Iowa

In October, Blue America endorsed Pat Murphy, the progressive candidate in the battle for the open Iowa congressional seat Bruce Braley is leaving in the state's northeast corner, IA-01-- Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Marshalltown, Decorah. It's a D+5 district and the winner of the primary will be going to Congress next year.

According to Pelosi, when women succeed, America succeedsYesterday I got an e-mail from an awful candidate running for an open House seat in northeast Iowa, Swati Dandekar. Blue America is backing the progressive running for that seat, Pat Murphy.

Another crackpot teabagger wants to go to CongressThe GOP civil war is ravaging the party in Iowa, mostly because of the half dozen or more Republicans vying for the U.S. Senate nomination (and the near certainty of being beaten by Democrat Bruce Braley next November). But now the bloody fraternal warfare has come to the 3rd CD, the southwest part of the state from Council Bluffs to Des Moines. All of Des Moines. Obama won this district in 2008 (52-46%) and again last year (51-47%).

It takes more to earn a Blue America endorsement than just the likelihood of voting right. We like to get to know the candidates and try too get behind the rhetoric. We look at past behavior of course but we also try to figure out two intangibles: character and leadership.

A couple weeks ago we looked at the congressional race in Iowa's first district and have slowly and carefully come to the conclusion that state Rep. Pat Murphy is, by far, the best candidate for the seat. A strongly Democratic district-- PVI is D+5-- it is a perfect place for a strong and effective progressive leader.

Yesterday, failed right-wing politician Rick Santorum announced that his silly little PAC was endorsing another lunatic fringe candidate, Iowa teabagger Walter Rogers from Cedar Falls.

Although this post isn't about it (this one is), I have been positively engrossed in reading Barton Gellman's gripping book on the Cheney (vice) presidency, Angler. There are many conclusions one can draw from his writing but one is surely that criminals-- like Cheney and his gang of accomplices-- should never be allowed to evade justice. I'll cover that in upcoming posts.

I doubt we'll see a Republican primary fight between Florida's Bob Smith and Massachusetts' Scott Brown for the worthless GOP Senate nomination. Brown seems to have made up his mind to run for president governor (of Massachusetts), leaving the field open for Smith, who, unlike Brown, actually did at one time, live in New Hampshire, having moved there from New Jersey. In fact, he was both a Representative (beating someone named Dudley Dudley) and a Senator from that state.

It's almost as though King has a political death wish. His House district has been redrawn and while still the reddest seat in Iowa, it isn't nearly as safe as it once was. The PVI is R+5, Romney beat Obama 53-45% and King himself had a relatively close call, alos winning just 53% of the vote against Christie Vilsack. Vilsack beat him in 7 counties, including two of the three big ones, Cerro Gordo and Story.

Perhaps you just read the news that Iowa populist Democrat Bruce Braley is way ahead of all the Republicans running for the state's open Senate seat. 2014 is shaping up well for Iowa Democrats. Braley's margins must seem daunting for the GOP now. He leads Matt Whitaker 43-34, Joni Ernst 45-33, Mark Jacobs 44-32, Sam Clovis 43-31, and David Young 45-32.