Sunday, October 06, 2013

Week In Review: September 30 - October 6



The less that really happens, the more shutdown tweets. Many journalists, little actual news. It's like a national party convention only worse.  I'm having to unfollow people just to keep up.  If only all the speculating was a good as this Onion article, from 1999 but still relevant:
The bitter "get up/get down" battle, which has polarized the nation's funk community, is part of a long-running battle between the two factions, rooted in more than 35 years of conflict over the direction in which the American people should shake it.

"The time has come to face facts: To move forward, we've got to get on up, and stay on the scene, like a sex machine," said Brick House Majority Leader James Brown, one of getting on up's most vocal supporters.
The pro-up-getting demonstrators' chants were nearly drowned out by those of a nearby group of jungle-boogie Downocrats, who called upon all citizens to "Get down, get down!"
Funny how the shutdown did not shut down the one thing the Republicans most wanted to shut down.

"Sucks to be Democrats," said redistricting consultant Jerry Mandering. "Youse have had just one bad election cycle in the last four, but because that one loss was the redistricting year, you're stuck with this crap till 2022."

One of my pet peeves is the oxymoron "meteoric rise." As any space geek knows, meteors FALL. Kent Sorenson's career can now truly be described as meteoric, as The Bald One resigns in a blaze of defiance with hints that he'll one day seek a comeback.

Senate staffer/state central committee member Wes Enos was the second head to roll, and anyone associated with the high levels of the Bachmann or Paul campaigns in late 2011 has got to be a little nervous.

The special election date is not set yet. The two state reps from Senate District 13 have both made announcements. Democrat Scott Ourth will NOT run, Republican Julian Garrett will. Garret has faced serious primaries in both his House wins, and the district's Republicans are split both ideologically and geographically (Garrett's primaries both had a Warren vs. Madison thing going on).

No Democratic names yet other than Ourth's no. I'm getting hints, and not from my usual sources, that Dems don't have this on their Urgent! list. Maybe the edge does go to Republicans now that Sorenson himself is gone, but there's a fair change the GOP nominee will have at least a little of the stench. And Democrat Staci Appel (now otherwise occupied with a congressional race) won this seat in very similar lines in 2006.

Locally, voting started Wednesday. The Coralville race continues to heat up, with Koch-brothers group Americans For Prosperity phonebanking into the city. Coralville's most prominent Democrats made their choice public this week. From Senator Bob Dvorsky:
Sue and I are supporting Councilmember John Lundell for Mayor; Councilmembers Tom Gill and Bill Hoeft for Re-Election and Laurie Goodrich for the third Council Seat. Please Vote Early! Thanks!!
That's two Democrats (Lundell and Gill) an ex-Republican recently turned independent (Hoeft) and a Republican (Goodrich). The AFP folks seem to be backing Matt Adam for mayor and Dave Petsel, Chris Turner and Mark Winkler for council. All registered Republicans. So who's the partisan?

Also through the rumor mill: hints that Swisher might get interesting this election.

In Iowa City, an endorsement that may do more harm than good:
21 Makes Sense (sic) was stepping up (get it?) its game this week, hitting the panic button with an editorial from Mayor Matt Hayek and the UI's designated in loco parent, Tom Rocklin that ran simultaneously in the Press-Citizen, Gazette, and DI. (Watch the DI for hints of editorial pressure; the University BADLY wants to be able to say "even the students support 21" even though returns from two elections show the opposite.)

"If people" - meaning Love The Hawkeyes Hate The Students townies - "if people don't turn out to vote, things will go back to the way they used to be in Iowa City," Hayek said. And he said it like it was a bad thing. Watch for my rebuttal...

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