> 00:03:20.500 Dave Price: Boil this down into, like, a 30-second… Recap, because it was… 27 00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:23.740 Dave Price: I mean, it is just out there, right? 28 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:43.429 Kathie 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, 29 00:03:43.450 --> 00:03:54.730 Kathie 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, 30 00:03:54.730 --> 00:04:09.180 Kathie 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. 31 00:04:09.180 --> 00:04:11.519 Dave Price: Like a college kid turning in your final. 32 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:12.679 Kathie Obradovich: or something, right? 33 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:33.720 Kathie 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… 34 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:40.430 Kathie Obradovich: Eddie Andrews accused the STEAM campaign of being behind this challenge. So somebody take it from there. 35 00:04:40.430 --> 00:04:48.310 Dave Price: Well, but then also a couple other little nuggets with that, like, Andrew’s claims that during that whole… 36 00:04:48.310 --> 00:05:01.959 Dave 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? 37 00:05:01.960 --> 00:05:08.959 Dave 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. 38 00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:27.439 Dave 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. 39 00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:44.609 Dave 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. 40 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:54.760 Dave 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… 41 00:05:54.760 --> 00:05:58.659 Kathie Obradovich: One more thing, though, before you go there. He also alleged that. 42 00:05:58.660 --> 00:05:59.070 Dave Price: Yeah, sure. 43 00:05:59.070 --> 00:06:06.419 Kathie Obradovich: were stolen out of his car, which is… this is a bizarre thing that I have never heard of, anything like that. 44 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:07.740 Dave Price: I did not file a police report. 45 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:27.389 Laura 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. 46 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:37.229 Laura 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. 47 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:53.560 Laura 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. 48 00:06:53.560 --> 00:07:01.949 Kathie Obradovich: There are actually rules about the paper size, you know, and this is a very picky, picky little process, so… 49 00:07:01.950 --> 00:07:10.929 Laura 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 some 50 00:07:10.930 --> 00:07:28.529 Laura 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… 51 00:07:28.530 --> 00:07:52.199 Laura 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

    41 min
  3. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/21/26

    MAR 21

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/21/26

    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 --> 00:00:47.540 Dave 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. 12 00:00:48.150 --> 00:00:49.000 Laura Belin: Hello. 13 00:00:49.430 --> 00:00:56.140 Dave Price: I will… we’re gonna start with a confessional that we are recording this ahead of time. 14 00:00:56.370 --> 00:00:57.800 Dave Price: Totally because of me. 15 00:00:58.820 --> 00:01:09.999 Dave 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… 16 00:01:10.160 --> 00:01:28.169 Dave 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? 17 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:28.860 Kathie Obradovich: I don’t know. 18 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:29.970 Dave Price: We’re terrified. 19 00:01:29.970 --> 00:01:40.130 Laura 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. 20 00:01:40.130 --> 00:01:59.340 Dave 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. 21 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:03.459 Dave Price: We have an open primary on both sides, we don’t get that a lot. 22 00:02:04.530 --> 00:02:15.969 Dave 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? 23 00:02:15.970 --> 00:02:17.060 Kathie Obradovich: 68. 24 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:17.850 Dave Price: 68. 25 00:02:17.850 --> 00:02:19.150 Laura Belin: 1968. 26 00:02:19.150 --> 00:02:42.259 Dave 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? 27 00:02:42.970 --> 00:02:43.580 Dave Price: Remember that? 28 00:02:43.580 --> 00:02:54.899 Laura 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. 29 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:59.329 Dave Price: But so, you know, there was all this speculation, but she followed through with it, yeah. 30 00:02:59.330 --> 00:03:03.569 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, that’s probably the least of the reasons why she’s not running. 31 00:03:03.570 --> 00:03:21.759 Laura 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. 32 00:03:21.760 --> 00:03:35.289 Dave 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… 33 00:03:35.290 --> 00:03:35.800 Laura Belin: Hmm. 34 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:39.089 Dave Price: It seemed like both were running until they weren’t. 35 00:03:39.090 --> 00:03:39.410 Laura Belin: Right. 36 00:03:39.410 --> 00:03:48.939 Dave 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. 37 00:03:49.050 --> 00:04:04.389 Dave 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? 38 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:16.960 Laura 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 Carlin 39 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:25.479 Laura 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… 40 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:36.750 Laura 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. 41 00:04:36.910 --> 00:04:37.430 Dave Price: Can I… 42 00:04:37.430 --> 00:04:59.139 Kathie 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. 43 00:04:59.140 --> 00:05:04.730 Kathie Obradovich: Carlin running against Ashley Hinson, from the right. 44 00:05:04.730 --> 00:05:10.910 Kathie Obradovich: Is a much harder path than running against Joni Ernst from the right one about. 45 00:05:11.780 --> 00:05:14.979 Laura Belin: Why, I mean, their voting records aren’t very different, though. 46 00:05:15.190 --> 00:05:39.180 Kathie 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. 47 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:43.410 Kathie Obradovich: You know, his… And Elsa. 48 00:05:43.810 --> 00:06:01.380 Kathie 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. 49 00:06:01.380 --> 00:06:07.589 Laura Belin: I think if you’re a MAGA nihilist, though, I mean, they both voted to certify the 2020 Electoral College count. 50 00:06:07.690 --> 00:06:19.700 Laura 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. 51 00:06:20.670 --> 00:06:28.280 Dave Price: I… I think that the… there is a chunk in MAGA that definitely did not like Joni Ernst. 52 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:31.290 Dave Price: I think we really saw that. Maybe Hegseth… 53 00:06:32.080 --> 00:06:34.130 Dave Price: Sort of blew that up, but… 54 00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:36.920 Dave Price: I mean, you know, she faced all kinds of threats. 55 00:06:37.110 --> 00:06:41.670 Dave Price: Both professionally and otherwise, because of her initial stance that… 56 00:06:41.780 --> 00:06:58.090 Dave 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. 57 00:06:58.090 --> 00:07:08.560 Dave Price: All she said and called for was the process, which is traditionally what happens in hearings, is the investigatory 58 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:17.140 Dave 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. 59 00:07:18.730 --> 00:07:20.729 Kathie Obradovich: So, you know, I just think that… 60 00:07:20.890 --> 00:07:36.169 Kathie 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… 61 00:07:38.100 --> 00:07:58.089 Kathie Obradovich: I wouldn’t say relat

    22 min
  4. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/14/26

    MAR 14

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/14/26

    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 --> 00:00:37.359 Dave 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. 6 00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:40.520 Kathie Obradovich: And what a lucky day it is. 7 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:45.230 Dave Price: Indeed. Fun fact, I got engaged on Friday the 13th. 8 00:00:45.230 --> 00:00:48.219 Kathie Obradovich: Yay, lucky for you, and lucky for Emily. Excellent. 9 00:00:48.570 --> 00:00:54.959 Dave Price: Yeah, well, I hope she still feels that it was lucky. I’ve not asked her that recently. Perhaps I should. 10 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:56.290 Laura Belin: filing deadline day. 11 00:00:57.050 --> 00:00:59.600 Laura Belin: Filing deadline day is always very exciting, so… 12 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.350 Kathie Obradovich: It may not be lucky for some candidates today, we’ll see. 13 00:01:02.440 --> 00:01:07.420 Dave Price: Indeed, when I was doing, recording my TV show this week. 14 00:01:07.420 --> 00:01:26.380 Dave 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… 15 00:01:26.380 --> 00:01:35.880 Dave 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… 16 00:01:35.990 --> 00:01:49.539 Dave 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… 17 00:01:49.670 --> 00:01:52.470 Dave Price: As dramatic, perhaps? 18 00:01:52.680 --> 00:02:08.499 Dave 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. 19 00:02:08.650 --> 00:02:09.810 Dave Price: And… 20 00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:27.599 Dave 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. 21 00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:38.769 Dave 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. 22 00:02:38.770 --> 00:02:42.189 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, yeah, no, they’ve got a basketball team, it’s good. 23 00:02:42.190 --> 00:02:48.930 Dave 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… 24 00:02:49.100 --> 00:02:50.859 Dave Price: A couple of supporters. 25 00:02:51.020 --> 00:02:55.139 Dave Price: But a few of the other ones, you know, really brought in an entourage, and… 26 00:02:55.140 --> 00:02:55.519 Laura Belin: And what? 27 00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:11.960 Dave 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… 28 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:17.679 Dave Price: Who collected enough signatures to submit? Who decided, it’s not gonna work? 29 00:03:18.310 --> 00:03:18.839 Kathie Obradovich: It’s odd. 30 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:43.820 Kathie 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’s 31 00:03:43.820 --> 00:03:56.650 Kathie 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. 32 00:03:56.650 --> 00:04:02.410 Laura Belin: Well, and I don’t think that Christina Bohannon told anyone when she was coming, am I right about that? 33 00:04:02.410 --> 00:04:03.620 Dave Price: Alright, I didn’t know. 34 00:04:03.620 --> 00:04:13.309 Laura 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… 35 00:04:13.310 --> 00:04:23.909 Laura 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. 36 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:28.319 Dave Price: I’m sort of surprised by that, maybe I’m just, like… 37 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:34.510 Dave Price: An old, washed-up, outdated media reporter here, but don’t you want that free bite of the apple? 38 00:04:34.830 --> 00:04:47.690 Laura 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. 39 00:04:47.690 --> 00:04:52.789 Dave Price: But we have state… I mean, I work for a statewide TV network, so we go all over the place. 40 00:04:52.790 --> 00:04:54.060 Laura Belin: That’s right, so you’d be in the clock. 41 00:04:54.060 --> 00:05:04.400 Dave 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 statewide 42 00:05:04.510 --> 00:05:13.619 Dave 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. 43 00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:19.969 Kathie Obradovich: Especially because that video, you know, gets used as B-roll, it gets used 44 00:05:19.970 --> 00:05:37.479 Kathie 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. 45 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.400 Dave Price: So, our, 46 00:05:41.130 --> 00:05:49.839 Dave 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… 47 00:05:49.840 --> 00:05:52.670 Laura Belin: And they were holding the signs that said 24,000. 48 00:05:54.210 --> 00:05:55.110 Laura Belin: 56. 49 00:05:55.110 --> 00:06:12.889 Dave 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 Stouch 50 00:06:13.070 --> 00:06:22.470 Dave 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? 51 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:39.670 Kathie 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 take 52 00:06:39.670 --> 00:06:51.430 Kathie 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… 53 00:06:51.430 --> 00:07:10.430 Kathie 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. 54 00:07:10.430 --> 00:07:24.420 Laura Belin: I reached out to her after the fundraising reports came out, becaus

    37 min
  5. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/7/26

    MAR 7

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 3/7/26

    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 --> 00:00:29.279 Dave 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? 5 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:30.270 Kathie Obradovich: Hello! 6 00:00:30.270 --> 00:00:31.200 Laura Belin: Good to see you. 7 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:34.310 Dave Price: Good to see you as well. 8 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:43.609 Dave 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. 9 00:00:44.070 --> 00:00:44.690 Dave Price: That’s just… 10 00:00:44.690 --> 00:00:45.489 Kathie Obradovich: Oh, go ahead. 11 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:58.859 Dave 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 thing 12 00:00:59.020 --> 00:01:10.359 Dave 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… 13 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:19.630 Dave 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. 14 00:01:19.910 --> 00:01:37.600 Dave 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 have 15 00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:49.179 Dave 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 appreciate 16 00:01:49.250 --> 00:01:57.810 Dave 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. 17 00:01:58.280 --> 00:01:59.960 Dave Price: Billboards would be cool. 18 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:03.649 Kathie Obradovich: It would be cool. I had my picture on the back of a bus once. 19 00:02:03.860 --> 00:02:04.759 Dave Price: How’d that feel? 20 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:05.620 Laura Belin: Wow! 21 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:17.180 Kathie 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. 22 00:02:18.040 --> 00:02:32.220 Kathie 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. 23 00:02:32.220 --> 00:02:45.120 Dave 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. 24 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:45.680 Kathie Obradovich: I hate you. 25 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.790 Dave Price: Career has hit its apex. 26 00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:58.549 Kathie 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. 27 00:02:58.550 --> 00:03:01.720 Dave Price: You are correct, and Kathy is a big deal. 28 00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:18.339 Dave 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 reaction 29 00:03:19.440 --> 00:03:30.190 Dave 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. 30 00:03:30.630 --> 00:03:31.280 Laura Belin: Hmm. 31 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:35.280 Dave Price: And I started thinking about that, and I’m like, alright, is this semantics or not? 32 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:42.140 Dave Price: She did a couple of committee hearings that clearly were not her finest moments. 33 00:03:42.540 --> 00:03:50.010 Dave Price: And for all of the performance theater we have seen by some in the Trump administration when they go before Democrats. 34 00:03:50.250 --> 00:04:07.749 Dave 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… 35 00:04:08.440 --> 00:04:27.259 Dave 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… 36 00:04:27.260 --> 00:04:31.490 Dave Price: Just baffled when he’s saying, so you’re saying the president approved this? 37 00:04:31.620 --> 00:04:36.470 Dave Price: Just… he’s like, I just… I can’t… I can’t believe this. I’m not saying you’re lying. 38 00:04:36.790 --> 00:04:48.780 Laura 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… 39 00:04:48.780 --> 00:04:50.360 Dave Price: And whatever this… 40 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:54.669 Kathie Obradovich: back or blankie, oh, they were in the Senate Judiciary. I mean, they were… 41 00:04:54.670 --> 00:04:54.990 Dave Price: Yeah. 42 00:04:55.020 --> 00:04:59.929 Kathie Obradovich: scathing. So, yeah, I think that that whole thing… 43 00:05:00.050 --> 00:05:13.200 Kathie 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. 44 00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:20.690 Kathie 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. 45 00:05:20.830 --> 00:05:25.119 Kathie Obradovich: transferred, as opposed to fired, perhaps. Yeah, perhaps. 46 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:27.409 Dave Price: She’s been removed from her position, for sure. 47 00:05:27.910 --> 00:05:52.899 Laura 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 kind 48 00:05:52.900 --> 00:06:00.589 Laura 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… 49 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:02.740 Laura Belin: important thing, right? 50 00:06:03.340 --> 00:06:05.430 Laura Belin: Basically, they’re being sent to Siberia. 51 00:06:05.430 --> 00:06:12.890 Dave 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. 52 00:06:13.630 --> 00:06:18.769 Dave Price: the… the exchange… normally, I… I don’t… 53 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:37.590 Dave 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

    35 min
  6. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 2/28/26

    FEB 28

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 2/28/26

    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

    30 min
  7. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 2/21/26

    FEB 21

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 2/21/26

    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

    40 min
  8. Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 2/14/26

    FEB 14

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 2/14/26

    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

    45 min
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About

Professional political analysts discuss Iowa politics with refreshing, in-depth conversations. iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com

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  • Creator
    Iowa Writers Collaborative Members
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    46
  • Rating
    Clean
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  • Show Website
    Iowa Down Ballot

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