We’ve finally given birth to our first regional site “The Conservative Reader: Iowa“. Henceforth, the site you are currently reading will be focused on international and national topics, and stories that are specifically tied to regional topics will appear in an appropriate regional site.

We expect that there may be times when a regional story will warrant national focus, and as such we may promote the story either by reference or by elevating it to the national site. For instance, if a story related to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojavich’s improprieties in selecting a Senator to replace Obama were to appear in an Illinois TCR site (we don’t have one yet), it would likely get placement on the national site, or at least promotion on the national site if the story were on a strongly localized angle.

TCR’s Iowa site will be covering the same types of Iowa focused issues that have appeared on this page in the past. We plan to provide Iowa-based news feeds in the near future, as well as opinion feeds from other Iowa sources. We will [...]

Following are updates on races that are particularly important to Iowa:

Tom Harkin (D) is reelected to the US Senate.

Bruce Braley (D) reelected as Iowa District 1 US Congressman.

Dave Loebsack (D) reelected as Iowa District 2 US Congressman.

Leonard Boswell (D) reelected as Iowa District 3 US Congressman.

Tom Latham (R) is reelected as Iowa District 4 US Congressman.

Steve King (R) reelected as Iowa District 5 US Congressman.

Iowa Constitution Amendment passed.

Bill McCarthy (D) reelected as Polk Country Sheriff.

The Iowa State House and Senate races are still not all settled at this writing. However, it appears that Democrats like have a majority in both houses again.

Yes, I am specifically attached to this race since I live in the district currently served by Leonard Boswell (D).

Leonard came into office in 1997. When he first entered Congress, he promised that he would serve no more than 4 terms. He has served 6 already. He votes along party lines over 95% of the time. Although he has supported President Bush on some key bills that served a more conservative agenda, he also voted with Bush on the $700 Billion Bailout. Reviewing his record, he appears to be both socially and fiscally moderate to slightly liberal.

Kim Schmett (R) has served as the chief administrative law judge with the Iowa Department of Inspections and[...]

On the Republican side, the increase in McCain’s position in the polls, slow as it is in coming, is a reflection of the unity that is starting to build within the Republican Party.  I think what you’re really seeing is that as the various state conventions come to a close, and people have finished jockeying [...]

Today was the first day of the Iowa State Fair.  I had intended to participate in the early morning event (but slept in instead) to break the record for the most corn-dogs eaten by the most people at the same time in the same place.  Sounds like it was a rip-roaring success, with over 15,000 [...]

As mentioned here last week, Polk County District Court Judge Douglas Staskal made his ruling on the request to temporarily block Iowa’s new smoking ban on Monday.  The ruling left the door open for bar owners to to proceed with the case.  According to a story on the Des Moines Register web site:
Staskal found it “safe [...]

Bar owners got their first shot in court to get a stay ordered on the 2008 Iowa Smoking Ban.  Some bar owners say they are losing business, some preparing to shut down for good.  Although one admitted that gasoline prices and other economic issues may be impacting business as well, there should be no doubt [...]

Tonight I attended my first Polk County (Iowa) Republican Central Committee meeting. I have never been at this level of politics (okay, 2008 continues to be a year of firsts for me in local politics), and it was more interesting than I expected.
I won’t get into a lot of details about the meeting, except [...]

When I attended the Iowa State Republican Convention, one thing that I found odd was the district level meetings that were held on Friday night to select district delegates and alternates to the National Convention, electors to go to Washington if our candidate for President wins in Iowa, and representatives to the State Nominating Committee [...]

Well, I am amazed at how people who are supposed to have a common mission, a common cause, can find themselves so divided.  Of course, we’ve had over 232 years of that.
What’s really surprising to me is that the Iowa Republican State Convention actually had very little real conflict.  There was some, but we managed [...]