We start the show this week with good news for the Perry community as they continue to rebound from the Tyson plant closure. JBS USA has announced a new pork processing facility in the town, which could bring over 500 jobs; Governor Reynolds is still signing bills from the 2025 legislative session. One of those is designed to address the healthcare worker shortage in the state. We discuss what the bill does and how successful it may be; The governor also signed the paid family leave bill that effect public workers in the state. All 3 of our reporters were at least a bit surprised that one got past the finish line this session; Senator Joni Ernst has announced her annual Roast and Ride date. It’ll be taking place in October, and we discuss the announcement and try to read the tea leaves; Thanks for listen/watching/reading. Remember to share with friends and family, and if you’re able please consider becoming a monthly or yearly paid subscriber.

AI generated transcript below:

Dave (00:00:01):

Hi everyone and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast.

Dave (00:00:04):

I am Dave Price, joined as always by Laura Bellin and Kathie Obradovich.

Dave (00:00:09):

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Whatever you can do to help this entity grow as we go from border to border in the

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state of Iowa.

Dave (00:00:48):

So for the last several months,

Dave (00:00:49):

we have focused a lot on what the Iowa legislature has done,

Dave (00:00:53):

this legislative session.

Dave (00:00:55):

The session's done, but now we're starting to see some of these things happen.

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Get signed into law.

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So we are going to look at some of that this week.

Dave (00:01:04):

But we had and we're going to start with a little bit of business news because over

Dave (00:01:07):

the past what year,

Dave (00:01:09):

year and a half,

Dave (00:01:10):

it seems like we've had a lot of headlines about this place is closing.

Dave (00:01:14):

They're laying off several hundred here, laying off here, laying off, laying off.

Dave (00:01:18):

Well,

Dave (00:01:18):

in Perry,

Dave (00:01:20):

where they are dealing with a bunch of layoffs,

Dave (00:01:23):

there's about 1,300,

Dave (00:01:24):

if memory serves,

Dave (00:01:25):

when Tyson Foods shut down the pork processing plant in Perry.

Dave (00:01:30):

And on this week, on Thursday, JBS USA confirmed that it is...

Dave (00:01:39):

working to build a $135 million pork sausage plant,

Dave (00:01:45):

not at the same physical location where Tyson was.

Dave (00:01:48):

They're going to build their own thing,

Dave (00:01:49):

providing they get all the necessary approvals from the city.

Dave (00:01:53):

But you'd have to think that's going to happen, right?

Dave (00:01:55):

You probably wouldn't make this big announcement if you don't think the city

Dave (00:01:57):

council is going to go along with this.

Dave (00:02:00):

But maybe up to 700, 750 jobs or so.

Dave (00:02:02):

It's kind of two shifts of 250 workers plus another...

Dave (00:02:08):

250 construction jobs.

Dave (00:02:10):

Either way,

Dave (00:02:10):

it's a little bit more than half of the workers that the community lost when Tyson

Dave (00:02:16):

shut down.

Dave (00:02:18):

Kathie,

Dave (00:02:18):

as always,

Dave (00:02:19):

the Iowa Capitol Dispatch was all over this,

Dave (00:02:21):

and you had a good in-depth story about this,

Dave (00:02:24):

but kind of big picture,

Dave (00:02:25):

we've seen so many blows to the agricultural industry,

Dave (00:02:29):

especially in our state,

Dave (00:02:31):

over the last year,

Dave (00:02:32):

year and a half.

Dave (00:02:33):

So this could definitely be a positive one for that community.

Kathie (00:02:36):

Yeah,

Kathie (00:02:37):

not only for the people who physically would be working in the plant,

Kathie (00:02:41):

but the pork producers who,

Kathie (00:02:44):

after Tyson shut down,

Kathie (00:02:45):

had to find some other place to take their pigs to the market.

Kathie (00:02:50):

And, you know, that comes at additional cost.

Kathie (00:02:53):

You have to drive them along longer distance.

Kathie (00:02:56):

A lot of those packing plants don't necessarily have openings for more animals.

Kathie (00:03:01):

So you might end up feeding these pigs longer than you intended.

Kathie (00:03:07):

There was just a big financial hit all the way around.

Kathie (00:03:11):

The cost of the community has been significant as well.

Kathie (00:03:15):

Kids coming out of school, et cetera.

Kathie (00:03:19):

I think though,

Kathie (00:03:20):

one of the things I'm interested in seeing is how many of those former Tyson

Kathie (00:03:24):

workers

Kathie (00:03:25):

are still hanging around the community and haven't moved,

Kathie (00:03:29):

you know,

Kathie (00:03:30):

to other plants,

Kathie (00:03:31):

either in other cities or out of state.

Kathie (00:03:35):

I assume JBS must think they are going to have a workforce somewhere in Perry,

Kathie (00:03:40):

and perhaps they can draw some of those people back to the community.

Kathie (00:03:44):

And I think it was,

Dave (00:03:45):

I think it was your reporting that showed it's like a hundred and something kids

Dave (00:03:49):

who have left the public school district,

Dave (00:03:51):

right?

Dave (00:03:52):

Since Tyson shut down.

Kathie (00:03:55):

I think that it was significant.

Kathie (00:03:59):

I mean,

Kathie (00:03:59):

it was a significant number of kids,

Kathie (00:04:01):

maybe more than I would have expected,

Kathie (00:04:05):

considering that a lot of people who worked at the plant weren't necessarily living

Kathie (00:04:10):

in Perry proper.

Kathie (00:04:11):

Some of them were driving in from nearby communities, et cetera.

Kathie (00:04:17):

And now with this sort of culture of fear that we have,

Kathie (00:04:23):

with the Hispanic community in particular and immigrants in general, I think it will be harder.

Kathie (00:04:32):

It will be harder to hire workers in mass for a business like this.

Laura (00:04:40):

I was just going to say,

Laura (00:04:41):

I remember when the Tyson announced they were shutting down that plant,

Laura (00:04:45):

hundreds,

Laura (00:04:45):

I can't remember the exact number,

Laura (00:04:47):

but certainly hundreds of the people who worked there didn't live right in Perry.

Laura (00:04:50):

They were coming in either from the Des Moines metro or from other smaller towns.

Laura (00:04:55):

And so many of those people may have already found other employment,

Laura (00:04:59):

but certainly it's always a good thing for a community when there's a huge

Laura (00:05:03):

construction project that's gonna create hundreds of permanent jobs.

Dave (00:05:07):

And we should point out that I think they're thinking this would still be almost a

Dave (00:05:12):

calendar year before this would open.

Dave (00:05:15):

So while this could be a significant number of jobs for Perry, it's still down the line here.

Dave (00:05:22):

Now, maybe that's a good thing.

Dave (00:05:23):

I mean, maybe that gives people a chance to apply and potentially move back to town.

Dave (00:05:28):

But you have to wonder what these folks have been doing.

Dave (00:05:31):

If they lost their job at Tyson, that could be almost a two-year

Dave (00:05:37):

absence from the workforce,

Dave (00:05:39):

that's a heck of a long time to go without a job if people are still sticking

Dave (00:05:42):

around.

Laura (00:05:43):

And Iowa used to have an extra 13 weeks of unemployment payments if you were

Laura (00:05:48):

working for a facility where the whole facility shut down.

Laura (00:05:51):

But that was ended.

Laura (00:05:53):

And also the regular unemployment benefits,

Laura (00:05:55):

which used to be available for up to 26 weeks,

Laura (00:05:59):

are now available only for up to 16 weeks.

Laura (00:06:01):

So, I mean, I would imagine that many people have moved on.

Laura (00:06:04):

I just wanted to add one quick thing.

Laura (00:06:06):

Because you had mentioned the declining enrollment in the schools.

Laura (00:06:09):

And just for listeners to understand that when a school district loses students,

Laura (00:06:14):

that's real money that they're losing because the state is most of the state

Laura (00:06:18):

funding is going per pupil.

Laura (00:06:20):

And so maybe the state increased per pupil funding by 2% for the coming year.

Laura (00:06:25):

But if your school district has declining enrollment, you're going to be actually getting 50%.

Laura (00:06:30):

fewer dollars than you did last year, even if the amount per pupil bumped up a little bit.

Laura (00:06:35):

So it's very significant for a school district the size of Perry to be losing

Laura (00:06:40):

dozens of students or scores of students.

Kathie (00:06:43):

Yeah,

Kathie (00:06:43):

I would be,

Kathie (00:06:44):

you know,

Kathie (00:06:45):

I think it would really be wise for the city of Perry to,

Kathie (00:06:48):

you know,

Kathie (00:06:49):

hopefully,

Kathie (00:06:50):

if they've kept track of where some of these folks have gone,

Kathie (00:06:54):

to encourage them to move back.

Kathie (00:06:56):

And, you know, it's a nice little community.

Kathie (00:06:59):

It's a friendly community.

Kathie (00:07:01):

It's possible that people would really consider that if they had a job.

Dave (00:07:05):

And you'd have to think they did that.

Dave (00:07:06):

I think Newton has gone through a lot of these kind of ebbs and flows ever since

Dave (00:07:11):

Whirlpool and Maytag pulled out.

Dave (00:07:13):

And they've had TPI composites and some others kind of in the wind business.

Dave (00:07:17):

But that's really gone up and down, too, with...

Dave (00:07:21):

The uncertainty of whether tax credits would be there and with the support system be there.

Dave (00:07:27):

So you'd have to think these communities are the best they can try to stay in touch

Dave (00:07:30):

with people in the hopes that something would reopen and they can bring these folks

Dave (00:07:35):

back to town for sure.

Dave (00:07:38):

I mentioned we're following up on some of the things that have happened during the

Dave (00:07:41):

legislative session.

Dave (00:07:44):

Governor Reynolds went out for the bill signing,

Dave (00:07:47):

which was her bill that she pitched months ago,

Dave (00:07:50):

and that was to try to address the need to get more doctors into the state.

Dave (00:07:56):

I mean, the list is long for...

Dave (00:07:58):

the health care needs for the state and a long list of things, really.

Dave (00:08:02):

But so one of the things this will do is open up some residency slots.

Dave (00:08:08):

And I think it's 14 training hospitals across the state.

Dave (00:08:12):

The governor went out on the went on tour, really, to kind of talk about this.

Dave (00:08:17):

Laura, what do you make about some of this?

Dave (00:08:21):

It's still going to depend on some future federal funding that I believe she's

Dave (00:08:26):

waiting for the Department of Health to be able to get that and then to transition

Dave (00:08:32):

that to make sure that these residency slots actually are open.

Laura (00:08:37):

Yeah, I'm a bit of a skeptic about this whole plan.

Laura (00:08:39):

Ever since this bill was proposed months ago,

Laura (00:08:42):

I asked because the way it was worded was the state of Iowa will draw down $150

Laura (00:08:49):

million in federal funding.

Laura (00:08:51):

And I said, well, draw down from what pot of money?

Laura (00:08:55):

Because-

Laura (00:08:56):

The federal government is canceling grants and money committed, you know, left and right.

Laura (00:09:01):

And so how do we even know that this funding will be available to the state of Iowa?

Laura (00:09:06):

I haven't got maybe they have a good answer.

Laura (00:09:09):

I haven't gotten a good answer on that.

Laura (00:09:11):

And I also am not sure that filling one hundred and fifty

Laura (00:09:15):

residency slots is realistic.

Laura (00:09:17):

I mean, you need doctors to supervise those residents.

Laura (00:09:20):

I don't know that all of these facilities have the capacity to do that.

Laura (00:09:24):

I don't know if there are enough people who want to take up residencies in Iowa.

Laura (00:09:28):

Certainly there are people who have lived in Iowa who have family here who would be

Laura (00:09:32):

interested,

Laura (00:09:32):

but a lot of states with abortion bans are finding that it's not as attractive a

Laura (00:09:37):

place to practice medicine.

Laura (00:09:39):

And those couple of anti-vaccine bills

Laura (00:09:41):

that were, they just had a subcommittee.

Laura (00:09:44):

They didn't get farther than the subcommittee stage, but they got some national news coverage.

Laura (00:09:48):

And I feel like that is a real deterrent to medical professionals when they're

Laura (00:09:52):

looking at places they might want to practice medicine.

Laura (00:09:55):

So I don't know.

Laura (00:09:56):

I mean,

Laura (00:09:56):

I hope it works out because Iowa certainly has a doctor shortage,

Laura (00:09:59):

but I would call myself a skeptic.

Kathie (00:10:02):

During the legislative session,

Kathie (00:10:04):

we had a story from a freelance reporter who had talked to these medical schools.

Kathie (00:10:09):

And one of the questions they had raised,

Kathie (00:10:12):

like you just said,

Kathie (00:10:13):

Laura,

Kathie (00:10:14):

is how much money is going to be available for the faculty?

Kathie (00:10:19):

Because you do have to have these physicians to train in order to have a realistic

Kathie (00:10:27):

chance to have a residency slot expansion.

Kathie (00:10:30):

You get to have the faculty to train them and 115 is quite a lot.

Kathie (00:10:35):

And, you know, in terms of

Kathie (00:10:37):

Even when you're spreading it out over 14 teaching hospitals, it's a significant number.

Kathie (00:10:41):

And you're probably going to have to add faculty at some of these facilities.

Kathie (00:10:44):

So I agree.

Kathie (00:10:47):

And I thought the same thing in terms of this federal money that we're relying on.

Kathie (00:10:54):

How long is that going to be available?

Kathie (00:10:57):

And will it come with a lot of strings attached?

Dave (00:11:03):

Well, it's, I mean, the hope is always string free, right?

Dave (00:11:06):

Isn't that what they've been saying?

Dave (00:11:07):

That the concept would be that the whole block grant mentality is that there aren't

Dave (00:11:12):

a lot of regulations with this stuff.

Dave (00:11:15):

But it does seem curious that unless they have some kind of

Dave (00:11:20):

agreement in place or conversation in place or something that makes them feel

Dave (00:11:25):

optimistic that despite DOGE,

Dave (00:11:28):

whatever is left of DOGE,

Dave (00:11:31):

RIP,

Dave (00:11:34):

that they still think that federal funding could come because they're going through

Dave (00:11:37):

all kinds of stuff with Medicaid and I know that's a big thing they're going to

Dave (00:11:40):

have to think of in the next year or two too.

Dave (00:11:42):

Perhaps they have a reason to be optimistic.

Kathie (00:11:46):

Yeah,

Kathie (00:11:48):

it seems like some of these costs are coming down to states without the money to

Kathie (00:11:54):

come along with it.

Kathie (00:11:55):

I don't think that was the vision.

Kathie (00:11:57):

I think the vision was that the states could take this federal money and use it the

Kathie (00:12:04):

way they want.

Kathie (00:12:06):

For example, the big, beautiful reconciliation bill

Kathie (00:12:11):

They basically made it pretty clear that costs for the federal food assistance

Kathie (00:12:18):

program,

Kathie (00:12:18):

SNAP,

Kathie (00:12:19):

are coming down to the states,

Kathie (00:12:22):

some more than others.

Kathie (00:12:23):

It's a formula that's based on error rates,

Kathie (00:12:27):

and Iowa does have a low error rate,

Kathie (00:12:29):

but even so,

Kathie (00:12:30):

we're still talking about at least tens of millions of dollars that wasn't

Kathie (00:12:34):

necessarily in the budget for SNAP.

Dave (00:12:39):

One of the other things that has now been signed into law is something that the

Dave (00:12:43):

governor had wanted.

Dave (00:12:44):

And I don't know what you two thought,

Dave (00:12:46):

but I was thinking this wasn't going to make it through the legislature.

Dave (00:12:50):

When you're talking about paid leave for state workers,

Dave (00:12:54):

it seemed like there was the support for it,

Dave (00:12:56):

perhaps in the Republican-led House,

Dave (00:12:58):

but too many concerns from it in the Republican Senate.

Dave (00:13:04):

And it just kind of

Dave (00:13:06):

was stuck there for a while.

Dave (00:13:08):

And I had spoken to some Republican senators who had had concerns about it.

Dave (00:13:13):

There was one in particular who talked about that he thought that if you give this

Dave (00:13:18):

benefit,

Dave (00:13:18):

it's going to be unfair to small businesses.

Dave (00:13:20):

They're not going to be able to compete with it.

Dave (00:13:22):

And I said,

Dave (00:13:23):

well,

Dave (00:13:23):

what we're hearing is sort of from the other side of it,

Dave (00:13:26):

though,

Dave (00:13:26):

the state is not able

Dave (00:13:28):

to attract and retain workers because they can get these paid leave offers from

Dave (00:13:36):

elsewhere from small businesses and some bigger companies and this is a way to kind

Dave (00:13:40):

of compete with it and it's not any kind of

Dave (00:13:43):

excessive leave or anything like that, what the final agreement was.

Dave (00:13:46):

But I don't know what you two thought,

Dave (00:13:48):

but until those early morning hours when who knows what was happening in all of

Dave (00:13:52):

these back rooms or wherever the heck they did these final negotiations,

Dave (00:13:56):

all of a sudden it happened.

Kathie (00:13:58):

Yeah, I took this as it was a must-have for the governor.

Kathie (00:14:03):

These budget negotiations are always a three-legged stool.

Kathie (00:14:08):

And ultimately,

Kathie (00:14:12):

the governor doesn't always get everything that she wants,

Kathie (00:14:14):

but she gets a lot of what she wants.

Kathie (00:14:16):

And I think that that ended up being something that she decided to hold out for.

Laura (00:14:25):

I was also surprised it came to the floor of the Senate.

Laura (00:14:27):

My memory is that when she introduced this bill last year,

Laura (00:14:31):

sometimes she introduces companion bills in both chambers.

Laura (00:14:33):

But my recollection is she only introduced this paid leave proposal in the House

Laura (00:14:38):

last year,

Laura (00:14:39):

and it didn't get over the finish line.

Laura (00:14:41):

And I remember talking with one of the Republicans in the House last year who said,

Laura (00:14:45):

Dave,

Laura (00:14:45):

just what you said,

Laura (00:14:46):

that they're concerned that this might be unfair and it would be hard for the

Laura (00:14:50):

private sector to compete against this when really,

Laura (00:14:53):

What the bill calls for four weeks of paid leave for a state employee who births a

Laura (00:14:58):

child,

Laura (00:14:59):

one week of paid leave if you're the non-birthing parent of a child,

Laura (00:15:04):

and if you are adopting a child,

Laura (00:15:07):

then four weeks of paid leave for either parent who's adopting a child.

Laura (00:15:11):

So it's really not I mean, a lot of the private sector is offering more than that.

Laura (00:15:15):

So I don't consider it overly generous at all.

Laura (00:15:18):

I think that there was some concern about that.

Laura (00:15:21):

And I don't know what pushed it over the finish line.

Laura (00:15:22):

But I had already in my mind kind of written it off as something the governor

Laura (00:15:27):

wasn't going to get this year.

Kathie (00:15:29):

Yeah, a lot of places, including media companies where I've worked, it's been a six-week leave.

Kathie (00:15:39):

So I don't think it's overly generous at all.

Kathie (00:15:43):

And I agree, it probably won't be a big competitive issue for the workforce.

Laura (00:15:48):

I'm just going to say one more thing,

Laura (00:15:50):

which is,

Laura (00:15:50):

this is something probably most people don't know about me,

Laura (00:15:53):

but before there was even a bleeding heartland,

Laura (00:15:56):

I started doing volunteer breastfeeding support as part of a parenting support

Laura (00:16:01):

group.

Laura (00:16:02):

And I can tell you that four weeks is not a lot of time to be off with a new baby.

Laura (00:16:08):

That difference of just a few weeks, if you can have six weeks or eight weeks off,

Laura (00:16:14):

hugely different developmentally for a newborn if you're having to go back to work

Laura (00:16:18):

at four weeks versus six weeks.

Dave (00:16:21):

Indeed.

Dave (00:16:23):

Another announcement over this past week did not have to do with the statehouse,

Dave (00:16:27):

although it was from a former state senator,

Dave (00:16:31):

Joni Ernst,

Dave (00:16:32):

the U.S.

Dave (00:16:33):

senator now.

Dave (00:16:33):

So her annual roast and ride.

Dave (00:16:36):

We had been wondering where this thing was and when was it going to take place?

Dave (00:16:42):

And we now know that it will take place actually on my mom's birthday on October the 11th.

Dave (00:16:49):

And apparently it's happened this late before.

Dave (00:16:52):

Full disclosure,

Dave (00:16:53):

I did not remember it happening this late before,

Dave (00:16:56):

but apparently when Sarah Huckabee Sanders came,

Dave (00:17:00):

It was this late, although she's coming again for the family leader this time, I think.

Dave (00:17:05):

But so maybe it doesn't mean anything that it's not till October.

Dave (00:17:10):

I remember going out there and sweating covering this thing when it's usually June,

Dave (00:17:14):

July,

Dave (00:17:14):

whatever the heck it is.

Dave (00:17:16):

So, you know, that had kind of raised some...

Dave (00:17:19):

speculation about the senator's plans,

Dave (00:17:23):

why have we not heard from this,

Dave (00:17:24):

and et cetera,

Dave (00:17:25):

et cetera.

Dave (00:17:26):

Maybe it means nothing.

Dave (00:17:27):

And she didn't announce the guest yet, which she always kind of puts this out in stages.

Dave (00:17:32):

But apparently the ride's coming back, and it'll be in October.

Laura (00:17:35):

Well, I have also been wondering about this.

Laura (00:17:38):

And so I was checking the Roast and Ride website.

Laura (00:17:40):

And here's something I didn't realize.

Laura (00:17:43):

I always thought that this was just a fundraiser for Joni Ernst's campaign.

Laura (00:17:46):

But what it says now on the website is Mission, Iowa.

Laura (00:17:50):

It's the host of Iowa's Roast and Ride.

Laura (00:17:52):

And then it says paid for by Mission Iowa,

Laura (00:17:54):

not authorized by any candidate or campaign committee.

Laura (00:17:57):

And when I went to the Wayback Machine to look up this IowaRoastAndRide.com,

Laura (00:18:02):

I didn't find any results prior to 2024.

Laura (00:18:06):

So am I correct that this used to be just a campaign fundraiser and now it's some

Laura (00:18:11):

kind of separate organization?

Laura (00:18:12):

Because I didn't realize that it was separate.

Laura (00:18:14):

Yeah.

Dave (00:18:15):

uh yeah she's always raised money for some charity veterans right yeah as far back

Dave (00:18:23):

as i can remember maybe it didn't start that way but it seems like every year that

Dave (00:18:26):

i can remember it had some veterans themed organization that that benefited from it

Kathie (00:18:32):

so maybe they had to maybe they reorganized it as a separate entity because of tax

Kathie (00:18:37):

purposes or a campaign finance

Kathie (00:18:40):

rules, something like that.

Kathie (00:18:42):

But yeah,

Kathie (00:18:43):

and my guess is that it's going to be so late because the guests that they haven't

Kathie (00:18:48):

announced that it fits into that person's schedule.

Kathie (00:18:53):

So I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being a pretty big name guest that they

Kathie (00:19:00):

would actually organize the date around.

Dave (00:19:03):

Could be.

Dave (00:19:05):

Hey, one final thing, and that's a health matter for one of the state legislators.

Dave (00:19:12):

You know, there had been some speculation about what was happening with him.

Dave (00:19:18):

Laura, I don't remember if you wrote about this yet, did you?

Dave (00:19:21):

I have not written about it, no.

Dave (00:19:23):

But, because clearly, state representative Artstead was not

Dave (00:19:29):

healthy, was bad, you know, dealing with some stuff.

Dave (00:19:33):

And he decided to post publicly on Facebook that he's dealing with Parkinson's,

Dave (00:19:40):

which is obviously a serious matter.

Dave (00:19:41):

And I think toward the end of this session, that's when I started seeing him in a wheelchair.

Dave (00:19:46):

So clearly he had some physical challenges,

Dave (00:19:49):

but from what I've read,

Dave (00:19:51):

people have been very supportive

Dave (00:19:54):

on social media for his willingness to talk about this and to be out front about

Dave (00:20:00):

what he's dealing with.

Kathie (00:20:02):

He's one of several who had serious health challenges during this past legislative session.

Kathie (00:20:09):

Several lawmakers missed quite a few weeks having surgery of one type or another.

Kathie (00:20:19):

I'm not going to list them here, but

Kathie (00:20:22):

You know, but we there were there were several more than I can remember.

Kathie (00:20:27):

And I mean, there's always there's always something with a group that size there.

Kathie (00:20:32):

You know, people do have health challenges, et cetera.

Kathie (00:20:36):

But it just seemed like it was a lot more than usual this past session.

Laura (00:20:41):

I wanted to mention just State Senator Art State.

Laura (00:20:44):

He represents part of Cedar Rapids and also the Hiawatha area in the Cedar Rapids Metro.

Dave (00:20:51):

Did I say representative?

Laura (00:20:52):

He, he was a representative for a long time, but he's now a state Senator.

Dave (00:20:56):

Old, old habits there.

Dave (00:20:57):

Yeah.

Dave (00:20:58):

Um, all right.

Dave (00:20:59):

Let's, uh, my voice made it through the whole thing.

Dave (00:21:02):

How about that?

Dave (00:21:03):

I can't, I kept sucking down this, uh, honey, honey and orange juice.

Dave (00:21:07):

We were out of lemon, but, um, uh, it worked, um, perfectly.

Dave (00:21:11):

I,

Dave (00:21:12):

so,

Dave (00:21:12):

uh,

Dave (00:21:12):

I apologize for,

Dave (00:21:13):

for those of you watching the video version of this,

Dave (00:21:16):

I apologize for taking a sip every 45 seconds,

Dave (00:21:19):

but,

Dave (00:21:20):

um,

Dave (00:21:21):

That honey must have magically cured, coated my throat.

Dave (00:21:25):

So thanks for indulging me.

Dave (00:21:28):

I'm going to leave us with this.

Dave (00:21:29):

I'm wondering by next week, next time we meet, if we will have a new candidate for governor.

Laura (00:21:40):

Yes.

Laura (00:21:42):

And a new candidate for Congress, probably.

Dave (00:21:45):

Indeed.

Kathie (00:21:47):

Wouldn't be surprised.

Dave (00:21:49):

Yes.

Dave (00:21:50):

So we'll see if we'll talk about that next week as well.

Dave (00:21:55):

All right, Laura, Kathy, thank you both so much.

Dave (00:21:57):

Kathy,

Dave (00:21:58):

we know you're going to spend some time enjoying one of your favorite hobbies in

Dave (00:22:02):

this world,

Dave (00:22:03):

and that is the world of golf.

Dave (00:22:05):

I hope the weather is kind to you all weekend long.

Kathie (00:22:09):

Thank you so much.

Kathie (00:22:10):

We'll be out at the Principal Golf Classic this weekend.

Dave (00:22:13):

Outstanding.

Dave (00:22:15):

Thanks for all of you for supporting what we're doing here on the podcast.

Dave (00:22:19):

We have to thank Spencer Dirks for producing this podcast every week and D'Artagnan

Dave (00:22:25):

Brown for providing the music for this.

Dave (00:22:28):

And if you were able,

Dave (00:22:29):

please share this with your friends so that this can continue to grow,

Dave (00:22:34):

be able to financially support the podcast.

Dave (00:22:37):

We appreciate that as well.

Dave (00:22:39):

We also hope that you'll check out the members of the Iowa Riders Collaborative and

Dave (00:22:45):

help them build what they are building as well.

Dave (00:22:48):

Thanks for joining us this week and we'll talk to you next week.

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