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Why Dave Loebsack’s retirement makes IA-02 a toss-up race
All four Iowa Congressional districts will likely be competitive in 2020. Republicans were already targeting the first and third districts, where Representatives Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne defeated...
View ArticleIowa absentee ballot law improved, new voter suppression plans blocked
Iowa lawmakers adjourned for the year on April 27. Bleeding Heartland continues to catch up on some of the legislature’s significant work. Previous reporting related to the 2019 legislative session can...
View ArticleIowa Libertarians have strong case against early candidate deadline
The Libertarian Party of Iowa and its prospective candidate for U.S. Senate in 2020 have filed a federal lawsuit charging that a new law violates their “violates fundamental voting and associational...
View ArticleWho’s who in the Iowa Senate for 2020
The Iowa Senate convened for its 2020 session on January 13 with 32 Republicans and 18 Democrats. Eleven senators are women (six Democrats and five Republicans), up from six women in the chamber before...
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Iowa Senate Republican seeks to suppress voting by mail
Iowa’s 2020 primary turnout hit a new record, thanks largely to Secretary of State Paul Pate’s actions to facilitate more voting by mail. Days later, Senate State Government Committee Chair Roby Smith...
View ArticleSenate Republicans misstate facts, misread Iowa law on absentee mailing
A wide-ranging election bill is eligible for Iowa Senate debate on June 10. Judging by the party-line vote in the State Government Committee on June 5, the Republican majority seems likely to...
View ArticleBipartisan deal on election bill brewing in Iowa House (updated)
House members approved the amended bill by 95 votes to 2 on the evening of June 11. The Senate took up the bill around 12:45 am on June 13. Following a brief debate, during which three Democratic...
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A last-minute Republican double-cross on absentee voting in Iowa
UPDATE: Governor Kim Reynolds signed this legislation on June 30. Iowa Republicans have perfected the art of sneaking attacks on constitutional rights or the rule of law into budget bills shortly...
View ArticleIowa SOS will need permission for future emergency election changes
Secretary of State Paul Pate will need approval from the Legislative Council in order to use his emergency powers to alter election procedures, under a bill Governor Kim Reynolds signed on June 25....
View ArticleReynolds tees up another voting rights lawsuit in Iowa
Governor Kim Reynolds has signed into law provisions that would make it harder for county auditors to process some absentee ballot request forms. Democratic election lawyers have signaled plans to...
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The 20 most-viewed Bleeding Heartland posts of 2020
Since I started reviewing Bleeding Heartland’s most widely-read posts at the end of each year, I’ve had mixed feelings about the practice. My organizing principle on any given day is not chasing...
View ArticleWho’s who in the Iowa Senate for 2021
The Iowa Senate convened for its 2021 session on January 11 with 31 Republicans, eighteen Democrats, and one vacancy in the district formerly represented by Mariannette Miller-Meeks. A record twelve...
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Iowa Republicans unveil assault on early voting
Republican-controlled states “are increasingly not ‘laboratories of democracy,’ but ‘laboratories of democratic backsliding,’” political scientist Jake Grumbach noted in a new article by Perry Bacon...
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Revised GOP election bill would exclude thousands more Iowa voters
On a party-line vote of 30 to 18, the Iowa Senate on February 23 approved Senate File 413, a new version of a bill that would restrict every aspect of the early voting process. The following day, the...
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Key Iowa GOP lawmaker denies DC group helped write election law
A leading Republican author of Iowa’s new election law has denied that Washington, DC-based Heritage Action for America helped write or pass any part of the bill. In a leaked video obtained by...
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Iowa regulator investigating DC group’s undisclosed lobbying
The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board is seeking further information on Heritage Action for America‘s efforts to lobby state government. The Associated Press was first to report on May 14 that...
View ArticleIowa board approves formal probe of Heritage Action lobbying
The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted on May 26 to authorize a formal staff investigation of possible undisclosed lobbying of Governor Kim Reynolds’ office by the conservative group...
View ArticleScott County deserves honesty and transparency, not John Maxwell
Lorraine Meriner explains why Scott County Supervisor John Maxwell’s possible violation of Iowa’s open meeting law must be formally investigated. -promoted by Laura Belin On the morning of May 25, the...
View ArticleScott County Democrats face huge organizing challenge
Scott County’s three Republican supervisors voted on May 25 to appoint Kerri Tompkins as the county’s new auditor, having considered no other candidates for the position, and giving members of the...
View ArticleRevised lawsuit challenges Iowa’s newest voter suppression law
Plaintiffs challenging Iowa’s manifold new restrictions on voting amended their complaint on June 9 to incorporate provisions in a law Governor Kim Reynolds signed the previous day. The League of...
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