Week In Review and Upcoming Events: November 25-December 9

Having watched site traffic for a decade, I decided there wasn't much point in wasting good writing over a holiday weekend, or week, or whatever that just was.

Tweet of the week:

A big part of Clintons' effort w afr-americans: just showing up. Funerals, graduations, anniversaries. conventions http://t.co/NXHB7RQ1oK
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) December 1, 2013

Showing up? We wouldn't know anything about that; we're Iowans and Hillary's only sending surrogates. But there's hope, I guess:

Two years from now, on the eve of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, it’s possible that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could be running for the nomination without a major opponent to her left.

But even if no serious Clinton challenger in the mold of progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren emerges, a nonprofit group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, or PCCC, is prepared to take up the mantle.

PCCC members will attend her town hall meetings and “ask the same questions over and over again until they get an answer.”

Flaw in that strategy: it assumes Clinton will HAVE town hall meetings.  And at speeches she can use the method she did in Iowa in 2007: "I can take a couple questions, OR I can shake hands."
 
Below the radar on Wednesday: "Top officials from past presidential campaigns have quietly formed a group to push for major changes in the general-election debates, with recommendations expected by late spring... A likely recommendation is an earlier start for the debates, in response to the increase in absentee voting."

Makes some sense. By the date of the first 2012 debate, one out of eight Johnson County ballots had already been cast. On the other hand, no one makes their decision based on watching the debates except the news media's hypothetical high-information undecided voter, who no longer exists. And the people who are voting EARLY-early, four to six weeks before Election Day, likely had their minds made up the day after the previous presidential election.

Still, one good thing earlier debates could force: earlier conventions. The September conventions are so late they're actually bumping into legal filing deadlines.


Tom Latham drew a tea party primary challenger this week: Joe Grandanette lost an `04 House race in Jo Oldson's solid D district and is going after Latham on a long-ago term limits pledge. I prefer tea party in lower case; Upper Case gives them more credit for unity than they deserve. There are many flavors of tea.

Even though The 52246 has been declared The Eighth Most Hipster ZIP Code in America, and even though I think it's too mainstream, I still accept that I am now too old to care about cool. The slogan will be retired two weeks from today...

The Johnson County GOP central committee meets tonight and elects a new chair.Rumor is that Bill Keettel, a past chair and my Republican counterpart in number crunching, is likely to get the nod.

Also tonight, House 25 Republicans meet to pick a nominee to replace newly minted Senator Julian Garrett. As I predicted, not that it was hard given the limited options, election day is January 7. Democrats meet a week from tonight.

Thursday at 5:30 the Dvorskys are hosting a Tyler Olson fundraiser at their place, 412 6th St., Coralville. Stggested donations start at $50. You can go straight from the event to the Democratic central committee meeting at 7, at the school district office.