Week In Review: October 14-20

The government is back in business till we all do this again in a couple months. Chuck Grassley was one of a small handful of GOP senators voting against the re-open, proving even further that he's guarding his right flank.

The shutdown cost the Johnson County Democrats their barbecue speakers Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack. But Some Dude* Paul Dahl made up for it. He accused one of his better known primary opponents for governor, Jack Hatch, of having "skeletons in his closet," and imposed an extra-constitutional age requirement of 40 on Tyler Olson.

That's 40 to be governor, not to stay late in an Iowa City bar. Though reportedly a Waterfront Hy-Vee clerk was seen gazing very suspiciously at Olson's drivers license as the 37 year old legislator tried to pick up some Fat Tire on his way home.

* That term Some Dude comes from the late great blog Swing State Project, launched a decade ago this week (or, as we at the 11 year old Deeth Blog call them, n00bs). Swing State Project has been absorbed into the larger mothership as Daily Kos Elections, but the archives are still on line. This post was the first use of Some Dude. The term caught on in the blog community and I'm working on getting into our Iowa vocabulary.

Sometimes I'm wrrrrr when I call someone a Some Dude; looks like Jim Mowrer outraised Steve King this quarter. Anesa Kajtazovic had a not so hot first quarter but she stayed strong in the on-line metrics and in the people lending their name. Swati Dandekar, meanwhile, seems to have little visible support EXCEPT from large donors.

Not a surprise, but once again, I raised more in-state individual $ from Rs than Ds. $41,050 R and $31,409 D. #recentrepublican donor here.
— Vonica Mernon (@VonicaMernon) October 18, 2013

"Vonica Mernon" also said on Sept. 25, "The CR Building Trades endorsed me because they know I'll be on the CR Council instead of Congress & need my support on Council." Seems to be some truth to that.

But the Washington Post said no one in the nation had a worse quarter than:

The Iowa Republican Senate field: A packed field with no clear frontrunner produced no clear winners in the money chase last quarter, either. As the Iowa Republican noted, neither David Young nor Sam Clovis could  break $150,000. And state Sen. Joni Ernst (R), who Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has nothing but good things to say about, raised only $250,000. On the Democratic side, Rep. Bruce Braley raised more than $900,000.

In a surprise, Republicans nominated their least crazy candidate, Rep. Julian Garrett, over three others for the Kent Sorenson Senate seat. Garrett likely faces ex-Rep. Mark Davitt for the Dems in the November 19 special. Another Democrat, Ottumwa educator Tom Rubel, jumps into the Senate 41 race for the right to defeat Chickenman Chelgren next year.

In the city election, Terry Dickens was too busy shooing the homeless away from his jewelry store to bother showing up for the environmental forum, and the Iowa City Federation of Labor endorsed Kingsley Botchway, Rockne Cole and Royceann Porter.

1400 students voted at Burge and Hillcrest this week: enough to win or just enough to scare the townies? The "21 Makes Sense" (sic) campaign hit with a mailing (large image) Thursday. Our house got two and Koni and I have already voted. Matt Hayek USED to know a guy who could household a voter list, back when he said "let the voters decide" in 2007. When the voters decided 19 in 2007, Hayek decided he wanted a do-over. Now that guy who's good with lists doesn't help Hayek with lists anymore.

Meanwhile my Yes for 19 piece re-ran in the Gazette and in a Facebook discussion, actual legislator Dave Jacoby said, "At some point we have to stop being candyasses and establish a consistent age of maturity!"I'd count that as a Yes except Dave's from Coralville.

Speaking of Coralville, what outsiders - by that I mean even people from Iowa City -  don't get is that Coralville is not a generic McMansion suburb where you can apply a one size fits all cookie cutter campaign. It's a real place with real roots.

And before Brian Morelli or Captain Steve checks on me, I need to confess. My voting history is less than 100%. I missed the uncontested, 0.96% turnout 1992 school board election.Still kicking myself over that one miss in 78 elections in the last 23 years. Anyone want to read a post about Johnson County's most frequent voters? Most of them are names you'll know...