Condition of the State '14

The Moustache and His Chief Henchwoman kicked off the new legislative session with the annual and IMHO, cumbersomely titled 'Condition Of The State' address and there was nothing really all that new to report.  It's Iowa.  We're all still here.  Corn and soybeans, presumably, will grow just fine once we all thaw out and start planting them again.  But this is also 2014- and that means before we all get dragged into the never ending cycle of Presidential politics and midterm elections, there's also some state and local races to consider.

With the exit of intriguing, telegenic candidate Tyler Olsen from the Democratic side of the Gubernatorial race, the field has pretty much cleared for Democrat Jack Hatch who called The Moustache's 2014 agenda 'timid and lukewarm' and tried to insinuate that The Moustache had been in the job way too long.  I haven't taken a peek at Hatch yet, but if his photo is anything to go by, optics-wise this promises to be a vanilla affair between one old white guy and another old white guy.

Hopefully there's a third party candidate lurking out there to at least bring something interesting to the table, because The Moustache is powerful in Iowa politics.  I don't want to pour cold water on Democratic hopes and aspirations, but it's going to take a lot to oust The Moustache and thus far, another vanilla white guy doesn't seem to be getting me all that excited.   But it's a long time until November, so we'll see what, if any punches Hatch (assuming he gets the nomination and I think, now, he's running unopposed) can land.  If not, he'll be just another sacrificial lamb to fall before the power of The Moustache.

Congressionally speaking, it looks as though the 2nd District (that's Iowa City and surrounding areas) could see another death match between Dave Loebsack and perpetual GOPer hopeful Marianette Miller-Meeks (I'm just going to call her 3M from here on out- it's easier to type.)  The boundaries are a little different this time around though- so that might, maaaaaaaybe play a little more in her favor.

Looking at the results from last time, she needed to stay competitive in Linn County (single digits) and run up the score big down district in the rural areas and smaller towns.  She didn't do that... and so she lost.  But we've got Newton and the Quad Cities in our District now and while I'm not sure of the politics of Newton/Jasper County, if memory serves, Scott County can run pretty Conservative...  so who knows.

Locally, leaving aside the County Attorney race (will not descend into rage spiral.  WILL NOT DESCEND INTO RAGE SPIRAL.) It's also time for the Charter Review Commission...  this is actually pretty cool and very sensible of Iowa City, but basically, every ten years they pop the proverbial hood and check out the city's home rule charter to make sure it's still working the way it should be.  They're taking applications now and one of the more interesting platforms can be found over here at JDeeth...  the man himself is applying to be on the Commission and his platform makes a heck of a lot of sense.

I like the idea of directly electing the Mayor.  I'm honestly not sure why we don't do it to begin with-  I get the idea of electing the City Attorney, Clerk and Chief of Police but am less sure about the latter.  I don't think it's something a lot of municipalities do-  they seem to prefer the Chief of Police be an employee that they can fire, not an elected official they might have to overrule popular will to get rid of.

Precinct sized wards with only residents voting and a larger Council?  Again, I can cautiously get behind this- at the very least, if you're running for a seat in District B, only people in District B should be able to vote for you.   Timing the City Council races with the Midterms/Presidential elections is a smart idea as is reducing the term to two years.

I tend to break with JDeeth on the petition issue... I'm okay with abolishing the cross-checking policy- I think Deeth is right and it does tend to be aimed more directly at students- but petitions should not be able to address issues of state and federal law..  I'm sorry, but this is one of the more irritating Progressive habits that I wish we could get away from.  I don't like meaningless symbolic gestures or conversation starters any more than I like candidates for county attorney announcing that they're going to ignore laws they don't like.  Doing so undermines the rule of law, however insignificantly and more importantly misses the point:

Talk is cheap.  Action matters.  If you don't like a law, run for the legislature and change the law.

Gonna be a fun year!