Who's In Who's Out

So much going on that I need a checklist of rumors and announcements:

Michele Bachmann is out, and Democrats who are celebrating - granted, it's hard to resist - are forgetting that without her special brand of crazy, the once vulnerable Minnesota 6 is now Safe GOP again.

Marcus Bachmann, however, is not out yet.



There. The obligatory Out joke is out, out of the way.

Kent Sorenson is on the way out, but not admitting it. Hopefully he's out in a general and not in a primary. Would he be in any of this trouble if he hadn't mutinied on Bachmann a week before the caucuses?

The woman Sorenson beat in 2010, Staci Appel, is out for the 3rd CD, but might be in again.

Matt Schultz is out for the Senate and in for the current job. He's a base motivator for both sides so expect the Secretary of State battle of partisans between him and Democrat Brad Anderson to get nasty.

Mike Mauro is out since 2010. He was the Best Secretary Of State Ever because he was the only one in my political lifetime not using the job as a stepping stone. I still rank his defeat as a tragedy equal to the defeat of the three Supreme Court justices.

As for the Senate, Schultz's decision means every statewide and congressional Republican is out of that race. That leaves the GOP with Matt Whitaker as the Branstad-Gross insider faction choice, David "who?" Young as the candidate of the Grassley machine, talk radio host Sam Clovis as the tea partier, Joni Ernst as a wild card, and Drew Ivers as the likely Spiker/Paul candidate hoping for a splintered field and a convention nomination. And long-ago loser Paul Lunde as the asterisk, but no one cares about that any more than they care about Democrat Bob Krause for governor.

Jack Hatch is in, for governor, setting up a Battle Of The Mustaches with Branstad. Winner: New York's Jimmy McMillan.


No one seems to be stepping on Hatch's story. Though Tyler Olson is out, out touring the far corners of the state this week as well. He's wearing his party chair hat, but the rumor mill still has him in the governor mix. Jeff Danielson, however, is out.


Tony Bisignano, and his, um, colorful past, are in, for Hatch's Senate seat.

Kraig Paulsen is almost in, for the 1st CD. Linda Upmeyer may be in, for speaker next session, but Peter Cownie is in, as in in the mix too. Shades of the early 90s, when Mary Lundby got maneuvered out of a speakership she'd frankly earned.

Locally, a fresh face is finally in for City Council. And the Iowa River is out, of its banks, because the water is too danm high.