Iowa Down Ballot

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

  1. 3d ago

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 9/5/26

    This week we dug into two big stories. First, the Des Moines Register’s new reporting on Derek Wulf’s farm finances: an active criminal investigation, a court-appointed receiver, and creditors who settled for less than they were owed. We talked about what real campaign due diligence looks like, and why this story hasn’t gotten the attention it probably deserves. We also broke down a new Emerson College poll. Rob Sand leads Zach Lahn by 3 points in the governor’s race, with independents breaking hard his way. In the Senate race, Ashley Hinson leads Josh Turek 50-45, and we tried to make sense of Turek’s ad touting cooperation with Trump on immigration. Plus, we’re pleased to welcome first-time guest Eric Woolson who has an extensive background in journalism and campaigns, closed things out with the Chuck Grassley vacuum cleaner bobblehead saga, and pondered whether Grassley might run again in 2028 at age 95. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. We have another new statewide poll, and it shows that, at least for some people, split-ticket voting is still a thing. We’ll talk about that. Plus, there’s new reporting on Republican lieutenant governor candidate Derek Wulf and his farm operations, legal situation, and finances. The Des Moines Register had a story out Friday that we want to discuss. I’m Dave Price. This week we’re joined by Iowa Down Ballot regulars Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. Hello, ladies. Kathie Obradovich: Hello! Good to be here. Laura Belin: Good to be here. Dave Price: And making his debut on the podcast, I was going to say “best known snake charmer” — that’s not really why he’s here, but he might be the most interesting man in the room if you really know his background. Eric Woolson, way back in the day, was a newspaper reporter. He may be the only person I know who’s worked for both a Democratic and a Republican presidential candidate. Is that true? Eric Woolson: Well, that’s where the snake charming comes in handy, I suppose. I used to say I was one of the few people who’d worked for seven presidential campaigns. But I’m absolutely positive I’m the only person who’s been a spokesperson for both Joe Biden and Michele Bachmann. Laura Belin: Narrow that down. Eric Woolson: I’ll throw that down. Dave Price: Well done — we strive for uniqueness on this show. Welcome, Eric, thanks for joining us. Derek Wulf’s Financial and Legal Troubles Dave Price: Let’s talk about this Des Moines Register story. Tyler Jett posted it Friday — and we’re recording this on Friday, so we may be talking about it as the news is still unfolding. This won’t drop until the weekend, so there could be twists and turns. Laura, I believe you were the first to report on Derek Wulf’s agricultural operations and financial challenges. Tyler Jett has picked up from there, and it shows there are still serious financial challenges for Representative Wulf, along with some strong allegations from people who’ve worked with him. What do you make of it? Laura Belin: It was a really good piece by Tyler Jett — he clarified some things I wasn’t able to nail down back in June and July. First, WCF Financial, his bank, filed a foreclosure petition in May. As of this summer they were negotiating some kind of refinancing. Derek Wulf said at the Westside Conservative Club in July that they’d been able to refinance, but that clearly wasn’t complete, because last week the bank filed a motion to have a receiver appointed, which the court approved two days ago. The bank’s filing said Wulf never presented a commitment letter — essentially proof that financing or additional collateral was lined up to support the refinancing. So we know negotiations broke down somewhere along the way. Also important: Tyler Jett confirmed with the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office that there is still an active criminal investigation into Wulf’s operations. That was hinted at in the May foreclosure filing, and seems related to livestock collateral belonging to the bank that may have been sold to third parties. There were also fraud allegations in an earlier filing from a separate case brought by Heartland Co-op, but I was never able to confirm an actual criminal investigation — Tyler Jett did. The Lahn campaign’s spokesperson denied any fraud occurred, but also apparently confirmed to the Register that Zach Lahn didn’t know about the criminal investigation when he picked Wulf as his running mate. Dave Price: Eric, you’re the only one of us who’s worked on campaigns — what’s traditional due diligence like when choosing a running mate? Eric Woolson: Going back to my reporting days in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, my first thought was: how did this happen? Clearly a due diligence question — somebody didn’t do their homework. Normally that process runs a couple of weeks: you dig into personal background, financial background, talk to people they’ve done business with, talk to the neighbors. A lot of times you’ve got a professional firm doing opposition research — including on your own candidate, so you know what the other side will say about you. Clearly none of that happened here. The landscape’s changed too. Laura’s done terrific work, the Register has a news story, but for the most part it feels like a tree falling in the forest that nobody hears. There’s not as much media in this state as there used to be, reporters are shorthanded, there’s only so many hours in the day. Regardless of party, this isn’t as big a story as it should be — and that goes back to the central question of where the due diligence was. Obviously there wasn’t any. Kathie Obradovich: To give the Lahn campaign a little grace — it’s possible that when Wulf first addressed these questions with Laura, he genuinely believed refinancing was in progress, and that kind of deal can fall apart at any point. That does happen. But this raises real questions: if this is how the Lahn campaign does due diligence on someone as important as a running mate, how can Iowa voters trust he’ll pick the right people if he becomes governor? The governor doesn’t do everything alone — you have to pick the right people for the job. Even if this is damaging to Wulf, it doesn’t mean he can’t do a good job as lieutenant governor. It’s possible the campaign knew all this and decided his financial experience actually makes him a stronger advocate for farmers. Some of this comes down to how much voters really care about who the running mate is. Laura Belin: Tyler Jett interviewed some of the creditors who sued Wulf — I’d reached out but never heard back. One of them, Chad Zoske, described something that goes well beyond normal farmer financial distress. The Lahn campaign had said all creditors were being repaid in full, but according to the Register story, Zoske ended up settling for less than he was owed because he figured something was better than nothing. Eric Woolson: Part of this may be that Lahn really came out of nowhere as a surprise candidate, so he may have lacked connections within the party infrastructure. In years past you’d have five or six names floated — someone from eastern Iowa, someone from northwest Iowa, maybe a business person — generating buzz. This pick came out of left field. The question is how much internal discussion there really was among Senate, House, and party leadership before landing on him. Normally you’d have several names floated, and I don’t recall any being out there. Lahn was surprised to be the nominee, and so was everyone else. Dave Price: He and Governor Kim Reynolds had never even met before the primary, so there wasn’t much happening behind the scenes there either. I should also note — I double-checked with the Secretary of State’s office — it’s too late to get Derek Wulf’s name off the ballot even if this became a bigger controversy. I’m curious, Eric: how does a campaign decide how much to talk about something like this? Zach Lahn already has a complicated personal story — the Kansas connection, an ex-wife, his wife’s ex-husband, kids who live there, the farmhouse in Belle Plaine — and Rob Sanders has tried to capitalize on the “Kansas guy, not an Iowa guy” angle. Now there’s Wulf’s farm finances too. How does a campaign decide whether to get out in front of something like this — a press conference, addressing it directly — versus staying quiet or responding only in writing? Eric Woolson: That’s always an internal calculation, and campaigns typically have people on both sides of it. Talk about it more and you risk drawing more attention; don’t talk about it and you risk looking like you’re hiding something. It depends on the circumstances — and as Laura’s and Tyler Jett’s reporting shows, this is out of the ordinary. You can talk about farmers facing financial difficulty in general, but this has been going on a long time and hasn’t been handled well. My guess is the campaign sticks with something like “this shows he understands what farmers are going through.” I’d have pushed hard for getting out in front of it. But first and foremost: don’t have the issue in the first place, and y

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 9/5/26

  2. Aug 29

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 8/29/26

    We welcomed Ed Failor Jr. to the show for the first time — longtime Iowa Republican operative, former head of Iowans for Tax Relief — and put him through the paces alongside Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. We dug into the new Suffolk poll. Ashley Hinson is up 45-41 on Josh Turek, Rob Sand is up 48-44 on Zach Lahn. The Libertarians lost in court again. A judge ruled they can’t replace their disqualified candidates, so their LG and 3rd District picks are off the ballot pending a possible appeal. We talked beef! The president’s move to allow cheaper foreign beef imports has ranchers fuming, with timing that couldn’t be worse for Iowa’s cattle counties. And we closed on whether Hinson’s time in Congress is a liability in a statewide race. Ed says no. It’s the candidate, not the office. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Welcome back, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price. This week, we are going to talk about a new statewide poll that shows, yet again — in case you didn’t know this — that we have some really competitive races in this state. We’re also going to talk about beef. The president has made a move that has ticked off some cattle ranchers, and we’re going to dig into that a little bit. And we have a tradition, it seems, on this weekly podcast: we must cover the latest twists and turns of the Libertarian candidates, so we’ll do that too. With us this week are regulars Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. Hello, ladies. Kathie Obradovich: Oh! Laura Belin: Good to see ya! Dave Price: But this week we’ve added a fourth. This is something we’ve been talking about for quite a while, and it is now a thing: Ed Failor Jr. joins us this week. He’s a longtime Republican who has had a bunch of different jobs — he’s worked at the Statehouse, he’s worked on campaigns, he led an organization, Iowans for Tax Relief, and he’s done other stuff too. We’ll maybe get into some of that. Regardless, welcome, Ed. Thanks for doing this. Ed Failor: Well, happy to be here. I just — people talking is a good thing. Dave Price: It is a good thing. You and I, over the years, have had many lengthy conversations, and now we can do it here. And as you promised, you’ll work in at least one dad joke — in case any of your kids are listening to this podcast. True? Ed Failor: I’m going to ignore the ageism of that and go with it. Yeah. Dave Price: I’m apparently with you, because I’m accused of that all the time. I wear it as a badge of honor. All right, all right — trio. The Suffolk University Poll Dave Price: Let’s set things up with this new Suffolk University poll. Two of the big races we’ve talked about all year: the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race. Quick numbers — in the Senate race, Republican Ashley Hinson leads 45–41 over Democrat Josh Turek, with Libertarian Thomas Lane at 4%. The governor’s race is flipped: Democrat Rob Sand is at 48%, Republican Zach Lahn at 44%, no Libertarian in that race. That’s our tease — we’ll get to the Libertarians, but not yet. Kathie, we’ve said again and again that it’s a competitive race — when you see these numbers, what’s the “why” of it? Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think one thing I liked about this poll is they asked a lot of issue questions that help explain where people are coming from, and it won’t surprise anyone — it’s the economy, it’s gas prices, it’s household expenses, grocery prices. Poll respondents were asked what they’re spending more money on, and gas and groceries topped the list. President Trump’s approval rating is down, as we’ve seen in other polls and nationally. There’s also still a healthy number of undecided voters. I was glad to see Thomas Lane included in this poll — we hadn’t seen a poll name the Libertarian candidate before, for reasons we’ll get into. But he’s on the ballot, and he pulled about 3 points that look like they came from Republicans and 1 point from Democrats. So if we speculate about who the Libertarian hurts more in this race, it’s probably Ashley Hinson. Dave Price: Laura, what’s your takeaway? Laura Belin: I like to look at the composition of the electorate. I could look at this poll and say it’s encouraging for Republicans — Zach Lahn isn’t that far behind, he’s much less well-known than Rob Sand, and he has room to grow, while Hinson still has a lead. But I looked at the sample: 38% Republican, 33% Independent, 28% Democrat. That’s a decent reflection of Iowa’s registered voters as a whole, but a poor reflection of who’s likely to vote in a midterm — there’s no way independents will outnumber Democrats at the ballot box in November. Democratic turnout will be higher than independent turnout, even accounting for a stronger-than-usual independent showing. So if I’m a Democrat, I’m looking at this poll and thinking Rob Sand’s lead could actually be understated. Also worth noting: the recalled 2024 presidential vote in this sample was Trump +11, close to Trump’s actual 13-point win in the state — but there’s no guarantee the November electorate mirrors 2024. We’ve talked about this before: if you’d polled in 2014 assuming the electorate would look like 2012’s, you’d have been way off. So — I have no idea. I do feel Hinson is slightly favored in the Senate race, but this poll doesn’t look like what the November electorate is likely to be. Dave Price: Ed, you’ve watched how the sausage is made for years — what did you think of the headline numbers, and of the internals? Ed Failor: Laura stole one of my two points, so it must have been a good one — the composition of who they polled isn’t what the electorate is actually going to look like. That was my biggest takeaway, and Laura’s right. The other thing: the numbers are all within the margin of error, so who really knows. Polls are a snapshot of a group of people at a given time. They brought in a good sample from Muscatine County, which is a real bellwether — that was smart. But the thing that struck me most was why people said they’re voting. Forty percent of likely voters said it’s their civic duty — for people willing to answer a poll in August, that doesn’t surprise me; I’d almost have expected that number to be higher. But 30% said they’re voting because of the political climate, and that’s interesting. Without the crosstabs, you can’t see the “why” behind that — as a Republican, I’m not happy with the climate either, and I know plenty of Democrats who aren’t public about their views, so that number cuts both ways. Without an incumbent on the ballot, Sand and Hinson are each the closest thing to one, and having them up by a bit this early is normal — the late deciders will make the difference. I’d be concerned, as a Republican, that those numbers aren’t better given the state we’re in. The Cabinet Visits Dave Price: Ed, can you zoom out and look at the last couple of weeks? About the only people who haven’t visited Iowa lately are Donald Trump and J.D. Vance — I exaggerate only slightly. They sent a plane full of administration officials who did various things; a bunch went to the State Fair. Is this a protective move, making sure they don’t take chances because so much is at stake — or are they seeing the numbers, feeling the environment, and thinking “we need to reinforce en masse”? Ed Failor: Probably a little of both, but more the latter. It’s real early for them to be doing this, so I’d assume — mathematically, as a Republican, I’m not thrilled — that the latter is more likely. It’s a way for them to plug in and help, and putting people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Pete Hegseth in front of voters gives some gravitas without it being the president himself, which is a double-edged sword at best. Dave Price: Sure. Laura, what do you have? Laura Belin: I’d like Ed’s take on something. I’ve watched all the soapbox speeches, and at this stage of a campaign you often see candidates pivot toward the middle — Zach Nunn and Ashley Hinson both talked about their bipartisan work. But I was struck that Nunn brought in Pete Hegseth, and Hinson is bringing back Ted Cruz, who just campaigned with her. I’d have thought those were fairly polarizing figures they might not want to elevate. What does Ed make of that? Ed Failor: I think Hegseth’s appearance is interesting, and probably less polarizing than we’d assume — most voters don’t have strong feelings about him one way or the other, even though people like us in the political world do. I think the mistake people in our world and in the press make is assuming the average Iowan is paying close attention yet. So bringing in Hegseth is partly about just getting people to pay attention. Ted Cruz, I find more interesting — is that about shoring up the “I’m a real conservative” credential? If you went to church this weekend and asked people whether they know who Pete Hegseth is, you’d mostly get “I’ve heard the name” — but he’s from the administration, and that adds some weight. Years ago, when Tom Vilsack was governor, there was a name-ID poll — something like 70% of Iowans knew who Vilsack was, but when the same group was asked

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 8/29/26

  3. Aug 22

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 8/22/26

    We started with the Cook Political Report’s new ratings: the U.S. Senate race moved from Leans Republican to Toss-Up, and the governor’s race moved from Toss-Up to Leans Democrat. We talked about why. Tight polling, a president underwater in approval, gas prices topping four bucks, and Iowa’s history of electing Democratic governors in red states even when it won’t send them to the Senate. We also noted how many Republican candidates went negative on their opponents at the soapbox this year, which we read as a sign of real nervousness in the party. Then we got into the sheer number of Trump administration officials who came through Iowa this week. We counted at least nine cabinet secretaries, including Pete Hegseth, Scott Bessent, RFK Jr., and Brooke Rollins. Hegseth’s visit stood out most: no public schedule, a rare appearance for him, and a campaign fundraiser for Zach Nunn that Pentagon guidelines normally wouldn’t allow for a Senate-confirmed official. We debated who ends up paying for that kind of travel and what message it sends about how worried the administration is about Iowa’s races. We closed out with our soapbox moments: the Libertarians’ ongoing ballot fight and court hearing, and Turning Point USA activists trailing Rob Sand, Josh Turek, and Mark Kelly around the fairgrounds, something none of us had seen at the fair before. We’ll be back next week to see how the final 48 hours of the fair played out. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. We are talking to you on the final Friday morning of the Iowa State Fair. I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. Hello, ladies, how are you? Kathie Obradovich: Hello, happy Friday! Dave Price: Happy Friday — and happy Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, to all of you, whenever you’re listening to this podcast, the final Friday of the Iowa State Fair. Much to talk about. I wonder if we can talk first about the Cook Political Report. I was talking to somebody — this would’ve been Thursday, I think — at the fair about this. Cook Political Report looks at all these races across the country, obviously, and it shifted both the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race toward Democrats. As we know, Republicans have been the dominant party in our state for more than a decade. We’ve also talked early in this podcast about the new wildcards in 2026 — for the first time since ‘68, I believe, both of those races are open seats. So in theory, anything goes, although I feel like I’ve brought this up a half dozen times: Laura’s post six months ago now, showing the registration numbers — the difference between Republicans and Democrats — while it’s narrowed, you’re still looking at, what, 180-some thousand? What’s the difference? Laura Belin: I think it’s closer to 170,000 now. Pretty big Republican advantage. Dave Price: That’s a big ol’ gap. Okay, let’s talk about this shift. Kathie, why don’t you lead us off? And appreciate — this is just a forecast, and we tread carefully on polls and speculation. But as Cook is looking at this, they’re clearly looking at the atmosphere and what’s going on. So how potentially significant is this, for a party that still has sizable advantages like Republicans do, to now almost be at a disadvantage in a couple of these prominent races? Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so first of all, I think this reflects what we’ve been seeing here — these races are tight. These forecasts are based largely on polling, I’d argue, although there are certainly other factors that go into it. The U.S. Senate race moved from Leans Republican to Toss-Up. And again, we talked about the Emerson poll a couple weeks ago — it was a two-point race between Ashley Hinson and Josh Turek. By most definitions, I’d call that a toss-up. And then the governor’s race moved from Toss-Up to Leans Democrat, which again I think is reflective of that same Emerson poll — Rob Sand had a five-point lead, so it seemed weird that we were still calling it a toss-up and not Leans Democrat. You guys may disagree, but I think this is reflective of the national climate — we continue to see dissatisfaction with the Trump administration. He’s underwater in polls in Iowa and around the country. We continue to see economic angst among the population. All of that, piled on top of the fact that the president’s party typically does poorly in the midterms — I think that builds a case, separate from anything going on in Iowa specifically. Having said that, it’s August. Dave Price: Yes. Kathie Obradovich: A lot, a lot can happen. Laura Belin: I think one thing it underscores — and we’ve talked about this before — is that in a red state, voters are more likely to elect a Democrat as governor than to the U.S. Senate. That’s why we have Democratic governors in Kansas, Kentucky, and recently had one in Louisiana. So I think what everyone agrees on is that Rob Sand has a better chance than Josh Turek, regardless of the climate. But I was struck by Ashley Hinson’s speech on the soapbox Monday — she went hard negative on Turek before she even talked about her own record. Sometimes candidates talk about their own record first and then criticize the opponent, but she did the negative part first, which normally you wouldn’t do when you’re feeling comfortable about the race. Brenna Bird also went negative on her opponent in her soapbox speech. And I saw that Sabato’s Crystal Ball just moved the Iowa Attorney General race from Likely Republican to Lean Republican, and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig also went negative on his opponent. So it does seem that Iowa Republicans are feeling pretty concerned about this election cycle. Dave Price: Kathie, you said maybe we disagree — I don’t. I think all the things you pointed out... and, I love a bunch of things about the Iowa State Fair, but not how you feel afterward, when you’re like, “dang, it’s gonna take me three months to walk off this weight.” That aside — it’s such a good place. For years, when I was at my old TV station, we had our Cast Your Colonel booth, where people could drop a kernel of corn in whichever candidate’s jar they supported. Not a scientific measure, but the benefit for me was more the one-on-one conversations — who do you like, what’s going on in your life. We’d get 60,000 people stop by. I don’t have the corn anymore, but I’ve been at the fair a bunch of times already this year, and this is only anecdotal, so asterisk everything I’m about to say: I can’t think of one person I saw wearing a Trump hat. “Trump ‘28,” Trump-Vance shirts, whatever. I’m not saying he doesn’t have supporters there — of course he does — but I do wonder if people are starting to tire of some of this. I felt this in ‘16 — he beat Hillary Clinton, and toward the end you saw people, including some Republicans, get tired of the chaos. Maybe it’s magnified this time, and then there’s the economic piece — we were driving to the fair the other day when gas by our house topped four bucks. We’re six months into this, and forget the politics — people notice that. Four bucks is a mental threshold. And for people paying attention: the president originally said this wouldn’t even last a couple of weeks. Well, we’re six months in, so you’ve been paying higher prices for six months. I really think that wears on people. Kathie Obradovich: And it’s interesting, Dave — the State Fair isn’t cheap entertainment. You’ve got to pay for tickets, the food’s expensive. So if people who can afford to go to the fair are feeling the economic hit, that tells you something about the rest of the population. People who can afford the fair typically have money to pay $13 for a beer at an Asleep at the Wheel concert, which is what I paid on Wednesday night. And that was at the free stage, country night — I didn’t see any MAGA hats there either, and I was looking for them. So, interesting. Laura Belin: I typically park on Grand Avenue and walk in through the Grand Concourse entrance, and there’s a guy who sometimes sets up near the shuttle drop-off on Grand, near 30th, selling MAGA-type gear. I noticed the hats he’s pushing this year say things like “USA,” maybe “45” and “47” on the side — but he’s not really pushing Trump 2028 or Trump-Vance merchandise. One day as I was walking out, I asked him how business was, and compared to last year. He said about the same. But I noticed he wasn’t really presenting a lot of Trump-branded stuff. Dave Price: Speaking of the fair — sorry to sidetrack — Kathie already plugged her concert. My wife’s best friend came to Iowa with her little girl last week to go to Rod Stewart — Laura Belin: Oh... Dave Price: I appreciate the guy’s in his 80s, so we’re not dogging him — he’d had to cancel a heart procedure to be there. My beef is with Richard Marx. What the heck, man — he was supposed to be the opener, and he bailed. He could’ve had the grandstand to himself. The fair is always super accommodating about this stuff. One thing that’s pretty cool: when the headliner cancels, they refund your ticket and you get to see a free

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 8/22/26

  4. Aug 15

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 8/15/26

    We split up this week: Laura hit the Wing Ding in Clear Lake, Dave went to the Field of Dreams game. Both nights ran long. Wing Ding drew its best crowd since 2019, about 750 people, with Mark Kelly headlining and fueling more 2028 speculation. Over in Newton, RNC Chair Jeff Kaufmann made the case that Republicans only need to flip a handful of seats nationally, two of them right here in Iowa. Laura’s not so sure the math holds, she counts at least three competitive Iowa districts. We also flagged the odd, limited-media visit from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, campaigning for Miller-Meeks and Nunn under the guise of official business. And the Libertarian ballot saga rolls on. New candidates, a likely court fight ahead. Plus a preview of what we’re watching for at the Register Soapbox at the state fair this week. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers’ & Songwriters’ Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They’ll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, our weekly confab of all things politics in Iowa, and some other things that impact Iowa politics — the people, the places, the issues, the events, this big campaign, all that kind of stuff. We talk about it here on the podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by my Iowa Writers’ Collaborative colleagues, Kathie Obradovich, the czar, the queen of the Iowa Capital Dispatch... Kathie Obradovich: And... Dave Price: ...Laura Belin, the founder, the creator, the editor, the writer... Dave Price: The bookkeeper. Did I get them all? At Bleeding Heartland Laura Belin: Most of them, yes. Dave Price: Most of them, yes. It just depends on me. How are you both? And I love your peach, Kathie. Kathie Obradovich: Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, happy Friday. It doesn’t feel like Friday, because I think we’re going to be going all weekend, right? At least with the Saturday State Fair. Dave Price: Indeed. I feel like I need to pre-apologize just in case for how this podcast goes. We were recording on Friday morning. Laura went to the Wing Ding, which we’re going to talk about, at Clear Lake — that ain’t close to Des Moines. I went to Dyersville for the Field of Dreams game with my son — that is not close to Des Moines either. So not to whine, but we both had very short nights and took a good extended nap, separately. Do you drink caffeine, Laura? Laura Belin: I do not. I get all the caffeine I need from chocolate. Dave Price: Okay. Laura Belin: But I got home at about 11:30 last night, and then I was just wired, so I couldn’t go to sleep right away, because it was a highly stimulating environment up there at the historic Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. Dave Price: Oh, man, I’m jealous — you beat us by an hour and a half. We walked in just a couple minutes before... before wine. My 16-year-old, he’s like the Energizer bunny — he slept almost the entire three-hour drive back. Now, he did drive us there so I could work while we drove, but I guess 10:30 was his knockout point, so it was just me and a silent car for three hours on Highway 20. But here we are. All right, how about we leave... Kathie Obradovich: And I didn’t do anything. Dave Price: Not bragging. Laura Belin: So you edited a bunch of stories, I did — late. Kathie Obradovich: I watched Field of Dreams on Netflix — not to give it a plug or anything. And yeah, I did edit the Wing Ding story when it came in, and I drank some wine, so today I have my baseball mug for my caffeine. Dave Price: May I just say it’s good to be the boss working at home when you can drink? I’m not going to allege that you drank your wine while you edited Robin’s story from the Wing Ding — that’s for everyone else to figure out, and this is not a confessional here — but regardless of the order, that’s the way to make that night work. Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think so. I haven’t been doing this for almost 40 years for nothing, babe. Dave Price: Amen. All right, Laura — since you were the one of the three of us physically present at the Wing Ding, give us a little intro, because you’ve gone to a bunch of these things. Talk about what happens there first, and then, as they usually do, they had a high-profile guest — in this case, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. What’s the atmosphere like when you get into the Surf Ballroom? Laura Belin: The Iowa Democratic Wing Ding is a fundraiser put on by a bunch of county Democratic Party organizations across northern and western Iowa, but it draws people from well outside that region too — I saw people from Scott County, Polk County, and lots of places. They said last night there were about 750 people there, and it certainly looked it — the room was very full. They said it was the best-attended Wing Ding since 2019, when they had more than a dozen presidential candidates there. I was at that one too, and it was kind of wild with the presidential-candidate sign wars. This time, since it’s after the primary, there’s no Democratic competition, so they had most of the statewide nominees speaking — except not Rob Sand or Dave Muhlbauer, but all the other nominees for statewide office: Chris Jones, Taylor Wedick, John Norwood, Nathan Willems and Ryan Peterman running for Secretary of State. Then they always have two congressional candidates — Lindsey James, the nominee in the 2nd District, and Dave Dawson in the 4th. And, as you mentioned, Mark Kelly, the keynote, gave kind of a rally-the-troops speech. Last year’s keynote was Harry Dunn, the Capitol Police officer who was there on January 6th, and he gave a more introspective speech than Kelly did. Oh, and I forgot to mention — Josh Turek, the Senate candidate, was there too, speaking. The crowd was very into the speeches. Afterward, talking to activists, there’s a lot going on the ground — coordinated campaign offices open in several counties across the 2nd and 4th Districts. People seem pretty fired up. Dave Price: The one thing I thought was interesting about what Kelly was talking about — this is where I feel like Democrats are a little split, at the DC level. Kelly talked about the importance of Democrats getting back into the majority so they could investigate the alleged corruption of the Trump administration. Some Democrats don’t really want to talk about that — they may not want to talk about Trump at all, or about possible impeachment, corruption, and all that. What was your take on how that played with the crowd? Laura Belin: He didn’t talk about impeachment. But if you’re Mark Kelly, and you were threatened with prosecution over that video he and other members of Congress recorded telling service members they don’t have to follow illegal orders, I think you almost can’t avoid talking about the Trump administration a little bit. But it definitely wasn’t the focus of his remarks. He was really trying to say we’ve got to get things under control. He told a story I’ve heard him tell before, about going with his daughter — who’s about 30 now — to visit the house where he and his wife lived when she was born. It was a four-bedroom house in a nice neighborhood that he could afford to buy as a young Navy officer, which nobody in his daughter’s generation can afford at her age in a neighborhood like that. So I’d say he emphasized economic issues more, though he did touch on the investigations and what Pete Hegseth is doing. Later, after his speech, he did a segment on MS NOW where he talked more about allegations involving the Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf — he didn’t dwell on that during his speech. But I think a crowd like that does want to hear about investigating the Trump administration. Though that’s definitely not something — I don’t think I’ve ever heard Josh Turek say “send me to the Senate so I can investigate Trump corruption.” Kathie Obradovich: Dave, you said exactly what I was thinking — it was an interesting choice, given that I think there’s a definite thought among at least some of the party that you don’t want to focus on Trump. But I also agree with Laura that from Kelly’s perspective, given that he’s been investigated, people would think it was weird if he didn’t mention it. So you’ve got two things there. It may not have been the focus of his speech, but it was probably the focus of a lot of the media coverage. The second thing I’d point out: he hasn’t ruled out running for president — he’s actually said he’s thinking about it. So having him headline the Wing Ding takes on added significance, since we’re always looking ahead to the next presidential race, even though we’re not over the hump of the midterms yet. These kinds of events are kind of the unofficial start of the 2028 cycle. A colleague of mine in Arizona asked, “Do you think Mark Kelly’s going to run?” I said, “Well, he’s making the moves.” Laura Belin: Yeah, well, he... I’m sure he was booked before the DNC made the calendar decision that left Iowa out of the early window — he probably committed to the Wing Ding before that. But he did do the obligatory “I have an Iowa connection” — it turns out his wife’s brother was a Cyclone, a kicker for the football team, and actually held the record for the longest field goal for 45 years. He said that record was just broken last year. Kathie Obradovich: But it’s a good Iowa conn

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 8/15/26

  5. Aug 9

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 8/9/26

    We welcome first-time guest Shane Vander Hart this week. He writes at shanevanderhart.com. Please give him a follow while you’re there. We dug into school choice first. Rob Sand wants to bring back the ESA income cap and add audits, while Zach Lahn talks expansion without much detail. Shane and Laura sparred over what audits would even target, since tuition dollars aren’t currently subject to oversight once schools receive them. Then we turned to the new Emerson/Nexstar poll. Sand is up 5.5 points on Lahn, boosted by a 26-point lead with independents. The Senate race is tighter, Hinson over Turek 47.5 to 45, but Turek leads independents by nearly 12 points, a warning sign for Republicans this cycle. We also covered Brenna Bird’s new Medicaid fraud task force, which drew criticism from two former state officials who say the existing Medicaid Fraud Control Unit just needs more funding. Laura flagged that the task force ignores MCOs illegally denying care. Looking ahead, Laura’s tracking healthcare messaging in the 1st District, Kathie’s watching Sunday’s Libertarian convention to replace their bounced 3rd District candidate, and Shane has a piece coming Monday on Sand’s ESA means test. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers' & Songwriters' Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They'll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:30.730 --> 00:00:39.459 Dave Price: Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast. I am Dave Price, joined by not two. 3 00:00:39.580 --> 00:00:55.030 Dave Price: But 3 media friends this week. Laura Belin, Kathie Obradovich are regulars. They’re here, of course. But we have a newbie, a rookie, Shane Vander Hart. Who the heck is this person? Hi, Shane. 4 00:00:55.030 --> 00:00:55.760 Shane: Hey! 5 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:57.110 Shane: Hey Dave, how are you? 6 00:00:58.110 --> 00:00:59.459 Dave Price: Who are you? Shane: Who am I? Well, I’m just a guy, no. I write a substack, shanevanderhart.com, very original. 8 00:01:09.370 --> 00:01:10.190 Shane: So, it’s… 9 00:01:10.190 --> 00:01:11.310 Dave Price: Branding, baby, branding. 10 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:20.809 Shane: Yeah, yeah, so it’s… it’s a piece of my mind, basically, the subtitle’s Piece of My Mind About Faith, Culture, Politics, Media, and Public Policy, because 11 00:01:21.100 --> 00:01:30.350 Shane: drilling down on one particular thing is boring, and so I can… it just leaves it broad and wide open, so whatever I want to write about, I can just do that. 12 00:01:30.490 --> 00:01:37.780 Dave Price: Outstanding. We have had some private conversations, really, for a number of weeks, and we took last week off. 13 00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:43.669 Dave Price: For a little vacation, rest up as we get ready for the final sprint. 14 00:01:43.930 --> 00:01:53.680 Dave Price: I… one of the biggest… I’m just gonna talk out loud about what has been challenging for me. There is no conservative version of Laura Belin. 15 00:01:54.770 --> 00:02:01.099 Dave Price: That is… that has… because that has always been my dream, right? Laura is this unique… 16 00:02:01.970 --> 00:02:09.669 Dave Price: entity. Nobody does what Laura does. Kathie runs this sprawling enterprise, so she’s her own thing, too. 17 00:02:09.740 --> 00:02:13.819 Dave Price: But… but that… she has a different… a different mission. 18 00:02:13.820 --> 00:02:33.139 Dave Price: There is no conservative version of Laura, and so we have had private conversations about, like, how do we get some conservative voices in here? You know, way back in the day, we had Kevin Hall, Craig Robinson, they were doing some things, and they did it differently than Laura does. 19 00:02:33.170 --> 00:02:47.340 Dave Price: But nobody does the kind of deep dive stuff from the conservative side that Laura does, and that is something that I’ve always thought could probably give our conversations here each week a little more depth. 20 00:02:47.410 --> 00:02:48.580 Dave Price: So… 21 00:02:48.690 --> 00:03:03.760 Dave Price: Shane, who has 43 different jobs, so it makes it very challenging to schedule with this man, but you have been around conservative politics for a while, and I appreciate right now you’re… you’re probably a lost man. 22 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:21.710 Dave Price: You are not… you are not the Republican guy who I met 20 years ago or whatever, when we met up for coffee at Smokey Row in Des Moines, when you were doing some other… you had caffeinated thoughts and some other things you were doing. You later launched Iowa Torch, you’ve been a youth pastor in your career, all kinds of stuff. 23 00:03:21.790 --> 00:03:23.780 Dave Price: So… 24 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:43.229 Dave Price: welcome, because it’s nice to add yet another… yet another voice to this. And I wonder, since you’re our guest this week, maybe you lead off, but one thing that we have talked a little bit about on this podcast, but not a lot, would be looking at the idea of school choice. 25 00:03:43.230 --> 00:03:59.199 Dave Price: And how that might play out in the gubernatorial race. Laura has done a lot of reporting, Kathie’s staff has done reporting on this as well. Shane, you are working for a couple of members who clearly have. 26 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:00.669 Shane: Mistaken it, yeah. 27 00:04:00.670 --> 00:04:13.019 Dave Price: a stake in this and a lot of interest in this expansion. So, talk about what you have seen so far from Rob Sand and Zach Lahn in this area. 28 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:24.940 Shane: Okay, well, as far as, school choice, it’s hard to say exactly how prominent it’s gonna be in the election. Right now, it seems, obviously, focused more on the economy, and… 29 00:04:25.190 --> 00:04:29.109 Shane: I think Rob Sands, 30 00:04:29.310 --> 00:04:37.129 Shane: his hits on Lahn about where he, you know, where he resides has been landing, especially with independents, but… 31 00:04:37.310 --> 00:04:45.039 Shane: I see two candidates that are pretty far apart on the issue. Of course. 32 00:04:45.300 --> 00:04:57.290 Shane: Rob seems like he has, moderated himself to a point where he’s not… he’s not advocating getting rid of ESAs altogether, but just putting… bringing back the income cap, which I hope I’m… 33 00:04:57.640 --> 00:04:59.719 Shane: I hope I’m, 34 00:05:00.230 --> 00:05:08.220 Shane: talking about his position accurately, but… So I don’t know if that’s what he truly believes, or if that’s what he… 35 00:05:08.900 --> 00:05:20.790 Shane: thinks that’s what… the only thing he’s gonna be able to get accomplished, with… with the current political environment and the likelihood that if he’s elected governor, he’s going to have a Republican legislature to work with, so… 36 00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:30.320 Shane: It’s been interesting. Lahn hasn’t said a lot on the campaign trail that I’ve seen, other than he’s supportive of VSAs. 37 00:05:30.350 --> 00:05:42.859 Shane: I think we’re going to be trying to drill down where he really lands more on specific issues that impact private schools, not just ESAs, but independent accreditation and other things as well. 38 00:05:43.450 --> 00:05:47.089 Dave Price: Laura, what’s your take on where is the base on this? 39 00:05:47.440 --> 00:06:03.939 Laura Belin: Well, the Democratic base is extremely opposed to the school voucher program. I think I agree with Shane’s summary. I would just add a couple of things to what Rob Sands says when he talks about this issue, which he does a lot. He brings it up a lot at his town halls. And… 40 00:06:03.940 --> 00:06:28.209 Laura Belin: he definitely wants to bring back the income caps on it, but also wants to have audits, like, if public money is going to these schools, we should be able to see where the public money is going. There should be more restrictions on what they can do with the money. And finally, he says that these private schools, if they want to take the taxpayer money, they should accept all of the students who want to attend that school. So that is… 41 00:06:28.500 --> 00:06:52.470 Laura Belin: what I’ve heard from him. And I’ve heard impressed by Democratic audiences or voters saying, hey, why aren’t you calling for repealing this program? And he’ll say exactly what Shane just said. If I’m elected, I’m going to be working with a Republican legislature. I was really surprised this week with the Emerson College poll, and I know we’re going to talk about the poll more later, but they asked a question about this issue, not exactly using the phrase school vouchers, but 42 00:06:52.470 --> 00:06:55.570 Laura Belin: State-funded private school tuition assistance. 43 00:06:55.570 --> 00:07:08.680 Laura Belin: And the electorate was really evenly split on it, with just a little more than 40% each way, which I would have expected the electorate to be more against the voucher program, just based on how much I’ve heard Rob Sand talking about it. 44 00:07:08.970 --> 00:07:20.309 Kathie Obradovich: We went up and covered, Zach Lahn up in Britt at the Hancock County Fair, I want to say it was last weekend, so not too long ago. And, he’s… 45 00:07:20.450 --> 00:07:42.180 Kathie Obradovich: careful about how he talks about ESA. So, he said he would like to see expansion of the program, but then he sort of couches that as saying he wants, more

  6. Jul 25

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 7/25/26

    Kathie’s team at Iowa Capital Dispatch broke a story on a 119-page study the Reynolds administration commissioned on letting community colleges offer four-year degrees, then sat on for months. The findings: Iowa doesn’t really have “education deserts,” and the brain drain problem is more about low wages than higher ed. Community colleges are already pushing back on the report’s methodology, and expect this fight back at the legislature next year. Read Brooklyn Draisey’s reporting here. We also got an update on the libertarian ballot cases. Marco Battalia (running under a name that isn’t legally his) and Rick Stewart both had name-based challenges heard in court this week, with rulings expected soon. The tougher case, over Jules Cutler’s affidavit for lieutenant governor, is headed to the Iowa Supreme Court either way. Last up, a Dave Muhlbauer campaign stop for the Rob Sand campaign at Ember Recovery turned into a real, unscripted moment when YSS president Andrew Allen raised concerns about legalizing marijuana and its effect on kids. Good discussion, and a reminder that this issue deserves more nuance than it usually gets. We’re off next week, back in two weeks as the fall campaign heats up. Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers' & Songwriters' Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They'll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:20.189 Dave Price: Hi everybody, welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich, as we get toward the end of July, and my son’s 16th birthday, so kind of a fun… a fun day in my household. How are you, ladies? 33 00:02:20.720 --> 00:02:22.580 Kathie Obradovich: Doing great, how are you? 34 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:35.560 Dave Price: Kathie, I’m gonna call you out, but just to show how I do think women are genetically superior at this, which is probably sexist toward men, but it is what it is. Right before we open this podcast. 35 00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:51.300 Dave Price: Kathie, as she’s getting ready to do this show, is texting as part of her editor duties at the Iowa Capital Dispatch. So, you know, it just shows how she can break that brain up into multi… little multi-chunks. 36 00:02:52.180 --> 00:02:54.400 Kathie Obradovich: I would never get anything done otherwise. 37 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:56.780 Laura Belin: Women… women are good at multitasking, Dan. 38 00:02:56.780 --> 00:02:58.130 Dave Price: Honestly, I… 39 00:02:58.130 --> 00:03:22.950 Dave Price: I am… I learn that every year, year after year. Anyway. Alright, we have a bunch to talk about. Kathie, can you lead off today? Because on… late on Thursday night, Iowa Capital Dispatch had a story that posted about something that you all have been chasing down, really, for a number of months. And to catch us up on this, this was something that came up 40 00:03:22.950 --> 00:03:41.270 Dave Price: during the past legislative session, where there was talk about community colleges offering four-year degrees, to lay this out generically. And it faced some pushback from the regents, obviously, it faced some pushback, especially from some of the private colleges and universities. 41 00:03:41.270 --> 00:03:54.570 Dave Price: But your staff found out that there had been this study commissioned to look at this concept. Can you walk us through the journey to actually get ahold of this study? 42 00:03:54.570 --> 00:03:59.399 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so it’s interesting. It’s probably been more accurate to say it’s been weeks, as… Okay. 43 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:01.190 Dave Price: It’s better to say months. 44 00:04:01.190 --> 00:04:17.640 Kathie Obradovich: But, it’s been 8 months, anyway. So, yeah, we covered during the legislative session, the push from community colleges to establish baccalaureate degrees at community colleges, which is, you know, really. 45 00:04:17.640 --> 00:04:42.300 Kathie Obradovich: something that has never been done in Iowa. Community colleges, have four-year or two-year associate certificates, and they also have programs where their students can transfer to a private college or one of the region’s universities to get a four-year degree. And that was a hotly contested issue at the legislature, the private colleges especially 46 00:04:42.380 --> 00:04:59.869 Kathie Obradovich: were up in arms over that, saying it would really help them. And really, one of the, the arguments behind it, on the community college side was that there are, higher education deserts in Iowa, that the community colleges could help fill, because 47 00:05:00.030 --> 00:05:02.319 Kathie Obradovich: You know, there are places where 48 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:27.220 Kathie Obradovich: Especially adult students who may be, trying to go back to school to upgrade their skills and get a better job, that they, you know, might not be able to access those, courses, you know, either they’re too far away, or they are too expensive. So, okay, that was the… that was the big driving argument. The bill didn’t pass. And at some point during the process. 49 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:40.530 Kathie Obradovich: the Reynolds administration commissioned a study from a consultant. Never told anyone this study was going on, but some of the stakeholders participated in the study, so they knew about it. 50 00:05:40.530 --> 00:05:47.780 Kathie Obradovich: And then the study, was received by Department of Education, in June. 51 00:05:47.780 --> 00:06:03.389 Kathie Obradovich: At some point, the study actually was dated in March, which is while the legislative session was going on. The Department of Education says they received it in June, but it was never released. And so… 52 00:06:03.650 --> 00:06:28.649 Kathie Obradovich: We put in a Freedom of Information Act request, and after being handed around, you know, various departments, we finally got a copy of it yesterday morning. And it was really interesting, because the study basically said, you know, that there really isn’t education deserts in Iowa. That, they, you know, people can 53 00:06:28.650 --> 00:06:45.830 Kathie Obradovich: access higher education, either through, you know, within an hour’s drive or online, and that there’s plenty of access, etc. And, also, and this is maybe even the more interesting part, they said that 54 00:06:45.930 --> 00:07:07.509 Kathie Obradovich: Iowa’s workforce woes, you know, the concerns about the brain drain are really due to the business climate, and not how higher education is performing in the state, which I thought was pretty interesting. So, you know, we can use our imaginations about why the governor’s office wasn’t in a big hurry to release this study. 55 00:07:07.510 --> 00:07:12.470 Kathie Obradovich: But, you know, the community colleges are still pushing back. They’re saying that the 56 00:07:12.470 --> 00:07:20.779 Kathie Obradovich: Their definition of an education desert was flawed, or at least different from what the community colleges are using. 57 00:07:20.780 --> 00:07:44.820 Kathie Obradovich: community colleges say a 30-minute drive is, is really more practical for people. And, you know, I think they have a point there. But also arguing that, you know, online, doesn’t serve the bill. So they’re pushing back, essentially, especially at the education desert part of that. And, you know, I think that there were some recommendations that the private colleges don’t like as well, including 58 00:07:44.820 --> 00:07:54.319 Kathie Obradovich: putting, more, you know, kind of putting more conditions on the Iowa Tuition grant, which is taxpayer money that private colleges get. 59 00:07:54.320 --> 00:08:10.820 Kathie Obradovich: For student scholarships. So, anyway, this is a… just an interesting point, with actual research that’s gone into this issue. I would expect it to come back again next year, and we’ll see how this study plays into the discussion. 60 00:08:10.910 --> 00:08:15.010 Dave Price: Was there any context on when they talked… Yeah, for sure. Sorry, Laura. 61 00:08:15.700 --> 00:08:19.929 Laura Belin: Yo, I didn’t even know about this report, so very nice work in finding out. 62 00:08:19.930 --> 00:08:22.249 Kathie Obradovich: I’m Brooklyn, Drazy’s part. 63 00:08:22.250 --> 00:08:31.739 Dave Price: Multitasking, here we go. Exhibit A. Hey, did they have… was there any context when you mentioned that the challenge is the business climate? Was there any contact with that? 64 00:08:31.960 --> 00:08:56.399 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, and we did post the report, so, you know, you might want to dig into the details there, but, you know, they’re essentially talking about, you know, the fact that, Iowa has lower wages, than surrounding states, people leaving for, for lower wages, or for higher wages elsewhere, etc. 65 00:08:56.490 --> 00:09:05.670 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, that they’re saying that there’s enough graduates to fill the jobs, it’s just that they’re getting… they’re getting out of Dodge when they… when they. 66 00:09:05.670 --> 00:09:07.020 Dave Price: Better opportunities elsewhere. 67 00:09:07.020 --> 00:09:08.210 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, yeah. 68 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:12.549 Laura Belin: I’m sure the bill will come back next year, but the… 69 00:09:12.550 --> 00:09:35.410 Laura Belin: chair of the Iowa Senate Education Committee,

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 7/25/26

  7. Jul 19

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 7/19/26

    Firstly, Kathie is on the road and fighting off some wildfire smoke in Chicago, which set the tone for a conversation about just how bad conditions got in the Midwest last week. Then it was on to the big events: Democrats’ Liberty and Justice dinner drew Pete Buttigieg and, by Laura’s read, a noticeably more energized crowd than in 2025. Rita Hart’s talk of two dozen-plus field offices and 65 hired field organizers (many former Rob Sand campaign staffers) suggests Democrats are finally taking a real statewide ground game seriously, something we debated the roots of going all the way back to Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy. On the other side, the Family Leadership Summit brought Kim Reynolds, Zach Lahn, Ashley Hinson, and Speaker Mike Johnson to Des Moines. Johnson’s speech leaned hard into warnings about socialism and communism taking over Washington, a rhetorical strategy Laura, who’s actually lived in post-communist Czech Republic and studied in the Soviet Union, called out as more base-rallying than accurate. We also got into Attorney General Brenna Bird’s new Medicaid Fraud Elimination Task Force, with Kathie raising concerns that “fraud prevention” efforts often turn into red tape that hurts people who legitimately qualify for services, and Laura noting the task force isn’t looking at the flip side: people being wrongly denied home-based care. We closed with a fun bit of trivia from Laura on Steve King’s surprising 2010 role, plus one of Dave’s stranger childhood stories (you’ll have to listen for that one). Want to sharpen your writing and get the inside scoop on Iowa politics at the same time? Join us September 27-30 at the Okoboji Writers' & Songwriters' Retreat on beautiful West Lake Okoboji, featuring Iowa Down Ballot analysts Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. They'll walk you through finding public information, getting your opinion pieces published, and plenty more. Spots are limited, so scan the QR code at the beginning and end of the video or head to okobojiwritersretreat.com to sign up. If you’d like to make a donation to help the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative which supports this show please click the button below. Thanks! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:16.010 --> 00:00:24.799 Dave Price: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. 4 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:36.679 Dave Price: on a Saturday, back-to-back weeks, we are testing the flexibility of these to find journalists, because we’re trying to… we’ve had too much stuff happening on Friday, so… 5 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:52.640 Dave Price: So we’ll be dropping this on Sunday, and for those of you who consume at different times, you’re like, what the heck are you talking about, dude? But, we really wanted to work some stuff in for Friday. So, let me start as we begin on this Saturday morning with, good morning, how are you both? 6 00:00:54.020 --> 00:01:09.900 Kathie Obradovich: Good. I’m going to apologize in advance. I’m a little froggy this morning, so I’m going to try not to cough in your ears, but a little bit, a little. I had a cold and then went and spent a couple days in the Chicago smoke or Canada smoke in Chicago, maybe so. 7 00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:14.740 Dave Price: Yeah, how bad, I mean, clearly we’ve seen national stories on that. How bad is that? 8 00:01:14.740 --> 00:01:39.400 Kathie Obradovich: It’s bad. It’s really bad. I mean, so we were in the Chicago suburbs, southwest suburbs and you know, clearly, literally a haze just over everything. And you know, it’s not too bad going in from an air conditioned car to an air conditioned building, et cetera. But, and I do too much of that and my eyes were starting to burn and yeah, it’s, it is not good. Some other 9 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:56.810 Kathie Obradovich: friends of ours were going to go up to northern Minnesota and came back a day early, because it’s just, you know, literally in the red zone. One day that we were there, both Chicago and Detroit were claiming to have the worst air quality in the entire world. 10 00:01:56.810 --> 00:01:59.610 Dave Price: I heard a story on the radio. 11 00:02:00.270 --> 00:02:17.990 Dave Price: Yeah, Friday morning, I think it was. And, the report was that it’s so thick and bad that even if you don’t generally have any kind of respiratory issues, it’s still not a good idea to be outside. 12 00:02:17.990 --> 00:02:20.409 Dave Price: Yeah. Like, it’s seriously at that level. 13 00:02:20.660 --> 00:02:35.499 Kathie Obradovich: I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time outside. My nephew was supposed to play a softball game on Thursday night, that got canceled, so there was a lot of outdoor activities being canceled, all around the Chicago metro, so… 14 00:02:36.260 --> 00:03:01.200 Dave Price: Speaking of activities, we’ve had a bunch of kind of high profile ones. The Democrats on Sunday had their Liberty and Justice dinner. The Republicans the Friday before, so a little bit more than a week ago, had the annual Lincoln dinner, and then the family leader had the annual Family Leadership Summit. We had all of those kind of jammed one after another, but we had a couple of 15 00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:05.850 Dave Price: IPs, Headlining it for the Democrats, you had Pete Buttigieg 16 00:03:05.890 --> 00:03:10.250 Dave Price: which his thing was Sunday, so we didn’t really get to talk about this, but 17 00:03:10.250 --> 00:03:33.520 Dave Price: I thought it was interesting that early on in his remarks before the group he made a little comment about the 2020 Democratic caucuses, and how they’re still waiting on some of the results from a few of the precincts, you know, and I think for the most part, I think people laughed. If Troy Price, the former chair of the party, was watching online, he’s probably like 18 00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:53.160 Dave Price: But, and then Buttigieg was asked about it in the gaggle afterwards with reporters and, you know, has he let bygones be bygones or whatever? And I forget, he kind of playfully handled the question. But Laura, I saw you in the, obviously we were both there at Prairie Meadows when they had this thing. 19 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:55.970 Dave Price: what’d you think about… 20 00:03:56.680 --> 00:04:13.870 Dave Price: I’m always curious about, like, who’s in the audience, you know what I mean? So this is, like, a late afternoon event on a Sunday. It was an older crowd, I felt like. A decent amount of empty seats, and I don’t know if that matters or not matters. People probably bought tickets and then didn’t show. 21 00:04:14.390 --> 00:04:15.959 Laura Belin: They set it up for more people. 22 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:25.769 Laura Belin: There were definitely more people attending than the last few years, but because they’d set up the room in rows instead of having tables with chairs around it. 23 00:04:25.770 --> 00:04:26.210 Dave Price: Mhmm. 24 00:04:26.210 --> 00:04:29.640 Laura Belin: It ended up looking like there were some empty seats, but… 25 00:04:29.730 --> 00:04:53.450 Laura Belin: I would describe the crowd as kind of the usual suspects. I mean, I saw a lot of people who are activists in certain counties, and they’ve been involved for a long time, or they’re involved in county Democratic leadership. But I was really struck by the upbeat mood in the crowd. I mean, in twenty twenty five, when I was around at Democratic events, I mean, Democrats were just struggling to pick themselves up off the floor, basically. 26 00:04:53.690 --> 00:04:57.600 Laura Belin: And I think that people feel very… 27 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:22.529 Laura Belin: They feel like they have a strong chance to win some of these races. Rita Hart talked about the ground game that the party is building, that they already have more than two dozen field offices open. And I talked to some people from different counties who said, oh, yeah, they have there’s an office and people are out every weekend. They have volunteers out knocking on doors. I mean, we haven’t seen anything like that level of ground game since Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in twenty twelve. 28 00:05:22.530 --> 00:05:23.799 Laura Belin: On the Democratic side. 29 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:28.590 Dave Price: And I think, are you the one who asked Rita about that in the gaggle? 30 00:05:28.590 --> 00:05:28.950 Laura Belin: after the. 31 00:05:28.950 --> 00:05:46.000 Dave Price: Yes. About the organizational side, and you know, you’re the, you’re one of the few nerdy types that really looks into that kind of deep level stuff, but it, and that doesn’t get a lot of reportage statewide, I don’t think, because it’s sort of inside baseball so much, but as you know. 32 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:51.010 Dave Price: That could reflect a number of things, right? Enthusiasm. 33 00:05:51.010 --> 00:06:12.969 Dave Price: greater fundraising, and then maybe even just a broader view of instead of isolating to a couple of pockets that some Democrats have believed they should go to kind of maximize turnout where they know they have a bunch of people. This might reflect a little more emphasis to do, maybe not truly statewide, but more of a statewide focus than they’ve done recently. Is that fair? 34 00:06:12.970 --> 00:06:37.389 Laura Belin: Definitely, and the fundraising is crucial, and I think that the largest chunk of it is coming from Rob Sand’s campaign to support this field effort, because a number of the field organizers, Rita Hart said there are about 65 field organizers who have already been hired, and a number of them were working on Rob Sand’s campaign initially, and now they’re technically working for, I guess they call it Iowa Forward, so they’re employees of the Iowa Democratic Party right now, but 35 00:06:37.490 --> 00:07:02.470 Laura Belin: They have people out everywhere. I talk

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 7/19/26

  8. Jul 12

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 7/12/26

    This week’s episode got recorded Saturday morning instead of our usual Friday because there was just too much news going on Friday to keep up with, and a lot of it needed to be in the show. Laura broke down two big court stories: the Trump/Selzer poll lawsuit hearing (ruling expected in a few weeks, but headed to the Iowa Supreme Court either way) and the tangled Libertarian ballot fights over Marco Battaglia and Rick Stewart’s names. We also recapped the Republican Party’s Lincoln Dinner, where Kim Reynolds let loose dancing and reminiscing about a Journey concert, Zach Lahn announced Trump’s endorsement, and Ashley Hinson took aim at Josh Turek over missed legislative votes. Kathie closed things out with a plug for Iowa Capital Dispatch’s benefit concert Sunday (today) in Ankeny, supporting local news. More information on that can be found at the top of the page at iowacapitaldispatch.com. Speaking of, big shoutout to those of you who subscribe, share, and discuss this show with friends and family. We continue to grow in terms of downloads, subscribers (both paid and free), and donations. None of that is possible without you. Thank you! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:19.220 --> 00:00:27.249 Dave Price: Hi everybody, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. 5 00:00:27.330 --> 00:00:39.199 Dave Price: If we can peel back the curtains a little bit. If you’re a regular here, you know we usually, the three of us, assemble on a Friday, yak it up about what’s going on, kind of dig into some stuff. 6 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:52.359 Dave Price: And then the new podcast episode drops on a Saturday morning, if you really care how the sausage is made. There were 500 million things that happened on Friday, and so our typical flurry of emails back and forth. 7 00:00:52.390 --> 00:00:57.879 Dave Price: Probably should have had, like, the emoji with hands up in the air, like, how in the heck are we gonna do this? 8 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:05.940 Dave Price: And there was… there was no way to do it, so we are recording on a Saturday morning. It’s gonna have a whole different vibe here, right? 9 00:01:06.600 --> 00:01:08.010 Kathie Obradovich: For sure. 10 00:01:09.800 --> 00:01:27.109 Dave Price: I don’t know how that was gonna matter. But we sort of need… there were so many things yesterday, my partner at the Bureau for TV, when I laid out our coverage plans and stuff, I told her, I’m like, look, there are, like, 5 things on Friday, we literally can’t do all these things, so we’re gonna have to prioritize a few of them, and… 11 00:01:27.130 --> 00:01:32.300 Dave Price: to play catch-up on the other ones. Laura, coincidentally, you happened to go to… 12 00:01:32.300 --> 00:01:47.480 Dave Price: two of the things that we were not able to do. And of course, this gets into your sweet spot because it involves the courts. But how about do your morning first, Friday morning, the Ann Selzer. 13 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:52.739 Dave Price: Lawsuit that’s been… this is… When did this even get filed? When was it? Last year or. 14 00:01:52.740 --> 00:02:07.089 Laura Belin: This was, well, the original lawsuit was filed in December of 2024, but this was related to the lawsuit that was filed, the kind of replacement lawsuit filed on June 30th, 2025, which is important because it was one day before. 15 00:02:07.090 --> 00:02:07.549 Dave Price: the devil. 16 00:02:07.550 --> 00:02:32.550 Laura Belin: Iowa’s anti-SLAPP law went into effect, which would have made it easier to get a suit like this dismissed. But we’re more than a year into proceedings on this, and this was a big hearing over whether the case should be allowed to move forward or whether it should be dismissed. So Donald Trump, joined by Marionette Miller Meeks and the former state senator Brad Zahn, are suing the Des Moines Register Gannett Corporation 17 00:02:32.550 --> 00:02:42.990 Laura Belin: and the former longtime pollster for the Register, Ann Selzer. And the defendants have two different lawyers, Ann Selzer is being represented pro bono. 18 00:02:42.990 --> 00:03:03.970 Laura Belin: by Robert Corn Revere of the nonprofit group Fire, which is a free speech oriented nonprofit. And then the Gannett Corporation and Des Moines Register have their own local council. And both had filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit on very, on similar grounds, but they were arguing differently. So it was a really long hearing. It went for more than two hours. 19 00:03:03.970 --> 00:03:15.859 Laura Belin: where the judge first heard from both sets of defendants on all their arguments to dismiss the lawsuit, then there was a short break, then Alan Ostergren, the attorney for Trump and the other plaintiffs. 20 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:40.839 Laura Belin: made his best case for why the court should allow this suit to go forward, and then both of the defendants got time for rebuttal. So the judge said there are so many legal issues here. It’s gonna take him a few weeks to rule, but he’s gonna be deciding whether to dismiss the case right now for lack of any valid legal claims or whether to allow the it to go forward, which would mean that the plaintiffs can pursue discovery. They 21 00:03:40.840 --> 00:04:04.090 Laura Belin: They could try to seek to obtain internal emails from the register, from Gannett, from Ann Selzer. But either way this decision goes, it’s going to be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court. So we have a long way to go. But just all that is to say that this hearing was not about the substance of the claims, like was the poll fraudulent or not? This was just about how is there even enough of a legal argument here? 22 00:04:04.090 --> 00:04:09.010 Laura Belin: that the case should be allowed to go forward under Iowa’s consumer fraud statute. 23 00:04:09.150 --> 00:04:33.900 Kathie Obradovich: And just to circle back, because I don’t think you actually said it, that this is over a pre-election poll that was run right before the general election in 2024. The poll showed that Kamala Harris was actually leading by like 3 percentage points, something like that. And then Trump ended up winning Iowa by 13 points. And so his argument is that the 24 00:04:33.900 --> 00:04:48.029 Kathie Obradovich: and it’s… it’s… they even said in court that this was a novel effort under this law. They… they’re actually suing under the Consumer Fraud Act and claiming that the poll was fraudulent, and that, 25 00:04:48.210 --> 00:04:56.740 Kathie Obradovich: you know, they even sort of implied that there was actually no poll, that the, that the, that the, the results were just made up. And, 26 00:04:56.750 --> 00:05:20.249 Kathie Obradovich: And so it’s super interesting. One, he’s not trying this under a defamation. This is the typical type of lawsuit a politician might file. The Consumer Fraud Act has different rules, et cetera. And one of the things that was really interesting to me was that they admitted in court, Ostergren admitted in court, they have no evidence that this was fraud. 27 00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:33.650 Kathie Obradovich: And part of their argument was, this case should not be thrown out because we have no evidence. We need to… you need to continue it so we can go through discovery and find the evidence that this was fraudulent. And so… 28 00:05:33.670 --> 00:05:47.629 Kathie Obradovich: So I thought that was really, really interesting. And then, of course, the lawyer for Ann Selzer, made, made, I think, you know, a pretty stark case that. 29 00:05:47.630 --> 00:06:12.560 Kathie Obradovich: Even if everything that the Trump side says is true, like all of their facts, such as they are, are actually true, that this case still can’t go forward under the law. That a newspaper poll, one, is not a consumer product that, you know, if the product is defective, there’s no, you know, you haven’t relied on it or 30 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:37.560 Kathie Obradovich: acted on it in any way. Trump said he didn’t believe it from the very first, so he didn’t rely on it or act on it in any way. And hello, violation of the First Amendment all over the place. And the judge really did seem to be thinking about that. He made several comments about, you know, isn’t this a chilling effect on the First Amendment? Those types of comments. So 31 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:45.110 Kathie Obradovich: I think that at the very least, the First Amendment argument was penetrating with this judge. 32 00:06:45.110 --> 00:07:08.810 Laura Belin: I think the judge seemed receptive to a lot of the arguments, including the First Amendment argument. But as you say, the attorneys were saying, even if you believe all of the conspiracy theories that this was just a fake poll concocted, it still fails because this wasn’t a consumer transaction. There’s no evidence that Donald Trump or the other plaintiffs ever relied on the poll. There’s no evidence that they bought the newspaper because of the poll. 33 00:07:08.810 --> 00:07:17.590 Laura Belin: They’re, they’re talking about money that the campaign spent in those last few days before the election responding to the poll, but Iowa’s consumer fraud. 34 00:07:17.640 --> 00:07:18.390 Laura Belin: Act. 35 00:07:18.390 --> 00:07:43.310 Laura Belin: allows consumers to get back the money that they spent on some there was some kind of fraudulent act or practice or transaction. It’s not something that some unrelated, some other entity spent. There’s no evidence that that the plaintiffs in this case were economically harmed at all. So it fails on that level too. And then just generally, they’re trying to say a poll is commercial speech, but the definition of commercial 36 00:07:43.310 --> 00:08:00.860 Laura Belin: commercial speech is more like an advertisement, that it has no purpose other than to facilitate some kind of co

    Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 7/12/26
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Professional political analysts discuss Iowa politics with refreshing, in-depth conversations. iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com

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  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
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