In Iowa, Democrats have lost elections over gun control issues. When I knocked doors in rural areas in 2004 for a State House candidate I was volunteering for, I heard constant complaints from no-party voters who shut the door in my face because my candidate wanted to take their guns away. That was [...]

An oft-overlooked interest group in Iowa that could have an important impact on the Democratic Iowa Caucuses is Caucus4Priorities, the political endorsement arm of Iowans for Sensible Priorities. The group, founded and bankrolled by Ben and Jerry (of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream fame), has had a visible presence here this campaign cycle for [...]

Sen. Barack Obama highlighted his opposition to the Senate resolution classifying the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group in a mailing today, only days after Sen. Hillary Clinton sent a mailing to Iowans defending her vote in favor of the resolution.
One helpful rule of thumb for determining who is on the right side of [...]

I wrote a piece over the weekend on Iowa Independent with the headline “Richardson Gets Serious.” Today, Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign continues their theme of seriousness in a new TV ad, set to air in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The 60-second ad, entitled “Only One,” highlights a trip Richardson made to Iraq to rescue [...]

From WorldNetDaily, Chuck Norris (who has his own column on that site, despite his persistent spelling and grammar problems) has endorsed former Gov. Mike Huckabee for president. Like most of us, he has been praying about who could lead this country as our next president, and he’s ready to make a commitment:
Like most of [...]

I reported this back in August: a slim majority of Republican caucus goers favor withdrawing US troops from Iraq within six months, according to data from Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm.
Strategic Vision has done a poll of Iowans once a month since then, and both September’s and October’s numbers confirm that the August data [...]

Sen. Hillary Clinton took the unusual step of playing defense this weekend, when a direct mail piece explaining the New York Senator’s vote in favor of a resolution condemning Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group hit mailboxes across the state. (The cover of the mailing, left, inexplicably depicts Clinton making a gesture as [...]

I wrote a commentary on Iowa Independent today about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s vulnerability in Iowa. Here’s the gist:
Clinton’s rivals cannot plan to beat the New York Senator by attacking her on specific policy proposals or waiting for her to make gaffes, because Clinton is not going to give anyone enough of that material to [...]

The conventional wisdom says that Sen. Sam Brownback will drop out of the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination Friday because he ran out of money. While this is true — the Kansas Sen. was running on fumes at the end of the third quarter FEC filing deadline — the root causes of [...]

Yesterday, State Rep. Mark Smith, a social worker who represents a district that includes Marshalltown in Central Iowa, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama. The question about Smith’s endorsement was never “whom” he would endorse; it was “whether” and “when” he would endorse.
Democratic politics in Smith’s district are essentially run by the United Auto Workers, who [...]