Week In Review: September 16-22

Trolling vs. Serious: that's the meme of the week. All sorts of stories where I can't help but feeling like someone is putting us on:

• 80 year old senator announces for re-election three years early
• School board member resigns immediately after election-and it's NOT in Iowa City
• This web site of fake yard signs for presidential losers. "Working For The Constitution: Breckenridge & Lane"
• Republican's fake outrage at College Dems' Best Ass On Campus t-shirts

And, oh yeah. Joe Biden comes to Iowa.

I think that last one may be serious, from the way he worked the rope line long after the speeches to the announcement that he's hosting a DC fundraiser for 4th CD candidate Jim Mowrer, Steve Kings opponent. (King launched another howler late last week, saying "illegal immigration has led to thousands of Americans' deaths." Keep it classy, Steve.)

Iowa will also be seeing Chuck Schumer as the keynoter for the Democrats' Jefferson Jackson dinner. But he immediately and convincingly denied higher ambitions:

I ran for President of my class at Cunningham Jr HS. I lost. I swore I’d never run for President again & that’s still true today.-cs
— Chuck Schumer (@chuckschumer) September 19, 2013

Hillary Clinton hasn't been to Iowa in a very long time - caucus night 2008 - and while she's making the rounds again she's steered clear of us. What hasn't changed: 

Campaigns are often highly controlled events, but the ASTA conference at Hyatt Regency Miami kicked it up a notch.

At one point, a member of the audience, Andrew Rothberg, had his Galaxy Note II smartphone taken from him by security, which removed his picture of Clinton onstage and then gave his device back in front of a Miami Herald reporter in the auditorium stands.

Hotel security and volunteers roamed the aisles looking for people taking pictures or making recordings. None was allowed.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/09/hillary-clintons-image-control-security-swipes-mans-phone-erases-pic-of-her-at-speech.html#storylink=cpy

 Seems she hasn't learned from 2007.

Not sure which is better: Anesa Kajtazovic winning another Iowa Horserace poll, or me getting quoted by Mike Glover.

Comeback trail: 1 term GOP state rep Ross Paustian is making a third run. Paustian lost to Elesha Gayman in a top tier 2008 race, then won in 2010 when Gayman stepped down. Former senator Frank Wood knocked him off in 2012.

And Tennessee state senator Charlotte Burks is retiring next year. Who? This is one last chapter in the Low Tax Looper story.

Looper, who legally changed his middle name to Low Tax so it could be printed on the ballot, murdered his opponent, Democratic incumbent Tommy Burks, in 1998. Looper found a loophole in election law: if Burks died immediately before the election, he couldn't be relpaced on the ballot so Looper would be the only name listed. That part actually worked. But outraged voters wrote widow Charlotte Burks' name on 95% of the ballots.

She's served ever since, but had a close call in 2010 in a Republican-trending rural district. Looper, meanwhile, died in prison this past June.