Year in review: Iowa politics in 2008

by: desmoinesdem

Thu Jan 01, 2009 at 1:37 PM EST

Last year at this time I was scrambling to make as many phone calls and knock on as many doors as I could before the Iowa caucuses on January 3.

This week I had a little more time to reflect on the year that just ended.

After the jump I've linked to Bleeding Heartland highlights in 2008. Most of the links relate to Iowa politics, but some also covered issues or strategy of national importance.

I only linked to a few posts about the presidential race. I'll do a review of Bleeding Heartland's 2008 presidential election coverage later this month.

FL-10 Leader Emerges: Bob Hackworth

by: TheFloridaKey

Tue Aug 19, 2008 at 4:20 PM EDT

Since 2002, Bob Hackworth's leadership in environmental issues, diversity, and civil rights has provided a prime example as to what citizens should expect from him in Congress. His record of good government and visionary efforts in Dunedin also closed the deal on his recent endorsement by the St. Petersburg Times. His grasp on national issues has far out shined his two opponents (Max Linn and Samm Simpson). When confronted with the controversial FISA Act, Bob stood firm to his beliefs, saying

"Once again this administration has shown its disregard for the Constitution. By providing the telecom companies with immunity, the senate will be condoning the extra-constitutional actions of this government and be sending a message to the country and the world that big business comes before the freedoms and liberties of the American people. As usual, Rep. Bill Young sided with the administration in voting to restrict the freedoms that this country was founded on."

"The elected officials who represent the people here in Pinellas County have utterly failed on this issue. We need leaders who will be honest about the energy crisis and invest in searching for alternative energy sources, instead of pandering because of $4 a gallon gasoline."

Expect to hear much more from Bob Hackworth as he raps up his primary victory next week and pushes on towards victory in November.

Newest Addition to Protecting Our Asses: Steve Kagen

by: TheUnknown285

Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 12:57 PM EDT

1. To reinforce vulnerable and potentially vulnerable incumbent members of Congress with cash.
2. To reward good, progressive behavior from these incumbents.
3. To diminish or replace the need for these incumbents to seek fundraising dollars from less progressive sources such as corporate PACs and "moderate"/conservative groups.
4. To send the message that the Netroots will have your back if you have ours.

Unbelievable News from Utah

by: The SideTrack

Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 6:27 PM EDT

For those who aren't familiar with Utah's political landscape, it is the land of Blue Dog Jim Matheson - who of course supports retro-active immunity.  Matheson traditionally calls the shots in the state, often leveraging his position as the only Democrat in the state's federal delegation to squash real leadership against the Blue Dog agendas.  Morgan has already been more than responsive to bloggers and grassroots activists, allowing a level of access for both in his campaign, as well as the Utah for Obama staff and their voter registration efforts that is unprecedented in this state (and many of us have been fighting for such things for decades!).  And now he takes a very definite stance on the FISA bill, despite the backlash he can expect for doing so.  

This is leadership.  Finally!

Please show Morgan some love.

Carol Shea-Porter Tells the Truth in New Hampshire

by: Bill Duncan

Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 9:25 AM EDT

First, she just tells the truth and people can see that.  She inspires confidence by refusing to cop to the easy political summary of an issue.  She sees it as her job to educate, unconstrained by conventional wisdom.  She seems to find the underlying realities of an issue and communicate that in a way that people understand.  An example is her explanation of her FISA vote in today's Portsmouth (NH) Herald: http://www.seacoastonline.com/... .  

We'll see in November how well she's bringing the whole district along, but anecdotal signs are good. Regular folks who don't necessarily follow politics all that closely say, "Oh, yeah, I'm going to vote for her.  She's really working hard down there." Or "I'm proud to have her representing me."  What they really end up saying is that, whether or not they agree on everything, they can see how serious and honest she is and they buy into that.  All this is independent of their party affiliation.

Second, she's a professional legislator and politician, in the best sense of the word.  She actually attends her committee hearings, works her issues, shephards legislation through the process.  Then, in Unity, NH last Friday, she reached rhythmic rhetorical heights before 4,000 people and a wall of media, improvising and creating real excitement.  A few hours later, she converted a room of 40 people by telling stories from the front lines of committee work.

Finally, although she won last time on a viral campaign and no budget, she looks to be fully committed to both on-the-ground organizing and serious fundraising in this campaign.  Recently, she cold-called a business person who follows the issues in a middle-of-the-road sort of way but has never been politically active.  After a half hour discussion of issues, he proposed hosting a house party that, two weeks later, raised serious money.

So there's nothing inevitable about the outcome of this race.  National Republicans are going to invest in winning back this seat.  We need to do the same.  Carol's had good fundraising results so far, but will need major support from every direction before it's over.

Protecting Our Asses: Rewarding Good Behavior from Congresspeople

by: TheUnknown285

Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 8:57 PM EDT

What was even more infuriating is to see candidates that many candidates heavily supported the grassroots and the Netroots (both in the more limited sense that includes the page DailyKos, Swing State Project, etc collaborate on. and the broader sense to include all of the liberal websites such as Democracy for America and MoveON).  It's both heartbreaking and infuriating to see people like Patrick Murphy, Kirsten Gillibrand, Nancy Boyda, Jim Webb, and Jerry McNerney, people we thought would be the vanguard of the coming progressive era, vote they way they do, with the likes of Murphy and Gillibrand joining the Blue Dogs!

KY-01: Exxon Eddie's Skewed Priorities

by: RDemocrat

Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 10:12 PM EDT

GOOD Congressional challengers on FISA: The List

by: BruinKid

Thu Jun 26, 2008 at 9:16 AM EDT

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

Heather Ryan News: Horses and FISA Compromises

by: RDemocrat

Mon Jun 23, 2008 at 8:37 PM EDT

Who Changed Their Tune on Iraq Supplemental and FISA

by: Crisitunity

Fri Jun 20, 2008 at 3:58 PM EDT

What interested me is that now we have a series of bookends, where we can measure how far we've come on changing the debate on funding the Iraq War and on FISA. Short answer, judging by the raw vote totals, is: not very far on the Iraq War, and we've gone way backwards on FISA. (Although comparing today's FISA vote against the "Protect America Act" from last August is kind of apples and oranges, as today seemed to turn more on the narrow issue of retroactive immunity for telecoms rather than the overarching issue of spying on American citizens. I'd guess that fewer Congresspeople were bothered by the idea of letting the telecoms skate than by the much larger issues that were at stake last August.)

What I'm using for comparison purposes is, on the issue of the Iraq Supplemental, HR 2206 Roll Call 425 from May 24, 2007 (when the blogosphere first seemed to realize that, hey, wait a minute, maybe we aren't going to be able to extract ourselves from Iraq with Bush still in office), versus HR 2642 Roll Call 431 from yesterday. On the issue of FISA, I'm comparing S 1927 Roll Call 836 from Aug. 4, 2007 (which was last year's other big blogospheric freak-out, and the impetus for the "Bush Dog" project at Open Left), versus HR 6034 Roll Call 437 from earlier today.

Iraq Supplemental:
2007 total: 280 aye - 142 no - 11 NV
Dems in 2007: 86 aye - 140 no - 6 NV
GOP in 2007: 194 aye - 2 no - 5 NV
2008 total: 268 aye - 155 no - 12 NV
Dems in 2008: 80 aye - 151 no - 5 NV
GOP in 2008: 188 aye - 4 no - 7 NV

13 who flipped from aye to no (i.e. bad to good): Rob Andrews, Joe Baca, Leonard Boswell, GK Butterfield, Dennis Cardoza, John Dingell, Steve Kagen, Kendrick Meek (FL), Nick Rahall, Bart Stupak, Bennie Thompson (MS), Debbie Wasserman Schulz... and Jeff Flake (R)

3 who flipped from no to aye (i.e. good to bad): Corrine Brown, Artur Davis, and Tim Ryan

10 Dems and 1 Republicans went from no vote to no: the Republican was John Campbell (R). 4 Dems went from no to no vote. 7 Republicans and 4 Dems went from no vote to yes: the Dems were our three new guys, Bill Foster, Don Cazayoux, and Travis Childers, plus Howard Berman. 7 Republicans and 1 Dem went from yes to no vote: Pete Visclosky was the lone Dem.

Let's take a look at who flipped the right way. The list includes recipients of some serious netroots pressure: Leonard Boswell (via his primary with Ed Fallon) and Debbie Wasserman Schulz (via the kerfuffle over the Cuban-American districts). It also includes Rob Andrews, who seems to have been burnishing his liberal credentials as he seeks statewide office in a blue state (he got skunked on NJ-Sen, but now rumor has it he's angling for the newly created Lt. Governor position in 2009). Also, there are two Republicans who flipped, and it's two of the most conservative: Flake and Campbell. I have to wonder whether they've truly turned on the war, or are engaged in a fit of libertarian pique over having to actually pay for it.

I'm still scratching my head over the ones who flipped the other way. The common thread I can think of is that Davis (who already votes the wrong way on FISA) and Ryan are both eyeing statewide office in red states.

FISA
2007 total: 227 aye - 183 no - 23 NV
Dems in 2007: 41 aye - 181 no - 9 NV
GOP in 2007: 186 aye - 2 no - 14 NV
2008 total: 293 aye - 129 no - 13 NV
Dems in 2008: 105 aye - 128 no - 3 NV
GOP in 2008: 188 aye - 1 no - 10 NV

2 who flipped from aye to no (i.e. bad to good): Baron Hill and Tim Walz

58 who flipped from no to aye (i.e. good to bad): Gary Ackerman, Mike Arcuri, Joe Baca, Brian Baird, Shelly Berkley, Howard Berman, Marion Berry, Sanford Bishop, Tim Bishop, Rick Boucher, Nancy Boyda, Corrine Brown, GK Butterfield, Dennis Cardoza, Kathy Castor, Emanuel Cleaver, Jim Clyburn, Joe Crowley, Norm Dicks, Rahm Emanuel, Eliot Engel, Gabby Giffords, Kirsten Gillibrand, Al Green, Gene Green, Luis Gutierrez, Jane Harman, Tim Holden, Paul Kanjorski, Dale Kildee, Ron Kind, Jim Langevin, Nita Lowey, Tim Mahoney, Carolyn McCarthy, Jerry McNerney, Greg Meeks, Dennis Moore, John Murtha, Solomon Ortiz, Nancy Pelosi, Ed Perlmutter, Nick Rahall, Silvestre Reyes, Dutch Ruppersberger, Adam Schiff, David Scott, Joe Sestak, Brad Sherman, Albio Sires, Adam Smith, John Spratt, Bart Stupak, Ellen Tauscher, Bennie Thompson, Mark Udall, John Yarmuth

9 Dems went from no vote to no; this includes some of our newest: Bill Foster, and Donna Edwards, on her second day on the job. 3 Dems and 1 Republican went from no to no vote; the Republican was Walter Jones. 12 Republicans and 6 Dems went from no vote to yes: the Dems were Don Cazayoux, Travis Childers, Ruben Hinojosa, Ron Klein, Laura Richardson, and Ike Skelton. 8 Republicans went from yes to no vote.

That's a long list of Democratic defections (although it's hard to call it a defection when it includes all the leadership). As for the two guys who turned the right way, Baron Hill and Tim Walz, they get big ups; I think in both cases they're freshmen feeling more confident of their abilities to survive in their Republican-leaning districts.

The one Republican who voted no both times on FISA may surprise you: Tim Johnson, of IL-15, not generally known as a rebellious spirit. As for Ron Paul, the great defender of our liberties? Seems like he's been taking some liberties of his own, as he managed to miss both FISA votes.