Starting off this week we have some fun personal experiences with pets during interviews, updates on the overtime legislative session and budget negotiations, and discussions about education funding and budget cuts. The group also addressed political maneuvering within the Senate regarding eminent domain restrictions (after multiple caucuses on Friday, the Senate didn’t debate eminent domain). Finally, they discussed recent political announcements and potential candidates for upcoming elections (we had a slew of announcements this week and could get quite a few more in the coming weeks including the one that may be most awaited Rob Sand). The gang closes it out by considering the implications of primaries on general election outcomes. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms!

AI generated transcript below:

Dave Price (00:00:01):

Hi, everyone.

Dave Price (00:00:02):

Welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, a production of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

Dave Price (00:00:08):

We are joining you on a Friday afternoon when all kinds of stuff is going on and

Dave Price (00:00:15):

it's driving us crazy.

Dave Price (00:00:16):

So Laura Belin and Katie Obradovich and I

Dave Price (00:00:21):

We'll have to figure out how to talk about stuff that's not yet resolved,

Dave Price (00:00:26):

even though it's all so ridiculously fascinating.

Dave Price (00:00:31):

Meanwhile, Laura and I are both dealing with uncooperative pets.

Dave Price (00:00:36):

We are not sure if they will make an appearance in this podcast.

Dave Price (00:00:41):

Perhaps they will, but ladies, good afternoon.

Laura Belin (00:00:44):

Good to be here.

Dave Price (00:00:45):

It's much more peaceful at Kathie's house apparently right now.

Kathie Obradovich (00:00:49):

A cat who could fly through the frame anytime.

Kathie Obradovich (00:00:52):

So we'll see.

Dave Price (00:00:53):

I did have one common random thing that happened this week.

Dave Price (00:01:03):

You couldn't see this happen on camera.

Dave Price (00:01:06):

This is for my TV gig, but her dog, they have two dogs.

Dave Price (00:01:10):

One of her dogs was barking off in the distance.

Dave Price (00:01:12):

I didn't hear it, but we had to stop and then I had to re-ask a question.

Dave Price (00:01:15):

No big deal.

Dave Price (00:01:16):

So that was on Monday.

Dave Price (00:01:18):

And then when I was talking to Jennifer Conferst,

Dave Price (00:01:21):

We were doing literally the last question and her dog comes up sort of behind her

Dave Price (00:01:28):

in the background and kind of moves around a little bit,

Dave Price (00:01:31):

gets comfortable,

Dave Price (00:01:32):

and then just lies down on the floor,

Dave Price (00:01:34):

which was so cute and peaceful and didn't disturb anybody.

Laura Belin (00:01:39):

Well, Dave, when I interviewed Jennifer Converse, her dog started barking in the middle.

Laura Belin (00:01:42):

I think somebody rang the doorbell.

Dave Price (00:01:47):

Clearly I'm biased because I have a home studio, but it makes it so much more real.

Dave Price (00:01:52):

I feel like when we're at home rather than some sterile,

Dave Price (00:01:55):

boring office where the worst thing that can happen is like a coworker coughing or

Dave Price (00:02:00):

like the power goes out or something,

Dave Price (00:02:01):

you know?

Laura Belin (00:02:04):

I think ever since COVID, people are very tolerant of child interruptions.

Dave Price (00:02:08):

It's all real.

Kathie Obradovich (00:02:09):

Yes.

Kathie Obradovich (00:02:09):

Although they judge you about your books.

Dave Price (00:02:11):

So I think, you know, good point.

Dave Price (00:02:15):

Good point.

Dave Price (00:02:16):

All right.

Dave Price (00:02:16):

So we have to address.

Dave Price (00:02:19):

whatever the heck is going on,

Dave Price (00:02:21):

which is so fascinating,

Dave Price (00:02:23):

but yet unpredictable as we gather here to talk about what could be near the end of

Dave Price (00:02:30):

the legislative session.

Dave Price (00:02:32):

So lawmakers shut things down.

Dave Price (00:02:36):

Then they the House at least came back on Thursday started some budget stuff and

Dave Price (00:02:40):

sent instead some some subcommittee and committee work on the budget stuff too,

Dave Price (00:02:44):

but so the House comes back fully on the floor yesterday there had been talk.

Dave Price (00:02:49):

That they were going to get everybody in there,

Dave Price (00:02:51):

they were going to go all out they were going to power through everything that remained.

Dave Price (00:02:58):

and blow through the weekend and i talked to one member of the house who was

Dave Price (00:03:04):

telling me yes i'd like to finish b i really don't want to have to tell my wife

Dave Price (00:03:11):

that i will be gone for mother's day on sunday but then i heard all these different

Dave Price (00:03:16):

scenarios there were a couple of them who were optimistic that they were going to

Dave Price (00:03:19):

power through on friday some other ones are like no way no way well now we know

Dave Price (00:03:25):

Well,

Dave Price (00:03:25):

now we're putting this on tape here,

Dave Price (00:03:27):

so I guess we're going to know one way or the other when this comes out,

Dave Price (00:03:29):

but they're not going to finish Friday night barring something cuckoo that we don't imagine.

Dave Price (00:03:35):

So it looks like they're going to start some work in the Senate,

Dave Price (00:03:39):

potentially one of the sexiest unresolved issues out there with this eminent domain situation,

Dave Price (00:03:45):

which we'll get to in a sec,

Dave Price (00:03:47):

and then break and then come back early next week and see if they can go through stuff.

Dave Price (00:03:52):

So

Dave Price (00:03:53):

Can we, let's save the group we call the Defiant Dozen.

Dave Price (00:03:58):

Let's push them off just for a sec,

Dave Price (00:04:00):

but let's do the budget because it seems like we're getting,

Dave Price (00:04:06):

we're starting to figure out how this is all going to shake out.

Dave Price (00:04:09):

Laura, do you want to take a first crack at this?

Laura Belin (00:04:11):

Sure.

Laura Belin (00:04:11):

So we finally got this week a budget agreement on Thursday afternoon between the

Laura Belin (00:04:16):

House and Senate Republicans.

Laura Belin (00:04:17):

And then later, Governor Reynolds released a statement saying she was on board.

Laura Belin (00:04:21):

We talked about last week how they were about the two sides were about thirty six

Laura Belin (00:04:26):

million dollars apart,

Laura Belin (00:04:27):

which really is not very much.

Laura Belin (00:04:29):

And the House was the higher number.

Laura Belin (00:04:32):

so what they ended up doing was they they funded some of the house priorities

Laura Belin (00:04:36):

instead of through the general fund budget they're using some sports wagering

Laura Belin (00:04:40):

revenue to cover for instance the 14 million dollars for para educator pay which we

Laura Belin (00:04:45):

talked about and the house was able to get a little bit more money for community

Laura Belin (00:04:50):

colleges not as much as they wanted but it's interesting to me because i thought

Laura Belin (00:04:55):

that for many many years the gambling revenue was supposed to be used

Laura Belin (00:04:59):

for infrastructure type capital projects, not ongoing expenses like paraeducator pay.

Laura Belin (00:05:07):

So this seems to be another Rubicon that we're crossing here.

Laura Belin (00:05:10):

But in any case,

Laura Belin (00:05:11):

the final budget number is a lot closer to what the Senate and governor wanted than

Laura Belin (00:05:15):

it is to what the House Republicans were asking for.

Laura Belin (00:05:18):

But then through this sports betting money,

Laura Belin (00:05:21):

they're going to be covering some of those other Republican priorities.

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:26):

We're getting to the point now

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:27):

where it's time to just acknowledge that that wagering,

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:33):

it does not have to be one time money,

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:35):

that that revenue can be used for other things.

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:39):

They stretch those limits all the time.

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:42):

And of course,

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:43):

the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund is mostly gambling money from the casinos,

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:47):

et cetera.

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:49):

And it's been

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:52):

uh decades now um and that money has been you know in some years you know a little

Kathie Obradovich (00:05:58):

less some years a little bit more it kind of comes and goes with the economy just

Kathie Obradovich (00:06:02):

like the the revenues for the general fund it i think they should just acknowledge

Kathie Obradovich (00:06:07):

that this is real money and you know stop saying that they have to set it aside

Dave Price (00:06:13):

imagine if way back in the day when they approved gambling

Dave Price (00:06:20):

and this was supposed to go towards schools, right?

Dave Price (00:06:24):

Yes.

Dave Price (00:06:24):

Imagine if we would have kept funding and operating our schools the same way,

Dave Price (00:06:30):

and all of that gambling money was the icing on top,

Dave Price (00:06:35):

we would have like the best paid teachers in the history of the world.

Dave Price (00:06:39):

We'd have class sizes that were 12,

Dave Price (00:06:42):

you know,

Dave Price (00:06:43):

instead of 28 and everything else you want to come.

Dave Price (00:06:47):

Every school in Iowa would look like these Taj Mahals they built in some of the new

Dave Price (00:06:53):

schools in Waukee,

Dave Price (00:06:54):

but it clearly does not work out that way.

Kathie Obradovich (00:06:59):

Play these games,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:00):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:01):

so,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:01):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:01):

what we're talking about,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:02):

and this has been a long time principle,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:04):

for Republicans is not putting one-time money, as they call it, into ongoing expenses.

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:13):

And that is exactly what they're doing now.

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:17):

They're taking reserve money,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:18):

they're taking this gambling fund money,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:20):

et cetera,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:21):

and they're essentially having to violate their principles in order to avoid even

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:25):

more draconian spending cuts.

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:27):

I mean, as it is with this budget that the House, Senate, and Governor have agreed on,

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:32):

our regions institutions are getting no increase, just a flat budget.

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:38):

And, you know, to be fair, both Iowa State and University of Iowa did not ask for an increase.

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:46):

You and I did University of Northern Iowa did, but none of them are getting an increase.

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:51):

The House budget would have given them a decrease like like an actual hot as

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:57):

opposed to just not increasing them.

Kathie Obradovich (00:07:59):

So

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:00):

And,

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:00):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:02):

and the seven and a half million dollars for community colleges,

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:05):

only about a half million off of what the Senate or what the House had wanted.

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:09):

But,

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:10):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:10):

I think higher education,

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:12):

they're getting kicked in the chops with all this DEI stuff.

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:16):

And now the legislature coming back and not giving them any money.

Laura Belin (00:08:20):

And they want to legislate so that they can restrict the tuition increases that they can pass.

Laura Belin (00:08:24):

But when they're not even giving them an allocation from the state that accounts

Laura Belin (00:08:29):

for rising costs from inflation,

Laura Belin (00:08:30):

I mean,

Laura Belin (00:08:31):

these universities have huge personnel costs.

Laura Belin (00:08:33):

They can't just pay everybody the same.

Laura Belin (00:08:35):

There are certain salary increases that have to go into effect.

Laura Belin (00:08:39):

So a flat budget is basically forcing them to make cuts to staff or programming.

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:44):

And they say, you know, okay, these DEI savings, you know, that

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:49):

They're saving, in some cases, they are saving a lot of money by shutting down these offices.

Kathie Obradovich (00:08:56):

But that doesn't take into account the fact that universities are also going to be

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:01):

losing federal money.

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:03):

University of Iowa already has had their NIH grants,

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:08):

and that's significant at a medical teaching hospital.

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:12):

A lot of those NIH National Institute

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:16):

I never remember if it's of or for health, I think.

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:22):

A lot of those were frozen,

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:23):

it caused a lot of consternation and chaos,

Kathie Obradovich (00:09:26):

and it is gonna affect their bottom line going forward.

Dave Price (00:09:30):

wondering what we're going to see in education uh for the years ahead as well if i

Dave Price (00:09:35):

remember the figures right roughly speaking they're going to need about 900 million

Dave Price (00:09:40):

dollars out of the reserves for this upcoming budget which is like a 5.3 5.4

Dave Price (00:09:46):

percent overall spending increase and you start game playing this out and they're

Dave Price (00:09:52):

it's six billion i think that that we have in reserves right now so you're going to

Dave Price (00:09:56):

get about 900 million out of that

Dave Price (00:09:58):

And in perpetuity,

Dave Price (00:10:00):

unless there are some significant revenue increases somewhere,

Dave Price (00:10:04):

maybe on the business side or something,

Dave Price (00:10:05):

we get all kinds of business activity or they find further reductions or a ton of

Dave Price (00:10:11):

people move here and we have extra people working.

Dave Price (00:10:13):

I mean,

Dave Price (00:10:14):

I don't know how the math works there,

Dave Price (00:10:15):

but I'm curious where they're going to go with education as we go forward.

Dave Price (00:10:19):

And are the regents K through 12, are they going to have to keep looking for ways to cut

Dave Price (00:10:26):

to make the money work out.

Dave Price (00:10:28):

One other thing that I was told to watch,

Dave Price (00:10:30):

and we're talking again on Friday afternoon,

Dave Price (00:10:32):

so maybe by the time that this all gets polished up and released to everybody,

Dave Price (00:10:37):

we'll know the answer here.

Dave Price (00:10:38):

But Kathie,

Dave Price (00:10:40):

I think you're the one who brought up the sports wager,

Dave Price (00:10:46):

the fan duels of the world and DraftKings and all that stuff.

Dave Price (00:10:50):

I'm told to watch that to see if there's some kind of tax increase in that.

Dave Price (00:10:55):

And I don't know if there is yet because I haven't been able to get that confirmed

Dave Price (00:10:59):

or look through the numbers.

Dave Price (00:11:00):

So maybe by the time this comes out, we'll know the answer to that.

Dave Price (00:11:03):

But I was told to watch that, that this could include some tax increases.

Laura Belin (00:11:06):

I wanted to add that with the higher education,

Laura Belin (00:11:08):

one thing we don't know is whether the universities are gonna have revenue

Laura Belin (00:11:13):

shortfalls based on fewer international students coming here,

Laura Belin (00:11:17):

fewer out-of-state students coming here.

Laura Belin (00:11:19):

We now have Minnesota is offering free in-state tuition to families that I think if

Laura Belin (00:11:24):

the family income is below $80,000 a year or something.

Laura Belin (00:11:28):

And there just may be more students,

Laura Belin (00:11:30):

the universities,

Laura Belin (00:11:31):

the Regents universities have always depended on a lot of students from places like

Laura Belin (00:11:35):

Chicagoland or St.

Laura Belin (00:11:36):

Louis area.

Laura Belin (00:11:37):

And there's starting to be some anecdotal evidence from around the country that

Laura Belin (00:11:41):

abortion ban states are seeing a slight decrease in enrollment.

Laura Belin (00:11:45):

I mean, I don't know, but that is something that could become significant going down the road.

Dave Price (00:11:51):

Okay,

Dave Price (00:11:52):

the thing I alluded to at the top,

Dave Price (00:11:54):

which could get resolved Friday night at some point,

Dave Price (00:11:57):

my colleague on the TV side,

Dave Price (00:11:59):

Conor Hendricks,

Dave Price (00:12:00):

came up with this a couple days ago,

Dave Price (00:12:02):

but he called them the defiant dozen.

Dave Price (00:12:05):

These 12 Republican senators who not only talked about this privately and in the

Dave Price (00:12:11):

Republican caucus meetings,

Dave Price (00:12:13):

and then probably in smaller conversations as well,

Dave Price (00:12:16):

but they all united publicly and sent out a statement.

Dave Price (00:12:22):

after a few of them had spoken up on the Senate floor to challenge Republican leadership.

Dave Price (00:12:26):

But the short of it is, hey, leadership, we need you to quit blocking this.

Dave Price (00:12:32):

We need a vote on eminent domain restrictions for the carbon sequestration pipeline

Dave Price (00:12:38):

on the floor of the Senate.

Dave Price (00:12:39):

If it doesn't happen, we're not going to support the budget.

Dave Price (00:12:43):

Without their support,

Dave Price (00:12:45):

unless a bunch of Democrats crossed over,

Dave Price (00:12:47):

then Jack Whitford does not have the votes that he needs on the Senate side to get

Dave Price (00:12:52):

a budget pushed through.

Dave Price (00:12:54):

So we don't know how this all went behind the scenes,

Dave Price (00:12:57):

but the way this was set up on Friday was that that vote was going to come up and

Dave Price (00:13:04):

they were not doing the overall budget yet.

Dave Price (00:13:08):

Kathie, first of all, what about this stand that this 12 took, these 12 folks took?

Dave Price (00:13:15):

We wondered if there'd be a crack in this.

Dave Price (00:13:17):

And again, you know, we're we may know the ending of this by the time this comes out.

Dave Price (00:13:22):

But what do you make about this whole power play?

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:24):

Yeah.

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:25):

So first of all,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:26):

Republicans have stood up against their leadership before by saying they're not

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:32):

going to vote for a must do bill.

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:35):

So it's not unprecedented.

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:37):

And it is,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:38):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:40):

one of the better ways that,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:43):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:43):

unfortunately,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:44):

it has to happen at the very end of the legislative session.

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:46):

But it's one of the better ways that members can exercise some leverage against

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:51):

their leadership without,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:53):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:53):

calling for a vote for leadership.

Laura Belin (00:13:56):

A coup.

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:57):

Yeah, a coup.

Kathie Obradovich (00:13:59):

Or...

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:02):

or doing what Democrats suggested,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:04):

which was to pass a bill or a rule change allowing a majority of members to force a

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:11):

bill to the floor,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:12):

which,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:13):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:13):

for various other reasons,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:16):

the majority party wouldn't want to do that.

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:18):

So so it is an effective way if your members,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:22):

you know,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:22):

if your group will hold together and if if the minority party is united.

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:29):

And I think

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:31):

So far, both of those conditions are there.

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:36):

So today is the first day that that eminent domain bill is actually on the Senate calendar.

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:43):

You know, early indications today are that it will come up for a vote that could change.

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:49):

We've also been hearing that there are amendments being filed,

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:53):

so we don't know what the bill is going to look like when it's done.

Kathie Obradovich (00:14:56):

There was a significant bill or a significant amendment by Senator Mike Buslow that

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:02):

would have watered down this bill significantly and essentially kind of give the

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:08):

Summit Carbon Solutions an opportunity to go forward with that project even without

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:15):

eminent domain.

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:17):

I think it would give them an opportunity to get eminent domain to go through with this project.

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:23):

So we'll see what it looks like.

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:25):

But if that bill passes,

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:27):

that should remove the backlog or the stall for budget bills and open the way for

Kathie Obradovich (00:15:36):

them to actually finish the session early next week.

Dave Price (00:15:39):

But when you force that vote,

Dave Price (00:15:42):

if they do and you'd have to assume maybe we shouldn't but that it will then pass

Dave Price (00:15:48):

especially if they get some help from democrats now now we'll see how that because

Dave Price (00:15:52):

democrats also caucused and apparently had a vip visitor uh who showed up in that

Dave Price (00:15:58):

democratic caucus as well whose son might work for uh for summit but um

Dave Price (00:16:05):

Tom Vilsack, I believe is his name.

Dave Price (00:16:08):

But so if if the votes are there to get this through,

Dave Price (00:16:12):

and it's the same version as the House,

Dave Price (00:16:14):

we've got a lot of ifs there.

Dave Price (00:16:15):

This makes a fascinating decision for Governor Reynolds,

Dave Price (00:16:18):

the lame duck governor not running for reelection,

Dave Price (00:16:21):

who will now have to decide.

Dave Price (00:16:23):

Does she accept these restrictions who could very much hamper the project of a

Dave Price (00:16:28):

prominent donor,

Dave Price (00:16:29):

Bruce Rastetter,

Dave Price (00:16:30):

who owns Summit and is trying to build this pipeline?

Dave Price (00:16:34):

Laura, that really puts her, that makes it fascinating for her.

Laura Belin (00:16:38):

I think this whole situation wouldn't even be happening if the governor had not

Laura Belin (00:16:42):

already announced that she wasn't running for reelection.

Laura Belin (00:16:45):

I feel that the Senate leadership was really determined to keep this kind of a bill

Laura Belin (00:16:50):

away from her.

Laura Belin (00:16:51):

And now they really may pass the buck to her and say she can either veto it or pocket veto it.

Laura Belin (00:16:57):

I really highly doubt that she would sign anything resembling what the House passed.

Laura Belin (00:17:02):

But you mentioned the amendments.

Laura Belin (00:17:03):

I mean, we don't know what's going to go on.

Laura Belin (00:17:05):

There are a lot of procedural

Laura Belin (00:17:08):

trickiness in the Senate.

Laura Belin (00:17:10):

So if the floor manager files a strike after amendment,

Laura Belin (00:17:13):

that would knock some of these other amendments that have been filed already out of order,

Laura Belin (00:17:17):

and we don't know.

Laura Belin (00:17:17):

I mean,

Laura Belin (00:17:18):

these 12,

Laura Belin (00:17:18):

the defiant dozen,

Laura Belin (00:17:20):

if we're gonna call them that,

Laura Belin (00:17:22):

they wanted to vote on the House bill.

Laura Belin (00:17:23):

So, I mean, as Kathie mentioned,

Laura Belin (00:17:25):

this huge amendment that mike buslow filed that would have taken out the language

Laura Belin (00:17:29):

that basically blocks the eminent domain for co2 pipelines but then what the leader

Laura Belin (00:17:35):

of this defiant dozen senator kevin alans he filed an amendment to the buslow

Laura Belin (00:17:41):

amendment that was just like strike pages one through 36.

Laura Belin (00:17:44):

so that would basically return the bill to what the house had passed so we don't

Laura Belin (00:17:48):

know and the house bill

Laura Belin (00:17:49):

had a lot of language changing the definition of what's a common carrier and what

Laura Belin (00:17:53):

things that would make it almost impossible for the summit carbon solutions to proceed.

Laura Belin (00:17:58):

And so I don't know.

Laura Belin (00:17:59):

I mean,

Laura Belin (00:18:00):

I feel that Bruce Rastetter has given a lot of money to House and Senate Republican

Laura Belin (00:18:04):

leaders over the years,

Laura Belin (00:18:05):

not just to the governor.

Laura Belin (00:18:07):

And

Laura Belin (00:18:08):

Maybe there's an understanding that the governor is either going to veto this bill

Laura Belin (00:18:11):

or pocket veto it.

Laura Belin (00:18:13):

I still am a little bit skeptical that this thing is going to pass in the same

Laura Belin (00:18:18):

version that the House did.

Laura Belin (00:18:19):

But I do think it was important that the statement was public,

Laura Belin (00:18:22):

that was signed by all 12,

Laura Belin (00:18:23):

because we've seen many times with an anti-trans bill that was debated in the House,

Laura Belin (00:18:28):

There are always a lot of rumors about this or that person doesn't want to vote for the bill.

Laura Belin (00:18:32):

But if they haven't taken a public stand and said,

Laura Belin (00:18:35):

I'm not going to do something,

Laura Belin (00:18:37):

it's a lot easier for leadership to peel them away.

Laura Belin (00:18:39):

Now you have these 12 people who signed a statement saying we're not going to vote

Laura Belin (00:18:43):

for a budget unless this bill comes to the floor.

Laura Belin (00:18:45):

So if they back down on it, then they have to go back to their constituents and explain that.

Dave Price (00:18:51):

And I don't think we've mentioned this this week,

Dave Price (00:18:53):

but Senator Boussolo,

Dave Price (00:18:55):

before his time in office,

Dave Price (00:18:57):

worked for Bruce Rastetter.

Dave Price (00:18:58):

I don't know that he did any work that had anything to do with the pipeline project

Dave Price (00:19:02):

for Summit,

Dave Price (00:19:03):

but he did work for Rastetter several years back.

Laura Belin (00:19:06):

Yeah, it was before the Summit Carbon Solutions.

Laura Belin (00:19:09):

He was working for one of the other groups in the Summit constellation.

Dave Price (00:19:14):

Alright,

Dave Price (00:19:14):

so we assume that these folks will not wrap up over the weekend will have to come

Dave Price (00:19:18):

back at least early in the week.

Dave Price (00:19:20):

We also know some of the top Republican leadership has a conference to go to as the

Dave Price (00:19:25):

week moves on here so that could then put them in a bind about whether they're

Dave Price (00:19:30):

going to go or not go and this could affect how they scheduled debate as well.

Laura Belin (00:19:33):

I asked Speaker Grassley's aide about that,

Laura Belin (00:19:36):

the trip,

Laura Belin (00:19:37):

and she said that that's all up in the air and that they may not go on that trip if

Laura Belin (00:19:42):

things are wrapping up.

Laura Belin (00:19:43):

But one of the House Republicans,

Laura Belin (00:19:46):

Chad Ingalls,

Laura Belin (00:19:46):

put in his newsletter that came out this morning that they've been told to report

Laura Belin (00:19:49):

early on Monday and that they're going to be pushing and go through.

Laura Belin (00:19:52):

So maybe the idea is that they'll finish up.

Laura Belin (00:19:55):

early Tuesday morning,

Laura Belin (00:19:56):

and then Speaker Grassley and Majority Leader Whitver can go on that trip.

Laura Belin (00:20:01):

I think it's an RNC, some kind of group meeting.

Laura Belin (00:20:04):

I'm not sure.

Dave Price (00:20:06):

Yeah, that complicates her life.

Dave Price (00:20:08):

But I too was told that Monday might be the day, really long day.

Dave Price (00:20:12):

Members get there early.

Dave Price (00:20:13):

It's like 8.30 or something like that.

Dave Price (00:20:14):

House is showing up.

Dave Price (00:20:15):

Then they just power through.

Dave Price (00:20:17):

And also we find out what stuff's been worked out behind the scenes, right?

Dave Price (00:20:22):

I mean,

Dave Price (00:20:22):

we could sit here and we think hard enough,

Dave Price (00:20:24):

probably come up with six,

Dave Price (00:20:25):

seven,

Dave Price (00:20:26):

maybe eight unresolved major things that are still hanging out there.

Dave Price (00:20:32):

Some of them...

Dave Price (00:20:33):

maybe part of budget negotiations,

Dave Price (00:20:35):

other things may be thrown aside,

Dave Price (00:20:37):

maybe some depend on how this eminent domain vote goes.

Kathie Obradovich (00:20:42):

I'm still waiting to hear what they're going to do with the opioid settlement money.

Kathie Obradovich (00:20:46):

Remember the very end of session, they were passing bills back and forth.

Kathie Obradovich (00:20:50):

The House and Senate didn't agree.

Kathie Obradovich (00:20:52):

Last I heard, House and Senate still did not agree on how to structure, how to spend that money.

Kathie Obradovich (00:20:57):

It's over $300 million that would go essentially for opioid prevention and treatment programs.

Kathie Obradovich (00:21:06):

Something that I think has wide bipartisan support.

Kathie Obradovich (00:21:10):

And yet this money is just sitting there.

Laura Belin (00:21:13):

It's the end of the 2022 session that Republicans passed something that said the

Laura Belin (00:21:21):

attorney general's office,

Laura Belin (00:21:22):

then controlled by Tom Miller,

Laura Belin (00:21:24):

can't spend the money.

Laura Belin (00:21:25):

And of course,

Laura Belin (00:21:26):

now the Senate Republicans want to let the state agencies and the AG's office

Laura Belin (00:21:32):

basically decide what to do.

Laura Belin (00:21:33):

And the House Republicans want more of a bidding process where there's some kind of a

Laura Belin (00:21:39):

committee that would review the applications.

Laura Belin (00:21:41):

And I've heard conflicting things about whether the opioid settlement itself

Laura Belin (00:21:45):

requires that there be some kind of a committee.

Laura Belin (00:21:48):

So yeah, I mean, that's unresolved that we still don't know.

Laura Belin (00:21:51):

I assume at this point that the governor's energy bill isn't going to go forward.

Laura Belin (00:21:55):

There are several other major pieces of legislation that haven't moved yet.

Kathie Obradovich (00:21:59):

Here as well was still still hanging fire as well there yeah there,

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:07):

there are a bunch of things,

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:08):

and you know it is entirely possible that you know one in the morning we're going

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:13):

to see some vastly.

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:15):

rewritten version of some of these bills and get it attached to something that is

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:21):

completely unrelated.

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:24):

They call it log rolling.

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:25):

The Iowa Supreme Court has actually taken a pretty dim view of this,

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:30):

and yet if nobody objects and nobody goes to court over it,

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:36):

they get away with it.

Dave Price (00:22:38):

It's germane as long as someone says it is not, right?

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:41):

It's germane as long as nobody

Kathie Obradovich (00:22:44):

you know, objects to it, basically.

Laura Belin (00:22:47):

The Iowa Supreme Court,

Laura Belin (00:22:49):

they seem okay with it as long as the legislators know what they're voting for.

Laura Belin (00:22:53):

They don't like it.

Laura Belin (00:22:54):

If the legislators know what they're voting for,

Laura Belin (00:22:56):

they don't mind that there was no time for the public to weigh in or,

Laura Belin (00:23:00):

you know,

Laura Belin (00:23:01):

no meaningful deliberative process.

Kathie Obradovich (00:23:05):

One of those bills, though, was, you know, an abortion bill that got attached to

Kathie Obradovich (00:23:10):

to a completely unrelated bill at one in the morning.

Kathie Obradovich (00:23:13):

And a previous Supreme Court took a dim view of that.

Dave Price (00:23:20):

um all right let's let's segue off the state house because i think we're gonna have

Dave Price (00:23:25):

to finish that up next week as we maybe actually have some answers to some of these

Dave Price (00:23:29):

things and i don't want to go too much on this because we'll have plenty of time in

Dave Price (00:23:32):

the months ahead to talk about this but we had a bunch of announcements this week

Dave Price (00:23:35):

right uh chris knoyer i was a republican lieutenant governor i don't know anybody

Dave Price (00:23:40):

who thought she was going to run for governor but she officially said she's going

Dave Price (00:23:43):

to run for state auditor so that's out there and kim reynolds endorsed her right

Dave Price (00:23:47):

away so maybe there's not going to be a primary in that one

Dave Price (00:23:49):

We had Nate Willems made his return to politics.

Dave Price (00:23:53):

He used to be a state legislator.

Dave Price (00:23:55):

He's been out for like 12 years.

Dave Price (00:23:57):

He's going to run for attorney general,

Dave Price (00:23:59):

possibly against Republican Brenna Byrd if she ends up running for re-election.

Dave Price (00:24:03):

And then we have the colleagues,

Dave Price (00:24:05):

Jennifer Conferst,

Dave Price (00:24:06):

who,

Dave Price (00:24:07):

as we speak at this moment,

Dave Price (00:24:09):

remains the House Minority Leader,

Dave Price (00:24:11):

but she's going to step down after the session officially ends.

Dave Price (00:24:14):

So she's running for the third congressional district,

Dave Price (00:24:16):

and then her colleague on the Senate side,

Dave Price (00:24:19):

Sarah Tron-Garriott,

Dave Price (00:24:21):

also running for the Democratic nomination in that third district.

Dave Price (00:24:26):

As you look at these four big announcements, what really peaks your attention?

Laura Belin (00:24:32):

I think it's going to be an interesting third district primary because we don't

Laura Belin (00:24:36):

have any ideological differences.

Laura Belin (00:24:38):

I mean,

Laura Belin (00:24:38):

sometimes in a Democratic primary,

Laura Belin (00:24:40):

we have like a Bernie type candidate and then more of a mainstream Democratic candidate.

Laura Belin (00:24:46):

And I haven't identified any issues where Jennifer Converse and Sarah Turner-Garriott disagree.

Laura Belin (00:24:52):

So then I think that for a lot of Democrats,

Laura Belin (00:24:55):

it's just going to come down to who they like better,

Laura Belin (00:24:58):

who they know more about,

Laura Belin (00:25:00):

what the

Laura Belin (00:25:00):

Sarah Hungarian is leaning a lot into an electability argument.

Laura Belin (00:25:04):

And so that that intrigues me that we just don't have a lot of substantive

Laura Belin (00:25:09):

differences in that primary.

Kathie Obradovich (00:25:11):

Yeah, it could come down to who works harder.

Dave Price (00:25:14):

And who has the money.

Laura Belin (00:25:17):

Right.

Laura Belin (00:25:17):

And I mean,

Laura Belin (00:25:18):

Nate Willems,

Laura Belin (00:25:19):

he served,

Laura Belin (00:25:20):

as Dave mentioned,

Laura Belin (00:25:21):

so he represented a Linn County district for two terms in the Iowa House.

Laura Belin (00:25:24):

Then he ran for the Iowa Senate in 2012 and wasn't successful.

Laura Belin (00:25:28):

And so he's been just he went back to his legal practice,

Laura Belin (00:25:32):

has been a labor attorney,

Laura Belin (00:25:34):

employment attorney for a very long time.

Laura Belin (00:25:36):

And I think he has an interesting pitch.

Laura Belin (00:25:39):

to voters i mean i don't know the the voter registration numbers for democrats

Laura Belin (00:25:43):

right now statewide are really daunting so i don't know how easy it's going to be

Laura Belin (00:25:48):

and by the way i think brenda bird is running for governor so i suspect that he's

Laura Belin (00:25:51):

going to be running for attorney general against somebody else possibly maybe not

Laura Belin (00:25:55):

possibly mike well we'll see but possibly mike busolo but in any case he told me

Laura Belin (00:26:00):

that he was already

Laura Belin (00:26:01):

He was already laying the groundwork to run for this before Governor Reynolds made

Laura Belin (00:26:04):

the announcement that she wasn't running.

Laura Belin (00:26:06):

So he had every expectation that he would be running against Brenna Byrd.

Laura Belin (00:26:09):

So it wasn't, the shakeup didn't affect his planning at all.

Laura Belin (00:26:12):

But talking about how corporations steal money from workers and that he wants the

Laura Belin (00:26:17):

AG's office to do more,

Laura Belin (00:26:19):

to stand up for workers who have their wages stolen,

Laura Belin (00:26:22):

who are misclassified,

Laura Belin (00:26:23):

who have overtime taken from them.

Laura Belin (00:26:27):

And I think that we haven't seen the Attorney General's office

Laura Belin (00:26:30):

take on that kind of crime before.

Laura Belin (00:26:32):

And I'm curious to see whether he can get any traction with that message.

Dave Price (00:26:39):

All right, let's put a pin in that.

Dave Price (00:26:41):

For the week.

Dave Price (00:26:43):

There's so much unresolved.

Dave Price (00:26:44):

As we talked,

Dave Price (00:26:45):

I just got a text that I think they're starting,

Dave Price (00:26:47):

they're about to start some debate on DEI first,

Dave Price (00:26:51):

though,

Dave Price (00:26:51):

I think before eminent domain.

Dave Price (00:26:53):

And, you know, who knows?

Dave Price (00:26:55):

This podcast may drop.

Dave Price (00:26:56):

They still may be talking eminent domain.

Dave Price (00:26:59):

Maybe the Senate's going to go all night.

Dave Price (00:27:01):

Who knows?

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:03):

I just wanted to throw in.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:04):

So the one name that we haven't heard yet this week is Rob Sand.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:08):

We're still waiting for his big announcement.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:10):

Everybody's assuming that he's running for governor.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:12):

But, you know, we I think we expect an actual announcement fairly soon here.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:18):

So, you know, he could certainly shake up this whole apple cart.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:24):

He said, I'm just going to run for reelection.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:28):

That would shock everybody.

Laura Belin (00:27:31):

Yeah, I think so.

Dave Price (00:27:32):

That would be a shocker.

Dave Price (00:27:33):

And it especially would shock a few of the other Democrats who had in their guts

Dave Price (00:27:38):

really wanted to run for governor until they found out that Sands in-laws kicked in

Dave Price (00:27:44):

about seven mil and they decided that's probably not a campaign I can compete with.

Dave Price (00:27:49):

I also feel like next week,

Dave Price (00:27:50):

possibly the week after,

Dave Price (00:27:52):

I think we're going to be talking more about Randy Feenster's plans.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:56):

He's in the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:57):

Pat has a really good column,

Kathie Obradovich (00:27:59):

Dave Buzik,

Kathie Obradovich (00:28:00):

this week about why having no primary is not necessarily in Rob Sands' best interest.

Kathie Obradovich (00:28:06):

So give that a read.

Kathie Obradovich (00:28:09):

It's worth taking a look at.

Laura Belin (00:28:11):

Well,

Laura Belin (00:28:11):

I think he is possibly going to have a primary because Julie Stouch has already

Laura Belin (00:28:14):

formed a committee to run for governor.

Laura Belin (00:28:17):

I mean, she filed organizing paperwork, which usually leads to running for governor.

Laura Belin (00:28:21):

Now,

Laura Belin (00:28:21):

of course,

Laura Belin (00:28:22):

with $8 million in the bank and the higher name ID that he has,

Laura Belin (00:28:26):

he would be the prohibitive favorite in any primary.

Laura Belin (00:28:30):

I agree with you.

Laura Belin (00:28:30):

I mean,

Laura Belin (00:28:31):

I think a competitive primary in the third district,

Laura Belin (00:28:33):

I think it helped Cindy Axne in 2018.

Laura Belin (00:28:36):

And I don't think it's a bad thing at all for Jennifer Conferst or Sarah Trone

Laura Belin (00:28:39):

Garriott to be pounding the pavement,

Laura Belin (00:28:42):

trying to ID supporters and mobilize support and get them out for the primary.

Kathie Obradovich (00:28:45):

Hound their message, engage in debates.

Kathie Obradovich (00:28:49):

All those things make them better candidates in the general election.

Dave Price (00:28:53):

Laura Kathie good to talk to you thanks for uh rolling with this as we had so much

Dave Price (00:28:58):

uncertainty as we began this gathering so thanks for doing that have a great

Dave Price (00:29:02):

weekend you too uh thank you everybody for joining us also a special thanks to

Dave Price (00:29:07):

spencer dirks for producing this every week for d'artagnan brown for providing

Dave Price (00:29:13):

the music.

Dave Price (00:29:14):

Thanks for all of you for supporting this podcast,

Dave Price (00:29:16):

but also thank you for all of you who are able to subscribe and support all of our

Dave Price (00:29:23):

individual columns,

Dave Price (00:29:25):

the 65,

Dave Price (00:29:26):

70 of us who are now part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

Dave Price (00:29:30):

We talk about all kinds of stuff from all kinds of different perspectives,

Dave Price (00:29:33):

but this doesn't work if we do not have the support behind us.

Dave Price (00:29:37):

So we appreciate all of you who are able to do that.

Dave Price (00:29:40):

We will talk to you next week.

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