Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 5/30/26

Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 5/30/26

Pre-Primary Palooza: What to Watch Tuesday Night A new poll from JMC Analytics has Zach Lahn at 24%, Feenstra at 22%, and Steen at 15% — with 27% still undecided. We’re not putting too much weight in it, but it would explain why Feenstra went negative this week, hitting Lahn over a past investment in a men’s health company. Frontrunners don’t attack candidates they aren’t worried about. An outside group sharing a consultant with the Lahn campaign also launched its own immigration hit on Feenstra, so the gloves are off heading into Tuesday. Steen has the Family Leader network behind him, which has powered late surges before — but without TV money, he risks losing anti-Feenstra voters to Lahn if they consolidate around the more viable option. Dave stopped by a Feenstra house party Wednesday night and came away puzzled. Terry Branstad, the Lt. Governor, the Secretary of Ag — a full Republican who’s who — but no energy, no closing argument, just the standard Pizza Ranch stump speech. Meanwhile Lahn has been packing town halls with 100-150 people. The contrast is hard to ignore. On the Democratic side, VoteVets has dropped $10 million since mid-March for Josh Turek — more than Hubbell spent in all of 2018. Zach Wahls has the Iowa résumé and is leaning on an outsider frame, but electability seems to be the real tiebreaker for Democratic primary voters, and that spending has erased Turek’s early name ID gap fast. We’ll know a lot more by next week. See you then. A huge thank you to everyone who has already become a paid subscriber — your support is what keeps this conversation going. If you’ve been listening and haven’t yet, please consider subscribing or making a one-time donation through the link below. We’ve got a big year of Iowa politics ahead and we don’t want to stop now. Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:49.230 Dave Price: Hi everyone, welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. This is our pre-primary election Extravaganza. 10 00:00:49.350 --> 00:00:55.330 Dave Price: Hi, I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. Hello, ladies, how are you? 11 00:00:55.660 --> 00:01:02.849 Kathie Obradovich: Hello. Happy Friday. I think Primary Palooza is what we want to go with, don’t you think? 12 00:01:02.850 --> 00:01:04.859 Dave Price: Like, let’s start this sucker over again. 13 00:01:05.080 --> 00:01:05.989 Kathie Obradovich: No, no, no, no. 14 00:01:05.990 --> 00:01:11.849 Dave Price: I dug out… I was trying to think of a prop, you know, I keep different things. 15 00:01:11.850 --> 00:01:12.640 Laura Belin: This is from… 16 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:17.069 Dave Price: there was, way back in the day. 17 00:01:17.240 --> 00:01:33.119 Dave Price: Back in my hometown in southern Illinois, Belleville, Illinois, there was a longtime member of Congress named Mel Price, Melvin Price. I do not believe we were related to him in any way, but, 18 00:01:33.190 --> 00:01:48.070 Dave Price: my dad was sort of, like, both ways. Like, for a while, he was involved in Democratic politics when he worked for this stove company, and he was, he worked, I remember once a month on Saturdays working for the union, and then he was kind of one of those, 19 00:01:48.070 --> 00:01:55.170 Dave Price: He got laid off during the Carter administration, he flipped over and became one of these Reagan Democrats and kind of stuck with… 20 00:01:55.420 --> 00:02:01.079 Dave Price: the Republicans most of the rest of his life, although he was a Ross Perot guy in there, too. My dad was a… 21 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:15.670 Dave Price: He was a fascinating swing voter over the time. I should have… I wish I would have recorded more stories with him before he passed away. But anyway, this is my… I’ve always kept this, and since it doesn’t say Mel on there, then… 22 00:02:15.670 --> 00:02:16.700 Laura Belin: That’s right. 23 00:02:17.290 --> 00:02:20.559 Dave Price: when I… when I… when I launch one day. 24 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:31.959 Kathie Obradovich: I could be your running mate, Dave, because I received a fortune in a fortune cookie just the other day that says, your determination will lead to victory in November. 25 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:33.550 Dave Price: So… 26 00:02:34.510 --> 00:02:44.530 Kathie Obradovich: I don’t know whose fortune cookie I got, it clearly wasn’t intended for me, but it’s like, okay, I guess we’ve got a sort of a political bent here, so… 27 00:02:44.530 --> 00:02:52.939 Dave Price: A bunch of candidates who, who watch this podcast when it drops will probably reach out to you. Can we please have that fortune from you? 28 00:02:53.930 --> 00:02:57.720 Dave Price: Before Tuesday night. Hey, as we’re… 29 00:02:57.970 --> 00:03:20.430 Dave Price: as we’re gathering here, and we are gathering on… on Friday morning, there is a new poll that’s dropped, and Laura, maybe you can start us off. Can you be our asterisk, as we talk about this poll? Because this is a company that we don’t frankly know a lot about, and we are going to intentionally not put too much weight into this. 30 00:03:20.430 --> 00:03:26.039 Dave Price: It is one… new facet, perhaps, in this Republican gubernatorial race. 31 00:03:26.230 --> 00:03:37.469 Dave Price: But if it is true, or if it maybe has picked up on something, it does maybe make some sense with some recent developments that we’ve seen here, right? 32 00:03:37.620 --> 00:03:38.240 Laura Belin: Right. 33 00:03:38.530 --> 00:04:03.490 Laura Belin: So, JMC Analytics and Polling, and they say in their polling memo that they are not affiliated with any candidate running for governor or Senate in Iowa. So, they commissioned this poll of the Republican primary, and the big, shocking top line is that they found Zach Lane with 24% support, Randy Feenstra with 22%, and Adam Steen in third place. 34 00:04:03.490 --> 00:04:15.099 Laura Belin: with 15%, and then a huge number, 27%, undecided. So, if true, that would be very big, and, of course. 35 00:04:15.100 --> 00:04:39.979 Laura Belin: we’ve been saying for a while that Zach Lane, one of his big challenges would be to get his name ID up and consolidate support to allow him to overtake Feenstra, and this would suggest that all of his big spending on digital ads and TV ads may be paying off. Now, the Senate race was a little more of a snooze, with Ashley Henson way ahead, 58% to 19% over Jim Carlin, which is kind of 36 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:42.640 Laura Belin: in line with, I think, what people would expect. 37 00:04:42.850 --> 00:04:43.580 Dave Price: And… 38 00:04:43.580 --> 00:05:01.400 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so, I mean, if this poll is accurate, two things really jump out at me. One, of course, is that Zach Lane has moved into the lead, but two, nobody had 35%, which is what you need to win a primary. That big, undecided 39 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:19.579 Kathie Obradovich: block, also means that, you know, regardless of what the polls say, it’s still… and this is always really important in primary anyway, it’s still about getting your voters out. So, who has the best, get out the vote? Is, you know, does Zach Lane, can he… 40 00:05:19.690 --> 00:05:30.150 Kathie Obradovich: stand up? Can his get-out-the-vote effort stand up to a really experienced politician like Randy Feenstrod? But, you know, it raises some really interesting questions, I think. 41 00:05:30.280 --> 00:05:48.079 Dave Price: And the get-out-the-vote, as we’ve talked about throughout this podcast, it is the test for Feenstra. Can he translate what he’s pulled off in the fourth, where Republicans always do well in the way that district is? Is it 36 counties, is that right? 42 00:05:48.080 --> 00:05:49.170 Laura Belin: 36 now, yes. 43 00:05:49.170 --> 00:06:09.199 Dave Price: 36 of the 99, so geographically, just a humongous chunk, but it is so heavily Republican there. So Feenstrait’s challenge all throughout has been the other three congressional districts, where would he turn out people there, but also really has to juice his numbers in the fourth, if he can do that, to try to up his game. 44 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:17.839 Laura Belin: Well, and I don’t know that he can, because remember 2 years ago, he had a primary opponent, Kevin Virgil, who was backed by Steve King. 45 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:36.569 Laura Belin: And Feenstra won that primary only by 60% to 40% against a guy, you know, hardly anyone had ever heard of 6 months before the primary, who Feenstra outspent by 10 to 1, or maybe more. So I don’t know that he can really count on Northwest Iowa being this solid base of support for him. 46 00:06:37.750 --> 00:06:39.470 Dave Price: Kathie, you saw the… 47 00:06:39.970 --> 00:06:58.990 Kathie Obradovich: I was just gonna say, I mean, it’s a huge geographic area, but, but, you know, you look at the, you know, the population, you know, it’s just a… the big population centers are all elsewhere in the state, so I… it is… it is difficult, I think, to win… win the state by winning the 4th district. 48 00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:00.160 Kathie Obradovich: So… 49 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.160 Dave Price: Okay, so, let’s… 50 00:07:02.770 --> 00:07:16.660 Dave Price: We can talk about this poll, whether this is or isn’t accurate, and how, and as Laura’s pointed out, 126 times, I feel like, in your columns and on your show this year, it is tough to measure the primary electorate, right? 51 00:07:17.640 --> 00:07:19.369 Dave Price: Okay, so Kathie. 52 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.539 Dave Price: What about here late in the game? 53 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:32.940 Dave Price: So it would be Wednesday night, Thursday morning, I believe, when this thing dropped, but Feenstra, who from the get-go has been the perceived frontrunner in this race. 54 00:07:32.940 --> 00:07:44.429 Dave Price: he goes negative with an ad against Zach Lane. And just as a little bit of background, this goes back to a story that the Des Moines Register did several weeks back. 55 00:07:44.430 --> 00:07:48.700 Dave Price: that traced some investments, I think it’s a million bucks. 56 00:07:48.780 --> 00:07:57.990 Dave Price: that Lane had in the early part of this decade to a company that was focused on men’s, sexual health. 57 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:06.600 Dave Price: Not really sure how the… the right way to phrase that. But Lane’s people are saying. 58 00:08:06.760 --> 00:08:11.950 Dave Price: That when the company started, it was more… Making… 59 00:08:12.070 --> 00:08:17.160 Dave Price: Helping men get healthier and stuff, dealing with the stuff that middle-aged and older guys deal with. 60 00:08:17.370 --> 00:08:25.990 Dave Price: When they transitioned more toward the pleasure side, if you will, he got out of there. Okay, so that’s the long-winded setup, so… 61 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:39.840 Dave Price: what do you make from Feenster going negative, and then essentially in this ad alleging that, hey, Zach Lane says that he’s a guy representing Iowa values, but he put a million bucks into a company that makes sex toys? 62 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:58.939 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I mean, I think that the top line there is, why would Randy Feensta bother to attack Zach Lane unless they were perceiving some sort of threat? So, you know, in a situation like this, if your opponent is less well-known. 63 00:08:58.940 --> 00:09:23.900 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, not, you know, without the polling that we’ve just been talking about, I think you’re better off ignoring him as… and that’s been Randy Fink’s strategy all along, right? Ignoring his primary opponents and going, you know, looking beyond them to the general election. This runs against that strategy, and so I can only conclude that they’ve decided 64 00:09:23.900 --> 00:09:27.920 Kathie Obradovich: that Zach Lane is a threat, and that they need to try to knock him down. 65 00:09:29.070 --> 00:09:52.539 Laura Belin: On the latest On Iowa Politics podcast, Tom Barden of the Cedar Rapids Gazette said that he’s been talking with Republican activists, and they’ve shared some internal polling numbers that suggest that both Feenstra and Lane’s internal polling have Feenstra below 30%, which is… which would explain why Feenster would be going negative against Lane. But there’s also this outside group. 66 00:09:52.540 --> 00:09:58.060 Laura Belin: that just this week started running a hit piece on an attack ad on Feenstra saying that. 67 00:09:58.060 --> 00:10:17.109 Laura Belin: he’s weak on immigration, or that he failed Iowa on immigration. Of course, that’s such a big issue for Republican candidates and politicians, and this added… I… I don’t know all the details about this program. It goes back to when Randy Feenster was the city administrator of Hull. 68 00:10:17.170 --> 00:10:35.130 Laura Belin: I sensed that the ad is a little bit misleading, because it implies that he gave benefits to illegal immigrants, which I think is more like the city had a program to try to be welcoming to immigrants, period, not specifically undocumented immigrants, but in any case. 69 00:10:35.130 --> 00:10:52.120 Laura Belin: According to an Iowa Democratic Party memo, the group that is behind this outside spending ad attacking Randy Feenstra shares a consultant with Zach Lane’s campaign. So, it’s not directly coming from Lane, but that would suggest that Lane’s 70 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:56.050 Laura Belin: people see an opening and an opportunity to take down Feenstra. 71 00:10:56.300 --> 00:11:15.329 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I mean, if you look at Feenster’s voting record in Congress, he spent 100% with the Trump administration on all the… all the immigration issues, so going back that many years, for a hit on immigration, is, a little surprising to me, so… 72 00:11:15.550 --> 00:11:25.760 Dave Price: Wanted to share two more things about this race. One, and I’m gonna say them both so I don’t forget them both, and I’m guzzling coffee, too, because my dog had me up overnight, so I’m… 73 00:11:25.890 --> 00:11:32.350 Dave Price: I’m still trying to get the neurons firing here, so sorry to be rude, I hate to drink on the podcast, but it’s only coffee. 74 00:11:33.010 --> 00:11:43.470 Dave Price: Two things. We have not yet talked much about Adam Steen, so I wanted to say that before I forget. And then also, I wanted to talk about this house party, 75 00:11:43.620 --> 00:11:52.299 Dave Price: involving Feenster on Wednesday night, so I’m only saying this out loud so you two can please help me remember so I don’t forget either one of those things. Can we do Adam Steen first? Because… 76 00:11:52.410 --> 00:12:07.009 Dave Price: His campaign has intrigued me throughout, in the sense that he has Bob Vanderplatz from the family leader behind him, Steve Days, who used to be a talk show host in Iowa, and now has a national platform. He is also frequently… 77 00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:22.949 Dave Price: talked about and supported, Adam Steen publicly. Dace did, a couple of days ago, do a social media post where he offered a little context on the race, which talked about how Lane was possibly 78 00:12:22.950 --> 00:12:41.280 Dave Price: on the rise, which I thought was interesting to say that in a public setting like that, and he still supports Adam Steen. But what do you two make about this? Now, if that poll that you’re talking about, Laura, is accurate, or has at least picked up a trend here, that could make some sense, right? Like, the… 79 00:12:41.280 --> 00:12:46.310 Dave Price: we’ll see how powerful… what kind of say Bob Vanderplatz has in this state. 80 00:12:46.750 --> 00:12:54.670 Dave Price: But there should be a built-in network if it’s behind Steen, even though he’s not raised a ton of money, there should be some kind of… 81 00:12:54.850 --> 00:12:59.949 Dave Price: Get-out-the-vote kind of apparatus, that he should be a legit 82 00:13:00.880 --> 00:13:04.109 Dave Price: contender in this, in this primary, right? 83 00:13:05.170 --> 00:13:11.179 Dave Price: And it’s hard for us to measure it because the absence of primary polling and all that kind of stuff, but in theory, right? 84 00:13:11.210 --> 00:13:21.550 Laura Belin: We’ve seen candidates with support from that wing of the Iowa GOP have had these late surges, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum… 85 00:13:21.900 --> 00:13:32.980 Laura Belin: Ted Cruz, who won the 2016 caucuses, so definitely that network, that kind of church-affiliated, social conservative network, I think the dangerous thing 86 00:13:33.250 --> 00:13:44.260 Laura Belin: for Steen is that since he doesn’t have the money to compete, he’s run a few TV ads, but really he hasn’t been able to compete with Feenstra and Lane in the paid advertising. 87 00:13:44.260 --> 00:13:44.580 Dave Price: Yeah. 88 00:13:44.580 --> 00:14:04.309 Laura Belin: So, I think that if these undecided voters are… if they start to see Lane as the more credible option to block Randy Feenstra, then Steen might lose some of that support. But he could definitely outperform his polling just based on having that network, which we’ve seen can drive people to the polls in Iowa. 89 00:14:04.530 --> 00:14:12.859 Dave Price: Kathie, our good friend, Kay Henderson from Radio Iowa, had a story this week. She covered one of Steen’s events. 90 00:14:13.150 --> 00:14:30.069 Dave Price: Along with a colleague, I believe, from her radio network, and Steen was lamenting this feeling of apathy that some in the primary universe are feeling, and he acknowledged that’s a challenge, and they’re gonna have to get these people motivated after the… 91 00:14:30.090 --> 00:14:35.810 Dave Price: after the primary and stuff like that. What… what do you… what do you make about… 92 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:40.160 Dave Price: Where he is in this… in this race. 93 00:14:40.340 --> 00:14:57.800 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I mean, when you think about Steen, you know, the first thing that comes to mind for me is that, you know, he is… he is the ultimate culture warrior, it seems like, in this race, that his… his message has really been steeped in, you know. 94 00:14:57.800 --> 00:15:18.080 Kathie Obradovich: the… and it makes sense, then, that the family leader and the evangelical wing of the party would be backing him, but I mean, it’s really about, Christian values, his claim to fame as the administrator of the administrative services in the Reynolds administration was 95 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:30.999 Kathie Obradovich: you know, keeping the Satanic Temple from having an event in the capital. So, I mean, I think his, his message is very much focused on that culture, you know, culture division issue. 96 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:53.939 Kathie Obradovich: Whereas Zach Lane, I think, has most… yes, he’s a conservative, and I would argue that he’s a religious conservative as well, but he has really focused his message more on economic issues, so talking about, you know, big corporations, you know, the, hurting the, family farmer, hurting small business in Iowa. 97 00:15:54.870 --> 00:16:11.920 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, his approach, and also the environment and health. So these… I think that the messages are fundamentally different, and it could be a sign that the economic message is edging out some of this culture war stuff that we’ve seen. 98 00:16:11.920 --> 00:16:16.770 Kathie Obradovich: Culture War has been really successful over the last, you know. 99 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:23.460 Kathie Obradovich: decade, but maybe we’re seeing the economic message, sort of surpass that now. 100 00:16:23.460 --> 00:16:32.020 Laura Belin: Well, I just saw somebody linked to… Adam Steen had a campaign video up talking about water quality, and I thought, well, that’s interesting, because… 101 00:16:32.650 --> 00:16:55.810 Laura Belin: Chris Jones and Zach Lane have been stressing that, and I mean, maybe Adamstein feels like that’s an issue he needs to respond on. We don’t normally hear people talking about water quality in a Republican primary, but I just looked up the turnout from the 2022 Republican primary, when just under 200,000 ballots were cast. 102 00:16:55.810 --> 00:17:12.840 Laura Belin: And the overwhelming majority, more than 80% of those, were cast on Election Day, so I think it’s really hard. I was thinking, going into this year, that we could have a really high turnout GOP primary with such a scrambled race for governor, and also open seats, but the congressional races 103 00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:22.080 Laura Belin: have turned out to be, you know, mostly non-competitive primaries, except for in that first district with Miller-Meeks and David Pouch. That’s the only one that’s heavily 104 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:39.339 Laura Belin: contested, so I just don’t know. I’ve heard that early voting has been very light with Republicans. Of course, we know Republicans prefer to vote on Election Day, so I think that’s just a big question mark for me, is how many people are gonna care enough to show up to cast a ballot in this governor’s race. 105 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:55.869 Dave Price: Kathie, as we’ve talked about here on the podcast, to sort of add another point to your point, about the cultural issues, that is what’s made me wonder, looking at the field of five, and we haven’t even mentioned Brad Sherman and Eddie Andrews in this podcast yet, but… 106 00:17:56.110 --> 00:18:06.069 Dave Price: I appreciate that if you got all 5 of them together in a room, they might find some nuances where they disagree when it comes to these, more cultural issues. 107 00:18:06.280 --> 00:18:15.430 Dave Price: But by and large, thematically, there wouldn’t be a lot of differences, necessarily. Now, maybe, maybe they talk differently. 108 00:18:15.540 --> 00:18:32.340 Dave Price: Maybe they would take the… I’ve never heard Feenstra talk about his, supportive life at conception, for example, and I think the other four, throughout this campaign have talked about that. So that could be a… that could be a substantial difference, perhaps, with some in the… in the primaries, but… 109 00:18:32.340 --> 00:18:38.110 Dave Price: To your point about, you know, how Steen has kind of really embraced this, no doubt. 110 00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:52.709 Dave Price: But I don’t know that that brings the separation from some of the others, so maybe his effectiveness, and I mean, he is very good, when you watch him. He’s a very good communicator, his presence, you saw that in the debate. 111 00:18:52.710 --> 00:19:06.079 Dave Price: I mean, he is very skilled at that kind of stuff, so maybe the delivery and the network and stuff allows him to maybe do a late-game surge here, a late campaign surge, but I’ve just wondered how he’s going to have that 112 00:19:06.410 --> 00:19:09.750 Dave Price: True separation, but as we also know, though. 113 00:19:10.300 --> 00:19:26.369 Dave Price: you don’t really need to win on Tuesday, you just need to make sure nobody else wins, right? And then you… and then you take your shot with the… with the delegates at the state convention, so you don’t get 35. As long as Feenstra doesn’t get 35, then, you know, you live to see another day. 114 00:19:26.370 --> 00:19:37.650 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, but the convention is such a crapshoot, you know, because, you know, you don’t… first of all, the delegates don’t even have to, I mean. 115 00:19:37.650 --> 00:19:39.640 Dave Price: Anyway, this is your chance, Kevin. 116 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:43.669 Kathie Obradovich: Well, you’ve already got the bumper sticker, you know? 117 00:19:43.670 --> 00:19:44.040 Dave Price: fortunate. 118 00:19:44.040 --> 00:19:44.760 Kathie Obradovich: You think they missed. 119 00:19:44.760 --> 00:19:45.770 Dave Price: That’s far more powerful. 120 00:19:45.770 --> 00:19:53.669 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so, I mean, the point being they can nominate some rando, like you and me, and not… 121 00:19:53.670 --> 00:19:55.079 Dave Price: That would be a rando. 122 00:19:55.080 --> 00:20:10.459 Kathie Obradovich: Not even go with the candidates who are actually running in the primary. Not that they… I don’t think we’ve ever seen that happen, but yeah, that’s, you know, so you start thinking about, well, who would have, the best shot? 123 00:20:10.930 --> 00:20:22.540 Kathie Obradovich: in a convention situation, and, you know, it’s hard to say, you know? Again, it’s about who shows up, and whose people show up. I’m hoping… 124 00:20:22.540 --> 00:20:33.559 Kathie Obradovich: that these candidates are all smart enough that they would have a convention strategy, and we have been working on that. But, but yeah, it’s… you know, I think that 125 00:20:33.560 --> 00:20:39.999 Kathie Obradovich: If that poll that we were just talking about is accurate, and everybody is sort of hanging below 126 00:20:40.290 --> 00:20:42.920 Kathie Obradovich: 35%. 127 00:20:43.130 --> 00:21:01.190 Kathie Obradovich: you know, again, I can’t emphasize enough, it’s really about whose people turn out on election day. And, you know, again, I think Steen punches above his weight on Election Day just because of the family leader and their… their get-out-the-vote experience. 128 00:21:01.190 --> 00:21:15.239 Kathie Obradovich: You know, I don’t know what Zach Lane’s Get Out the Vote, operation looks like, but, he’s had a lot of help from Vote Vets and, you know, some third-party or, you know, outside organizations that may… 129 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:15.580 Dave Price: not. 130 00:21:15.580 --> 00:21:17.329 Kathie Obradovich: Helping with that. 131 00:21:17.330 --> 00:21:19.320 Dave Price: Zach Lane with Boat Bets? 132 00:21:19.540 --> 00:21:23.390 Kathie Obradovich: Oh, no, I’m sorry. No, I’m conflating, 133 00:21:23.390 --> 00:21:23.960 Laura Belin: No, yeah. 134 00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:32.680 Kathie Obradovich: I guess I’m tired, too. He’s had, you know, he’s had some help, too, from some, you know, PAC groups, so… 135 00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:38.670 Laura Belin: He claims to have a big field operation, but, you know, it’s all come together very last minute, so… 136 00:21:38.780 --> 00:21:55.239 Laura Belin: It’s a wild… this is basically the outcome that Rob Sand would want, you know, a scrambled, messy GOP primary, especially if it goes to convention, I think that would be kind of the best possible outcome for Democrats, because 137 00:21:55.240 --> 00:22:02.230 Laura Belin: There are going to be hard feelings, and it’s unpredictable, and it just delays the whole process of Republicans coming together. 138 00:22:02.500 --> 00:22:09.560 Dave Price: Okay, so, I wanted to share one thing, and it’s one of those things that… I don’t know if it’s something or not something. 139 00:22:09.780 --> 00:22:18.789 Dave Price: So I don’t want to overblow it. It’s sort of like the way we’re treating this poll. We don’t want to overblow what this is, and let’s be honest, that’s what we try to do on the podcast anyway here. 140 00:22:18.790 --> 00:22:31.580 Dave Price: Is that… because a lot of this is nuances, right? Like, Laura, you brought up early on, it would be surprising if Lane can be a legit top-tier contender by getting into the race so late, right? 141 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:40.619 Dave Price: And we will find… that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. He could… he may become the nominee. Like, we did no definitive, like, there’s no way this is gonna happen. 142 00:22:40.740 --> 00:22:47.359 Dave Price: Okay, so this is another one of these things, and I brought it up to you, both of you, privately, before we started the recording. 143 00:22:47.770 --> 00:22:54.480 Dave Price: What I… a good friend of me years ago had recommended, like, in the last week or two of a campaign. 144 00:22:54.660 --> 00:23:01.599 Dave Price: Do your best to get to as many as you can, and, like, talk to people, but sort of get in the back of the room to, like, feel. 145 00:23:02.150 --> 00:23:21.320 Dave Price: like, what does it feel like? Is there juice? Is there not juice? And going way back when Bruce Braley and Joni Ernst reigned in 2014, I remember what that was like, and I remember going to some Braley rallies versus some Ernst rallies, and Ernst, you could feel the juice and energy, and Braley, you could not, right? And I could give a long… 146 00:23:21.320 --> 00:23:29.380 Dave Price: laundry list of things where you could sort of feel that. So I was really trying to do that at the Feenstra event, because Feenstra… 147 00:23:29.390 --> 00:23:36.669 Dave Price: And I don’t pretend to get to every rally, because there’s no way you can in this state, it’s too stinkin’ big, but… 148 00:23:36.910 --> 00:23:50.009 Dave Price: I wanted to see… alright, down the stretch, it’s a Wednesday house party hosted by the mayor of West Des Moines, Russ Trimble, who is also a long-time Senate Republican caucus staffer, and I believe he was on the caucus staff. 149 00:23:50.220 --> 00:23:53.260 Dave Price: when Feenstra was a state senator, I’m pretty sure. 150 00:23:53.260 --> 00:23:54.630 Laura Belin: Yes, he was. 151 00:23:54.630 --> 00:24:04.880 Dave Price: So, he and his wife hosted this party, and it was, as Aaron Murphy, pointed out in his story covering it from Wednesday night, it was sort of like a who’s who, right? 152 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:15.119 Dave Price: Terry Bransted was there, so it was good to see. He’s had… he’s had a lot of serious health issues. He’s in a wheelchair now, so he really… he’s dealing with a bunch of stuff, but you could tell he was sort of… 153 00:24:15.210 --> 00:24:26.829 Dave Price: I think he was happy to be back in the game, and he was an endorser of Feenstra, and he spoke, before Feenstra did as well. His wife was there, various mayors, metro, city council members. 154 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:37.409 Dave Price: Lieutenant Governor Chris Knoyer was there, Secretary of Ag Mike Nank was there. The one thing that was interesting to me was that it was definitely not like a pep rally-like… 155 00:24:37.840 --> 00:24:50.499 Dave Price: get out the boat kind of thing at, like, an event center type thing, where you’ve got a bunch of screaming people, let’s go, you know, kind of thing. It… no doubt it was a who’s who kind of thing. 156 00:24:50.590 --> 00:25:03.009 Dave Price: But Feenstra kind of did his standard stump speech at this, which was a lot about his biography, and meeting his wife at a pizza ranch, and all this stuff, and when he worked at the candy company and all that. And I just found it… 157 00:25:03.210 --> 00:25:10.689 Dave Price: Kind of an interesting thing to do so late in the game, that this is how they chose to spend their time. 158 00:25:10.840 --> 00:25:24.289 Dave Price: And it may totally be nothing, and Feanstra gets 42% on primary night, and I’m like, I’m crazy. Like, I’m making something of nothing. But it was just interesting to me that late in the game, this is how they thought 159 00:25:24.970 --> 00:25:31.280 Dave Price: Would be… I don’t know that it was a campaign fundraiser, I didn’t honestly ask, I don’t think it was. 160 00:25:31.540 --> 00:25:34.100 Dave Price: It was just an interesting… 161 00:25:34.300 --> 00:25:39.410 Dave Price: gathering. Like, this felt to me like something you would do maybe 6 months ago? 162 00:25:39.730 --> 00:25:49.060 Dave Price: when you’re maybe giving a little inside strategy to all these VIPs about, here’s what we’re gonna do, and blah blah blah. So I don’t know if it’s anything at all, and I guess we’ll know Tuesday night, but it… 163 00:25:49.060 --> 00:25:49.570 Kathie Obradovich: Cheers. 164 00:25:49.570 --> 00:25:51.580 Dave Price: Struck me as a little interesting. 165 00:25:51.920 --> 00:26:09.099 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, Robin Opsel covered it for Iowa Capital Dispatch, and as I was reading the story, I responded back, you know, we Slack back and forth as we’re editing, etc, and one of my questions was, you know, was this a, you know. 166 00:26:09.100 --> 00:26:15.409 Kathie Obradovich: Was this a fundraiser, or was this open to the public? I mean, was this an invitation-only event? 167 00:26:15.410 --> 00:26:18.809 Kathie Obradovich: And Robin responded that it felt like a fundraiser. 168 00:26:18.810 --> 00:26:20.240 Dave Price: And it very well could have been. 169 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:20.850 Kathie Obradovich: I just didn’t. 170 00:26:20.850 --> 00:26:21.850 Dave Price: And that’s on me. 171 00:26:21.850 --> 00:26:33.080 Kathie Obradovich: But it… but not… that’s not really the kind of thing you do with your closing argument, that you bring in, you know, the who’s who of Republican politics. 172 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:57.920 Kathie Obradovich: Only. I mean, it seems like you want to show support, not just from the establishment core of the party, but you want to show that you’ve got, you know, public that are excited about you, and… and yeah, I… this event was not that, definitely not. So, so… and for you to say that he gave a 173 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:06.439 Kathie Obradovich: standard stump speech that, you know, everybody, first of all, everybody has heard before, but all these people who already know Randy Feenstra already know. 174 00:27:06.440 --> 00:27:31.390 Kathie Obradovich: You know, he’s not giving you a strategy on how he’s gonna win, he’s telling you that he met his wife in a pizza ranch. So I… I do think it’s a… it was an odd type of event. And when you think about how few events did they actually even notify the media about, let alone invite reporters to come, I mean, this is the one that they wanted to be out there from Central Iowa, and this is, you know, this is what they’re doing, so… 175 00:27:31.730 --> 00:27:37.569 Dave Price: And it was Terry Brainstead’s return, first time he’s been out there, so that was, I’m sure, a big deal for the campaign. 176 00:27:37.570 --> 00:27:38.390 Laura Belin: Well… 177 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:45.949 Laura Belin: I’m at a disadvantage because Randy Feenstra’s campaign doesn’t have me on their press list, so I did not know about this event or attend this event, but… 178 00:27:45.950 --> 00:27:58.629 Laura Belin: I think it’s absolutely deranged to do an insider’s house party in the final week of a very competitive primary. As you said, Dave, this is something that maybe you do 6 months ago, but 179 00:27:58.630 --> 00:28:15.300 Laura Belin: But in general, Randy Feenstra’s campaign has never tried to build a crowd for anything. He’s been doing these small pizza ranch gatherings for 20 or 25 or fewer people, and meanwhile, Zach Lane is doing these big 180 00:28:15.300 --> 00:28:26.060 Laura Belin: packed town hall meetings where he’s able to get 100 or 150 people there, and I just don’t… I think that Randy Feenstra and his handlers 181 00:28:26.060 --> 00:28:44.739 Laura Belin: they never really gave him an opportunity to learn how to get better at this. This is why Rob San does 100 town halls a year, and you get a lot better at developing a feel for the crowd and getting a sense of what people want to hear from you, and he just doesn’t seem to have that capacity. 182 00:28:46.500 --> 00:29:00.430 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I… it is odd, and, you know, I think, you know, that Randy Feenstra’s supporters have raised concerns about the approach to the campaign. 183 00:29:00.570 --> 00:29:25.419 Kathie Obradovich: You know, at different times as well. And, so yeah, and it’s not that he’s not getting around the state, because I think he has, it’s just, as you just said, Laura, these are small events, and for the most part, they’re not inviting the media, so they’re, you know, they’re sort of happening in a vacuum while everything that the other candidates are doing, they’re making sure that they’re, inviting the media, get, you know, trying to get some of that sort of earned 184 00:29:26.090 --> 00:29:34.280 Kathie Obradovich: Media to help, you know, expand or amplify what they’re trying to do with their advertising. 185 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:51.569 Dave Price: Okay, we’ve spent a lot of time on this competitive race because we have so many developments on this. Let’s close out with the Senate Democrats, though. This is simpler since we have two people here, right? Zach Walls and Josh Turek. So much outside spending. 186 00:29:51.890 --> 00:30:05.229 Dave Price: that probably gives Zach Wall’s nightmares about this 10 million plus, or whatever it is, outside money benefiting Josh Turek, which… that is a lot to overcome. 187 00:30:05.340 --> 00:30:12.050 Dave Price: There’s no way that Zach Walls is going to be able to compete financially with an ad blitz. 188 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:26.780 Dave Price: Perhaps he was a little better well-known, maybe, when this race started, but that really gets Josh Turek’s biographical story out to the masses pretty quickly and in a big-time way, Laura. 189 00:30:27.390 --> 00:30:51.070 Laura Belin: Yeah, I went back and looked. This is more than Fred Hubbell spent going into the 2018 Democratic primary. I think he spent $6 or $7 million, which is a lot for a Democratic primary. And I think it’s clear, earlier this year, there were a couple of polls that seemed to show Zach Walls ahead of Josh Sturek, I think, because Walls had higher name ID. And so, when you have… 190 00:30:51.070 --> 00:30:54.230 Laura Belin: one outside group, VoteVets, spending 191 00:30:54.230 --> 00:31:12.090 Laura Belin: far more, several times more than both Walls and Turek combined, it is hard to compete, and we have not seen any last-minute attack ads on TV, so I think that that suggests that Turek’s people feel pretty comfortable with where they are going into the primary. 192 00:31:12.910 --> 00:31:17.979 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, we’ve got, you know, I tried to bring up VoteBets earlier, mistakenly, but… but that’s a $10 million. 193 00:31:17.980 --> 00:31:19.489 Dave Price: Too many Zachs in this race. 194 00:31:19.490 --> 00:31:20.130 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah. 195 00:31:20.130 --> 00:31:20.720 Dave Price: Problem. 196 00:31:20.720 --> 00:31:32.920 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, well, I was drinking coffee, but apparently not enough. Yeah, so Boat Vets, though, has spent $10 million in this race, to benefit Turek. 197 00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:50.629 Kathie Obradovich: And so that is… and that’s just since mid-March. So, you know, you think, you know, you look at the, you know, probably several million more have been spent since then. And, you know, much… yes, Zach Wells has some outside spending as well. 198 00:31:50.630 --> 00:32:03.089 Kathie Obradovich: But nothing approaching that $10 million figure. So, I mean, you know, I do, think that Zach Wells has been trying to insulate himself a little bit, by, you know. 199 00:32:03.210 --> 00:32:21.309 Kathie Obradovich: giving, Turek a hard time about, his, you know, quote, dark money and support from the national, Senate, Democratic leadership, etc. But, you know, ultimately, 200 00:32:21.360 --> 00:32:36.750 Kathie Obradovich: you know, I think Turek’s, one of his biggest disadvantages was his, lack of name ID compared to, Zach Walls, and all of this spending really sort of erased… erased that issue, so… 201 00:32:37.120 --> 00:32:40.449 Dave Price: Laura, you may be the best, 202 00:32:41.770 --> 00:33:00.740 Dave Price: best one in touch with a lot of these, primary groups, democratic groups and primary activists and that, not to discount any of Kathie sources. But I know you go and speak to some of these groups sometime. And I had wondered, going into this race, 203 00:33:01.060 --> 00:33:11.820 Dave Price: When you look at policy between these two, sort of same thing we said from the Republican gubernatorial field, no doubt you’re gonna find some nuanced differences, how they talk about stuff. 204 00:33:12.030 --> 00:33:28.780 Dave Price: How they stress certain things, whatever. But what was going to be more important to the primary electorate, where Democrats have had their teeth kicked in for so many straight elections in this state, right? And so you have… 205 00:33:29.110 --> 00:33:35.560 Dave Price: One guy who represents A purple at best, if not slightly red… 206 00:33:35.990 --> 00:33:42.330 Dave Price: District, but one, versus a guy whose present district is very blue. 207 00:33:42.350 --> 00:33:57.200 Dave Price: And I was always wondering through this whole process, and I guess we find out Tuesday, I wish we had some good exit polls on this, but that if there’s, like, a tiebreaker for people who are the ones who are going to show up in that primary, are they looking at electability 208 00:33:57.250 --> 00:34:06.290 Dave Price: And if they’re like, alright, Turek represents an area where it’s tougher to win, you know, is that a tiebreaker for them? You know, like, how many people are thinking like that? 209 00:34:06.360 --> 00:34:22.480 Laura Belin: I think, anecdotally, a ton of Democrats are thinking about electability. I’ve heard that from so many people, but they really like both these guys. They’re just trying to figure out who has the best chance to win. I mean, there’s intense frustration, though, from the people who support Zach Walls. 210 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:42.259 Laura Belin: about this mountain of outside money, and the way it seems to be tied to Washington, D.C, even though it’s not directly from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. People remember how Washington, D.C. Democrats got involved in the 2016 primary for Patty Judge, and then in the 2020 primary. 211 00:34:42.260 --> 00:34:53.030 Laura Belin: for Teresa Greenfield, and neither of those candidates were successful, so I think there’s a lot of frustration. But electability, I do think that’s been one of the biggest things driving people 212 00:34:53.030 --> 00:35:12.499 Laura Belin: to Turek, because there aren’t a lot of differences on the issue. There are a few things where their votes are different, but ideologically, these candidates are much more similar than what we’ve seen in some Democratic primaries, where there’s more of, let’s say, an establishment candidate, and then more of a Bernie Sanders-type candidate. 213 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:20.109 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, it… the outside money cuts both ways, I mean, and this is something that we… I think we’ve talked about here with the… 214 00:35:20.110 --> 00:35:43.719 Kathie Obradovich: you know, sort of argument by Zach Walls against Turk of being, you know, the… being Chuck Schumer’s boy, you know? That outside money, comes in handy in the general election, where the, you know, we know that Ashley Hinson, what has she got, like, $7 million in the bank or something like that? I mean, we know she’s well-funded, we know that she will have access to whatever resources 215 00:35:43.720 --> 00:35:59.020 Kathie Obradovich: that she needs or wants. And so, you know, yes, does it make people queasy that, you know, our, you know, primary is being fueled here by, you know, millions and millions of dollars of outside money? 216 00:35:59.020 --> 00:36:05.920 Kathie Obradovich: Probably. But on the other hand, you can’t, fight fire with, you know. 217 00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:21.739 Kathie Obradovich: crumbs. So, you, you do have, there is that competitive issue, and, and, and I, I think that it’s… it is a different era than, you know, when we were talking about, 218 00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:27.779 Kathie Obradovich: you know, Patty Judge’s campaign, for example. So, it’ll be… it’ll be interesting to see what happens. I mean, the… 219 00:36:27.780 --> 00:36:50.990 Kathie Obradovich: that outside money, yeah, it does make people sick, I think, and, you know, it undermines credibility when candidates are talking about, you know, well, we’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna fight the special interests, you know, when the special interests are the ones who sent you, right? But yeah, and on the other hand, you’ve got to have money to be competitive in the general election. 220 00:36:51.360 --> 00:37:16.149 Dave Price: And we… it’s not like Zach Walz hasn’t raised any money, so we don’t want to make it sound like, while he doesn’t benefit from this outside money, he had… they both have raised about the same amount of money as a… as a campaign, right? All throughout. Walz has kind of made this theme that I’m also curious, you know, without the policy differences or substantial differences between 221 00:37:16.150 --> 00:37:19.609 Dave Price: the two of them. He has largely run this 222 00:37:19.610 --> 00:37:30.180 Dave Price: Turek’s this insider guy. I’m out there to take on the system. He had Elizabeth Warren here to campaign with them, and I’m wondering how strong 223 00:37:30.180 --> 00:37:47.660 Dave Price: for those who are sort of disgusted by the outside money, how strong is that faction? And is that enough for him to turn out enough primary voters to overcome this massive ad blitz that Turek is able to, to benefit from? 224 00:37:48.710 --> 00:37:59.610 Kathie Obradovich: I mean, Zach Walsh has a lot of experience, I think, in, in turning out voters. You know, I do think that he, 225 00:37:59.610 --> 00:38:10.010 Kathie Obradovich: he’s, you know, a younger candidate. He can talk about, you know, sort of the next generation of leadership, although not that he’s that much younger than Josh Turk. 226 00:38:10.010 --> 00:38:29.250 Kathie Obradovich: But I, you know, I have to, you know, if… I would, you know, give the edge to walls when it turns… when it comes to get out the vote, except for, as I said before, that, you know, vote vets, etc. I think it’s gonna… they’re gonna be helpful in terms of Josh Turek’s efforts. 227 00:38:29.760 --> 00:38:44.520 Laura Belin: I struggle to see Zach Walz as an outsider candidate. I view this primary as more of different groups of insiders having different preferences. I mean, Zach Walz has dozens of endorsements from prominent people in politics, from 228 00:38:44.520 --> 00:38:52.639 Laura Belin: Fred Hubbell to Patty Judge to Dave Loebsack. When he was first running for the State Senate, he had a lot of support from 229 00:38:52.640 --> 00:39:10.819 Laura Belin: parts of the Democratic establishment, so I guess I don’t see that as one of the more credible arguments. But clearly, of the Washington, D.C. insiders in this election, clearly more of them prefer Josh Turek. That’s accurate, but I don’t… on the flip side, I just… 230 00:39:10.820 --> 00:39:14.580 Laura Belin: don’t see Zach Walls as an outsider to Iowa politics. 231 00:39:14.720 --> 00:39:30.780 Dave Price: We’re talking about insiders. I, so let’s, as we close out this week, I’m gonna share a little bit of, inside, maybe the inside scoop on this, on this podcast. I think as we were putting this together, part of our plan was maybe we… 232 00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:39.720 Dave Price: We talk each week and get through the primary campaign. This is gonna sound like… I can’t remember how my son praises this. 233 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.420 Dave Price: When you brag about yourself, what’s that called? The kids call this something. 234 00:39:44.420 --> 00:39:45.500 Laura Belin: Humble brag. 235 00:39:45.500 --> 00:39:46.649 Dave Price: Yeah, humble brag? 236 00:39:46.650 --> 00:39:47.230 Laura Belin: It’s… 237 00:39:47.230 --> 00:39:54.950 Dave Price: Maybe that’s what they… yeah, you’re probably… see, you’re more connected. Humble brag is… that’s probably it. 238 00:39:55.310 --> 00:40:08.280 Dave Price: But this has been super fun, and we’ve seen how this podcast has grown, so we… I think our preference would be… this could be an incredibly fun… 239 00:40:09.570 --> 00:40:19.659 Dave Price: It’s alright, we’re all nerds, we can say fun, right? Like, this stuff is fun. But super interesting, we have so many dynamics to follow for the rest of the year, because this is an election year. Plus. 240 00:40:19.720 --> 00:40:33.800 Dave Price: I just think Iowa politics is fascinating anyway. There’s always so much stuff to talk about. So, I suppose, we’re gonna turn this into a fundraising ask here, I guess, and I hope this is appropriate, but for all of you 241 00:40:34.390 --> 00:40:44.199 Dave Price: who have been watching, reading, or listening to this. Obviously, first of all, thank you very much. This has been such a super fun and humbling process. 242 00:40:44.470 --> 00:40:58.769 Dave Price: To kind of build this out. So it’s fun to be able to have this platform, so we’re super appreciative for that. For those of you who’ve become financial supporters, an additional thank you to all of that, because that allows us to do this. 243 00:40:58.930 --> 00:41:13.830 Dave Price: So, our ask now would be to help us keep this thing going. We very much appreciate all the support in the past. Each one of you, when you make a contribution, no matter what, in what form it is, monthly. 244 00:41:13.960 --> 00:41:27.339 Dave Price: one… one donation, whatever it is. We very much appreciate that. But to keep this going, we have to keep doing this. So if you would please, click on the link that’ll accompany this so that… 245 00:41:27.340 --> 00:41:44.010 Dave Price: we can continue the fundraising efforts to keep this going, because we definitely want to… we may take a brief break, maybe late summer or something like that, as we all enjoy some time off, hopefully. We’ve got a huge trip that I’m really fired up about that my son has put together, too, but… 246 00:41:44.170 --> 00:41:57.439 Dave Price: That’s a whole other… that’s a whole other podcast. But we really want to keep, keep this thing going in the future, and, we’ve got some ideas about ways to do some interactive conversations with you, too. So… 247 00:41:57.440 --> 00:42:04.460 Dave Price: If you would, please, if you would consider becoming a paid subscriber of this, this very much helps us to… 248 00:42:04.530 --> 00:42:07.269 Dave Price: to keep this conversation going. I look forward… 249 00:42:07.270 --> 00:42:08.940 Laura Belin: Making a one-time donation. 250 00:42:08.940 --> 00:42:10.630 Dave Price: For sure. Yeah, thank you. 251 00:42:10.770 --> 00:42:18.729 Dave Price: I very much look forward to next week’s podcast, because we will have so much to talk about. We will… 252 00:42:18.780 --> 00:42:40.090 Dave Price: Obviously, we know in most of these races, we will have winners by that point. We’ll see if we have a declared winner in the Republican primary race for governor. Who would have thought we’d be talking about that? We will see if this poll that we talked about, if it picked up on anything, or if Feenstra, or somebody else, perhaps, clinches this sucker on primary night, so… 253 00:42:40.090 --> 00:42:46.380 Dave Price: Thank you very much to both of you. I know we went a long time today, but we had so much to talk about, so… all good, right? 254 00:42:46.380 --> 00:42:47.050 Laura Belin: That’s fun. 255 00:42:47.050 --> 00:42:55.529 Dave Price: Have a good weekend, both of you. Look forward to talking to you next week, and thanks to all of you for joining us this week. We will talk to you next week. Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe [https://iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 5-23-26

We debriefed on the Gray Media/KCCI Republican gubernatorial debate, which Dave helped moderate. Four of five candidates participated — Zach Lahn, Adam Steen, Brad Sherman, and Eddie Andrews — with Randy Feenstra a no-show despite the debate being scheduled on a Saturday to accommodate him. Lahn and Steen had the strongest showings. Lahn stayed on message with his four systemic issues, while Steen spent notable time invoking Rob Sand, positioning himself as the candidate ready for a general election fight. The H-1B visa exchange was telling — Dave tried to focus on legal temporary workers that Iowa industries depend on, but most candidates steered toward undocumented immigration instead. Surprisingly, none of the candidates went after each other much, and Feenstra was barely mentioned. We also covered Governor Reynolds signing the Iowa MAHA bill with RFK Jr. in attendance. The bill has some bipartisan appeal — screen time limits in classrooms, food dye restrictions in school lunches — but also some sharp edges, including a SNAP waiver tied to Iowa’s quirky sales tax food definitions and a provision protecting pharmacists who dispense ivermectin without a prescription. Fundraising numbers are coming next week, right before the primary. We’ll dedicate pretty much all of next week’s show to a primary primer. Stay tuned! Auto-generated transcript below: Dave Price: Hello, everybody. Well, welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. Hello to you on a Friday as we record this. 2 00:00:19.450 --> 00:00:21.730 Kathie Obradovich: Hey! Happy holiday weekend! 3 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:29.719 Dave Price: Indeed, Memorial Day weekend, indeed. Hey, I’m gonna selfishly start with a topic that I was part of. 4 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:53.540 Dave Price: Which is super arrogant, so I’m gonna, most of the time, sort of stop, step aside and let you two dive into this, but, my TV station group with Gray Media partnered with KCCITV in Des Moines, so we had this statewide debate. Four of the five Republican candidates for governor agreed to take part in this, unlike the Iowa Public TV debate. 5 00:00:54.230 --> 00:01:07.410 Dave Price: Where Zach Lahn protested and said, if Randy Feenster doesn’t come, neither am I. He gave up that protest and decided to take part in this, and, clearly got a lot more attention from doing the debate. 6 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:13.069 Dave Price: 90 minutes, we did this, recorded it on a Saturday, and I just wanted to lay out 7 00:01:13.070 --> 00:01:29.440 Dave Price: why things worked the way they did. It was not because we wanted to record a debate on a Saturday and tape it and air it later, it was to give the best chance to get Congressman Feenstra to say yes, because he had not said yes to any of the other debates. 8 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:53.370 Dave Price: in this cycle. So the thinking was, hey, let’s offer on a Saturday, even if he has to be in DC, he can fly back, which he comes home on the weekends anyway, so he could do it. But anyway, that didn’t work. But the other four said yes. So before I blather on about the behind-the-scenes stuff, Kathie, how about you lead off here? What was your takeaway? 90 minutes, what’d you think? 9 00:01:53.370 --> 00:02:13.300 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so, first of all, I was glad that you had 4 out of the 5 candidates. I think it was a smarter, much smarter move for Zach Lahn to join, and certainly, Ed, as you said, I think you probably did get a lot more attention out of it. Couple of quick observations. 10 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:32.990 Kathie Obradovich: We did hear some differences, among the candidates on a couple of issues, which is always, you know, makes it a little, you know, makes a little news, which is, you know, what debate organizers are always hoping for, right? A little bit of news. You know, they… a little bit of difference in terms of 11 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:49.919 Kathie Obradovich: how you treat H-1B visas, so essentially guest workers, to come into the country and fill jobs, you know, especially, jobs where there’s a shortage. So a little bit of difference among the candidates on that issue, and then also, I think, a little difference 12 00:02:49.920 --> 00:03:14.210 Kathie Obradovich: Among how you go about water quality and, the farm chemicals related to Iowa’s cancer issue. And, so I, so we did hear some differences among those candidates. And the other… one other observation I’ll just mention, before we dive into any detail is, I think that, Adam Steen mentioned Rob Sand more than anybody 13 00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:36.969 Kathie Obradovich: He certainly mentioned it more than anybody else… him more than anybody else on stage, but also mentioned him more than he mentioned Randy Feenster, which I thought was interesting, that Adam Stein, at least as one candidate, seems to be looking beyond the primary already, to try to make some general election arguments. So I thought those three things stood out. 14 00:03:38.190 --> 00:03:40.699 Dave Price: Laura, what’d you take away from this? 15 00:03:41.720 --> 00:03:54.960 Laura Belin: So as a former high school debater, I always look at this as who was most successful in coming in and getting out the messages that they want to get out, and I think Zach Lahn and Adam Steen definitely had the most successful debate. 16 00:03:54.960 --> 00:04:19.959 Laura Belin: Zach Lahn came in there in his opening statement, talking about the four systemic issues that he always talks about. Kids were top four in the country in terms of kids leaving the state. We’re losing family farms, we used to be number one for education and we’re not, and we have this fast-growing cancer rate. And then he was repeatedly able to bring answers to other questions back to some of these central 17 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:44.809 Laura Belin: systemic issues that he talks about. And Adam Stein, what Kathie mentioned, it really struck me how often he mentioned Rob Sand, how he positioned himself as someone who knows Rob Sand because he’s seen him up close, because he’s worked in state government, and he can take on Rob Sand. So I felt like they both came in there and got the messages out. And regarding the water quality, Zach Lahn has been very open, and 18 00:04:44.810 --> 00:04:59.459 Laura Belin: cancer, he said, you know, these big ag companies have not been honest about their harmful products. And Adam Steen, it seemed to me very deliberate that he, on several occasions, was like, I’m not putting the blame on farmers, you know, farmers are trying to do the right thing. So I thought. 19 00:04:59.770 --> 00:05:17.840 Laura Belin: angling to get that rural vote. And I felt that Brad Sherman was trying, he mentioned several times that being a pastor and trying to bring God into this equation, but I just feel like that was an attempt to compete with Adam Steen, who has the endorsement of the family leader, and I don’t know that it was really successful. 20 00:05:18.410 --> 00:05:38.329 Kathie Obradovich: Brad Sherman, by the way, I think was… I could be wrong about this, but I think he was the only one who said that he wanted mandatory, conservation measures by farmers in order to try to control nutrients going into Iowa’s waterways. And I think he was the only candidate who said he, you know, he did… he did actually want 21 00:05:38.330 --> 00:05:43.660 Kathie Obradovich: some mandatory regulation there. So I thought that was interesting. 22 00:05:44.080 --> 00:05:51.820 Dave Price: And there was not… clearly, for this 90 minutes, there were not a lot of mandatory calls. Most of the things they talked about, whether it was 23 00:05:51.820 --> 00:06:05.710 Dave Price: ag-related, water-related, cancer-related, whatever, was… would be voluntary toward this. I thought, Kathie, you mentioned the H-1B visas, and Zach Lahn has a commercial specifically about that. 24 00:06:06.090 --> 00:06:23.419 Dave Price: I was listening to that, listening to them talk about this, I was thinking almost the disconnect, if you will, between what they were largely saying when it comes to immigration versus what the business community was talking about. And I’m not… 25 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:27.579 Dave Price: Before we get some, messages on this. 26 00:06:27.620 --> 00:06:46.539 Dave Price: I’m not saying the business community, I’m not saying any of these for… nobody’s talking about violent criminals who are living in the country illegally, doing a bunch of bad stuff. We’re not talking about that stuff. And what I specifically asked about, because I was trying to tailor these in a certain direction. 27 00:06:46.590 --> 00:06:56.430 Dave Price: was I wanted to talk about the legal… those who are here legally with some kind of temporary legal permission to work here, and 28 00:06:56.490 --> 00:07:02.009 Dave Price: We have a variety of industries in this state that rely on those 29 00:07:02.930 --> 00:07:14.979 Dave Price: workers. Education, healthcare, ag, there’s probably something else I’m not thinking of, just business overall, I suppose. And so, when I talk to business folks, they want that pipeline still. 30 00:07:15.260 --> 00:07:30.279 Dave Price: I don’t know that these four on the stage, they were communicating that same thing. Now, maybe Eddie Andrews did a little bit when he was talking about, you know, he’s recruited tech workers as part of his professional career, but Lahn was very much… 31 00:07:30.630 --> 00:07:36.440 Dave Price: you know, Iowa universities are for Iowans, and we don’t want any of these people teaching. 32 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:41.709 Dave Price: That, that to me was an interesting theme that came up throughout this. 33 00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:56.659 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, and Adam Steen also, you know, basically was saying he wanted to bar, the universities and other… it sounded like, most of government, or maybe all of government, from… from having H-1B. 34 00:07:56.660 --> 00:08:10.499 Kathie Obradovich: visas. And, you know, I think that that probably is about as far as you can go. You know, H-1B visa rules are really federal. We’re talking about federal legislation here. 35 00:08:10.850 --> 00:08:35.210 Kathie Obradovich: You know, and so stopping a private business from, you know, sponsoring H-1B visas, I think, would be pretty difficult for an Iowa governor to do. You know, I think that, you know, certainly stopping… they certainly would have the power to stop state government from hiring, you know, H-1B visa holders, so… 36 00:08:35.470 --> 00:08:47.899 Kathie Obradovich: So yeah, it’s… I’m thinking this… we had a story this week about, a medical researcher from Ukraine who 37 00:08:48.010 --> 00:09:05.520 Kathie Obradovich: came as, you know, when the wars… when Russia invaded Ukraine, he was able to come to the U.S. during the Biden administration. He has a visa, working at University of Iowa Healthcare, and doing this, like, really high-level medical research. 38 00:09:05.520 --> 00:09:11.750 Kathie Obradovich: And, he ended up having to, leave the country. 39 00:09:11.750 --> 00:09:18.350 Kathie Obradovich: For, personal reasons, or maybe it was a university, trip. 40 00:09:18.350 --> 00:09:43.129 Kathie Obradovich: I can’t remember, but then he couldn’t get back in, and he’s been waiting, I think, you know, it’s, like, over a year and a half. His family’s here, he’s trying to get a visa to get back in, and this is, like, high-level research that, you know, we’re not… we don’t have, you know, an Iowan just waiting to step into that position. And so… so I, you know, I do think you have to be… 41 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:51.939 Kathie Obradovich: You know, you have to really think about what… what exactly it is that we’re trying to accomplish with this, besides a political message. 42 00:09:52.220 --> 00:09:57.010 Laura Belin: Dave, I could tell that you were really trying to target your question to these legal 43 00:09:57.450 --> 00:10:22.159 Laura Belin: legal workers here for… but I felt like the candidates were just trying to answer the question they wanted to answer, which was about undocumented, and especially Adam Steen, who used that as an opportunity to talk about how he supports President Trump’s immigration policy. By the way, I just went back and looked at my notes about the regulation, and I think that… I think that Brad Sherman said that he would prefer just to do it through education, and that 44 00:10:22.160 --> 00:10:27.039 Laura Belin: making the information available that farmers would want to do the right thing. So I don’t know that he… 45 00:10:27.040 --> 00:10:27.650 Kathie Obradovich: Oh, okay. 46 00:10:27.650 --> 00:10:32.909 Laura Belin: I don’t know that he expressly said he wanted more regulation, and Zach Lahn was similar, that 47 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:39.240 Laura Belin: He’d like to incentivize the good behavior rather than regulate and tell people what they can’t do. 48 00:10:39.830 --> 00:10:40.380 Kathie Obradovich: Okay. 49 00:10:40.380 --> 00:10:55.510 Dave Price: And I maybe should have said this in the setup, but I didn’t want to get too long-winded. When we were structuring this, and you know, you can have a philosophical debate, putting on a debate, I feel like… debate, debate, putting this thing together, 50 00:10:55.800 --> 00:11:04.109 Dave Price: the format, right? The way this was structured, and KCCI was the… was the home stadium here, if you will, home studio. 51 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:09.540 Dave Price: This was structured with time limits, and they had assigned one-minute 52 00:11:09.910 --> 00:11:12.859 Dave Price: one minute for all these things. So, to your point, Laura. 53 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:28.050 Dave Price: What I was trying to get from the candidates is, how do you summarize stuff they’ve already said before, and then try to push the conversation forward, right? Realizing that we only have a minute to do it, and we’re talking about really deep stuff. 54 00:11:28.410 --> 00:11:35.050 Dave Price: So, on the surface of it, perhaps that’s a little unfair to ask somebody to solve the cancer crisis in a minute, but… 55 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:42.489 Dave Price: the more targeted we could make those questions, the more I thought we had a better chance of, A, seeing if 56 00:11:42.790 --> 00:11:53.360 Dave Price: these fellas had ideas for these things, and if there was any daylight and difference between the four of them. And we had the ability to do follow-ups, or… 57 00:11:53.540 --> 00:12:01.490 Dave Price: Or what have you, but that was the… that was the… what we were going for, and obviously they were all going to say that they’re against… 58 00:12:01.810 --> 00:12:12.680 Dave Price: undocumented people in the country committing a bunch of crimes and causing mayhem. That’s a given, right? Most people are going to say that. So we were trying to focus, because I have found 59 00:12:12.730 --> 00:12:27.240 Dave Price: it fascinating about, like, we had the, processing plant in Ottumwa that had a couple dozen, whatever it was, maybe it was more than that, folks who were there temporarily on legal visas, but the Trump administration rescinded them. 60 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:34.629 Dave Price: They were awarded under the Biden administration, and they canceled that, and they had to leave, which then left the workforce shortage, too, so… 61 00:12:34.750 --> 00:12:40.329 Dave Price: It’s the legal side of this, the legal temporary side that I was trying to explore a little bit with them. 62 00:12:40.330 --> 00:12:53.839 Laura Belin: And now I’m sorry, I need to correct myself, because I just see that in responding to a later question, Brad Sherman did say that when people’s lives are at stake, the government may need to step in and regulate some of this behavior. So, he did sort of leave the door open to some. 63 00:12:53.840 --> 00:13:09.499 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think that’s what… that’s what our reporter picked up on, probably. But yeah, and… and to… and to Dave’s point, you know, there’s no perfect way to structure a debate. There’s always going to be trade-offs, you know? And, you know, sometimes, 64 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:28.719 Kathie Obradovich: with an hour and a half, you know, you could… you could trade up formats a little bit. You could have a segment that is a little bit longer, you know, answers, and a little, you know, some segments that are a little shorter, lightning round, as we’ve talked about. But the fact is that if candidates want to 65 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:34.940 Kathie Obradovich: play along, they will. And if they don’t want to, you know, good luck, because 66 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:49.490 Kathie Obradovich: As… I think as Laura mentioned, you know, one of the… I think one of the tenets of, being interviewed anywhere is you answer the question, you know, if you’re a politician, you answer the question you wish you had been. 67 00:13:49.490 --> 00:13:49.930 Dave Price: Yes. 68 00:13:49.930 --> 00:14:06.439 Kathie Obradovich: Right? You don’t… you don’t necessarily always answer the question. And, you know, it is helpful when you have those follow-ups and… and can redirect, and I think that you guys use those pretty effectively to say… but we’re ask… what we’re really asking about is, you know, this topic, yeah. 69 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:16.169 Dave Price: A couple of things. I was maybe a little surprised with how little they talked about Feenstra, and to your point, I’m pretty sure… 70 00:14:16.520 --> 00:14:22.270 Dave Price: I think only Steen mentioned Feenstra, and that might have been once, and it was in this… 71 00:14:22.430 --> 00:14:28.120 Dave Price: I think a bigger swipe lumping him in with Rob Sand and being too tight with China. 72 00:14:28.260 --> 00:14:36.060 Dave Price: And one of the things he mentioned, I don’t know if anybody else said anything about Feenstra at all, which maybe surprised me a little bit. 73 00:14:36.060 --> 00:14:55.320 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, he said, he said that Feaster and Rob Sand, don’t like, private schools, or something like that. Yeah. They wanted to control who private schools can have for students, I think is what he said. Yeah. So, so yeah, lumping those two together, on that particular issue. 74 00:14:55.320 --> 00:15:03.970 Laura Belin: Which is definitely not… doesn’t reflect what Randy Feenstra said, but I… I also made note of that. I don’t think any of the other candidates even mentioned Randy Feenstra at all. 75 00:15:03.970 --> 00:15:07.850 Dave Price: And I thought, this is hard to do on the fly, but… 76 00:15:07.850 --> 00:15:32.830 Dave Price: I guess… I wasn’t sure how aggressive… because going in there, you have to prepare for everything, right? Like, we script out all these questions, we have way more than we have time for. We had two commercial breaks built in, because it was largely three 30-minute segments with the… at the end of the first half hour and the end of the second half hour, you had the commercial breaks. So you have it all structured, so you have to kind of go through your head about, alright, we gotta have time for… to get through all four, maybe there’ll be some follow-ups, maybe they don’t 77 00:15:32.830 --> 00:15:39.070 Dave Price: followed the clock, all that kind of stuff. But, and they largely stuck to the clock, which I was… 78 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:53.269 Dave Price: especially thankful for. They were very respectful of, respectful of the time. They did not come after each other, really, in any way, and I didn’t… I guess I wasn’t really expecting anybody to be… 79 00:15:53.440 --> 00:16:12.819 Dave Price: you know, super aggressive, like, you know, you suck kind of thing. I thought there might be more, maybe, nuanced ways where I grab what you just say and say, you know, I don’t know that that’s the way to go, this is what I would do, or something, to show more of a contrast, but, that really did not… that didn’t happen. 80 00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:15.199 Kathie Obradovich: I expected Lahn and Steen to go. 81 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:15.600 Dave Price: did I. 82 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:33.119 Kathie Obradovich: each other a little bit more. And maybe they’ve been told, or maybe their, you know, supporters are telling them they don’t like that, you know, that they don’t want people, you know, punching each other’s teeth out in a debate, when in fact. 83 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:44.450 Kathie Obradovich: You know, you don’t want a wounded nominee going in to face up against Robert Sands. So it’s possible that they’ve had that feedback, that their supporters just don’t like it. 84 00:16:44.860 --> 00:16:56.240 Dave Price: But yet they do, especially online, some of them will go after Feenstra that hard. Rhino Randy, No Show Randy, all kinds of stuff like that. I totally know what you’re saying there, but I guess I’m… 85 00:16:56.600 --> 00:17:02.590 Dave Price: I thought if they’re willing, so it’s okay to go after Feenstra, but not each other, was kind of the takeaway for me. 86 00:17:02.710 --> 00:17:17.979 Laura Belin: I’ve thought the same thing that I expected, because as I’ve been saying all along, I feel like Zach Lahn and Adam Steen are the biggest threat to each other, in terms of trying to consolidate that non-Feenster vote, but I also think with four candidates on the stage, that’s harder than if it’s just one-on-one. 87 00:17:17.980 --> 00:17:30.099 Laura Belin: then it’s like a zero-sum game, and any points you score against your opponent, you benefit. But if people just don’t like the bickering, they could go and support Brad Sherman or Eddie Andrews, so you don’t really want to drive 88 00:17:30.510 --> 00:17:34.110 Laura Belin: Potential supporters away to a third candidate. 89 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:45.510 Kathie Obradovich: It also just feels more personal when they’re standing there on the same stage, as opposed to, a TV ad, or an online ad, or, or even. 90 00:17:45.510 --> 00:17:46.130 Dave Price: Lord Warrior. 91 00:17:46.130 --> 00:17:49.460 Kathie Obradovich: You know, kicking an absentee candidate. 92 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:49.910 Dave Price: Yeah. 93 00:17:50.070 --> 00:18:00.129 Kathie Obradovich: You know, I think… I do think it’s, it has more impact, I think, when you’re standing there next to somebody and saying, you know, you know what you’re talking about. 94 00:18:00.260 --> 00:18:19.049 Dave Price: May I also just say how deflating it was afterwards that… and, you know, we recorded this on a Saturday, it aired on Tuesday, so there are a couple of down days in the middle there, which is, you know, unusual, because you kind of want to know how it’s gone over, and what people take away from it, and all that stuff, so it airs on… it airs on Tuesday. 95 00:18:19.320 --> 00:18:33.050 Dave Price: We put a lot of… obviously, you put a lot of thought into the questions, a lot of thought into, okay, what do I think he’s gonna say here? How do we respond? How do we get specific answers here? What gets left on the cutting room floor? 96 00:18:33.210 --> 00:18:41.339 Dave Price: How do you assemble the whole thing, blah blah blah blah blah. It was set up to be policy-focused, because I thought that would be… 97 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:50.650 Dave Price: the most valuable to primary voters, rather than a bunch of fireworks or, you know, kind of leading questions that almost… 98 00:18:50.650 --> 00:19:06.350 Dave Price: illicit explosive-type results, you know, whatever. So you go through all of this, I thought it was very civil. There was a… there was a moment before we… before we started where Zach Lahn asked Brad Sherman to lead the four of them in prayer. 99 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:07.210 Laura Belin: Hmm. 100 00:19:07.210 --> 00:19:24.579 Dave Price: And they did, so they all gathered, behind the podiums there. I didn’t take any video of it, I’m like, this feels like an intimate moment, I’m not quite sure if I’m intruding or not, and we were also getting our microphones on and all that kind of stuff. But that’s a pretty powerful moment. I was thinking afterwards that… they could have… 101 00:19:24.580 --> 00:19:32.180 Dave Price: probably done that during the debate, really, but it showed that, I think, the faith commitment of all four of them, and it was truly… 102 00:19:34.550 --> 00:19:46.389 Dave Price: what do you want to say? A peaceful moment? I’m not really sure what the right words are there. Like, sometimes I think you envision a debate where it’s gonna be this caustic, we’re gonna fight the whole time. I mean, they were very… 103 00:19:46.520 --> 00:19:52.940 Dave Price: as my son would say, they’re all very chill, you know, and they all got together, they did the prayer, and they all… I mean. 104 00:19:53.040 --> 00:20:09.949 Dave Price: it was like that the whole time, during commercial breaks, before recording, during recording, after recording. Anyway, so you go through all this, we get through a bunch of questions, clearly we didn’t get through a few more topics, which is always disappointing, but I had somebody I ran into. 105 00:20:10.140 --> 00:20:19.310 Dave Price: who’s a Republican activist, who I felt a little aggressively, but whatever, told me this was not a debate. And I go, what? 106 00:20:19.820 --> 00:20:22.499 Dave Price: This was not a debate at all. 107 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:36.879 Dave Price: And I said, oh, okay, there was no back and forth, there was no nothing. No yelling, no screaming, no… and I said, well, it wasn’t set up to be that way. And I think with the time limits like that, it made it even harder. And I know you’re not… you can’t… 108 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:52.689 Dave Price: take… make your feelings based on one person, but may I just say, that was so stinkin’ deflating, where you intentionally worked to make a civil conversation, sort of so that people know what these guys stand for, and I have this one very, 109 00:20:52.690 --> 00:20:58.210 Dave Price: Very aggressive person who went out of her way to tell me how it sucked, and it was a waste of time. 110 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:01.130 Dave Price: I was like, okay. 111 00:21:01.130 --> 00:21:02.839 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, well, thanks for watching. 112 00:21:02.840 --> 00:21:04.710 Dave Price: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 113 00:21:04.710 --> 00:21:09.750 Kathie Obradovich: That’s always my, you know, my default response. Well, thanks for reading, thanks for watching. 114 00:21:09.750 --> 00:21:10.430 Dave Price: That’s what. 115 00:21:10.430 --> 00:21:11.050 Kathie Obradovich: Great man. 116 00:21:11.050 --> 00:21:27.339 Dave Price: of Fox News, that’s the way he responds to people on Twitter when they’re really ugly about a bunch of stuff. When they say they’re never gonna watch him again, he’ll say, well, thanks for watching as long as you did, you know, and have a good day, or whatever. And it’s such a… it’s like killing him with kindness, like a little knife right through him. 117 00:21:27.360 --> 00:21:33.719 Dave Price: But that’s probably pretty… I really had no response. I just said, well, that wasn’t the goal. We weren’t trying to get people to yell at each other. 118 00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:47.840 Kathie Obradovich: I thought you were gonna say it wasn’t technically a debate, because people, like to, like to, you know, get pedantic, too, about the technical definition of a debate. We used to get that all the time when sponsoring a debate that was really probably 119 00:21:48.020 --> 00:22:04.270 Kathie Obradovich: you know, technically a forum, you know, but, you know, we call it a debate, you know, if the candidates are all on stage at the same time answering the same questions, I think, you know, that’s generally understood to be a debate. 120 00:22:04.550 --> 00:22:05.100 Dave Price: Appreciate that. 121 00:22:05.100 --> 00:22:16.350 Laura Belin: it was a debate. I mean, you… it… I mean, the fact is, they agree on a lot of issues, but it’s still… you were able to tease out some differences among them, so I felt it was a debate. 122 00:22:16.670 --> 00:22:30.030 Dave Price: Okay, speaking of, Governor Kanas, let’s talk about the current governor. She stood next to RFK Jr. this week, twice, for two different events, so we basically had Maha… 123 00:22:30.250 --> 00:22:33.869 Dave Price: Maha nationally met Maha, Iowa. 124 00:22:34.010 --> 00:22:54.180 Dave Price: And it started with the MAHA bill signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds. That was a ceremony at the State House, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the HHS Secretary, was there and spoke for a bit, as well, along with a couple of the legislators that were involved with the process. That was probably… 125 00:22:54.580 --> 00:23:09.379 Dave Price: Might be about the biggest crowd I can remember in the governor’s office in a while. They really had them packed in there, and they had some families in there, and lobbyists, and other supporters and stuff. And then, a couple hours later, they took the show on the road, and they went to Gilbert, just outside of Ames. 126 00:23:09.630 --> 00:23:23.950 Dave Price: where RFK Jr. announced, some new guidance from the Surgeon General about screen time use, for kids, and that was part of the Iowa Maha bill as well. I was… 127 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:30.439 Dave Price: I was thinking afterwards about, man, the Trump administration is committed to Iowa. 128 00:23:30.950 --> 00:23:32.980 Dave Price: They are keeping the people coming. 129 00:23:34.330 --> 00:23:39.799 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, well, Iowa is still first in the nation for presidential campaigns, so that 130 00:23:39.850 --> 00:23:55.380 Kathie Obradovich: definitely makes a difference. Also, I think it reflects on the… you know, the Trump administration has to be concerned if Ruby Redd, you know, pro-Trump Iowa starts, electing Democrats, so I think that won’t be… 131 00:23:55.380 --> 00:24:11.969 Kathie Obradovich: the last we see of Trump administration officials coming, to campaign in Iowa, even though there wasn’t really a campaign event associated with RFK Jr.’s visit. Technically. So, yeah, but, you know, two things. One. 132 00:24:11.980 --> 00:24:21.519 Kathie Obradovich: For, you know, making America healthy again, RFK Jr. sounded like he had a terrible cold. 133 00:24:21.520 --> 00:24:22.789 Dave Price: You know, bad timing, maybe. 134 00:24:22.790 --> 00:24:40.729 Kathie Obradovich: You know, we… he didn’t sound healthy, so, you know, making RFK healthy again, maybe, would be part of, part of the strategy here. And then secondly, you know, there were some, you know, some bipartisan parts of the bill. 135 00:24:40.730 --> 00:24:41.070 Dave Price: And… 136 00:24:41.070 --> 00:24:50.279 Kathie Obradovich: And, and I think that the screen time, which was emphasized then with the Surgeon General’s, advisory, which is not a… 137 00:24:50.480 --> 00:25:01.090 Kathie Obradovich: It wasn’t any kind of prescriptive thing. And, you know, he praised Iowa for, limiting screen time, 138 00:25:01.090 --> 00:25:23.849 Kathie Obradovich: you know, limiting cell phones during classroom time last year, and then this, Maha bill, limited… limited the amount of digital instruction that could be done, or screen time instruction that could be done in schools. And I think that… that part of it was fairly bipartisan, but there were also parts of it that were absolutely not bipartisan, including 139 00:25:23.850 --> 00:25:36.869 Kathie Obradovich: codifying the SNAP limits on food that has a sales tax on it. I won’t say unhealthy food, because 140 00:25:36.870 --> 00:25:54.849 Kathie Obradovich: there’s unhealthy food that is still allowed on SNAP because it doesn’t… is not sales taxed. So, so that part of it, there were… there were other, you know, so that I think that the, you know, taking food, certain food dyes out of 141 00:25:55.020 --> 00:26:09.689 Kathie Obradovich: school lunches was probably… it probably has some bipartisan support, but on the other hand, they also wanted to have waivers for federal nutrition guidelines, including for sodium, which I thought was odd, you know, why… 142 00:26:09.690 --> 00:26:21.950 Kathie Obradovich: why do we want to allow more sodium in, in school lunches? But, you know, there are parts of it that definitely were not bipartisan, and, but I thought that the event 143 00:26:21.950 --> 00:26:25.869 Kathie Obradovich: With the focus on screen time, kind of tried to… tried to… 144 00:26:26.420 --> 00:26:30.089 Kathie Obradovich: Emphasize the part… the bipartisan part of the bill. 145 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:46.270 Laura Belin: So that screen time provision was not part of the governor’s original bill that she introduced, and I remember I was in the House chamber the day they were debating that, and the Democrats were a little bit surprised. That was something that the Republican State Representative Samantha Fett and Democrat Heather Mattson had 146 00:26:46.270 --> 00:27:00.869 Laura Belin: been talking about that, and I don’t know, I can’t remember whether Heather Manson had introduced a bill, but anyway, they… the Democrats were quite surprised when that was part of the Republican amendment that was added to the bill. But I just have to say that with these… the SNAP waiver, that this… 147 00:27:00.990 --> 00:27:24.409 Laura Belin: this law requires Iowa to request these waivers for both the main food assistance program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, and then that summer EBT, or Sunbucks that has different names, the Summer Meals for Kids. And nobody really questioned during the event that the governor was saying, hey, yeah, this is going to make sure that people eat healthy food, but as Kathie alluded to, I mean. 148 00:27:24.410 --> 00:27:45.339 Laura Belin: there are the taxable regulations, there’s all kinds of weirdness, and people have… the Iowa Hunger Coalition had a great blog post about this months ago, where it’s like, regular Snickers bars, not allowed, but frozen Snickers bars are allowed because they have dairy, and then, like, cake is allowed because it has flour in it, but not other kinds of candy. So anyway, it’s… 149 00:27:45.340 --> 00:28:04.630 Laura Belin: it’s really… I mean, there’s prepared food. I mean, if you buy, like, a cut-up fruit salad, I guess it depends on whether it comes with a fork or a spoon. That determines whether it’s taxable or not. They’re all healthy, right? So, I think this is not necessarily the way you want to get at incentivizing people to eat healthy foods, but 150 00:28:04.990 --> 00:28:11.250 Laura Belin: It does take away the power of the next governor to decide whether this is a waiver that they want. 151 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:22.379 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, isn’t there kind of a poison pill in there, too? Did they pass that, that law saying that if Iowa doesn’t get that waiver, going forward, that they just won’t participate? 152 00:28:22.380 --> 00:28:24.370 Laura Belin: Yes, As part of the summary. 153 00:28:24.370 --> 00:28:27.349 Kathie Obradovich: Right. Yeah, so that’s. 154 00:28:27.350 --> 00:28:47.139 Laura Belin: So that means that if there’s a Democratic administration in Washington and they don’t want to grant the waiver, then Iowa would not be taking that money for the summer meals for the kids who qualify for free or reduced price lunch. I also thought it was interesting at the event, I don’t think anybody mentioned the ivermectin part of the bill that says… I don’t think so. 155 00:28:47.140 --> 00:28:59.579 Laura Belin: pharmacists can dispense. It was different from a bill that some House Republicans had introduced that would have required pharmacists to dispense ivermectin. The way it’s written in this bill is that pharmacists 156 00:28:59.580 --> 00:29:09.430 Laura Belin: couldn’t be punished or disciplined for dispensing ivermectin without a prescription, but I thought that was interesting that everybody seemed to be downplaying that part of the bill. 157 00:29:10.500 --> 00:29:15.930 Dave Price: I just find the whole… the whole Maha movement has… 158 00:29:16.520 --> 00:29:23.159 Dave Price: to me, it’s difficult to describe. There are parts of it… that I feel like… 159 00:29:24.490 --> 00:29:27.070 Dave Price: Where, you know, if you’re on the left, you like… 160 00:29:27.100 --> 00:29:44.510 Dave Price: on the right, you’re like, now this bill has a little bit of a lot of things in there. The ivermectin thing, you know, obviously that… that one doesn’t fit in there. You start talking about food dyes, you start talking about screen times. Kathie, I looked through the guidance from the Surgeon General. I don’t think there was a specific… 161 00:29:44.950 --> 00:29:57.200 Dave Price: because I’m thinking of my 10-year-old 4th grade daughter, 4th grade for only another week, but, you know, so what’s the guidance on how long she’s allowed to be on her iPad? I didn’t see a time limit on there. 162 00:29:57.200 --> 00:29:57.650 Kathie Obradovich: - 163 00:29:57.650 --> 00:30:07.430 Dave Price: So I, you know, I did see in this law, I believe it’s an hour of digital instruction per day for elementary students, if I’m remembering correctly. 164 00:30:07.430 --> 00:30:08.800 Laura Belin: K through 5, yep. 165 00:30:08.900 --> 00:30:24.360 Dave Price: Okay, K-5, yeah, so we’ve got one more year that she’ll be in 5th grade, but, so I didn’t see specific side of that, but I’m… I find the whole Maha thing just fascinating. So you’re gonna get… because even the vaccine thing can go… that’s not… 166 00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:34.019 Dave Price: you’re gonna have some people on the left who don’t believe in vaccines, you have some people on the right who don’t believe in vaccines. This thing altogether, it’s just a… 167 00:30:34.240 --> 00:30:48.250 Dave Price: I’m curious how far this goes. I mean, big picture, we have… our obesity’s too high, we have… chronic disease is way too high, cancer’s way too high, so what’s the… you know, how do we get after some of this stuff? 168 00:30:49.900 --> 00:31:01.739 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, it’s… I do think it’s interesting the way it does… it’s always interesting in today’s politics whether… whether… if there’s an issue that cuts across partisan lines, and, you know, that… 169 00:31:01.770 --> 00:31:20.050 Kathie Obradovich: it sort of created its own coalition, which, again, you know, makes you wonder sort of what, RFK Jr. might, you know, have in mind for his political future. It’s… and whether there’s enough people who are. 170 00:31:20.150 --> 00:31:35.719 Kathie Obradovich: sort of on board with that approach, to actually make, you know, a viable political movement out of it. Seems… it seems like there’s at least the start of that at this point. Then Iowa would be a good place for him to test that message. 171 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:50.120 Laura Belin: So when my kids were little, 20-some years ago, and I knew a lot of parents of babies and toddlers, and I felt… I just perceived, anecdotally, it just seemed to be more evenly divided, the people who chose not to vaccinate. 172 00:31:50.120 --> 00:31:58.999 Laura Belin: many were more progressive and many were more conservative, but I have seen some studies or polling that, ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. 173 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:04.949 Laura Belin: It’s really swung the anti-vaccine movement is much more heavily conservative. 174 00:32:04.950 --> 00:32:24.489 Laura Belin: than it used to be. And I forgot to pick up earlier on what Dave said. This Trump administration really wants to help prop up Republicans in Iowa. It’s interesting, and I think it’s logical, but considering that Kim Reynolds pretty aggressively campaigned for Ron DeSantis, it’s interesting that Donald Trump doesn’t seem to hold a grudge over that, because. 175 00:32:24.490 --> 00:32:25.020 Dave Price: Hmm. 176 00:32:25.020 --> 00:32:34.000 Laura Belin: holds a lot of grudges against a lot of other Republicans, but it seems like he’s decided to let bygones be bygones when it comes to the Reynolds administration. 177 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:44.320 Kathie Obradovich: Well, except, potentially, the fact that she’s not running for re-election has something to do with that as well. And, you know, who knows what… 178 00:32:44.350 --> 00:33:04.879 Kathie Obradovich: you know, what she assumed might happen, if she decided to run, and Trump, you know, potentially endorsed somebody, a Republican challenger. So… so yeah, I mean, I think he’s not, he’s not holding it against Iowa, whether… whether it’s, you know, whether he, is… 179 00:33:05.080 --> 00:33:11.750 Kathie Obradovich: For, you know, particularly being friendly to the, Reynolds administration, I don’t know. 180 00:33:13.270 --> 00:33:32.980 Dave Price: This seems like a good place to wrap up. We’ve got some fundraising numbers that came out, maybe we can save that for next week, because we’re kind of hitting our sweet spot here. And as we’re recording on a Friday afternoon, one of the three of us in particular has her heavy lift as the editor of the Iowa Capital Dispatch, so it is always 181 00:33:35.350 --> 00:33:42.889 Dave Price: appreciative, by the rest of us especially, that Kathie does this right during crunch time, so, how about we… 182 00:33:42.890 --> 00:33:57.549 Dave Price: we pause and talk about, some of the fundraising stuff for next week. And that’ll be, that’ll be our pre-election show, right? I mean, that’ll be right from a week from now, we’ll be right before the election, so we’ll… we’ll have much to discuss to set that sucker up. 183 00:33:58.190 --> 00:33:59.100 Kathie Obradovich: Excellent. 184 00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:08.230 Dave Price: Hey, thank you to all of you who have become new subscribers, and thank you to those who have become new paid subscribers, we appreciate you. 185 00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:25.740 Dave Price: making that commitment to help us on the production side of this to keep distributing and producing this podcast each week. We very much appreciate you. And if you would, please share this with your friends and family, coworkers, people in your neighborhood, all that stuff, to allow us to continue to grow, and 186 00:34:25.739 --> 00:34:28.800 Dave Price: Widen our audience and widen this conversation. 187 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:33.739 Dave Price: Have a great week, and we’re gonna talk big-time primary election next week. Have a great week ahead. Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe [https://iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 5/16/26

We spent most of this episode breaking down Thursday night’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary debate between Zach Wahls and Josh Turek, moderated by our man Dave! The headline exchange was on abortion — Wahls went after Turek’s missed vote on the six-week ban, and Turek fired back that he was sick at the time due to a disability-related illness, calling the attack disgraceful. Laura dug into the context on that one, noting that the missed vote criticism is a bit of a cheap shot, and that Turek’s committee vote on the Moms program funding was more complicated than Wahls made it sound. The bigger takeaway: these two don’t have many actual policy differences, so the race keeps coming back to electability arguments and voting record attacks. We also previewed Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial debate — four candidates, 90 minutes, no Feenstra (also moderated in part by Dave!). Zach Lahn is back after sitting out the Iowa PBS debate, and the big question is whether anyone can consolidate the non-Feenstra vote. A late-breaking story about how much time Lahn has been spending in Kansas could come up, though we’ll see if any of his fellow Republicans actually go there. We absolutely love doing this show, and we thank all of you for helping us spread the word it really, seriously helps. We’re planning on going through the June 2nd primary with new episodes dropping each Saturday through June 6th. If you are able to contribute financially, whether that’s through a Substack subscription or a direct contribution to the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative, you can help us go all the way through the Summer! If you’re interested in making a direct contribution, please email me at spencerdirks@gmail.com and I can get you more information. To those of you that already support us with your hard-earned money, THANK YOU!!! Auto-transcript below: 00:00:11.680 --> 00:00:21.029 Dave Price: Welcome back, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined, as always, by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. We’re going a little extra early. 2 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:27.180 Dave Price: On a Friday morning. The coffee has barely even kicked in, so who knows what’s gonna happen in this show. Hey, ladies. 3 00:00:27.520 --> 00:00:28.789 Kathie Obradovich: Hey! Happy Friday! 4 00:00:28.790 --> 00:00:29.460 Laura Belin: Yeah. 5 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:32.509 Dave Price: Kathie has important duties today. 6 00:00:32.770 --> 00:00:45.380 Kathie Obradovich: I’m on the Iowa Newspaper Association Board. We’re having a meeting today, so my colleagues here graciously agreed to get up early and get going on this thing. 7 00:00:45.380 --> 00:00:47.500 Dave Price: I mean, for the record, I’m always up early with. 8 00:00:47.500 --> 00:00:50.740 Laura Belin: I was gonna say, yeah, I was up 2 hours ago, so… 9 00:00:51.140 --> 00:00:54.710 Dave Price: And you have a doggie who needs to be walked, right? 10 00:00:54.710 --> 00:00:55.190 Laura Belin: Correct. 11 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.140 Dave Price: Okay, so… 12 00:00:57.630 --> 00:01:13.499 Dave Price: I was part of a debate on Thursday night. KCCI in Des Moines was the host station, and my company, Gray Media Iowa, our stations across the state took part as co-sponsors 13 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:26.520 Dave Price: primarily it was KTIV in Sioux City, KCRG in Cedar Rapids, and KWQC, and Davenport and KYOU in Ottumwa. I believe a few other stations, probably stream this as well. 14 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:37.009 Dave Price: So, I can maybe give a little background on this. I don’t know what you both think about this, but one thing that’s so hard when you’re right there. 15 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:44.039 Dave Price: you go through the debate, and it finishes, and the reporter in me, I’m like, okay, what’s the news out of here? 16 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:48.899 Dave Price: And, like, it takes me a while… I had to go back home and, like, re-watch it. 17 00:01:49.320 --> 00:02:04.489 Dave Price: Because it couldn’t… there’s just, like, too much stuff going on, and I couldn’t really process… there were moments that stuck out to me, but I’m curious what stuck out to you as you watched Zach Walls and Josh Turek do this hour-long debate? 18 00:02:04.740 --> 00:02:19.880 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, well, first of all, good job last night. I’ve moderated a lot of debates, and I will… I will tell you that I used to always insist that a different reporter would cover the debate, because I… same with me, I could come out of that 19 00:02:19.880 --> 00:02:30.299 Kathie Obradovich: after moderating, and have not a thought in my head about what was actually news, you know? And I’d ask people afterward, did this… did we make news somewhere? 20 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:30.650 Dave Price: Yeah. 21 00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:35.690 Kathie Obradovich: Because you’re always thinking about, you know, you’ve got the timing, you’ve got 22 00:02:35.690 --> 00:02:59.720 Kathie Obradovich: if you… if you’re on the clock, you have to watch the clock, you know, figuring out who gets the next question first, and, you know, keeping track of all of that, and it’s… it is exhausting. So, believe me, good job on that. You know, I think that the exchange about abortion, was the headline out of that. The, Zach Wahls went after. 23 00:02:59.750 --> 00:03:02.959 Kathie Obradovich: Josh Turek, about… 24 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:19.959 Kathie Obradovich: missing some votes related to reproductive rights and abortion, and particularly the six-week abortion ban vote, and also about a vote on the budget for the Moms program, which is a. 25 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:21.739 Kathie Obradovich: Sort of a… 26 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:32.379 Kathie Obradovich: help for unplanned pregnancies type of program. And, you know, I think that, Turek. 27 00:03:32.380 --> 00:03:47.139 Kathie Obradovich: was ready for most of that, and the memorable point I think he made was that he was sick, when the six-week abortion ban vote was taken, with an illness related to his disability. He said. 28 00:03:47.140 --> 00:03:58.190 Kathie Obradovich: he, you know, that was known at the time that Zach Wahls knew, and he said it was, I don’t remember what the word was, disgusting, or… 29 00:03:58.190 --> 00:03:58.920 Dave Price: Graceful places. 30 00:03:58.920 --> 00:04:16.890 Kathie Obradovich: disgraceful that he would bring that up. So… so that was a pretty memorable exchange. I think it’s, consistent with the previous debates and forums that we’ve seen with these two, with Zach Wells throwing elbows at, Josh Turk’s record, and, really not 31 00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:30.630 Kathie Obradovich: In this particular debate, not a lot of Josh Turek, you know, pushing back at, you know, at Zach Wall’s record, as we saw in the previous debate. 32 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:56.110 Laura Belin: I also liked the questions that they were very direct and on issues that a lot of Democratic primary voters care about, so I appreciated that aspect of it. And I have not moderated a televised debate, but I have moderated candidate forums, and I can relate to that thing that you’re trying to keep track and make sure you get to all the topics and make sure the time is fair, so that it… I think it makes sense to assign somebody else to write the story about the 33 00:04:56.110 --> 00:05:20.789 Laura Belin: debate. I have been looking at this reproductive rights stuff, because the Walz campaign has been pushing this line since January, when the Roe v. Wade anniversary rolled around. And the missed vote, I remember in 2023, I asked a bunch of the legislators who were absent for that vote why they missed it, and so I got that explanation at the time, and Josh Turric had posted at the time that he was against that bill. 34 00:05:20.820 --> 00:05:44.580 Laura Belin: But I do think that it’s fair to say that Council Bluffs, not a socially liberal place, and another thing that Zach Wells brought up is that Josh Turek, until this year, had not co-sponsored or introduced any legislation on reproductive rights, and that’s accurate as far as I can tell. But, you know, representing Coralville and Johnson County is really different from representing Council Bluffs. 35 00:05:44.580 --> 00:05:49.780 Laura Belin: And the missed votes, I just feel like that’s a little bit of a cheap shot, because 36 00:05:49.780 --> 00:06:13.919 Laura Belin: legislators missed some votes. Zach Wells missed a lot of votes around the time his son was born in 2024, and I don’t think anybody points fingers and says, you’re not… you don’t care about that issue because you were absent the day they voted this, that, or the other. I did look into the vote on the Moms program, that’s the money that goes for the crisis pregnancy centers that are not medical clinics, but sometimes present themselves as offering healthcare, and that… 37 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:37.469 Laura Belin: That was a committee vote on a bill that had a lot of pieces to it, including something about creating OBGYN residencies or something. And it wasn’t just Turek. Austin Bates and several of the committee Democrats voted for that bill coming out of committee. Then they all voted, all the Democrats voted against the final version of the bill that had the extra funding for these clinics, this, the moms. 38 00:06:37.470 --> 00:06:46.159 Laura Belin: program. So I think that that’s a little bit… it is accurate that he voted for it out of committee, but I think it kind of misrepresents what that committee vote was about. 39 00:06:46.370 --> 00:07:05.939 Kathie Obradovich: Well, and they had double the money for that mom’s program, apparently, from $500,000 to a million dollars on the floor, which, either… I don’t know if Turk said that during the debate, or if it was something his campaign put out later, but they said that when they raised that funding was a reason to vote against it. 40 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:24.489 Dave Price: I mentioned this during one of my live hits for the TV stations on Thursday night, but that exchange that they had about those missed votes, that is where, as sitting up there on the desk during this, you know, I can… 41 00:07:24.950 --> 00:07:31.879 Dave Price: what I would want to see is, like, a bunch of primary voters hooked up to those little dials and stuff, you know, in the focus room. 42 00:07:31.880 --> 00:07:32.980 Kathie Obradovich: Because I would… 43 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:38.329 Dave Price: so fascinated how that would go over with people. Like, is Wahls… 44 00:07:38.790 --> 00:07:47.150 Dave Price: making some progress on this by pushing this, or when Tura gives the explanation, are people… 45 00:07:48.530 --> 00:07:59.310 Dave Price: more likely to side with Turek and say, hey, this is… this is kind of wrong, and to your point, you know, this is a cheap shot. Like, how are people viewing this once they know the full picture? 46 00:08:01.210 --> 00:08:23.710 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, you know, we may never know, you know, the responses to that, and I always wonder how important debates really are in the scheme of campaigns, you know? And I do think that the news coverage of debates is probably more viewed than the debates themselves sometimes. 47 00:08:23.710 --> 00:08:24.160 Dave Price: Yeah. 48 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:44.109 Kathie Obradovich: But in a race like this, where it’s… it’s really close, you know, everything matters, and, you know, so I would think debates matter. Can I just say, too, I was fascinated by the responses to your question about which, Republican senators the candidates… 49 00:08:44.110 --> 00:08:45.250 Dave Price: Staying around. 50 00:08:45.250 --> 00:08:58.089 Kathie Obradovich: Most admired. I thought that was interesting. We were kind of wondering about, Zach Wall’s, choice. Didn’t he pick Ruben Gallego? I thought that was an interesting… Josh Terrick did. 51 00:08:58.090 --> 00:09:01.840 Laura Belin: Josh Turek, in terms of current senators you admire, Josh Turek. 52 00:09:02.180 --> 00:09:03.000 Laura Belin: Diego. 53 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:12.829 Kathie Obradovich: Oh, okay, yeah, and then sure picked Grassley as the… which I thought was a pretty safe choice, but, but yeah, I thought that was pretty interesting, 54 00:09:13.060 --> 00:09:16.340 Kathie Obradovich: Responses to those questions. 55 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:30.979 Laura Belin: I thought it was interesting that Zach Wahls said, Tammy, Baldwin, because she rep… she comes from a liberal area, Madison and Wisconsin, and yet she’s been able to win statewide, so I thought that was kind of a response to the electability argument. I was gonna say… 56 00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:32.999 Kathie Obradovich: I’m gonna say Warren right off the bat, and of course. 57 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:55.370 Laura Belin: Right, right. Sadly, we didn’t have the focus group of voters with the dials, but the Walz campaign, I mean, they did have earlier this year a message testing poll that was in the field, and so I think the fact that we’ve heard so much about Chuck Schumer in the first debate and reproductive rights, I think we can infer that their data from their message testing signaled that this was 58 00:09:55.370 --> 00:10:08.040 Laura Belin: these were effective lines to use. I just know, anecdotally, I’ve had Democrats ask me, like, is it true that Josh Turek isn’t pro-choice or something? You know, they got… they had this impression in their mind that 59 00:10:08.040 --> 00:10:11.289 Laura Belin: That he hasn’t supported reproductive rights. 60 00:10:11.590 --> 00:10:14.810 Dave Price: The one thing we were talking over… 61 00:10:15.220 --> 00:10:24.930 Dave Price: before the debate was, you know, the debate order, the subject order. And we had made the decision that, you know, it’s TV, 62 00:10:24.930 --> 00:10:37.379 Dave Price: Obviously, there are ways you can structure it if you really want the battle the whole time. We were not looking for that in a primary, we were looking for more substance. 63 00:10:37.380 --> 00:10:48.909 Dave Price: And we went back and forth on this. We ended up starting with the electability. I mean, part of the debate rules is that they get their opening statements. I’m not usually a big fan of those, because I feel like a lot of times those are throwaways, but… 64 00:10:49.370 --> 00:11:03.739 Dave Price: the electability thing, I thought, alright, that’s something Democrats are thinking about, and I was going through my head, like, does it make sense to start with that, or should that be the close? And we ended up doing it. I put it at the beginning. 65 00:11:03.990 --> 00:11:15.750 Dave Price: We put it at the beginning, hoping that maybe they’d get some of it out of their system, and then we can kind of start digging into the issues after that, but they do… they do offer two different 66 00:11:16.560 --> 00:11:22.169 Dave Price: Storylines about how they view their electability based on where they live. 67 00:11:23.690 --> 00:11:26.299 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I mean, I mean, it’s… 68 00:11:26.300 --> 00:11:44.089 Kathie Obradovich: one of Josh Turek’s main talking points that he’s won in, you know, twice in red districts, and, you know, certainly, you know, you look at the state of Iowa, that’s a pertinent argument, right? You want to be… and also one that, 69 00:11:44.090 --> 00:12:07.250 Kathie Obradovich: you know, sort of… it is a big contrast with Zach Wahls living in one of the biggest blue spots in the state of Iowa. Blue dots, I would say. So, you know, but Walz can point to the fact that, you know, he also has rural counties that he represents as part of his district, and that he 70 00:12:07.250 --> 00:12:25.900 Kathie Obradovich: he does spend time in small towns, grew up in a small town, and that he can relate, to people there. So, I mean, it’s not… it’s not, you know, definitely, a totally decisive… these electability arguments are so subjective, whatever, you know, what do you think is electable? So… 71 00:12:26.280 --> 00:12:49.749 Laura Belin: Yeah, I mean, the electability, a lot of it is a little bit vibes-based for people. I’ve… I’m someone who likes to dive into those numbers and look at how candidates performed relative to the top of their ticket, and sadly, we don’t have that kind of data for Zach Wahls because he hasn’t had a Republican opponent, so we don’t know whether he overperforms or not. But Josh Turek, I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole. 72 00:12:49.750 --> 00:12:53.219 Laura Belin: last night after the debate, because I saw somebody post 73 00:12:53.220 --> 00:13:14.839 Laura Belin: that, Turek almost cost Democrats a House seat, and that he underperformed in 2022, and I was like, that’s not right. So I went and looked at the results for just the precincts where Josh Turek was on the ballot, and he did, he outperformed not only the Democratic candidates for Senate and Governor, but he even outperformed Rob Sand in that race in his district. 74 00:13:15.030 --> 00:13:36.819 Laura Belin: Now, you can argue, well, just because he did that in an Iowa House race, where he knocked on a lot of doors and had face-to-face contact with people, that may not translate into a full statewide victory, and I think that’s a fair point, but, I mean, you can’t argue against the fact that he has overperformed in a Trump voting district, which is just not that easy to do. 75 00:13:37.370 --> 00:13:43.750 Dave Price: As a guy who’s done TV for 30 years, I try to not focus too much on performance. 76 00:13:43.950 --> 00:13:51.039 Dave Price: In a debate, and because I feel like probably TV people overvalue… 77 00:13:51.470 --> 00:14:08.059 Dave Price: Having said that, it seems like a lot of successful politicians have, you know, the communication skills. What do you… as I was sitting there, I think Wahls is a little more comfortable, a little more polished in his delivery. 78 00:14:08.380 --> 00:14:22.190 Dave Price: Turek maybe showed a little more nerves, and maybe a lack of experience in that kind of setting. Not that Walz has had tons of debates or anything like that, but does that… do you think that matters? Does that matter to people, or not? 79 00:14:22.680 --> 00:14:47.100 Kathie Obradovich: I mean, I think it matters to some people, and it matters more if we start seeing clips of these debates in advertising, for example, as opposed to, you know, people actually watching a debate all the way through. I definitely agree with your impression. Wahls is more polished. That was exactly the word I was thinking about. One of the things that surprised me 80 00:14:47.260 --> 00:15:04.299 Kathie Obradovich: was that Turek, you know, when Walz was talking about his, endorsements, by Elizabeth Warren, and that Turek, I’m pretty sure, unless I missed it, he did not even mention being endorsed by Tom Harkin. Did he not? Did he fail to mention that? 81 00:15:04.490 --> 00:15:06.040 Dave Price: You mentioned that you were different. 82 00:15:06.040 --> 00:15:10.200 Laura Belin: He mentioned it somewhere, I can’t remember exactly the kind. 83 00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:19.219 Kathie Obradovich: Okay, because I was… I was listening for that, and I didn’t… I didn’t hear it, and then also, I didn’t hear him mention his recent endorsement by Pete Buttigieg. 84 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:20.230 Dave Price: I don’t think he’d mentioned. 85 00:15:20.230 --> 00:15:22.100 Laura Belin: No, I don’t think he mentioned that. 86 00:15:22.100 --> 00:15:36.540 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so I was… I was a little surprised by that. I do remember there was a mention of Harkin in, like, running for Harkin’s seat, or taking Harkin’s seat back, but I just… I didn’t hear him say, and Tom Harkin has endorsed me. 87 00:15:36.640 --> 00:15:40.440 Kathie Obradovich: And I was, I was pretty surprised by that, so… 88 00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:43.029 Laura Belin: I’ve not worked in television, but as a… 89 00:15:43.030 --> 00:16:05.779 Laura Belin: former high school debater. I agree with the impression that Zach Wahls seemed a little more comfortable in speaking in a more polished way, and just, when it came to the closing statements, I didn’t know what the rules were or the agreement ahead of time. If I were Josh Turek, I would not argue about who was supposed to go first, even if… and I think that as it turned out, it was… it was correct that 90 00:16:05.780 --> 00:16:11.330 Laura Belin: Turek was supposed to go first, but in any case, even if I thought, well, he got to speak first. 91 00:16:11.330 --> 00:16:14.139 Dave Price: Oh, yeah, I mean, I think he was supposed to go first, excuse me, yes. 92 00:16:14.140 --> 00:16:26.289 Laura Belin: Yeah, so, I mean, whatever the agreement was ahead of time about who should be first or last, and I understand the idea that you want to have the last word, but on the other hand, I don’t think it’s a great look to be 93 00:16:26.290 --> 00:16:39.760 Laura Belin: arguing about that during the debate. I would just let that go, even if I… but I think that it’s hard, you know, they have in their mind a certain idea of what things… you know, they’re also thinking, not only about answering the question. 94 00:16:39.760 --> 00:16:40.220 Dave Price: But they’re. 95 00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:43.350 Laura Belin: They’re in their mind, thinking about the points that they haven’t made yet. 96 00:16:43.350 --> 00:16:43.859 Dave Price: that they’re needing. 97 00:16:43.860 --> 00:16:49.579 Laura Belin: to make sure to get in before the end of the debate, so I can imagine it’s easy to get nervous. 98 00:16:49.660 --> 00:16:52.569 Dave Price: And it gets, you know, it gets, when you’re doing it. 99 00:16:52.750 --> 00:16:59.780 Dave Price: When you’re doing it live like that, it gets clunky and awkward when you have one of the candidates 100 00:17:01.300 --> 00:17:07.349 Dave Price: Thinking that the rules aren’t being followed, and you’re sitting there in the moment going, oh, crap. 101 00:17:07.430 --> 00:17:26.929 Dave Price: Because it’s going through your head, like, we don’t want to screw this up, because these are all… these are all laid out to the campaigns beforehand, and yeah, in the grand scheme of life, is it that big of a deal? I would think, to many people, probably not. But in the heat of the moment, you want to be accurate, too, and you don’t want to screw one person over, or whatever. 102 00:17:26.930 --> 00:17:34.060 Dave Price: That’s why I kind of made it a jump ball thing, because… I also… And… 103 00:17:34.340 --> 00:17:52.970 Dave Price: like, I’m a people watcher. I don’t… I probably shouldn’t even acknowledge this, but, in a recording like this, but, like, I like to see… I mean, you’re talking about leadership, right? So I wanted to see, in the spur of the moment here, alright, let’s see who sort of seizes the moment. Like, we’ve got some confusion, who wants it or whatever, and Wahls… 104 00:17:52.970 --> 00:17:59.630 Dave Price: So Waltz jumped in and took it. Turek had one other challenge earlier when the timer 105 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:05.380 Dave Price: clock, quit working for a little bit, and for the most part, and I should say both of them. 106 00:18:05.600 --> 00:18:20.660 Dave Price: were remarkable for sticking to the pre-agreed time limits. They were supposed to do, like, a minute for the main question, and they got little warnings. We had… there was, like, a green light and a red light or whatever, and it would flash. They got, like, a 10-second warning kind of thing. 107 00:18:20.660 --> 00:18:27.509 Dave Price: And they were both remarkable about sticking to that, which allowed us to really 108 00:18:27.510 --> 00:18:49.199 Dave Price: make our way through a lot of the questions, but something did go haywire in the middle of that, and I think Turek saw it, and he no longer saw the countdown clock, so he probably didn’t know how long Wahls was speaking. We knew in our ears, because the producer up in the booth is like, hey, something’s going on with the timer clock here, so we’re just gonna let Wahls go. 109 00:18:49.200 --> 00:19:03.009 Dave Price: let him finish his thought, you know, whatever, and then we’ll do the same thing with Turek and kind of reset the system. And it ended up working, but, that is one more complication, one more wild card that you throw in when, no matter how much 110 00:19:03.010 --> 00:19:10.860 Dave Price: time these… how much experience these candidates have. I mean, it is a live thing, so there’s a lot of pressure, and you don’t know what’s coming, and… 111 00:19:10.860 --> 00:19:16.589 Dave Price: I get people who occasionally ask me, like, do we give them the questions in advance? Well, of course not. 112 00:19:17.100 --> 00:19:21.779 Dave Price: They have no… we don’t… we don’t do subjects, we don’t do anything. They don’t know anything. 113 00:19:21.780 --> 00:19:35.200 Laura Belin: But they’re prepared. I mean, you didn’t ask about anything that was way out there that… I mean, if they’re doing decent debate prep, they should be prepared for questions on any number of major issues, including the ones that you raised. 114 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:44.380 Dave Price: Totally, and you would think if you’re out there campaigning a lot, so much stuff comes up organically from the audiences anyway. They’ve had most subjects. 115 00:19:44.380 --> 00:20:01.049 Dave Price: They may not always be drilled for specifics, but most of the things should have come up, and I appreciate that we, you know, you can’t get to everything. When I used to do a show at Channel 13, we had this final segment, which was called the Quick Six, which was like a lightning round kind of thing. 116 00:20:01.050 --> 00:20:02.929 Dave Price: That was always my favorite. 117 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:09.380 Dave Price: Because… it could be anything under the sun. I mean, I didn’t do gotcha questions. 118 00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:27.189 Dave Price: But it could be anything under the sun, and you could… I like to see how quickly they could respond to stuff, plus they had to, like, instinctively answer things. You couldn’t sit there and pontificate and give stump speeches and all that, so… I was hoping we were gonna have time at the end for the lightning rounds, and we had a few more. 119 00:20:27.190 --> 00:20:30.040 Dave Price: I think I had 6 or 7 questions in there. 120 00:20:30.040 --> 00:20:30.380 Laura Belin: Boom. 121 00:20:30.380 --> 00:20:44.799 Dave Price: built out, so I was glad we were able to get to a few of those, because they were very brief in that second half, so we ended up having more time at the end than we thought. Did any… I was curious from, from you both, 122 00:20:44.890 --> 00:20:56.660 Dave Price: My quick takeaway from last night is that while we had some exchanges about some things, there weren’t a lot of really evident policy differences. What did you both think? 123 00:20:58.270 --> 00:21:03.309 Kathie Obradovich: No, I mean, I think that’s been true throughout, and one of the reasons why they’re really… 124 00:21:03.500 --> 00:21:13.160 Kathie Obradovich: Emphasizing pretty heavily on electability, you know, and then, you know, sort of some of these issues like missed votes, or… 125 00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:33.819 Kathie Obradovich: the previous debate, you know, there was an emphasis on Josh Turk’s vote on an immigration bill that most Democrats didn’t support, and, you know, I don’t know if those random votes really add up to policy differences, but 126 00:21:34.250 --> 00:21:52.780 Kathie Obradovich: you know, those are… those are, you know, when you… when you point to voting records in, in a debate, you know, certainly that… that carries a little bit more, weight, I think, than just saying so-and-so is just not as committed as I am, you know, to this issue, so… Yeah. 127 00:21:52.780 --> 00:22:02.270 Laura Belin: I feel that it… they don’t disagree on very many policy issues, as we talked about last week. This isn’t a primary with big ideological differences, and I think that 128 00:22:02.270 --> 00:22:13.170 Laura Belin: both of them came out of the debate with plenty of clips that have already seen clips that they’re sharing on social medias, and nobody made a big gaffe, so I feel like, in that sense, it… 129 00:22:13.170 --> 00:22:16.159 Laura Belin: It probably didn’t change the dynamic very much. 130 00:22:16.420 --> 00:22:20.199 Dave Price: Laura, the one thing afterwards that I wish I would have… 131 00:22:20.710 --> 00:22:26.540 Dave Price: Worked in there, and somebody else pointed out sort of a different version of this question. 132 00:22:26.900 --> 00:22:44.379 Dave Price: is that the Democratic brand, like, to try to lean into what Iowans think about the Democratic brand, they’ve clearly soured on it. And we can talk a bunch of different times about, you know, is it the… 133 00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:53.829 Dave Price: the kind of coastal themes that people here in the Midwest don’t like, and they, you know, however you want to dig into this, but somebody… 134 00:22:53.830 --> 00:23:08.690 Dave Price: had said, you know, I wish you would have asked something like… and it made me think about your story, Laura, that I’ve referenced numerous times here on the podcast, for Democrats who have high hopes about November, the reality of being almost 200… 135 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:15.530 Dave Price: 1,000 registered voters short, still, and we’re not really seeing 136 00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:32.970 Dave Price: I guess we’ll see what happens after the primary. Maybe those numbers change a little bit, but, I mean, it’s not like we’re watching the numbers go like this, right? Like, I mean, it’s still a gap. They’re gonna have to get a lot of these independents to come over and win back some of these Republicans, and I wish I would have thought… 137 00:23:33.370 --> 00:23:38.969 Dave Price: I don’t know where it would have fit in there, maybe I could have gotten it in at the end or something, to sort of address, like… 138 00:23:39.080 --> 00:23:51.239 Dave Price: where Democrats have lost their way, and, like, maybe just simply, like, what is a Democrat, what does a Democrat stand for, or something like that. We were trying to get a lot of specific answers on things. 139 00:23:51.660 --> 00:24:00.689 Dave Price: And I think we tried to push for a bunch of those things, but I wish we… I wish I would have worked in one kind of more philosophical… 140 00:24:00.930 --> 00:24:11.589 Dave Price: you know, kind of what is a Democrat, and why should we think that you’re gonna bring Iowa to rally around, you know, you representing whatever this vision is? 141 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:24.209 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, it’s always an interesting question, although when I’m trying to write questions for debates, I always try to lean more heavily on not what candidates think, but what they’ll do, you know? 142 00:24:24.210 --> 00:24:24.560 Dave Price: Yeah. 143 00:24:24.560 --> 00:24:43.820 Kathie Obradovich: to try to make that distinction, because it’s, you know, it’s interesting, and it may be, you know, a question like you’re talking about may be instructive to see, you know, how candidates are thinking about these philosophical issues, but, you know, I really, you know, one of the functions, I think, of a debate 144 00:24:43.820 --> 00:24:48.170 Kathie Obradovich: Is to create a record of what candidates 145 00:24:48.170 --> 00:24:54.220 Kathie Obradovich: Actually say that they will do, so that you can hold them accountable for it later, if they get elected. 146 00:24:54.860 --> 00:25:04.700 Laura Belin: I think that the voter registration… well, we’ll see what happens after the primary, but I think that the gap could get even wider, because there’s so much focus on the Republican race for governor. 147 00:25:04.700 --> 00:25:28.170 Laura Belin: And yes, this is a competitive Senate Democratic primary, but there are a lot of uncompetitive Democratic races. Rob Sand, without having a primary opponent, he’s basically running a general election campaign already, rather than trying to turn out voters in high numbers for the primary. So I feel like it’s… the 200,000 vote in the whole thing, I mean, that’s still going to be a serious problem 148 00:25:28.170 --> 00:25:32.890 Laura Belin: for not just the Senate nominee, but for everybody running on a statewide basis. 149 00:25:34.170 --> 00:25:36.510 Dave Price: And I should mention that… 150 00:25:36.800 --> 00:25:56.039 Dave Price: We did hope to hold a Republican Senate debate as well with Ashley Hinson and Jim Carlin. Hinson did not agree to do to, did not agree to a debate, and she hasn’t agreed to a debate with anybody else. I don’t know how many different media partnerships pitched a debate. 151 00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:01.939 Dave Price: we will drop this, we’re recording on Friday, we always drop this on Saturday mornings. 152 00:26:01.960 --> 00:26:12.889 Dave Price: We do have an upcoming debate that will, go on Tuesday. That is for the Republican gubernatorial debate, and we will have four. 153 00:26:12.890 --> 00:26:27.540 Dave Price: So unlike the Iowa… Iowa PBS one that only had 3, so if you recall, Zach Lahn kind of took that stand and said, I’m not gonna debate because Randy Feenstra’s not gonna debate, and until Randy Feenstra debates. 154 00:26:27.870 --> 00:26:29.180 Dave Price: I’m not debating. 155 00:26:29.490 --> 00:26:49.309 Dave Price: He has changed his mind, so he will take, take part in this debate, that we will record this weekend. Feenstra, as you could maybe guess, has not agreed to do it, so it’ll be the four without, without Feenstra. And I’m, 156 00:26:49.390 --> 00:27:00.800 Dave Price: Like I’ve said here, we’re recording Friday morning. All Friday and all Saturday, we’re going to be finalizing the debate topics. It’s like a whole different dynamic, though, right? Because you have 4 people. 157 00:27:01.360 --> 00:27:06.360 Dave Price: And, you know, you want to make it fair on time and questions and all that kind of stuff. 158 00:27:06.460 --> 00:27:20.330 Dave Price: But it also means… now, this will be a 90-minute debate instead of the 60-minute that we had for the Senate Democrats, but… I mean, it still limits with 4 people. It limits how many topics you can get into, and I feel like… 159 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:32.690 Dave Price: I don’t want it to be boring, either. I mean, I want it to be substantive, but, you know, I don’t want it to be robotic, where we’re going down the line, okay, what would you do about this? What would you do about this? What would you do about this? 160 00:27:32.800 --> 00:27:35.470 Dave Price: So we’ll have to… we gotta… 161 00:27:36.110 --> 00:27:41.660 Dave Price: there’s a way I have in my mind about, how to do this, but the order of it 162 00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:51.039 Dave Price: We had… we had a little, you know, there was confusion with Turek, as we mentioned, from the Senate campaign. Man, with 4 of them. That’s when it gets funky for us. 163 00:27:51.290 --> 00:27:58.110 Dave Price: under the lights, in the moment, to remember, okay, who went first last time, and who went this time, and… 164 00:27:58.110 --> 00:27:59.340 Kathie Obradovich: That’s always… 165 00:27:59.340 --> 00:28:00.530 Dave Price: It’s hard, right? 166 00:28:00.530 --> 00:28:01.750 Kathie Obradovich: It’s always hard. 167 00:28:02.350 --> 00:28:21.000 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, one thing with four people, you know, one of the ways to sort of keep it from being a robotic right down the… is basically to ask different questions on the same topic, so you might let two answer a question, specific question on a topic, and then 168 00:28:21.020 --> 00:28:29.789 Kathie Obradovich: You know, to change it up just a little bit for the… for the other two. If they want to answer the original question, they will anyway. Yeah. But… 169 00:28:29.790 --> 00:28:39.840 Laura Belin: That’s what they did on the Iowa PBS debate. I honestly… I don’t love that. I prefer having… asking everybody the same question, but that’s hard with four candidates. 170 00:28:39.910 --> 00:28:40.490 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah. 171 00:28:40.490 --> 00:28:45.340 Dave Price: I will try to, like I did last night, sometimes I’ll take… 172 00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:48.420 Dave Price: Part of the answer, the first candidate. 173 00:28:48.450 --> 00:28:57.749 Dave Price: gave, and used that in the question for the next one. And I tried to do that so that people could have some comparisons. There was one that… 174 00:28:57.750 --> 00:29:13.600 Dave Price: I remember Wall said something about, lowering Medicare age to 55, and I think I used that as a way to, to get into Turek. But, like, the other wild card for this is, like, you don’t know when it was just the two of them, especially. And I didn’t think Turek was gonna be… 175 00:29:13.600 --> 00:29:18.470 Dave Price: super aggressive. That hasn’t been his style, unless something was going to change. 176 00:29:18.970 --> 00:29:34.150 Dave Price: But I didn’t know what Wahls would do. You know, he’s really stressed this, I’m not the insider guy kind of thing, and ripped on Turek for being associated with these insiders, so you, you know, you sort of carefully script out… 177 00:29:34.240 --> 00:29:41.229 Dave Price: How you want the debate to go, and we had one 2-minute commercial break in there, so you know you have the total time. 178 00:29:41.660 --> 00:29:46.789 Dave Price: available. You know, when you want to hit the commercial break, you know the topics you want. 179 00:29:47.010 --> 00:29:57.029 Dave Price: potential follow-ups that you can think of ahead of time, but you need to adjust if they say something that’s not clear, and you’re trying to keep, like, a mental clock of. 180 00:29:57.070 --> 00:30:14.710 Dave Price: Okay, Candidate A is approximately had this time, Candidate B has had this time, but the wild card is, like, when somebody goes, you know, you suck, kind of thing. Some… some allegation about the other person, because you don’t want to be unfair and not let candidate… 181 00:30:14.800 --> 00:30:26.400 Dave Price: Y respond to what candidate X said, but there’s also the balance, right? Because you don’t want that to devolve early, where if one comes out really hot. 182 00:30:26.550 --> 00:30:35.390 Dave Price: Then it just ends up being this tension where they’re just lobbing garbage back and forth, and the whole thing’s gone off the rails. 183 00:30:35.900 --> 00:30:53.439 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, and candidates, you know, I think they know, if they’re experienced debaters, they save a lot of that for the end, when time is tight, and there’s less, maybe less time and less opportunity for the opponent to respond to that, so it’s definitely part of the tactic, managing the clock in a debate. 184 00:30:53.440 --> 00:31:08.899 Laura Belin: I remember that from one of the debates in 2018 between Kim Reynolds and Fred Hubbell, that Kim Reynolds, several times, she ended her com- her response to a question with an attack on Fred Hubbell, and sometimes it was even unrelated, and then he would end up 185 00:31:08.900 --> 00:31:16.439 Laura Belin: Wasting the first 10 or 15 seconds of his answer responding to what she just said, so it really seemed to throw him off his game. 186 00:31:16.440 --> 00:31:19.489 Dave Price: Alright, as we come to a… come to a close here… 187 00:31:19.710 --> 00:31:32.029 Dave Price: What do you think the Republican field, minus Feenstra, needs to accomplish in this… what will now be the second and final gubernatorial debate? 188 00:31:32.370 --> 00:31:33.180 Kathie Obradovich: Mmm. 189 00:31:33.430 --> 00:31:49.999 Laura Belin: I think that the key is to… everyone needs to make themselves into the… the focus for the non-Feenstra vote. The only way that any of them can win this primary is to consolidate the non-Feenstra vote, and so that is… I think we may see some… 190 00:31:50.080 --> 00:31:54.750 Laura Belin: some shots lobbed between Adam Steen and Zach Lahn, for example. 191 00:31:55.090 --> 00:32:19.119 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think so too, and I just want to remind everyone that we all said it was really stupid for Zach Lane to skip that previous debate, and maybe he decided that it was not a good idea to miss that, but I do think that, you know, Laura’s absolutely right. I mean, what they’re trying to do is make themselves into the 192 00:32:19.120 --> 00:32:26.090 Kathie Obradovich: main alternative to Randy Feenstra. And, you know, I… at this point. 193 00:32:26.290 --> 00:32:29.749 Kathie Obradovich: I really miss… can I just say, I miss… 194 00:32:29.760 --> 00:32:53.079 Kathie Obradovich: the Dwayne Register Iowa polls. We have not seen, really, any polling, a lot of independent polling in these debates. I’d really love to know what numbers these candidates are looking at, as they go into this debate, because it… I mean, it does seem like, Steen, with his, family leader endorsements, is in a… 195 00:32:53.080 --> 00:33:12.759 Kathie Obradovich: good position to, you know, argue that he’s the, main alternative to Randy Feenstra, but Zach Lahn is definitely a wild card, and again, we don’t know how much of the vote, Eddie Andrews and Brad Sherman will be able to pull. It does… it makes a difference whether anybody gets to 35%. 196 00:33:13.500 --> 00:33:14.480 Dave Price: I’m curious… 197 00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:23.510 Dave Price: I’ve been with you throughout this, Laura, about the need to… this is why I didn’t understand why Lahn skipped that first debate. 198 00:33:23.800 --> 00:33:33.239 Dave Price: when you… when you’re coming in with Feenstra, and we can, you know, we can talk about whether Feenstra really has the name ID outside the 4th Congressional District. 199 00:33:33.240 --> 00:33:45.849 Dave Price: and how much that could be a, you know, a hurdle for him that it’s something he’s gotta work on. He’s still the obvious frontrunner into this, and he clearly thinks he is, otherwise he’d be doing the debate, regardless of whether, you know, debating… 200 00:33:45.850 --> 00:33:51.770 Dave Price: is his forte or not. But I’ll be curious in this 90-minute debate. 201 00:33:52.580 --> 00:34:09.409 Dave Price: how they direct their attention. Do they spend a bunch of it… I don’t really know that Sherman and Andrews would do this a lot, but I’m thinking particularly with Lahn and Steen, but do you spend a bunch of your time trying to knock Feenstra, A, for not being there, and then on policy things? 202 00:34:09.610 --> 00:34:12.349 Dave Price: Or do you spend your time… 203 00:34:13.139 --> 00:34:26.760 Dave Price: focusing on the other three there to try to hold them down, to raise yourself up, so that you can establish yourself in your mind. When this debate ends, I’m the clear number two. It’s gonna be Feenstra versus 204 00:34:27.120 --> 00:34:33.349 Dave Price: whoever that person is. Or do you somehow find a way to thread a needle where you try to do both those things? Does that make sense? 205 00:34:34.179 --> 00:34:46.519 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, acting like Beanster doesn’t exist, is one way to go. You know, it’s like, you know, these are the candidates that are standing before you, and here’s why I’m the best of this, this group. 206 00:34:46.519 --> 00:34:57.269 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, that’s one strategy. If you think that Feenstra is not that well known outside of the 4th District, or that, you know, he has. 207 00:34:57.269 --> 00:35:17.389 Kathie Obradovich: if he does have name recognition, then just ignoring him is… is one possibility. But I do think, you know, each candidate, just as you said, has to be, you know, the tallest, one on the stage, in the sense of the, you know, the one that has the 208 00:35:17.579 --> 00:35:26.269 Kathie Obradovich: the ability to actually win the primary and go on and challenge Rob Sand. So, and you know, frankly. 209 00:35:26.429 --> 00:35:30.029 Kathie Obradovich: With a, with a huge competitive primary. 210 00:35:30.049 --> 00:35:48.979 Kathie Obradovich: Whoever does come out of that primary does come out, I think, with a head of steam against Rob Sand. So, so it is an… I think it is kind of… even despite the challenges posed by a large field, whoever comes out of it is going to have a benefit from it. 211 00:35:49.200 --> 00:35:58.050 Laura Belin: I think that you can… you don’t have to spend a lot of time on Feenstra, but I think it makes sense for people to spend 5 seconds, 10 seconds. 212 00:35:58.100 --> 00:36:23.079 Laura Belin: pointing out that he’s not there. I’m sure that we’ll hear that it’s a disrespect to the voters that he keeps skipping these venues. Adam Steen has been using this line, Runaway Randy, so that might be something we hear, but you don’t have to spend a lot of time on that. And I don’t think that they’ll necessarily attack each other a lot, although Brad Sherman seems to have some animosity toward Adam Steen, so he may… they’re competing for that Christian conservative niche, so we may 213 00:36:23.080 --> 00:36:46.590 Laura Belin: here’s some attacks there. But I think if I were Steen or Lahn, I would just focus on what is my base of support, and why am I the person who can really beat Randy Feenstra and then carry it through to November? Whether it’s Zach Lahn saying that he has Steve King’s endorsement, and he has a lot of money that’s mostly money that he’s put into his own campaign, or whether… 214 00:36:46.590 --> 00:36:55.459 Laura Belin: Adam Steen talking about the network of support that he has, I don’t know, but I think that that’s what people will want to know, who can really beat Rob Sand. 215 00:36:55.750 --> 00:37:10.449 Kathie Obradovich: Well, is somebody gonna go after Zach Lahn for this news this week, that he’s spending a lot of time in Kansas, and flying his plane back and forth between Iowa and Kansas? Is that, I mean, is that… are we gonna hear about that, do you think? 216 00:37:10.950 --> 00:37:23.619 Dave Price: That’s another one, when you’re talking about, like, a focus group. When I read Breanne’s story in the register, and we have heard this throughout the campaign, I was not aware of the specifics of how much time 217 00:37:23.620 --> 00:37:42.209 Dave Price: Lahn was spending in Kansas versus how much time he was here. And he is a pilot, so he flies back and forth, and he has a plane and all of that. I think the plane was out of commission somewhere in there for a little bit, but regardless, going back and forth, and they have this big blended family that he has with his… with his second wife, and so, you know, you have 218 00:37:42.410 --> 00:37:57.339 Dave Price: kids… and they have kids together, too, so you have kids, you know, in Kansas, and then they have their children as well in Iowa, so it is going back and forth to make sure they can spend time with everybody. But I am curious what people think about that reading… 219 00:37:57.550 --> 00:38:11.969 Dave Price: reading through that story is… is that, is that a positive, that he’s committed to the kids to make sure that, you know, they’re around, for the upbringing of these kids? Does it show that he’s not here enough? I’m really curious how that’s gonna go over, once people see that. 220 00:38:11.970 --> 00:38:30.159 Kathie Obradovich: because the Democrats are already attacking Lahn as a, you know, he’s a carpetbagger, he’s, you know, he’s… he’s a Kansan, you know, not… he’s, you know, he says he’s gonna put Iowa first, but he’s not in Iowa. So that… that… that line of attack is already out there from the Democrats. I’m just curious about whether any of the fellow Republicans will do it. 221 00:38:30.160 --> 00:38:41.460 Laura Belin: Well, and I also don’t know… I mean, the focus… the frame of the article was that he’s made a lot of trips to Kansas and spent some time in Kansas, but then the kind of subtext of the article was that this is a… 222 00:38:41.460 --> 00:39:01.900 Laura Belin: second marriage, and that he and his wife were working together, and they were married to other people. So, I mean, in the mindset of a conservative Republican primary voter, I don’t know which would bother them more, the fact that there were divorces, and that there’s a blended family, or that he’s spending time going down to Kansas. 223 00:39:02.460 --> 00:39:09.980 Kathie Obradovich: Well, I mean, isn’t he trying to appeal to Trump voters? I don’t think that the multiple marriages are gonna bother him that much. 224 00:39:10.370 --> 00:39:17.789 Dave Price: Yes. Alright, let’s leave it there. We’re not getting into more… we’re not… we’re not touching this marriage stuff. Thank you. 225 00:39:18.140 --> 00:39:23.959 Dave Price: We can… we’ll assemble next week and see how this… their final debate, 226 00:39:24.140 --> 00:39:25.109 Dave Price: We’ll go, we’ll see how. 227 00:39:25.110 --> 00:39:27.850 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, good luck, good luck with the final debate. 228 00:39:27.850 --> 00:39:37.829 Dave Price: Thank you. Four people, we’ll need our… we’ll need four people, 90 minutes. I think we have two commercial breaks, so… but that’s a lot to fit in in 90 minutes. Good to talk to you both. Have a great weekend. 229 00:39:38.320 --> 00:39:38.960 Laura Belin: You too. 230 00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:39.480 Kathie Obradovich: wise. 231 00:39:39.480 --> 00:39:45.299 Dave Price: Thanks for joining us for the Iowa Down Ballad podcast. Thank you very much for sharing this with friends and family. 232 00:39:45.300 --> 00:40:06.930 Dave Price: As we continue to grow week to week, we very much appreciate that, and thank you to those of you who become new paid subscribers of the podcast. That is very instrumental to help with the production costs to keep distributing this week after week, so if you haven’t done that, if you would consider that, we would greatly appreciate it. Have a great week ahead, and we’ll talk to you next week. Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe [https://iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 5/9/26

We made it through the Iowa legislative session — barely. The Republican leadership powered through last weekend in a marathon that didn’t wrap until Sunday evening, leaving lawmakers, staff, and reporters running on fumes. We break down what that grueling stretch actually produced. The two big finishers: a property tax reform package and the standings bill. On property taxes, the Senate looked very different from the House — almost all Senate Democrats voted yes, while most House Democrats voted no. But here’s the catch nobody should miss: don’t expect to see anything on your tax bill until September 2027 at the earliest, and at least one Republican House member admitted in his newsletter he’s skeptical it will make a difference even then. We also dig into the water quality announcement — including a last-minute Senate amendment that rerouted $300,000 away from the University of Iowa’s real-time water monitoring program and toward the DNR, forcing UI researchers to compete for a grant to access money that was essentially already theirs. The $25 million headed to Central Iowa Water Works drew some grumbling too, and don’t count on skipping the lawn watering ban this summer. Plus: Tom Harkin endorses Josh Turek in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary ahead of the debate we’re co-hosting next week with KCCI. Elizabeth Warren is coming to Iowa for Zach Wahls. J.D. Vance was here. Ted Cruz headlined Faith and Freedom. Brooke Rollins has apparently moved in. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune rounds out an unusually star-studded week in Iowa politics. Thanks for being a part of the show, as always any shares are appreciated. We’re getting closer and closer to the primary and now is the time to get your friends and family on board! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:22.419 Dave Price: Welcome, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot Podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich. 2 00:00:22.680 --> 00:00:27.899 Dave Price: Ladies, we have been through a lot since we last met in this forum. 3 00:00:28.330 --> 00:00:44.690 Dave Price: Although, Kathie, I must say I spent more time sitting next to Laura than I have spent sitting next to my wife in a long time. I don’t know anybody in my life I’ve spent as much time, too, sitting next to continuously as Laura. It is… 4 00:00:45.110 --> 00:00:51.840 Dave Price: I have checked in this past week, and I’m sure you both have too, with people totally not related to… 5 00:00:52.000 --> 00:01:11.100 Dave Price: our profession, and when you try to explain the experience that everybody had as the Republican leadership decided to power through the legislative session last weekend and just keep going until they finally reached a deal, it is tough to put it into words, isn’t it? 6 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:23.010 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, it’s grueling, and it’s a marathon, and, you know, everybody feels really crappy afterward, and during, for that matter. 7 00:01:23.010 --> 00:01:32.139 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, speaking only for myself, because I’m older than both of you guys, I am too old for these all-nighters, for sure. 8 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:33.589 Kathie Obradovich: I, I… Definitely cool. 9 00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:39.299 Laura Belin: I am a night owl, and I actually pull a lot of all-nighters, so staying up and working… 10 00:01:39.300 --> 00:01:39.890 Dave Price: Crazy. 11 00:01:39.890 --> 00:01:56.099 Laura Belin: I like having the big block of uninterrupted time, so working until 5 a.m. or 6 a.m, I can handle, but they didn’t finish until after 7 p.m. on Sunday, and that’s where I could tell on Saturday when I realized they were not in a position. 12 00:01:56.100 --> 00:01:56.570 Dave Price: and today. 13 00:01:56.570 --> 00:02:17.109 Laura Belin: finish at 4 or 5 or 6 in the morning. They were… initially, I was thinking, oh, they could be going until noon on Sunday. Of course, it was a lot later. And then I started to get worried, because I really start to run out of steam after 6 or 7 in the morning, after pulling an all-nighter, and it’s just a bad way for people to be making decisions. Wayne Ford, who 14 00:02:17.110 --> 00:02:34.330 Laura Belin: many of our listeners may remember, because he served in the Iowa House for a long time, he wrote a guest editorial for my website this week, and he was talking… he cited the research that when you’ve been awake for 24 hours straight, it’s like having a blood alcohol level of 0.1. I mean, it impairs your ability to function. 15 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:38.520 Dave Price: Found myself… Go ahead, sorry. 16 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:47.639 Kathie Obradovich: I was gonna say, think of how many of those folks, left the State House and got on the road and drove home. Right. A lot of them did, I bet. 17 00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:49.800 Dave Price: I found myself, 18 00:02:50.590 --> 00:02:54.339 Dave Price: I don’t want to say half the time, but it seems like a lot of the time. 19 00:02:54.430 --> 00:03:12.240 Dave Price: trying to essentially have off-the-record conversations with anybody who would converse about trying to gameplay how this thing was gonna play out. I was trying to figure out, how to schedule my colleague in the TV bureau about 20 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:28.239 Dave Price: you know, should she go home and sleep for a while? You know, how should we play this out? And as I was explaining to people, in my station group, what made it so difficult is that you knew that they were trying to reach final agreements on a bunch of big stuff. 21 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:37.250 Dave Price: But there was so much horse trading going on that, you know, if you go for this, then we can support this, you know, between the two chambers and within the caucus and all that stuff. 22 00:03:37.250 --> 00:04:01.019 Dave Price: So it… there were so many moving parts that were so connected that… Laura and I must have talked, like, a hundred times with different scenarios about… because I think you and I were both sort of in the same mindset about, dang, it feels like they could… this could go for a long time, and getting, you know, little nuggets from people here and there saying, oh, we don’t seem to have agreement here, and, you know, whatever. But we also knew that 23 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:14.819 Dave Price: when you reached it, when the breakthrough finally happened, it could go fast, and, like, it took, you know, forever to get there, but once they reached that point on Sunday, and we were primarily in the house. 24 00:04:14.820 --> 00:04:25.200 Dave Price: Like, it did go through reasonably fast when you’re talking about a property tax bill and the standings bill, which was primarily budget, although policy, too. 25 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:28.420 Laura Belin: There were 40 pages, there was lots of policy in it. 26 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:35.139 Dave Price: You know, so those two huge things, the debate didn’t take that long. Granted, everybody was… 27 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:40.710 Dave Price: Torched by that point, but, you know, a couple hours, and they plowed through that and adjourned and called it good. 28 00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:59.569 Laura Belin: Yeah, I mean, in retrospect, you look at the action calendar, and there were windows where there were 4 or 5 hours where not very much was going on, but you don’t know, right? You don’t want to go home and go to sleep, and then find out that they came up with a property tax bill, and it’s all done by the time you can get back to the Capitol. 29 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:12.420 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, that’s… I actually wrote a thank you note, early this week to Pat Grassley’s, comms person, Melissa Seitz, because she, you know. 30 00:05:12.420 --> 00:05:13.020 Dave Price: Legendary. 31 00:05:13.020 --> 00:05:27.689 Kathie Obradovich: You know, when they’re coming back, she would, you know, tell you what’s the short list of bills that they’re going to do, and you could plan, and I wrote in this note, I really wish that your counterparts in the Senate would follow your example, because 32 00:05:27.690 --> 00:05:48.019 Kathie Obradovich: it was a mystery over there. You didn’t know when they were coming back from caucus, you didn’t know really what bills they were going to do, and so you had to keep watching, and keep watching, and keep watching, and, you know, if they didn’t come back for 4 hours, you still just had to keep watching, because you never know when they’re going to come back and knock out 3 or 4 bills and then… then go away again. 33 00:05:48.490 --> 00:06:00.850 Dave Price: I’m so glad you gave Melissa a shout-out, and I don’t think this would be divulging anything that’s… that’s confidential, but it’s, like, impossible to put into words how valuable Melissa is to all of us. 34 00:06:00.850 --> 00:06:13.480 Dave Price: to give us the heads up. At the beginning of the week, she kind of gives you a heads up for the House Republican Caucus about, hey, here… you know, and obviously they have the majority. Here’s what we think is gonna play out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever she can tell us. 35 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:31.510 Dave Price: And she gives us a heads up when they’re coming back after they’ve met in caucus on a specific day, maybe what bills may come up, or maybe where the committee, activity will be, or whatever. It is so super helpful, and, you know, and the agreement is that we’re not gonna burn her. 36 00:06:31.510 --> 00:06:37.410 Dave Price: And we’re not going to report a bunch of stuff prematurely, or partially, or what have you, but it is… 37 00:06:37.410 --> 00:06:38.669 Kathie Obradovich: It’s all on background and nuts. 38 00:06:38.670 --> 00:06:39.010 Dave Price: Yeah. 39 00:06:39.010 --> 00:06:43.719 Kathie Obradovich: And it’s subject to change, so… but yeah, it’s still super helpful. 40 00:06:44.090 --> 00:07:03.159 Dave Price: And, yeah, to… I wish we did have, I wish, in the future, maybe the Senate Republicans, which… who I presume will continue their majority next year, if they would commit to something like that. It’s so incredibly helpful, and I… there were so many times during this session, like in a TV story, where… 41 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:23.389 Dave Price: there’s, like, no way to really… you know, that’s sort of inside baseball stuff, but you almost feel obligated in your story to be like… and a special thanks to Melissa. She was so helpful over the weekend to try to guide us through, and for me, it was a big help, so that’s when I knew I could send my colleague home to go rest for a while. 42 00:07:23.630 --> 00:07:26.439 Laura Belin: Well, it’s kind of funny, because I… I… 43 00:07:26.610 --> 00:07:50.410 Laura Belin: Not to get too deep in the weeds on this, but I tried for 5 years to get credentialed in the Iowa House, and I ended up having to file a federal lawsuit to finally get credentialed in 2024. And I didn’t even know that the House communications staff used to send out these emails. It’s very difficult when you’re monitoring the livestream, as I always used to do, and you have no idea when they’re coming back from caucus. 44 00:07:50.410 --> 00:08:11.489 Laura Belin: You have the big debate calendar that’s published, but they don’t always debate everything that’s on the calendar, so those emails would explain, we’re coming out of caucus now, here are the bills we’re actually going to do today. If I had even known those emails existed, I would have put that in my lawsuit. It’s like, this is something important that I’m missing out that is extremely useful for news gathering. 45 00:08:12.580 --> 00:08:19.730 Kathie Obradovich: And that isn’t something that’s always happened, either. It’s been more like the last couple of years, I think, so… 46 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:25.199 Dave Price: Yeah, but she’s… she’s definitely invaluable. So what’s your… what’s your takeaway, 47 00:08:25.570 --> 00:08:37.630 Dave Price: I’m trying to process… there were two things I’m trying to process. We… I think we mentioned this last Friday, man, that was a long time ago. We had that water quality news conference. 48 00:08:37.630 --> 00:08:45.979 Dave Price: With the Secretary of Ag, Mike Naig, who had been kind of working with lawmakers to get this deal put together pretty late in the session. The governor was there. 49 00:08:46.280 --> 00:08:54.860 Dave Price: the DNR director was there, and some of the legislators were there as well. And, I mean, it’s sort of hard… 50 00:08:55.310 --> 00:09:06.959 Dave Price: I found doing a day turn story, it’s kind of hard, because there were so many parts of this, and the general theme was 51 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:20.289 Dave Price: hey, we’ve done some of these things in the past, maybe we’re not getting a lot of bang out of it, we’re gonna shift money from this over to this, and we knew at the end of the day they were gonna give about $25 million to Central Iowa Water Works. 52 00:09:20.290 --> 00:09:25.400 Dave Price: Which… which provides water service for, like. 53 00:09:25.850 --> 00:09:45.880 Dave Price: what is it, 1 in 5 Iowans, something like that? It’s, you know, a huge region in central Iowa, to remove all the nitrates that are coming there, both from the ag side and from residential side, and other commercial side, I guess, too. But it’s kind of hard to know, right? You have so many different things, and Laura, I know you talked to Chris Jones. 54 00:09:45.880 --> 00:09:57.100 Dave Price: Who clearly doesn’t like the way, NAG has led the department. But it’s, you know, for a day-turn story, I know for me, that’s where I want to do more future reporting, is that 55 00:09:57.100 --> 00:10:01.879 Dave Price: I don’t understand this stuff well enough, and these… these different funding… 56 00:10:02.010 --> 00:10:10.579 Dave Price: places before that they’re now gonna transition as something out. Like, I think they did a pretty good job of explaining it all, but it’s the… the deep… 57 00:10:10.770 --> 00:10:14.880 Dave Price: You know, if you’re trying to… if you’re telling people, hey, we tried this before. 58 00:10:15.020 --> 00:10:26.770 Dave Price: these are underutilized, we’re gonna shift money to here, this is what we’re gonna do going forward. Now it’s the carryout of this, and the monitoring, and all that other stuff. There’s not a lot of mandatory stuff, if any. 59 00:10:26.790 --> 00:10:38.749 Dave Price: On the ag side, where a lot of these nitrates are, for various reasons, are getting into the water supply, but that’s where I feel like we’re going to need a lot of attention as this transition goes forward. 60 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:42.240 Kathie Obradovich: I want to mention… Go ahead, Laura. 61 00:10:42.240 --> 00:11:06.029 Laura Belin: There was a last-minute change to the plan on Saturday, because on Friday, they were talking about how the plan gives a half a million dollars to the Iowa DNR for their ambient water monitoring program, and then there were $300,000 separately, that was in the Ag and Natural Resources budget that was going to go to the University of Iowa for their water sensor network, which provides real-time data. 62 00:11:06.030 --> 00:11:15.829 Laura Belin: And I confirmed that after the press conference with Senator Ken Rosenboom. And then, all of a sudden, on Saturday, the Senate amended that Ag and Natural Resources budget 63 00:11:15.830 --> 00:11:25.119 Laura Belin: to take, instead of that $300,000 just going to the University of Iowa, they sent it to the DNR, and now the University of Iowa researchers will have to try to write a grant 64 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:43.239 Laura Belin: to get to that money, and I overheard the House Chief Clerk was speaking, and she said she… they were not expecting that Ag and Natural Resources budget to come back with a Senate amendment, so I don’t know exactly what happened to cause that change on Saturday, but it’s so difficult to follow everything that was going on over the weekend. 65 00:11:43.510 --> 00:12:08.110 Kathie Obradovich: that was one of the two things that I heard pushback on from Democrats, just besides the sort of notion that it’s, you know, it was not enough. But that, because the University of Iowa’s Water Monitoring Program is, is in real time and more accessible to the public, because they put all of 66 00:12:08.110 --> 00:12:12.049 Kathie Obradovich: that on a website dashboard, so you can actually see where things are. 67 00:12:12.230 --> 00:12:15.479 Kathie Obradovich: That, you know, even, I think. 68 00:12:15.530 --> 00:12:29.629 Kathie Obradovich: Even some Republicans wanted to see that, monitoring system go on. One of our reporters, Brooklyn Drazy, talked to, Norlin Momsen, 69 00:12:29.630 --> 00:12:53.889 Kathie Obradovich: early this week, and he said, yeah, you know, that he thinks that University of Iowa can get that money through a grant from DNR. Larry Rubber, who runs the hydrology department at University of Iowa, which oversees this water monitoring program, said, you know, that they will also 70 00:12:53.890 --> 00:13:01.969 Kathie Obradovich: continue the work and just find the money elsewhere. So we’ve got, you know, cities and counties, et cetera, contributing money. But… 71 00:13:02.060 --> 00:13:17.669 Kathie Obradovich: you know, the cities and counties that are contributing money, you know, that’s where they want the water to be monitored. You know, it’s not necessarily, you know, some of these smaller towns and, you know, less wealthy counties in Polk County, may not get their money into 72 00:13:17.770 --> 00:13:41.490 Kathie Obradovich: be able to say, look, we want this, you know, some of these sensors in our… in our county. The other thing that… and sort of related to this, that we heard on the… on the floor, was that, this 25… a little bit of grumbling about this $25 million for Central Iowa Water Works, which, you know, feeds the… the… the biggest 73 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:55.060 Kathie Obradovich: part of the state, most populous part of the state, but there’s a lot of other parts of the state that need help with their water quality and taking pollutants, especially nitrates, out of their water. 74 00:13:55.060 --> 00:13:59.900 Kathie Obradovich: And so there was some grumbling about the fact that that $25 million was going 75 00:13:59.900 --> 00:14:14.489 Kathie Obradovich: only to Central Iowa Water Works and not to other communities. So, I think, you know, that those are probably two things that we’re going to see that conversation have to continue in the future. Plus, Central Iowa Water Works had a news conference this week and said. 76 00:14:14.710 --> 00:14:33.380 Kathie Obradovich: you know, because obviously these improvements are not going to happen instantly. It’s going to take a couple years. This is a… this was a 3-year, $25 million appropriation, and they said, yeah, we’re probably going to have another lawn watering ban, this summer because of high nitrate levels, so… 77 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:37.689 Kathie Obradovich: People are definitely not going to see an immediate improvement. 78 00:14:38.980 --> 00:14:44.720 Dave Price: And I had wondered with… when they did the watering ban last year. 79 00:14:45.530 --> 00:14:49.559 Dave Price: If that would take water quality… 80 00:14:49.860 --> 00:15:06.040 Dave Price: awareness to another level, right? You start hitting the suburbs where people don’t normally think about that, especially if they’re not paying attention to what the treatment plants have been doing to try to push out and clean up all this additional nitrate flow. 81 00:15:06.040 --> 00:15:18.950 Dave Price: But if this would give it a little greater prominence in people’s minds about, hey, we better figure out something with water, and this sort of pre-warning that, hey, here’s what’s gonna happen again if you’re not careful with your water use, that… 82 00:15:18.950 --> 00:15:23.519 Dave Price: There may be another lengthy ban because of what’s happened. 83 00:15:23.520 --> 00:15:30.329 Kathie Obradovich: Well, also the focus on cancer in Iowa, and we’ve had a couple prominent reports now about the 84 00:15:30.430 --> 00:15:49.800 Kathie Obradovich: high incidence in Iowa of certain kinds of cancers, and, you know, not really any definitive answers yet about how water quality relates to that, but I think that that may be more than lawn watering, which I don’t know. I’ve got a lawn, never water it, but that. 85 00:15:49.800 --> 00:15:51.020 Laura Belin: We also don’t ever watch. 86 00:15:51.020 --> 00:15:58.720 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, but, you know, I think that the cancer discussion also really helps to get people’s attention. 87 00:16:00.500 --> 00:16:12.629 Dave Price: The… to do a rapid subject change, since we’ve talked about property tax reform so much during this legislative session, and I don’t think I brought this up on… 88 00:16:12.810 --> 00:16:16.070 Dave Price: here before, and I’m sorry if I did, 89 00:16:17.250 --> 00:16:34.720 Dave Price: I… after listening to this whole debate, and Republicans have clearly made this a big priority, so did the governor, so they have now passed this. And two things that stuck out to me. One in particular was the final vote on this compromise piece. 90 00:16:34.920 --> 00:16:45.720 Dave Price: in that all but Herman Kornbach, the senator from Ames, all Senate Democrats who were present and voted supported 91 00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:58.170 Dave Price: the property tax reform piece. It was a much different situation in the House. Laura, you gotta help me with my math. I want to say it was, like, 20-ish members voted against it. Does that sound right to you? 92 00:16:58.170 --> 00:17:09.940 Laura Belin: Yeah, most of the Democrats, all but 4 Democrats voted against it, and 2 Republicans also voted against it, and I didn’t have a chance to catch up with them on exactly what their concerns were. 93 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:15.070 Dave Price: So I’m curious how Rob Sand will discuss the property tax. 94 00:17:15.290 --> 00:17:26.899 Dave Price: changes in light of the fact that Senate Democrats went around from this. On a far different side, I’m also curious, when people are paying their taxes this September. 95 00:17:27.650 --> 00:17:36.590 Dave Price: For those who haven’t watched this super, super closely, and they’ve heard all this focus about lowering property taxes, their bill’s not gonna go down in September. 96 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:53.870 Dave Price: And now, it may not go down in the future either, we’ll see how this all plays out, but because we pay in arrears, and I mentioned that to some of the Republican members as we were sitting through that marathon weekend, like, are you concerned at all that, while you put a big focus on this. 97 00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:57.099 Dave Price: Voters aren’t going to see some kind of… 98 00:17:57.100 --> 00:18:17.260 Dave Price: immediate benefit, because they chose not to steal the borrow, whatever you want to say, the House Democrats’ idea about an initial rebate, to try to plug that maybe for one year until changes happen, or whatever. So, have you put so much juice into this, and then when people are thinking about this this fall, they’re like, man, my bill still went up, what the heck? 99 00:18:18.320 --> 00:18:22.739 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, well, that was, you know, one of the things that came up on the floor in the Senate 100 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:47.299 Kathie Obradovich: You know, Herman Kornbach got up and raised concern. One of the reasons he said he was voting against it was this was thrown together in the last hours of the last day, and yeah, while components of this have been in legislation all along, and people have had an opportunity to look at it, they haven’t seen this combination, they haven’t seen this particular bill. 101 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:54.419 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, there just needed to be more time. And, and Cindy Winkler. 102 00:18:54.500 --> 00:19:17.579 Kathie Obradovich: and Bill Dotzler both got up, and they supported the bill, and they were pointing out that it doesn’t take effect until 2027. And so the legislature actually would have time to come back and change parts of this bill before it takes effect, and before people are going to actually see any impact. And so they were looking at that. 103 00:19:17.580 --> 00:19:34.490 Kathie Obradovich: actually as a positive, that it wasn’t, you know, that there was still time to tinker with it, even though, you know, that they were passing this in the final hours of this legislative session. So… so yeah, definitely not going to be showing up on your tax bill before you go vote in November. 104 00:19:34.490 --> 00:19:46.689 Laura Belin: I noticed, and I subscribe to a number of the legislators’ weekly email newsletters, and I noticed that Representative Brian Loci, a Republican in the House, he did put… it was kind of buried in his latest newsletter. He said, like. 105 00:19:46.690 --> 00:20:11.410 Laura Belin: please note you won’t see any change in your property taxes until September 2027. And then he said, I have to admit, I’m skeptical that you will see any difference. So, even then, so there may be a political issue there. I just have to say that as a matter of policymaking, it’s just terrible to be doing this without any fiscal analysis, without any real time for stakeholders to weigh in on the final 106 00:20:11.410 --> 00:20:33.920 Laura Belin: package as a whole. Of course, yes, they’d had subcommittee hearings and a public hearing in the House on many of the components of this, but the tax increment financing changes, which are pretty complicated, I saw early this week the Des Moines Business Record reported that the City of Des Moines already put one project on hold, consideration of a project on hold, because they have to see how these changes to TIF will affect it, and I think that this 107 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:43.879 Laura Belin: even though parts of the bill won’t take effect immediately, I still think that it could be really far-reaching, and it’s not something that they should do on such little notice. 108 00:20:44.390 --> 00:20:58.009 Dave Price: I did hear from some, Republican members, again, during the weekend, because we had plenty of time to talk to people, for those who wanted to converse, that if there’s a benefit to this about the delay in this, it’s that 109 00:20:58.010 --> 00:21:08.139 Dave Price: Now, city staff can really dig into all of this stuff, and since these changes don’t go into effect, as you pointed out, you know, for more than a year, basically. 110 00:21:08.380 --> 00:21:22.619 Dave Price: they can go back in next legislative session and clean stuff up if necessary. And nothing against any of the staff involved, but you’re, you know, it wasn’t just us complaining that we’re pulling this all-nighter and lawmakers and stuff. You’re forcing 111 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:39.729 Dave Price: the staff that does the runs, does the bill making, the write-up, all that stuff, like, they’re functioning with no sleep, too, so chances are there may be a comma left out or something more serious that somebody hasn’t really thought through, so this does give you the off-season, 112 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:45.609 Dave Price: To really dig into all this stuff, and maybe… maybe you do some cleanup next legislative session. 113 00:21:46.450 --> 00:22:10.860 Kathie Obradovich: That happens every year, by the way. We don’t usually report on it, because a lot of times it’s just, like, little picky stuff, you know? But yeah, lawmakers have to come back and clean up legislation just about every year, and they call it the code editor’s bill, although sometimes there’s actual substance in there. But it also shows up in department 114 00:22:10.860 --> 00:22:14.109 Kathie Obradovich: Omnibus bills, as well, that they’re… they’re cleaning up. 115 00:22:14.110 --> 00:22:30.469 Kathie Obradovich: And in fact, we saw that, a lot of that, in the last bill of the year, which is always the standing appropriations bill, or standings, as we like to call it. And you can see, if you look through there, there’s a lot of language in there that was cleaning up bills that they had passed earlier in the session. 116 00:22:30.470 --> 00:22:33.099 Dave Price: Man, that is the catch-all, isn’t it? 117 00:22:33.100 --> 00:22:35.229 Kathie Obradovich: backdead bells, as well. 118 00:22:35.230 --> 00:22:44.749 Dave Price: dead bills policy, it’s just like, whatever you didn’t get done this session, you throw into this giant… giant vehicle, and anything goes in there. David Young was able to… 119 00:22:44.750 --> 00:23:09.520 Dave Price: to get a fix for, the school district where my kids go. So I’ve obviously been following that, but there was a valuation problem, that really screwed over, the Waukee schools, so clearly they based their budget, you know, based on… on the valuation, so they needed some help cleaning that up, and Young couldn’t get that in as a… as a separate, so that was something he was able to work in into this massive 120 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:13.069 Dave Price: Ginormous, standings bill at the end of the year. 121 00:23:13.070 --> 00:23:29.729 Kathie Obradovich: One thing when you mentioned things that would need more reporting, was this massive change in electrical contracting, where, you know, essentially, a lot of the regulations that say you should keep your 122 00:23:29.730 --> 00:23:35.500 Kathie Obradovich: Electrical outlets, you know, further away from the shower, and the… and the… 123 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:53.820 Kathie Obradovich: the sink in your bathroom, etc. You know, suddenly all of those things are being changed, and I think that there’s… I wouldn’t be surprised, actually, if the governor is hearing from a lot of people who would say, please item veto this, because it’s not safe. 124 00:23:54.310 --> 00:24:11.069 Laura Belin: Yeah, that… I actually pulled video clips from the House and Senate debate on that portion. That was one of the few parts of the standings bill that did get a little debate. There was tons of unrelated policy that nobody mentioned. The floor manager didn’t mention, and none of the Democrats brought up, but that electrical thing, that… 125 00:24:11.070 --> 00:24:28.980 Laura Belin: did cause some concern, so it’ll be interesting to see whether that gets signed into law. I mean, it passed the Iowa Senate, but then the House didn’t act on it, so that’s what a lot of these things, and the final horse trading, you know, the House members get some things that they want, and the Senators get other things that they want. 126 00:24:29.370 --> 00:24:54.250 Kathie Obradovich: what the House got, I guess, is, requiring the 6 hours of civics education for all, public university students, 6 hours of government and American, you know, American government civics, to be directed by the, civics, you know, the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa. 127 00:24:54.250 --> 00:25:10.720 Kathie Obradovich: counterpart programs at Iowa State and UNI, and that was a dead bill in the House that got revived and included in the standings bill and passed. So, it’ll be interesting to see how the universities are going to manage those programs. 128 00:25:10.990 --> 00:25:21.719 Dave Price: And I think the, I don’t remember the figure, was it $800 these code changes are supposed to potentially lessen in the cost of home building? Wasn’t that… 129 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:23.610 Laura Belin: Was it the impetus behind it. 130 00:25:23.610 --> 00:25:42.459 Laura Belin: Well, that was the idea that Senator Scott Webster, who was pushing for these, said this can make housing more affordable, but Senator Tom Townsend, who’s a licensed electrician, himself, said that he spoke to a fellow electrician who had recently built a house, and estimated that this would have saved 700 and something 131 00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:54.289 Laura Belin: dollars if they didn’t have to do this, but if it… if one of these things causes a fire or a serious injury in a kitchen or something, that obviously would be much more cost… costly than $800. 132 00:25:54.290 --> 00:26:06.169 Kathie Obradovich: And you have to wonder if, you know, eventually, if that sort of thing caught on, how much more you’re going to end up paying in your homeowner’s insurance, you know, because of that. 133 00:26:06.170 --> 00:26:12.780 Laura Belin: Well, he’s… Senator Townsend even said that. He said, I can’t believe the insurance industry isn’t jumping up and down screaming about this. 134 00:26:12.910 --> 00:26:15.660 Laura Belin: Of course, they had very little time to react. 135 00:26:15.660 --> 00:26:19.380 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, if they were up at 2 in the morning when they were debating this, or whatever. 136 00:26:19.820 --> 00:26:33.679 Dave Price: Alright, speaking of Senate, Senators, we have a former Iowa senator who is weighing in now in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary with Senate… Senator Tom Harkin. 137 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:41.760 Dave Price: who is supporting State Representative Josh Turek of Council Bluffs in that primary matchup against State Senator Zach Wolfs. 138 00:26:41.760 --> 00:26:49.800 Dave Price: Perhaps not a surprise if Senator Harkin was going to endorse, it would have been for Josh Turek. This follows… 139 00:26:49.960 --> 00:27:02.180 Dave Price: the first debate that they had on Tuesday night, same day that, Vice President J.D. Vance was here, so we had kind of an action-packed day of, for the politically curious. So those two… 140 00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:10.240 Dave Price: those two sat down for their first debate. We have a debate next week, which I believe has been announced publicly. If not, I just screwed up and announced. 141 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:12.589 Laura Belin: No, it has been, it has been. 142 00:27:12.590 --> 00:27:24.630 Dave Price: good. So my company is partnering with KCCI, so KCCI will host… provide the host site for this on Thursday night at 9 o’clock, and then it will also then 143 00:27:24.630 --> 00:27:43.819 Dave Price: be part of the gray media, television network for the different stations, across the state, where we will also have a one-hour debate with these two men. So no surprise, maybe, that Senator Harkin, if he chose to get involved, got involved in this. I’m curious if either one of you two… 144 00:27:44.900 --> 00:27:59.660 Dave Price: like, what your takeaways were from the first debate. We don’t see a ton of policy differences, necessarily, between Turek and Walls, and so they are emphasizing different things instead of policy in a lot of cases. 145 00:28:00.190 --> 00:28:25.169 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, Walz has been, just in the last couple of… there’s also been a previous forum where they were together, and I think Walz has been a lot more aggressive at going after Turek for various things, one of which is, you know, potentially could be portrayed as an actual policy difference. He’s… he was going after a, immigration vote that was taken a couple years 146 00:28:25.170 --> 00:28:32.679 Kathie Obradovich: ago that would… Allow, police in Iowa to… they essentially would make being… 147 00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:49.509 Kathie Obradovich: being in Iowa illegally after having been deported once, or more than once, make that a crime and have Iowa law enforcement actually be the ones to enforce that, as opposed to federal immigration enforcement. 148 00:28:49.510 --> 00:28:55.760 Kathie Obradovich: And Turek was one of very few Democrats who voted for that bill. 149 00:28:55.760 --> 00:29:02.330 Kathie Obradovich: And so Walz has been, you know, sort of really pressing on that vote. 150 00:29:02.380 --> 00:29:26.960 Kathie Obradovich: Turek, I think did a better job of explaining in the debate, as opposed to that first forum when it came up, that, you know, first of all, this was during the Biden administration, so we hadn’t seen the tactics that ICE is using under the Trump administration. Secondly, it only involves people who had already been deported. 151 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:28.079 Kathie Obradovich: had come back. 152 00:29:28.190 --> 00:29:47.879 Kathie Obradovich: But also, you know, really to make the… really to emphasize that his wife is, an immigrant, she’s been naturalized, but they had to go through that entire process, and that he really understands it, and it’s important to him. So I think he did a better job of explaining that. It’s still… 153 00:29:48.000 --> 00:30:07.379 Kathie Obradovich: you know, the old adage in politics is that if you’re explaining, you’re losing, so that’s not a good… not a great issue for him. The other thing that, that Walls has been going after, Turrican, which I think is less… really less potentially effective, is trying to portray him as a… 154 00:30:07.380 --> 00:30:11.340 Kathie Obradovich: you know, as Chuck Schumer’s boy, and that, 155 00:30:11.340 --> 00:30:33.560 Kathie Obradovich: the Vote Vets, super PAC that has, contributed to advertising on Turek’s behalf, is somehow a, you know, calling it a dark money group, and, you know, trying to suggest that that’s also an arm of Chuck Schumer. And so I think 156 00:30:33.560 --> 00:30:57.970 Kathie Obradovich: you know, Turek sort of jumped back at that and hit walls on, you know, some of the fundraising that he’s done, in leadership in the Senate, etc. So… so I don’t know what voters will make of that exchange. You know, I… I don’t know if they care that much about the dark money allegations. 157 00:30:58.040 --> 00:31:07.070 Kathie Obradovich: But I think it underscores the fact that there’s so very few policy differences that they’re going after these sort of side issues. 158 00:31:07.070 --> 00:31:24.250 Laura Belin: I agree. I mean, people who have followed the legislature for a long time will remember that in the 2000s, there were some actual conservative Democrats in the legislature, people like Dolores Mertz, or at least, you know, less progressive McKinley Bailey is another one, and they… Doris Kelly. 159 00:31:24.250 --> 00:31:28.029 Laura Belin: Who served during the Democratic trifecta, but now there’s… 160 00:31:28.030 --> 00:31:50.740 Laura Belin: not much ideological difference at all. I mean, Josh Turek’s voting record and Zach Walls are almost identical, so yes, Walz is going to emphasize that immigration bill, which the ACLU of Iowa and many other progressives opposed, but it’s easy… easier to vote against all of those bills when you’re representing a blue district in Johnson County compared to a marginal district. 161 00:31:50.740 --> 00:32:05.990 Laura Belin: in Council Bluffs. But I feel like the electability argument that Josh Turk keeps making, it is related to all of this outside spending, and I understand why Zach Walz is making that argument, that there is, I mean, VoteVets, it is aligned with 162 00:32:05.990 --> 00:32:30.839 Laura Belin: Senate Democratic leadership, they’re spending a ton of money. They’ve now spent more than $6.5 million, which is a lot in the Iowa context. And Senator Elizabeth Warren is coming in this weekend to campaign with Zach Walz, and that they’re going to be talking about the insiders versus outsiders angle. But I think the reason why there has been so much outside spending on behalf of Turek is that a lot of people in Washington do believe that he’s the more elected 163 00:32:30.840 --> 00:32:35.939 Laura Belin: candidate, and so, yes, they’re weighing in on the primary. I don’t find that very surprising. 164 00:32:36.950 --> 00:32:48.729 Dave Price: I think there’s a reason that Ashley Hinson will frequently talk about running against Zach Walls. She does not talk about running against Josh Turek. That’s not by accident. 165 00:32:48.850 --> 00:32:49.380 Laura Belin: Right. 166 00:32:50.120 --> 00:33:02.789 Laura Belin: Republicans, certainly, they believe that Walz would be the easier candidate to beat. Now, I know a lot of Democrats who disagree with that, they’re free to disagree with that, but it… it is clear that that is… that is who Republicans would prefer to run against. 167 00:33:02.790 --> 00:33:07.809 Dave Price: And I feel like we should maybe mention VoteVets. Turek is not a veteran. 168 00:33:08.220 --> 00:33:26.520 Dave Price: But his father was a Vietnam War veteran, and that’s how they believe that Turek, was born with spina bifida, and went through dozens and dozens of surgeries, and why he’s in a wheelchair and all of that. So their involvement is maybe a little non-traditional, for the way they normally get involved? 169 00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:42.960 Kathie Obradovich: And yeah, just because of exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam is why they, are making that connection to the spina bifida. So, yeah, I mean, I don’t know, if you look at, VoteVets, you know, it is… 170 00:33:43.090 --> 00:34:06.800 Kathie Obradovich: you know, a lot of PACs… not all PACs are the same, and VoteVex Vets has had a connection with the… with the Senate Democratic leadership, but they also… a lot of… most of their money comes from veterans. I mean, it’s not… you know, it is an interest group by and for veterans as well, so it’s not really just… 171 00:34:07.020 --> 00:34:13.440 Kathie Obradovich: you know, dark, shady corporations, etc. It’s not a corporate pack, really. It’s… it’s a vets pack. 172 00:34:13.820 --> 00:34:20.330 Dave Price: We’ve sort of name-dropped a little bit here with, you mentioned Elizabeth Warren coming. 173 00:34:20.469 --> 00:34:32.129 Dave Price: Elizabeth Warren, bringing in a former presidential candidate and a longtime member of Congress is an interesting way to me to try to push back of the notion that the other… the other guy is the insider’s choice. 174 00:34:32.130 --> 00:34:48.809 Dave Price: But that’s… perhaps that’s a separate conversation. But, so all in one week, to toot Iowa’s horn here, we have Elizabeth Warren coming. We already had Vice President J.D. Vance, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins. 175 00:34:48.810 --> 00:34:57.750 Dave Price: who I… has either been here 3 or 4 times now. She’s been here a bunch. Clearly, the… to try to hold on to the support in… 176 00:34:57.870 --> 00:35:14.119 Dave Price: in Iowa ag community is important for the Trump administration, as they make a whole host of changes. We are recording this on Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, will be 177 00:35:14.200 --> 00:35:22.560 Dave Price: here for an event with Ashley Henson, so we’re getting a lot of outside attention this week, for just one week. 178 00:35:22.970 --> 00:35:41.660 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think it’s a… it’s two things happening. One, an indication that Iowa is in play, that there, you know, there’s a reason for these top national politicos to be coming here and trying to help members of their party here in these elections. But secondly. 179 00:35:42.030 --> 00:35:52.750 Kathie Obradovich: that Iowa, especially for Republicans, but, maybe, you know, still has a place in the, 2028 presidential lineup. 180 00:35:52.980 --> 00:36:00.860 Kathie Obradovich: That, you know, we’re seeing people who may have an interest in running for president in 2028 and coming out. 181 00:36:00.860 --> 00:36:15.669 Kathie Obradovich: to Iowa, and, you know, yeah, Republicans right now still have the first in the nation spot, but Democrats still get, you know, prominence, one, with the idea that Iowa may be in play, and secondly. 182 00:36:15.670 --> 00:36:24.900 Kathie Obradovich: because Republicans are in the number one slot for 2028, it makes sense for Democrats to come here, because the media will be here. 183 00:36:25.600 --> 00:36:43.540 Dave Price: And I should also mention that, because when we recorded last week, that was before Senator Ted Cruz, the 2016 Republican Iowa caucus winner, he was the pinch-hitter, headliner at the Iowa Faith and Freedom’s spring dinner, and… 184 00:36:43.720 --> 00:36:53.369 Dave Price: both Cruz and Vance watching them, they are both effective speakers, for sure. Cruz has… Cruz has this… 185 00:36:53.930 --> 00:37:03.089 Dave Price: This certain cadence that he’s really developed, and you know, he does that podcast a couple of times a week, too, but he is very experienced. 186 00:37:03.090 --> 00:37:18.310 Dave Price: in front of a microphone. There’s no… he’s not clunky moving around or anything like that. He really knows how to play to the room, and it seemed like his… his remarks went over very well, and I think the vice presidents did as well, and I felt like… 187 00:37:18.310 --> 00:37:22.029 Dave Price: on Tuesday, watching Vice President Vance 188 00:37:22.040 --> 00:37:40.580 Dave Price: he frequently would tie Zach Nunn and President Trump as working in concert to accomplish these goals that they were talking about, and I get it, and as Laura has pointed out a couple of times here, we’ll have to see how this plays out, right? Like, I mean, if the numbers… 189 00:37:41.360 --> 00:37:55.150 Dave Price: of high disapproval ratings remain this high for both the President and Vice President. We will see if this becomes more of an anchor for Congressman Nunn later, or a support. But at this point, if you’re trying to re-engage the MAGA base. 190 00:37:55.640 --> 00:38:13.140 Dave Price: I felt like Vance really went out of his way numerous times during his 20-25 minute speech to praise none, but really connect none to Trump about, hey, here’s what we’ve done, or here’s what we’re doing, and it’s these two working together who have done this. 191 00:38:13.410 --> 00:38:30.500 Laura Belin: And I think… I’ve speculated about this before, but then a week or so ago, Punchbowl published a batch of Republican polls that were commissioned in mid-March, and one of the districts they surveyed was Iowa’s 3rd District, and one of the takeaways from that Republican polling was that 192 00:38:30.500 --> 00:38:55.360 Laura Belin: Zach Nunn’s… overall, his favorability was underwater. He was doing pretty well with the MAGA base, but room to improve there. And I think that’s clearly why they brought in J.D. Vance to try to shore up, even though Zach Nunn doesn’t have a primary challenger, but just really try to make sure that Republican base is enthusiastic about supporting him, because they have to worry about their general election turnout, especially if the nominee for governor 193 00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:00.620 Laura Belin: ends up being Randy Feenster, who is, like, to put it mildly, not beloved by the Republican base. 194 00:39:01.860 --> 00:39:20.080 Dave Price: I talked to Steve Scheffler before the Faith and Freedom, and that was one of the things he pointed out, that he felt like one of their challenges will be particularly engaging with the younger people, maybe those 20-somethings, and particularly maybe the men, the young men, who… 195 00:39:20.080 --> 00:39:31.490 Dave Price: got involved and supported Trump in 2024. Trump’s not part of it in 2026 on the ballot. How do you keep those people engaged? And as Scheffler was talking about. 196 00:39:31.540 --> 00:39:32.660 Dave Price: to… 197 00:39:32.890 --> 00:39:55.370 Dave Price: help these young men understand the importance that, hey, if you liked Trump, you like what he’s trying to do, it’s imperative that you then get behind people who support Trump so that Republicans can maintain the majorities in both the House and the Senate. He said that’s what he believes, that they’re really gonna have to work on these next 5 or 6 months. 198 00:39:55.370 --> 00:39:59.819 Dave Price: to try to really connect with these young people to push them to show up in November. 199 00:40:00.160 --> 00:40:17.990 Laura Belin: I’m waiting for Marco Rubio to show up, because I listened to the focus group podcast that Sarah Longwell does, and she’s been finding in her Trump voting focus groups that people are really favoring Marco Rubio over J.D. Vance, increasingly, so I find that very interesting. 200 00:40:17.990 --> 00:40:42.819 Kathie Obradovich: I was just thinking the same thing, you know, Marco Rubio, also well known in Iowa, just like Ted Cruz, who actually won the Iowa caucuses. But Marco Rubio probably has kind of his hands full. He’s doing a couple of jobs in the Trump administration, and he’s got a war on as Secretary of State. So, I was kind of wondering just how much 201 00:40:42.820 --> 00:40:49.610 Kathie Obradovich: He actually would be able to get out on the campaign trail right now and ahead of the midterms, because 202 00:40:49.750 --> 00:40:54.289 Kathie Obradovich: You know, running a war has probably taken up a lot of his time. 203 00:40:54.290 --> 00:41:17.280 Dave Price: And there’s so many memes, as you well know, where they… they will put some kind of outfit on Rubio and says, you know, he just found out he’s running this, or he’s doing that, or he’s doing that, but I wonder if… I wonder if we don’t see him maybe later this summer, early fall, as a… as a later pitch. I have to be careful how I phrase this, because I don’t pick favorites by any means, but he was my… 204 00:41:17.390 --> 00:41:24.099 Dave Price: In the 2016 cycle, He was my Dark Horse surprise guy. 205 00:41:24.430 --> 00:41:42.540 Dave Price: that when I was looking at the field, I thought that maybe he had the potential to rise, and it seemed like he was for a while, and then probably got off-brand, where he really started going toe-to-toe with Trump, and the things he said about Trump, and the hands, and I’m not gonna explain the hands comment, you can go Google that if you… 206 00:41:42.590 --> 00:41:53.649 Dave Price: If you want to go down that rabbit hole, but, you know, and then kind of petered out and didn’t have the success that I thought maybe early on he could, but I’m curious, Rubio 2.0, 207 00:41:53.700 --> 00:42:05.119 Dave Price: what that would look like, but also the dynamics. If he’s interested in 28, Vance is interested in 28, and then… what if one or both of the Trump boys 208 00:42:05.470 --> 00:42:10.579 Dave Price: would be interested in running, too. I mean, how does that play out? 209 00:42:12.030 --> 00:42:28.060 Laura Belin: No idea, but it’ll be fun to watch. I, I, I’m just… I’m trying to remember, I think it was just in March, Attorney General Brenna Bird posted a picture of herself with Donald Trump Jr, but I’m not sure whether he was here or whether she was in D.C. for something. Anyway. 210 00:42:28.920 --> 00:42:36.250 Laura Belin: Or maybe she was in Florida, I’m not sure where he lives. But I did see a photo of the two of them together, not… it seems like not that long ago. 211 00:42:37.390 --> 00:42:40.900 Dave Price: Yeah, that… we could fill a whole show probably talking about that. 212 00:42:42.290 --> 00:42:44.159 Kathie Obradovich: It’s early to talk about 2028. 213 00:42:44.440 --> 00:42:47.730 Dave Price: It’s never, never too early. It’s just like catnip. 214 00:42:47.730 --> 00:42:48.340 Kathie Obradovich: I gotta drop it. 215 00:42:48.340 --> 00:42:52.509 Dave Price: again, every once in a while. Good to talk to both of you. Absolutely. Thanks for plowing. 216 00:42:52.510 --> 00:42:52.890 Kathie Obradovich: Bye. 217 00:42:52.890 --> 00:42:57.500 Dave Price: weekend and plowing through the week, we will hope for a little more chill this weekend. 218 00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:01.990 Kathie Obradovich: Yes, absolutely, except for Sunday, when we have to work. 219 00:43:01.990 --> 00:43:04.479 Dave Price: Oh yeah, I forgot, that’s when Elizabeth Warren’s here. 220 00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:04.940 Kathie Obradovich: Thanks. 221 00:43:04.940 --> 00:43:12.990 Dave Price: Good point. Thank you for sticking with us throughout this legislative session, to all of you who are subscribers, who follow. 222 00:43:13.080 --> 00:43:36.440 Dave Price: what we, chat about week after week. We very much appreciate the support. Please continue to share this with friends and family to help us grow. It’s been fun to see this conversation grow. And a special thanks to those of you who have made financial contributions so that we can keep this going week after week after week. A lot to talk about as we look at the final month or so until the primary election, then, of course, the November election. 223 00:43:36.440 --> 00:43:45.009 Dave Price: So we will have tons to talk about through the spring, summer, and fall. We hope you have a great weekend, have a great week ahead, and we’ll talk to you next week. Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe [https://iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 5/2/26

We’re recording on a chaotic Friday afternoon as the Iowa legislature pushes past its scheduled adjournment date with no clear end in sight. The big unresolved question is property taxes — no deal yet, and we’re skeptical lawmakers can go home without getting something done. We also break down Governor Reynolds’ surprise water quality announcement, which dropped Friday morning instead of the property tax deal many expected. The plan totals $300-plus million over 12 years, but we dig into how much of that is actually new money (about $18.5 million) versus shifted funds — and why the lack of a public committee process is raising eyebrows heading into an election year. We also talk through Zach Lahn’s decision to skip the Iowa PBS gubernatorial debate, challenging Randy Feenstra to a series of one-on-one debates instead. We all agree it was a serious strategic mistake — the debate questions were practically tailor-made for him, and Adam Steen walked away with the spotlight. Finally, we touch on legislation that would allow the state budget to automatically roll over if a governor refuses to sign — a significant shift in the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. Thanks to all of you that help us grow our audience by sharing. It means everything to us. We’re especially grateful to our paid subscribers. We recently reduced our monthly subscription if you’d like to join! AI generated transcript below: 00:00:25.510 --> 00:00:38.780 Dave Price: Welcome, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. I’m Dave Price, joined by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin on this mid-Friday afternoon. Holy, holy, holy, do we have a lot of stuff going on. 7 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:40.000 Kathie Obradovich: Yes. 8 00:00:40.470 --> 00:00:41.800 Laura Belin: Too much. 9 00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:48.550 Dave Price: For real. It has been a bit since I’ve stood under the Golden Dome. 10 00:00:48.690 --> 00:01:06.199 Dave Price: and had people lay out so many different scenarios about how this weekend will go, and again, we’re talking on mid-Friday afternoon, which is, for those of you watching this podcast, Laura is tucked into a room 11 00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:20.190 Dave Price: that she found that was temporarily empty, so the drama of this next half hour could be whether security goes in there and drags her out of this private room, because this is like the governor’s secret room you’re in, right? Right? 12 00:01:20.190 --> 00:01:28.760 Laura Belin: Not the governor’s, no. It is a different room. The Republicans are caucusing downstairs, so I think I’m safe for now. 13 00:01:28.940 --> 00:01:40.850 Dave Price: Alright, so for the non-junkies out there, although probably a lot of people who listen to this really know what’s going on, but, like, it is non-stop caucus, so for those 14 00:01:40.850 --> 00:01:55.070 Dave Price: for those of you good folk who only pay, you know, kind of casual attention to all this stuff, the caucuses, it’s where the Republicans have their private meeting, the Democrats have their private meeting, they do their strategy, they do their yelling and screaming and talking and… 15 00:01:55.070 --> 00:02:01.390 Dave Price: plotting out with each other. They’re really the meetings we in the media really wish we could get in. 16 00:02:01.620 --> 00:02:06.420 Dave Price: Because those would be far more interesting than debates, am I right? 17 00:02:06.910 --> 00:02:07.810 Laura Belin: Correct. 18 00:02:07.810 --> 00:02:11.780 Kathie Obradovich: Except a few… I’m not… you’re gonna send me down a rabbit hole, but if. 19 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:12.270 Dave Price: abuse. 20 00:02:12.270 --> 00:02:27.800 Kathie Obradovich: ago, Democrats invited the media into their caucuses, and I quickly, quickly determined that I really didn’t want to be there after all. When was that, Kathy? Because it was all performative. I mean. 21 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:28.599 Dave Price: I just put on the show. 22 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:34.679 Kathie Obradovich: for us, which we then got to see again on the floor, so it really wasn’t worth it. 23 00:02:34.860 --> 00:02:49.189 Dave Price: In this case, though, I think… I think there have been spirited, discussions in the… especially in the House Republican caucus about whether they would go along with the, Senate Republican idea and some Democrats to raise the gas tax. 24 00:02:49.190 --> 00:03:00.540 Dave Price: Regardless of whether that’s part of the overall piece of the property tax discussion, or if it’s a separate thing. But, it seems as if that has been a spirited 25 00:03:00.690 --> 00:03:09.540 Dave Price: discussion this week, but I don’t know what you both have heard, but… and again, I have to keep saying we’re talking Friday afternoon. And it’s already… 26 00:03:09.650 --> 00:03:21.840 Dave Price: weird and unusual that both chambers are there on a Friday, doing stuff, and the plan is, as we record this, that they’re probably… both chambers going to be there this weekend. 27 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:33.640 Dave Price: As soon as I say these words, they might be outdated as soon as they get out of my lips, but maybe they both try to power through and work overnight Saturday so they can adjourn on Sunday? 28 00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:40.949 Dave Price: Or maybe the house powers through a bunch of stuff except for property taxes, and they go home. 29 00:03:41.340 --> 00:03:47.309 Dave Price: for… however long, until a deal is made and the Senate comes back next week? What are you hearing? 30 00:03:48.400 --> 00:04:03.509 Laura Belin: I don’t know, I brought a change of clothes and a toothbrush, just in case we’d be working all night tonight and finishing up tomorrow, but the debate list for Saturday, which is extremely weird to even have a debate list for Saturday, it doesn’t have property taxes on it, so I don’t know if they plan… 31 00:04:03.510 --> 00:04:04.539 Dave Price: No deal, I don’t think. 32 00:04:04.540 --> 00:04:06.810 Laura Belin: Finish all the budget stuff? 33 00:04:06.920 --> 00:04:17.019 Laura Belin: for this weekend, and then send everyone home, and then have leadership hash out a property tax thing. I do not know what they’re planning. 34 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:18.689 Dave Price: Kathy, you’re a wise woman. 35 00:04:18.690 --> 00:04:21.830 Kathie Obradovich: seen the… has anybody seen the standings, Bill? Because… 36 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:23.469 Kathie Obradovich: I have no idea. 37 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:46.150 Kathie Obradovich: that’s the harbinger, typically. It’s one of the last bills, and the fact that they, you know, it hasn’t even, at least as far as I’ve seen, I’ve been in pseudo-rabies world this afternoon, so that’s how crazy things are going on here. But, the… the last I checked, I hadn’t seen the standings bill yet, and they’re not going home without that. 38 00:04:46.150 --> 00:04:51.810 Dave Price: I’m still skeptical, maybe I’m gonna be wrong, but… I just… 39 00:04:52.280 --> 00:04:59.129 Dave Price: I’m skeptical that… because one… one legislator told me a scenario where 40 00:04:59.640 --> 00:05:10.760 Dave Price: They work this weekend, they get everything done, property taxes, and then they’re like, you know, we tried, we’re not gonna do it, and maybe they… 41 00:05:11.200 --> 00:05:14.999 Dave Price: Appropriate some money in whichever way they do it. 42 00:05:15.090 --> 00:05:31.300 Dave Price: Whether it’s its own thing, so that the communities can use that, this shared service money, to help them explore options to kind of work together and save money like that, so that could at least potentially reduce some demand on property taxes, or they hire that Texas company 43 00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:38.019 Dave Price: With the money that the house already has access to, but that was, like, a hundred and something million, right? So that was a big old chunk of money. 44 00:05:38.020 --> 00:05:38.920 Laura Belin: 4 million. 45 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:39.720 Dave Price: Yeah. 46 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:50.110 Dave Price: But it’s… it just feels like there’s… if there’s no deal on property taxes, it’d be hard… I don’t know how they go home without a. 47 00:05:50.110 --> 00:05:53.139 Laura Belin: They cannot go home. I think that if… that in that. 48 00:05:53.140 --> 00:05:54.600 Dave Price: Like, home home for good. 49 00:05:54.600 --> 00:06:09.339 Laura Belin: they send everybody home, and leadership continues to work for a few weeks, because that happened in… I think it was 2021 or 2022. They had a few weeks where basically no one was around, and then they came back and finished things up around May… it was right before Memorial Day, so… 50 00:06:09.460 --> 00:06:15.519 Laura Belin: I can’t imagine that they would adjourn for the year without doing something on property taxes. They’ve been promising it so much. 51 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:20.480 Dave Price: And would the governor allow that? Would she call him back in special session? Like, it seems like she wants a deal. 52 00:06:20.650 --> 00:06:24.970 Laura Belin: Yeah, yeah, I… Don’t know, but I can’t imagine that. 53 00:06:25.770 --> 00:06:45.129 Kathie Obradovich: The other thing, and I may be getting ahead of ourselves here, that tells me that nobody’s really that ready to go home, was the introduction of a major water quality plan by the governor this morning, 10 days after the legislature was supposed to adjourn. I mean, you know, that… 54 00:06:45.130 --> 00:06:59.619 Kathie Obradovich: Yes, supposedly there’s an agreement with the legislature, but it’s still going to take some time, I think, to… I mean, we were talking about two budget bills that would have to be amended with this new plan. 55 00:06:59.620 --> 00:07:10.470 Kathie Obradovich: So I, you know, I was a little shocked, this morning. I figured the governor was going to announce a deal on property taxes this morning, and instead she comes out with this 56 00:07:10.550 --> 00:07:17.719 Kathie Obradovich: Fairly weighty water quality plan, in terms of, you know, money that has to be added to the budget. 57 00:07:18.070 --> 00:07:36.500 Dave Price: And I had heard earlier in the week that Secretary Mike Naig had been meeting privately with Republican legislators to try to build momentum and work out the specifics on what ended up becoming this bill, but it just seemed like, gosh, this is really late in the session to try to do that. 58 00:07:36.640 --> 00:07:38.910 Dave Price: But, they must have figured it out. 59 00:07:39.070 --> 00:08:02.439 Laura Belin: I confirmed today with the major environmental organizations that none of them were consulted on any of this before this big, supposed water quality investment plan was drafted, and I would love to see the internal polling for Mike Naig’s campaign for Secretary of Agriculture, because all of a sudden, as you say, after the legislature should have been done already. 60 00:08:02.440 --> 00:08:27.370 Laura Belin: We see this huge water quality initiative when the Democratic candidate, Chris Jones, has been campaigning, and he’s made clean water the centerpiece of his campaign. He’s literally said, if you think our water is clean enough, vote for the other guy, and if you think our water is too polluted, vote for me. And so, all of a sudden, we see this huge plan. And why didn’t we see it earlier in the year? Why didn’t this bill go through subcommittee and have full committee discussion? 61 00:08:27.370 --> 00:08:32.129 Laura Belin: on it, so I’m just fascinated by how all of this came together at the last minute. 62 00:08:32.210 --> 00:08:43.119 Dave Price: Now, and I do believe, and I should have said this up front, that they have been working on something for a while. It’s my understanding the pieces maybe didn’t… 63 00:08:43.120 --> 00:09:00.780 Dave Price: come together until late to get this all put together, but I believe there has been an effort throughout the legislative session by NAIG to get something on this, and I appreciate what you’re saying about Chris Jones, because he’s made it a big deal. And even on the Republican gubernatorial side. 64 00:09:01.150 --> 00:09:12.460 Dave Price: Zach Lane, who skipped the debate, which we can talk about in a bit, but, I mean, he’s talked about water and the environment and all of that as well, so it does seem like it maybe has a little greater prominence right now. 65 00:09:13.140 --> 00:09:22.950 Laura Belin: A bill like this should have gone through the committee process to get public input on it. It shouldn’t be dropped at the end and added as an amendment to budget bills. 66 00:09:25.710 --> 00:09:28.490 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I mean, the discussion… 67 00:09:28.540 --> 00:09:53.369 Kathie Obradovich: it seems odd that the discussion has not been more public. If it has been going on, which I don’t doubt. I mean, obviously, this isn’t a new issue, and it is getting greater prominence, one, because of the nitrate spike last year that caused the lawn watering ban with Central Iowa Water Works, and they are including $25 million of one-time money to expand 68 00:09:53.370 --> 00:09:55.899 Kathie Obradovich: Their nitrite… nitrate treatment. 69 00:09:55.900 --> 00:10:00.049 Kathie Obradovich: capacity at Central Iowa Water Works, so, 70 00:10:00.060 --> 00:10:24.080 Kathie Obradovich: So, you know, I do think that this is something that has probably been on the radar for a while, but I am surprised that, you know, whenever water quality would come up, and, you know, there’s also been a lot of discussions about Iowa’s fast-rising cancer rates, and, you know, what, you know, to what extent… because there hasn’t really been a lot of testing to what extent water quality fits into that. 71 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:26.090 Kathie Obradovich: Looked at other types of cancers. 72 00:10:26.090 --> 00:10:43.830 Kathie Obradovich: But I do think that they’re, you know, aware of it, and certainly have to be aware that the public is increasingly aware of health risks and concerns about water quality. But it seems to me like they could have 73 00:10:44.560 --> 00:10:49.570 Kathie Obradovich: you know, made this more of a public discussion, you know? My name? 74 00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:59.020 Laura Belin: presented to the legislature the Iowa Farm Act, which was this huge, wide-ranging bill with all these things on ag. There was nothing in it about any of this stuff. 75 00:10:59.020 --> 00:11:22.680 Laura Belin: In March, there was a pretty big spike in nitrate levels, and Chris Jones wrote about this on his newsletter, The Swine Republic, that normally, just the way these cycles go, March is usually a lower time for nitrate, so it was extremely concerning to people to see these high levels, even in March, and normally when the Central Iowa Water Works System wouldn’t even be… have to be functioning at that time of year. 76 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:38.709 Laura Belin: to me, it looks like this has been done. I mean, maybe they spent several weeks on it, but I don’t think this is something that they’ve been planning since all of the problems last year, because otherwise, Naig could have introduced it earlier in the session when he introduced his other… the other things on his wish list. 77 00:11:39.050 --> 00:11:55.489 Dave Price: One thing that I was wondering, listening to all of this, and then looking at the handout afterwards, you know, they started doing numbers, which, as the TV guy, that’s, like, the last thing you want. There’s nothing worse in a television story than a gazillion numbers to throw at people while they’re cooking dinner, you know? 78 00:11:55.490 --> 00:12:08.739 Dave Price: And I was trying to follow, alright, what’s the new money out of this? Because you’re talking about a bunch of stuff, and my notes aren’t in front of me, but it’s 300-plus million over 12 years, I think are the top-line numbers they’re talking about. 79 00:12:08.770 --> 00:12:19.900 Dave Price: And we talked to different staff members after the news conference Friday morning, and it sounds like it’s about $18.5 million of new money. 80 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:22.799 Dave Price: And the rest of it is shifted money. 81 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:31.969 Dave Price: And that was the one thing I was wondering, if they have been working on this, at least from a bigger picture level for a while. 82 00:12:32.270 --> 00:12:33.500 Dave Price: was… 83 00:12:33.950 --> 00:12:44.099 Dave Price: were they trying to figure out what would fund this thing? And, you know, at the end of the day, are you gonna commit new money to this? And so the way they’re doing it is largely just… 84 00:12:44.260 --> 00:13:00.450 Dave Price: They’re alleging that money was sitting here and not being used over here, and they’re gonna move that here, move this here, move this here, move this here. And I wonder if that at all was part of the… the, sort of last-minute feel of this, that this is the way they’ve found, to do something? 85 00:13:02.090 --> 00:13:20.539 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, although it’s not uncommon, you know, for ideas to come out ahead of the funding mechanism. I mean, they could have been talking about the plan without knowing exactly how they were going to fund it, for the entire legislative session. Again, you know, I think 86 00:13:20.540 --> 00:13:39.560 Kathie Obradovich: you know, as, well, I mean, Austin Bates responded, a Democrat from Des Moines responded that a drop in the bucket is better than a dry bucket. You know, I think that, you know, they should get credit for, understanding that this is an important issue. 87 00:13:39.640 --> 00:13:48.800 Kathie Obradovich: For people, and that, you know, half a million dollars for water quality monitoring, for example, which, 88 00:13:48.800 --> 00:14:03.200 Kathie Obradovich: it replaces the $600,000 that they were no longer going to do through University of Iowa. Now they’ve got a half million dollars going through DNR, you know, for example, and so at least they’re going to be doing water quality monitoring. 89 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:03.840 Kathie Obradovich: So. 90 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:16.709 Laura Belin: I wasn’t able to ask a question during the press conference because I didn’t get called on, but my question was about this water monitoring. So there are two different… there’s the DNRs, ambient water quality monitoring, which is getting an extra half a million dollars. 91 00:14:16.710 --> 00:14:41.700 Laura Belin: But Senator Rosenboom did tell me after the press conference that the agreement on the Ag and Natural Resources budget, they are allocating $300,000 from the state to fund that other, the University of Iowa-based water sensor network that needs $600,000 a year. And he claimed that there are other actors, I think Johnson County may be one, Polk County may be one, the Isaac 92 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:52.860 Laura Belin: Walton League, maybe trying to raise some money, that they’ll cobble together matching funds, so that would be $600,000 to keep that sensor network going. That’s the real-time monitoring. 93 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:53.300 Dave Price: That’s true. 94 00:14:53.300 --> 00:15:18.289 Laura Belin: of nitrates all over the state, 60 or 70, whatever points that they’re monitoring. And I asked Chris Jones about that this afternoon, and he said that, really, we shouldn’t even need this… the taxpayers shouldn’t even need to fund that, because that program was always funded through the Groundwater Protection Fund, which is basically like the tax on fertilizer. And a few years ago, the Republican lawmakers diverted that money away from the 95 00:15:18.290 --> 00:15:43.269 Laura Belin: University of Iowa, but all they would have to do is just redirect that, and they wouldn’t have to use any general fund money for the water sensors. They could just use the fertilizer tax money. But when I asked him about what his reaction was to this plan rolled out this morning, he said that, first of all, all of the burden is going to be on the taxpayers. They are not asking any big ag… none of the chemical companies or farmers or nobody involved with creating the 96 00:15:43.270 --> 00:15:58.160 Laura Belin: has to spend anything. It’s just the whole taxpayers of Iowa, and he said he likened it to putting more band-aids and diapers, doing the same thing we’ve been doing for 50 years, which hasn’t improved the water quality, so he was not impressed with the plan. 97 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:03.300 Dave Price: Does make you wonder if we’re gonna see water quality just kind of rise up 98 00:16:03.560 --> 00:16:08.900 Dave Price: In prominence in people’s mind, not just in pockets of people, but kind of a broader… 99 00:16:09.050 --> 00:16:13.189 Dave Price: segment of our voting population as we start looking in November. 100 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:20.189 Laura Belin: Well, yeah, it’s certainly going to be more salient than it has been in previous election cycles, I think. 101 00:16:20.570 --> 00:16:40.279 Kathie Obradovich: And I don’t think they would be doing this if they didn’t think voters cared about it, so… I mean, it strikes me as being almost like a panic, move, here. End of the legislative session, you know, right before going out into primary election season, so… 102 00:16:40.280 --> 00:16:57.239 Dave Price: Any… any other additional thoughts? I want to get to the governor’s debate before we run out of time, from Tuesday night, and we’ll also have the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition that happens Friday evening, so we can’t really talk about that too much, but what is unique about it, other than Ted Cruz coming back to Iowa. 103 00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:03.300 Dave Price: as the replacement after Mark Wayne Mullen was the original, headliner, and then 104 00:17:03.300 --> 00:17:15.770 Dave Price: Of course, he had to go replace Kristi Noem, for the Trump administration, but this might be the only time where all five Republicans running for governor will be in the same place 105 00:17:15.930 --> 00:17:35.129 Dave Price: sort of at the same time before the June 2nd primary. They will be in front of this crowd, which is supposed to be more than 1,000 people, one at a time, as they are up there with the Republican Party of Chair Jeff Kaufman. So it’s not a debate. I don’t even know if forum’s the right, really, thing to call it, probably not. It’s just sort of… 106 00:17:35.190 --> 00:17:52.399 Dave Price: It’s kind of like five conversations back-to-back to back to back to back, whatever, that Kauffman’s going to lead. So it’s at least an interesting dynamic where, for these 1,200 people in the room, they can kind of, if they want to sample a little bit, these five, it could 107 00:17:52.510 --> 00:17:56.420 Dave Price: Might be a unique situation, because we might not see another one of them. 108 00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:06.189 Dave Price: Okay, so, the debate. So we had a debate… oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut off. Did anybody else have anything else on legislature? We’re all in. 109 00:18:06.190 --> 00:18:15.119 Laura Belin: No, I know, I’m just gonna have to catch up. I hope the Faith and Freedom thing will be on C-SPAN so I can watch it later, because I’m not gonna be able to get there tonight. 110 00:18:15.120 --> 00:18:21.640 Dave Price: Fair enough. Okay, so Tuesday night, Iowa PBS has a debate. Three of the 5 showed up. 111 00:18:21.750 --> 00:18:40.169 Dave Price: I’m putting together my TV story to preview the thing before I head on over there, then I get an alert that Zach Lane’s gonna have a news conference over at the Statehouse at 2 o’clock. Of course, the first thing, as a selfish journalist, you’re like, son of a… you know, I’ve already got… I’m already on deadline, now I can’t ignore it, right? 112 00:18:40.360 --> 00:18:54.080 Dave Price: I feel like I gotta run up there and get it, so it jacks up the day. But anyway, so Zach Lane does a news conference to explain that he is not going to be at the debate, he’s not going to debate unless Randy Spienstra starts showing up. 113 00:18:54.080 --> 00:19:09.670 Dave Price: He challenges Feenstra to do a series of statewide debates, four different areas of the state, but if Feenstra doesn’t agree to do that, then he says he’s going to Rob Sand, the Democrats’ candidate for governor, and he’s going to challenge him to do one-on-one debates. 114 00:19:11.320 --> 00:19:24.930 Dave Price: So what that means is that for an hour that night, the other three candidates, Eddie Andrews, Brad Sherman, and Adam Steen, they get the stage to themselves, and Zach Lane’s name is not mentioned in those 60 minutes. 115 00:19:26.410 --> 00:19:32.289 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I… so last week, I predicted that Zach Lane would change his mind and show up. 116 00:19:32.290 --> 00:19:33.150 Dave Price: I thought so, too. 117 00:19:33.670 --> 00:19:58.590 Kathie Obradovich: And, because it’s insanity. I think it’s political malpractice not to show up, when you’re in the position that Zach Lane is in trying to make the case to Republican primary voters that you’re the best alternative to Randy Feenstra. And instead, you know, instead of being an alternative to Randy Feenstra, you join him in not being 118 00:19:58.590 --> 00:20:15.399 Kathie Obradovich: on the stage. I mean, that just doesn’t make sense to me. And also, it would have been a great opportunity for Zach Lane to get his views and, you know, try to find ways to stand out in the field. So I just thought. 119 00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:27.339 Kathie Obradovich: There was no way he would miss it. And yeah, okay, so he has the news conference, he gets in the stories, you know, he gets some quotes in the stories that everybody wrote about the debate, but that, 120 00:20:27.350 --> 00:20:33.269 Kathie Obradovich: to me, I guess, was, just a big mistake. 121 00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:56.890 Laura Belin: It was a huge mistake. I mean, I thought it was a mistake last week, but then after listening to the debate, the questions were perfectly teed up for Zach Lane. They asked about water quality, they asked about cancer, they asked about data centers, where he could have touted his plan to have five times the property tax on new data centers, and 122 00:20:56.900 --> 00:21:21.110 Laura Belin: I just think it was a huge gift to Adam Steen for Zach Lane not to be there. And there was a… specifically, there was a question about whether these herbicide and pesticide manufacturers should have immunity, which is something Zach Lane highlights. Adam Steen dodged the question, he kind of danced around. If Zach Lane had been there, he could have said, he didn’t answer the question, and let me tell you that when I’m governor, I’ll never sign, you know, whatever it is. 123 00:21:21.110 --> 00:21:46.110 Laura Belin: these big companies, they’re… they’ve lied about how their chemicals are hurting people, and we shouldn’t be giving any of these companies immunity, and he just wasn’t there, so he didn’t get an opportunity. So it was really a huge mistake. I don’t know why. I mean, for him to say the debates are a farce because Randy Feenstra’s not there, well, it doesn’t… it only helps Feenstra if the rest of the field remains splintered and there’s no consolidation 124 00:21:46.110 --> 00:21:49.449 Laura Belin: alternative, so I just didn’t understand it at all. 125 00:21:49.760 --> 00:21:54.570 Dave Price: Clearly, that was their campaign strategy, you know, going into this, but I was wondering… 126 00:21:54.670 --> 00:21:59.119 Dave Price: Like, I assume… I don’t know if Lane watched the debate, I assume he did. 127 00:21:59.950 --> 00:22:18.819 Dave Price: I assume at least somebody from his campaign did, and I was wondering, like, what were they thinking watching this for the 60 minutes, right? Because, like, you know, when you’re at home watching certain things, you know, like… like when we watch Jeopardy! or Wheel of Fortune. That’s still on TV, right? You know, you blurt out, and you’re like, how can you not know that answer? 128 00:22:19.800 --> 00:22:36.239 Dave Price: Like, during a debate, I mean, it’s sort of the same thing, right? Sometimes it seems so obvious, and you’re like, dude, what are you doing? Answer the question, or he didn’t answer that one, or she didn’t do this, you know, whatever. I was wondering what Lane and his people were thinking. Like, were they sitting there going, we made the right call. 129 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:52.810 Dave Price: Because we can all talk about, like, with Feenstra, right? Like, for the sake of the educated voter population, clearly, we are… we would all be better served if all candidates are up there on a stage answering questions, right? 130 00:22:53.120 --> 00:22:58.600 Dave Price: We can also, because we’ve done this a long time, you can also then make up a list of reasons why 131 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:05.680 Dave Price: it likely makes sense for Randy Feenstra not to debate, because of if he’s the true frontrunner, and if… 132 00:23:05.890 --> 00:23:25.720 Dave Price: he has polling that shows him far above the rest, he doesn’t feel like there’s any true benefit, so it’s more… it’s more risk than reward, right? But for Lane, it was such a risky choice to do that, and I just could not get over, like, what are they thinking watching this? And then, how do you pivot back 133 00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:33.040 Dave Price: So, for the other debate invites that have been out there, like mine… then… 134 00:23:33.860 --> 00:23:40.319 Dave Price: like, is he gonna pass on all those? Or, you know, how do you, like, pivot back in and be like, just kidding, I’m in? 135 00:23:40.660 --> 00:23:49.169 Dave Price: I don’t know, because, I mean, you get a one-day little burst of stories, but… I don’t know. 136 00:23:49.350 --> 00:23:56.379 Laura Belin: Well, and I don’t know how many Republican primary voters watch the Iowa PBS debate. Yeah. 137 00:23:56.380 --> 00:24:10.029 Laura Belin: Let’s say there are 200,000 GOP primary voters, or really, the turnout could even be more than 200,000. But if he were at the debate, his campaign could be pulling clips of videos to be sharing all over social media. 138 00:24:10.030 --> 00:24:19.509 Laura Belin: And they could milk that for days. It wouldn’t be just… it would just be a one-day story in the major news media, but his campaign could pull out a lot of material that they. 139 00:24:19.510 --> 00:24:19.869 Dave Price: It could be. 140 00:24:19.870 --> 00:24:32.489 Laura Belin: from that. And instead, Steen’s campaign was able to do that, because he was on stage sounding very confident, and talking up himself as the alternative to Randy Feenstra, so… 141 00:24:32.490 --> 00:24:54.819 Laura Belin: I don’t know. I mean, I hope we do see more debates. I think, ironically, Randy Feenster had the best excuse for not being at this one, because as it turned out, they were taking important votes in Congress this week. They weren’t originally supposed to, and that’s not why he declined the invitation, because he’s declined invitations to multi-candidate events where he’s literally just a few miles down the road. But in this case, you know. 142 00:24:54.820 --> 00:24:55.679 Dave Price: it worked out. 143 00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:04.349 Laura Belin: He’s gotta be really happy that he’s gonna go to the Faith and Freedom crowd and say, like, hey, we just passed a farm bill this week. He actually has an accomplishment he can talk about. 144 00:25:04.390 --> 00:25:29.380 Dave Price: Somebody explained this to me years ago, this was long before we had social media influencers, but it talked about that, well, you know, we go crazy in the media about debates, and who does it, and who shows up, who doesn’t do it, although most times in the past, people used to do it. But we do our stories, and the question’s always, you know, who won, who lost, who helped, whatever. But I was told years and years ago that one of the bigger benefits 145 00:25:29.380 --> 00:25:32.910 Dave Price: from doing a debate, unless you completely 146 00:25:33.380 --> 00:25:44.469 Dave Price: crap the bed. You know, just… you’re just absolutely horrible, you know, like Rick Perry’s moments when he couldn’t think of the three, federal agencies that he was going to, get rid of. 147 00:25:45.050 --> 00:25:48.860 Dave Price: That one of the better parts of this is that 148 00:25:48.860 --> 00:26:11.790 Dave Price: even if you yourself don’t invest the time, somebody in your extended circle might, and so if they’re like, hey, did you see what Kathy O said last night during the debate? She’s a freaking genius, I’ve never thought about that before. And then it’s like the ripple, right? When you drop a… like, drop a pebble into the… into the lake, and you get all the stuff around it? Like, that’s how stuff… 149 00:26:11.930 --> 00:26:29.769 Dave Price: This was before social media got crazy, so to your point, Laura, it’s, like, even more important now, probably, if your campaign’s able to pull a snippet, whether it’s one of those, we got them moments, or just something really good, you just blast that thing out for weeks and weeks and weeks, and Lane will not have that vehicle 150 00:26:30.210 --> 00:26:34.449 Dave Price: To do that, unless they can really get the bang some other way. 151 00:26:34.740 --> 00:26:48.850 Kathie Obradovich: You also have to look beyond the primary, right? I mean, yeah, so the Iowa PBS viewers may not all be Republican primary voters, but I would bet that if they’re watching Iowa Press, they’re voters, at least in the general election. 152 00:26:48.850 --> 00:26:49.339 Dave Price: For sure. 153 00:26:49.340 --> 00:26:57.469 Kathie Obradovich: And so, you know, especially when you’re a lesser-known candidate, free media is free media. 154 00:26:57.950 --> 00:27:11.669 Kathie Obradovich: You just don’t… you don’t turn it down unless, you know, you’re really thinking that it is going to hurt you in some way. And, you know, at this point, most of these candidates don’t have anything to lose. 155 00:27:11.670 --> 00:27:24.410 Dave Price: Exactly. Alright, the clock is hurting me because I have to go run and go do something, so… but I… I didn’t, we had in our notes beforehand, so I don’t want to forget this topic, and that’s the legislation that would… 156 00:27:24.630 --> 00:27:30.180 Dave Price: If a legislature and governor do not agree on a budget. 157 00:27:30.370 --> 00:27:34.780 Dave Price: Eventually, at the end of the session, then you basically just… 158 00:27:35.170 --> 00:27:54.099 Dave Price: use in the new fiscal year your current budget. This came up… we talked about this weeks ago. Senator Clemish, the Senate Majority Leader, had talked about this is not anything to do with Governor Rob Sand. This is, this came about because of the shutdown we just saw in DC, and we don’t want any of that stuff. 159 00:27:54.230 --> 00:27:56.380 Dave Price: What’s the implication from this? 160 00:27:56.740 --> 00:28:01.080 Kathie Obradovich: Well, they could, you know, they may come in handy this year if they don’t get around. 161 00:28:01.730 --> 00:28:26.159 Kathie Obradovich: But, you know, what they did, they had that… they had this other bill that limited the gubernatorial powers during, for example, a pandemic, that you can’t shut down, church services, and you can’t tell people not to gather in their homes, and, you know, all of these things that, you know, Republicans ended up not liking, that, frankly. 162 00:28:26.300 --> 00:28:34.629 Kathie Obradovich: Governor Kim Reynolds did some of this during the COVID-19 pandemic, shut down businesses, etc. And… 163 00:28:34.630 --> 00:28:35.520 Dave Price: President. 164 00:28:35.520 --> 00:28:37.110 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, and so… 165 00:28:37.420 --> 00:28:52.509 Kathie Obradovich: So what they did was they took this other bill, this budget resolution bill that had not been advancing and amended it on. So now we’ve got this package of, you know, sort of gubernatorial power, 166 00:28:52.510 --> 00:28:58.549 Kathie Obradovich: I guess diminishing their power, taking away some powers. 167 00:28:58.550 --> 00:29:13.239 Kathie Obradovich: And, the other thing they did with this budget resolution, which made it even more unfavorable for a governor, is to say that if the legislature… this only would then apply if the legislature had passed a budget, and the governor doesn’t sign it. 168 00:29:13.900 --> 00:29:22.490 Kathie Obradovich: So now, the veto power that the governor has to veto a budget and bring the legislature essentially back into session 169 00:29:22.490 --> 00:29:43.400 Kathie Obradovich: to avoid a shutdown has now been, you know, where the majority party doesn’t even have to bother to try to override a veto of a budget bill. They’ll just say, yes, you know, we’ll go with last year’s numbers and we’ll see you next year, you know? So that… I think they made that bill even worse for a governor. 170 00:29:43.600 --> 00:30:00.349 Laura Belin: And they… well, part of the reason why they ran this amendment during the floor debate is, and we talked about this weeks ago when this bill came up. Last year, we had all this drama in the Iowa Senate around eminent domain, because about a dozen Republican senators said, we won’t vote for any budget bills unless you bring up this House 171 00:30:00.350 --> 00:30:24.259 Laura Belin: eminent domain bill to the Senate floor. And so, I think the reason why this Senate budget bill had not been advancing is that you had Republican senators who didn’t want to give up their leverage to hold the budget hostage. So, the way it reads now, they can’t adjourn without passing a budget, right? They still have to pass a budget, and that means that holdouts in the Republican caucus and the majority party could still say. 172 00:30:24.260 --> 00:30:49.249 Laura Belin: hey, we demand a vote on something else before we’ll pass any budget bills, but as you say, it completely violates the separation of powers, or the checks and balances that we’re used to, to say, like, well, we’re gonna pass our budget, and then the governor, you can either sign it or not sign it, but it doesn’t matter. Like, we’re not negotiating with you. And so, it is a pretty serious shift in the balance. I don’t know, have you talked to 173 00:30:49.250 --> 00:30:53.439 Laura Belin: House Republicans about whether they’ll accept the Senate amendment, because I haven’t. 174 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:53.810 Dave Price: I have. 175 00:30:53.810 --> 00:30:55.079 Laura Belin: I’ve never heard whether they will. 176 00:30:55.080 --> 00:31:06.680 Dave Price: I haven’t, and we may get plenty of downtime this weekend to chat, depending on how this all shakes out. Thank you all, good to talk to you. I have a feeling we may talk this weekend at time or 12. 177 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:10.969 Laura Belin: Yep. I have some chocolate reserves to help. 178 00:31:10.970 --> 00:31:11.299 Dave Price: Oh my gosh. 179 00:31:11.300 --> 00:31:12.920 Laura Belin: Stay awake in the middle of the night, so… 180 00:31:12.920 --> 00:31:37.920 Dave Price: Always a good thing. Thanks for joining us this week, everybody. Man, I’m not sure we’ve recorded a show where we had so much up in the air before, but next week’s show, we’ll really have a lot to talk about. We’ll see if the legislature’s done, and who knows what else we’ll have to talk about. Thanks for all of you for joining us each week. Thanks for all of you who are contributing financially to pay the bills for this thing, and we appreciate all of you for sharing this with friends and family. 181 00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:43.770 Dave Price: to help us grow week after week. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend. We’ll talk to you next week. Get full access to Iowa Down Ballot at iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe [https://iowawriterscollaborative.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]