Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 4/25/26

Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price 6/27/26

Audio has leaked of RFK Jr. calling Libertarian candidate Rick Stewart, pushing him to drop out of the 2nd District race without ever making a concrete offer. That’s part of a bigger pattern of Republicans working to push Libertarians off the ballot, both through direct calls like this one and through legal challenges. Marco Battalia got disqualified over a name issue, and the Libertarian governor and lieutenant governor candidates are now fighting their own disqualification in court. We also revisited Governor Reynolds’ use of CARES Act money to pay 21 staffers back in 2020, a story Laura broke at the time and Rob Sand has criticized for nearly six years. This week the Trump Treasury sent a letter saying the spending was fine, and Sand pushed back, standing by his original finding. You can read Laura’s original stories on the topic here [https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2020/12/07/exclusive-iowa-governor-overspent-office-budget-before-tapping-cares-act/], here [https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2020/09/13/exclusive-iowa-governor-used-cares-act-funds-to-pay-staff-salaries/], and here [https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2020/10/27/exclusive-payment-scheme-concealed-cares-act-funds-for-governors-staff/]. Finally, we covered the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that’s likely to knock out hundreds of Roundup cancer lawsuits, since there’s no federal cancer warning requirement on glyphosate. Both gubernatorial candidates oppose the ruling, and we noted the awkward spot it puts Zach Lahn in given his MAHA messaging and RFK Jr.’s silence on the issue. To become or paid (or free) subscriber go ahead and click that button above. If you’d like to make a one-time donation to help us here at Iowa Down Ballot and everyone with the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative please click the button below. Have a great weekend! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:32.439 Dave Price: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, our weekly conversation about all things in Iowa politics, and then maybe some other stuff that impacts Iowa politics. 4 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:41.690 Dave Price: I’m Dave Price, joined by Laura Belin and Kathie Obradovich, two of my colleagues from the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Happy Friday, ladies! 5 00:00:42.080 --> 00:00:43.519 Kathie Obradovich: Happy Friday! 6 00:00:43.670 --> 00:00:45.110 Laura Belin: Good Friday to you. 7 00:00:45.110 --> 00:01:05.009 Dave Price: And we say that, obviously, for those of you who may be new to this conversation. We usually record on Fridays, and this podcast drops on Saturdays. It’s a little CYA maneuver in case something really, really big happens on a Friday night. So you might be thinking, why did these fools not talk about it? Well, that’s why, because you have to record this at some point. 8 00:01:05.099 --> 00:01:07.689 Dave Price: And so we do, usually, at some point on… 9 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:15.550 Dave Price: on Fridays. Ladies, I was thinking about my life on Thursday night, and, you know, it’s sometimes 10 00:01:15.660 --> 00:01:25.920 Dave Price: maybe this is just me because I’m weird, but sometimes I just have, like, these random thoughts about things we’ve done and experienced in our professional careers and stuff. 11 00:01:26.090 --> 00:01:38.280 Dave Price: And, my family was all gone last night, and I was working on this RFK Jr. phone call to the Libertarian congressional candidate, Rick Stewart. 12 00:01:38.660 --> 00:01:48.290 Dave Price: which, first of all, just that sentence that I just said is unique enough, right? So I’m finding myself… so we have the audio of this phone call. 13 00:01:48.420 --> 00:02:01.060 Dave Price: And, you know, for our purposes, we’ve got to do some editing to it, we have to put their pictures up every time they talk, there are audio issues with the whole thing, there’s this weird… in the recording we got from the Libertarian Party, there’s a… 14 00:02:01.100 --> 00:02:19.099 Dave Price: little gap in the audio, so I was trying to figure out what the heck that means. Plus, at the end of the conversation, or end of the recording, it just sort of stops. So, you know, you gotta look at this thing and try to vet it and be like, alright, is this thing real? Like, what the heck’s going on? Plus, Rick Stewart’s voice is like this, and RFK is, like… 15 00:02:19.160 --> 00:02:20.040 Kathie Obradovich: Great. 16 00:02:20.040 --> 00:02:27.540 Dave Price: It talks anyway, but it’s, like, not very loud, so I’m trying to figure out, do I want to alter the video so that people can hear it better? 17 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:35.180 Dave Price: But then, you know, I don’t want a 60 minutes moment here of anybody accusing me of, you know, putting this stuff together differently, but… 18 00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:40.450 Dave Price: First of all, forget the journalism side of this, and the relevance to politics and all this stuff. 19 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:52.120 Dave Price: I mean, it was one of those days, I’m like, I am literally listening to a phone call from RFK Jr. with a guy who’s a libertarian, who’s run for office a ton of different times over the years. 20 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:56.849 Dave Price: And RFK Jr. is trying to get him to drop out of the race. Like, what a… 21 00:02:57.290 --> 00:02:58.910 Dave Price: What a unique story. 22 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:03.130 Kathie Obradovich: You hear about those things happening in politics. 23 00:03:03.460 --> 00:03:12.960 Kathie Obradovich: know, and but so, it is so rare, one, that there’s actual audio of the call. I don’t know why more candidates… 24 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:23.470 Kathie Obradovich: Especially those who come back and accuse their opponents of doing such things, why more of them don’t record. Because in Iowa, it is legal. I mean, some states, you can’t… 25 00:03:23.470 --> 00:03:36.189 Kathie Obradovich: record a call, if… unless all parties know. In Iowa, you can record the call as long as one party, you know, like yourself, knows. 26 00:03:36.190 --> 00:03:44.020 Kathie Obradovich: That the recording is happening. So, in some states, there’s wiretap laws that wouldn’t even allow that, but… and I wonder why… 27 00:03:44.240 --> 00:04:08.710 Kathie Obradovich: you know, I was thinking about why RFK Jr. would, you know, call somebody on the phone and, you know, try to get them to drop out of the race, and, you know, in the age when, you know, you can easily make a recording of a phone call, and it occurred to me that maybe he didn’t realize that you could do that in Iowa legally without announcing it. Anyway, but yeah, it’s unusual to have an audio of the call, and secondly. 28 00:04:08.710 --> 00:04:31.970 Kathie Obradovich: unusual that somebody so high profile is involved, you know? I mean, usually these things are handled through intermediaries, right? If it’s… if we can say that such a thing is usual. So… so yeah, that was… it was kind of an eye-popping thing, and I, you know, I… I believed Marco Battalia when he said, you know, he raised this, you know, as part of the state objection panel. 29 00:04:31.970 --> 00:04:34.680 Kathie Obradovich: Part of it when they were kicking him off the ballot. 30 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:57.219 Kathie Obradovich: He was in the 3rd District. They were trying to kick him off the ballot, and he talked about how RFK Jr. and, the Zach Nunn campaign had contacted him, trying to get him to drop out. And none of that is illegal unless they make promises, right? They… they try to bribe them to drop out with some sort of promise. 31 00:04:57.220 --> 00:05:03.900 Kathie Obradovich: But it is… it does seem, you know, unseemly, at the very least, so… 32 00:05:04.150 --> 00:05:11.610 Laura Belin: I had the same thought as Kathie, like, did RFK know he was being recorded? And absolute… by the way, yes, for everyone out there. 33 00:05:11.640 --> 00:05:34.659 Laura Belin: Iowa is a one-party consent state, so if you’re ever getting a newsworthy call, and I always say this even if it’s just a political opinion poll, just record that call, in case you want to refer to it later. Anyway, but Marco Battalia did not record his conversation, but apparently it did come from the same phone number, according to the Washington Post. The phone number 34 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:40.060 Laura Belin: that Marco Battalia received a call from on his phone was a number that 35 00:05:40.060 --> 00:05:42.769 Laura Belin: others can connect to RFK Jr. 36 00:05:43.650 --> 00:05:57.520 Dave Price: And, for those wondering what the heck, why is RFK Jr. calling? For those of us who’ve been around for a little while, and really, this isn’t that many years ago, but we remember 2020, 37 00:05:57.850 --> 00:06:08.999 Dave Price: In the 3rd Congressional District, there was a guy who ran by the name of Brian Jack Holder. He ran as a Libertarian then. He got just enough sliver of the vote. 38 00:06:09.380 --> 00:06:26.709 Dave Price: that David Young, who was the incumbent Republican running against the Democrat, Cindy Axne, they look at the margin there and say, hey, if he would not have run, that could have… that could have been the difference there, and then maybe… maybe the Republican could have… could have won in that case. 39 00:06:26.710 --> 00:06:31.269 Laura Belin: It happened twice. Both of Cindy Axne’s races that she won, in 2018 and 2018. 40 00:06:31.270 --> 00:06:32.360 Dave Price: and 20 a.m. 41 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:57.359 Laura Belin: He won in with, like, 49-point-something percent of the vote, and it happened in the Northeast Iowa congressional district. I believe they were independent candidates, not libertarians, but in 2010, Bruce Braley had a really close call against Ben Lang, and there were two other candidates on the ballot, and they combined to get, like, 3 or 3.5% of the vote, something like that. But in any case, it was more than the difference between Braley 42 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:11.380 Laura Belin: and Ben Lang. So I can see why Republicans would be worried about Rick Stewart in the second district. Of course, there’s also another independent candidate, Dave Bashaw, who might pull votes away from the Democrat, Lindsey Jane. 43 00:07:14.770 --> 00:07:18.570 Dave Price: Kathie, you look like you’re in deep thought, like you’re about Something profound. 44 00:07:18.570 --> 00:07:22.720 Kathie Obradovich: This way, I have 7 I want to say about that topic. Go ahead. 45 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:43.890 Dave Price: I… and I listened to the audio, and I mentioned there was a little bit of a… there was a little bit of a gap in there, which we noted in our reporting, and I didn’t get an answer back from the party about why there was. And Laura, you’ve listened to this… this recording as well. Kathie, I’m not sure, have you listened to the whole thing yet or not? 46 00:07:43.890 --> 00:07:45.080 Kathie Obradovich: Not the whole thing, no. 47 00:07:45.260 --> 00:07:49.800 Dave Price: There’s nothing… like, Kathie, to your point about… 48 00:07:50.130 --> 00:07:57.519 Dave Price: you know, whether this is right or wrong, or there’s anything wrong with it. In the recording, from everything I listen to, like, there’s no… 49 00:07:57.580 --> 00:08:12.189 Dave Price: there is no quid pro quo, as they say. Like, there’s no promise of anything. Like, RFK just said that, he could advocate for Rick Stewart in DC. Stewart made a joke about 50 00:08:12.220 --> 00:08:19.790 Dave Price: you know, are you offering me, he said, I guess I’m not getting offered a cabinet position, or something like that. 51 00:08:19.790 --> 00:08:35.030 Dave Price: And, Kennedy’s conversation to him was like, look, I ran for president as an independent, and I reached the point where I had to figure out, you know, is it good basically just to run and do your thing, or can you make a bigger difference by doing something else? 52 00:08:35.640 --> 00:08:51.669 Dave Price: is, you know, he was talking to Democrats, he was talking to Trump, I mean, he ended up supporting Trump, and now he’s a… now he’s a United States Secretary, so, you know, that path worked for him, and clearly the platform got a lot bigger. And he’s trying to lay out, hey, here’s what I did. 53 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:57.850 Dave Price: perhaps there is something else that you can do. He never said directly 54 00:08:58.430 --> 00:09:05.219 Dave Price: drop out, we’ll get you a job. He didn’t say anything like that, but he said, I can help advocate for you, for whatever. 55 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:24.549 Laura Belin: And there was, at one point, he… RFK said that I can’t… let me… let me read the exact quote that he said. I can’t go into specifics, because there’s legal prohibitions about that. And then, shortly after that, Rick Stewart asked something like, do you mean I would be working with you 56 00:09:24.550 --> 00:09:38.069 Laura Belin: And… and RFK said something like, well, that could be a possibility. He definitely… he did not offer anything concrete, because that would be illegal to offer some kind of concrete inducement, but it… I… 57 00:09:38.070 --> 00:09:49.320 Laura Belin: I think he kept going back to the issue of trying to stress, you know, what can you really accomplish in this race, and think about what you can really accomplish. So… 58 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:58.700 Laura Belin: It was interesting. It was an interesting conversation, but RFK obviously was aware that he could not promise anything specific. 59 00:10:00.050 --> 00:10:06.799 Dave Price: And it just sort of adds to this overall effort by the Republicans to try to keep 60 00:10:06.950 --> 00:10:22.090 Dave Price: libertarians off the ballot, whether they try to do it through the legal challenge process through the state, or direct conversations to try to get them to drop out. Clearly, they are looking at some races that they think could be very tight, and they want to do whatever they can to… 61 00:10:22.290 --> 00:10:28.059 Dave Price: try to help their case. And it reminded me of what President Trump did, pushing… 62 00:10:28.260 --> 00:10:31.339 Dave Price: States all over the country to try to do this. 63 00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:47.610 Dave Price: unique, for sure, effort to redo their congressional boundaries mid-decade, you know, a process that’s not the way it normally works. And, we don’t have to worry about that in our state, since we have the nonpartisan system that we use here. 64 00:10:49.530 --> 00:10:50.420 Kathie Obradovich: Yes. 65 00:10:50.870 --> 00:11:01.350 Dave Price: Okay, then there’s also, we also talked about the challenge, but then the legal process, the libertarians have not given up. I mean, they’re still working to try to get on the ballot. 66 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:15.300 Laura Belin: The candidates for governor and Lieutenant Governor Nicholas Gluba and Jules Cutler filed their appeal in the district court this week, and I haven’t seen any court filing from Marco Battalia, but I have been told that that will be coming. 67 00:11:15.890 --> 00:11:40.490 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, he said… he said he was going to file. He hadn’t filed as of yesterday afternoon, when we checked last. You know, they… both of these should be really interesting court cases to follow, not only because of how the law is being interpreted. I mean, it’s so interesting, and, you know, if you listened to us last week, you know all about this, but, you know, Marco Battalia has run for office. 68 00:11:40.490 --> 00:11:42.240 Kathie Obradovich: Office under that name. 69 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:57.740 Kathie Obradovich: for years, you know, for years and years. And, you know, so they’re basically kicking him off, because his real name is Mark Anderson, and that, you know, to me, is… is so interesting, and, you know, Roxanne. 70 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:11.620 Kathie Obradovich: did raise this as, you know, aren’t you arguing against yourself after you’ve… after you’ve let him on the ballot under that name for years and years? Anyway, but… but yeah, so that is… that’s an interesting case, and then the… 71 00:12:11.620 --> 00:12:20.460 Kathie Obradovich: The gubernatorial case, which has actually been filed, there’s a dispute with the Secretary of State’s office about whether a worker there 72 00:12:20.460 --> 00:12:29.129 Kathie Obradovich: gave… Jules Cutler, the advice that she did not need to submit an affidavit of candidacy, which 73 00:12:29.130 --> 00:12:44.049 Kathie Obradovich: that’s what Jules Cutler says, the Secretary of State’s office, worker, denies that and doesn’t even remember seeing Jules Cutler there on the day that they were submitting those on, on June 2nd. 74 00:12:44.050 --> 00:12:59.380 Kathie Obradovich: So, you know, I think that that… these are also interesting, and, you know, if they try to bring RFK Jr. into the whole thing as well, you know, I think that that will… that will also add to the interest. 75 00:12:59.560 --> 00:13:00.470 Laura Belin: Speaking of… 76 00:13:00.470 --> 00:13:24.369 Laura Belin: when people should have recorded, right? Somebody who was with Nicholas Gluba and Jules Cutler should have recorded them submitting their paperwork, and if they were told that she didn’t need the affidavit, somebody should have started recording with their phone and gotten her to say, again, are you sure that you don’t need this affidavit? Because that would have helped clear things up. I was not there when they submitted their paperwork. I was… I talked to… 77 00:13:24.370 --> 00:13:29.600 Laura Belin: Nicholas Gloob at the Capitol that day, but I did not walk over to the Lucas Building, where the Secretary of State’s 78 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:54.580 Laura Belin: staff was where they actually submitted the signature, so I didn’t see or hear what happened, but somebody could have recorded that. I wanted to say that the libertarians are bringing up… so the legal issues are very different, because Marco Battalia was just excluded from the ballot because of the name issue, but the case involving the Libertarian candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are so different, and they are also raising a legal issue that I thought that they should have filed 79 00:13:54.580 --> 00:14:17.190 Laura Belin: a lawsuit last year, honestly, that they didn’t. The state moved up the filing deadline for third-party and independent candidates to the date of the primary election. It used to be, for decades, that libertarians or third party or independent candidates had until the same day in late August that the Democratic and Republican parties have to nominate people 80 00:14:17.190 --> 00:14:35.520 Laura Belin: for vacancy. So they raised this issue. There was a law in 2019 that tried to move that filing deadline for third parties up to March, and that was actually struck down. A federal judge ruled that that was unconstitutional. So when they passed the law last year, moving the filing deadline up to June. 81 00:14:35.570 --> 00:14:58.599 Laura Belin: I thought the libertarians had a strong case to sue again, but they didn’t file the suit. But they did bring it up in this case, so the court does have the opportunity to say, hey, this early filing deadline is unconstitutional, and so then there would be plenty of time before August for Nicholas Glub and Jules Cutler to submit their paperwork again, this time with the affidavit of candidacy. 82 00:14:59.150 --> 00:15:05.309 Kathie Obradovich: It seems so weird to me, and I didn’t know that this was the case before this particular situation, that 83 00:15:05.530 --> 00:15:08.439 Kathie Obradovich: That the governor candidate 84 00:15:08.710 --> 00:15:20.839 Kathie Obradovich: can’t qualify for the ballot unless the lieutenant governor candidate qualifies. You know, they didn’t say anything about Nicholas Gluba’s qualifications or paperwork. 85 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:34.639 Kathie Obradovich: It’s the… it’s his running mate, Jules Cutler, who didn’t have an affidavit of candidacy, and that seems really strange to me, that, you know, both of these candidates would be excluded. You can’t have one without the other. 86 00:15:34.640 --> 00:15:40.210 Laura Belin: Well, and there is precedent from the 1970s. There was a case where the candidate 87 00:15:40.210 --> 00:16:02.080 Laura Belin: submitted… didn’t submit enough signatures, but they had relied on incorrect advice from staff, election staff, who said, you need whatever signatures, and that’s what they went with. It turned out the law had been changed, and it increased the number of signatures, but there is precedent for the Iowa Supreme Court to say that if they were in good faith relying on advice from staff. 88 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:10.179 Laura Belin: That that should, you know, that should take precedence, and that, you know, you should err on the side of giving voters more choices 89 00:16:10.180 --> 00:16:27.030 Laura Belin: rather than the strict compliance with the law. Now, the current Iowa Supreme Court has been more in the camp of strict compliance with provisions of election law, but we’ll see what they come up with. I assume that whichever way this comes out in district court, it’s gonna go up to the Iowa Supreme Court regardless. 90 00:16:27.030 --> 00:16:40.149 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, and this isn’t the first time the Iowa Supreme Court has heard, you know, cases about libertarians have been kicked off the ballot, and generally speaking, they have not agreed to let the libertarians stay on the ballot. 91 00:16:40.340 --> 00:16:40.920 Kathie Obradovich: So… 92 00:16:41.670 --> 00:16:46.660 Dave Price: You mentioned Rob Sand earlier. So, earlier this week. 93 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:58.870 Dave Price: We had a case involving Rob Sand and Governor Kim Reynolds from nearly 6 years ago, back in the COVID time, the period many of us would like to forget. 94 00:16:59.060 --> 00:17:18.769 Dave Price: And it comes down to how Governor Reynolds used some of the federal coronavirus emergency money to then pay for 21 members of her staff. This has led to, really, a long series of back and forth. Rob Sand talked about this. 95 00:17:18.980 --> 00:17:25.210 Dave Price: Either in October 1st, I know he did in November of 2020, I don’t remember if he did in October as well. 96 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:32.700 Dave Price: Saying that the… what she was doing was not the proper use of the money, these people were already on staff. 97 00:17:32.770 --> 00:17:46.850 Dave Price: they were already doing their jobs. The governor was arguing that because of COVID, their jobs were largely focused on COVID, they were working all the time, it was mostly COVID-related, they should be paid by this emergency money. 98 00:17:46.850 --> 00:17:55.089 Dave Price: Way back in the day, Laura, you reported on this. I don’t remember when you first reported on it, September, October, can’t remember. 99 00:17:55.090 --> 00:17:56.360 Laura Belin: So, I reported it… 100 00:17:56.360 --> 00:18:01.369 Kathie Obradovich: She totally broke the story, Dave. I mean, she was the first to report on it. 101 00:18:01.370 --> 00:18:01.900 Laura Belin: So I was. 102 00:18:01.900 --> 00:18:03.379 Dave Price: I’ll let her toot her own a horn. 103 00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:05.860 Kathie Obradovich: No, I’ll toot it for her. 104 00:18:05.860 --> 00:18:06.320 Dave Price: knife. 105 00:18:06.320 --> 00:18:06.910 Kathie Obradovich: I was. 106 00:18:06.910 --> 00:18:24.389 Laura Belin: first to report in September of 2020 that the governor used CARES Act funds to pay staff salaries, and then I reported in October of 2020 that they routed this money through the Department of Homeland Security, the Iowa Department, so that it wouldn’t show up as flowing to the governor’s office. 107 00:18:24.390 --> 00:18:48.360 Laura Belin: But it wasn’t until December of 2020 that I got the documents that were kind of key documents that later appeared in the state auditor’s report. I think Rob Sand questioned the spending in October of 2020, but the documents that I considered kind of the smoking gun were documents where they had submitted… they… the… initially, there was a table that showed there was a shortfall in the governor’s budget. 108 00:18:48.360 --> 00:19:10.769 Laura Belin: And it showed what portions of these 21 people’s salaries could be covered under their budget allocation, and then what they needed to make things line up to overcome this shortfall. And somebody on the staff said, well, it’s supposed to be related to COVID, so can you change it so that it says it’s related to COVID? So they literally kept, like, all of the other numbers 109 00:19:10.770 --> 00:19:35.419 Laura Belin: in the table were exactly the same, except instead of the heading saying, you know, needed to balance appropriations, or needed for the shortfall, instead, all of a sudden it said, related to COVID-19. So… so it was like, they didn’t demonstrate that this work… all of these… almost all these people, all but one, were working for the governor’s office before the pandemic even happened, so… 110 00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:45.530 Laura Belin: it wasn’t like they took on additional people, and that’s why they incurred these additional expenses. They just ended up using the CARES Act. And I always felt 111 00:19:45.530 --> 00:20:03.720 Laura Belin: frustrated that the governor’s office was like, this is fine, it’s obviously allowed, and I felt like they wouldn’t have made it so difficult to find. If you looked on any of the public databases, it never said that there was CARES Act money going to the governor’s office, because it was all going to this other fund through the Homeland Security Department. 112 00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:29.779 Kathie Obradovich: Well, plus, you have that shell game with the governor’s office does that, you know, staff working for the governor’s office are not being paid by the governor’s office, they’re being paid by various state agencies, and that was not new. It was happening even before COVID, so it, you know, unless you know somebody’s working for the governor’s office, you know, and their salary is coming from HHS or one of the other agencies. 113 00:20:29.780 --> 00:20:37.039 Kathie Obradovich: It just makes it even harder to figure out what exactly the governor’s budget is and what they’re spending their money on. 114 00:20:37.580 --> 00:20:43.269 Dave Price: And I think this practice predates Reynolds, right? Hasn’t this gone back for a while? 115 00:20:43.270 --> 00:20:44.040 Kathie Obradovich: Sure. 116 00:20:44.040 --> 00:20:46.399 Laura Belin: Even Vilsack and Kolak, although… 117 00:20:46.860 --> 00:21:01.490 Laura Belin: although I’ve done a lot of reporting on… this is actually how I ended up even finding that they were using the CARES Act money, because I had, for a series of years, I had requested these memorandums of understanding between the governor’s office and various state agencies, because 118 00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:24.459 Laura Belin: the Reynolds administration took this to a much higher level. Branstad had a few staff who were partly paid by agencies, but the Reynolds administration was outspending their budget by much, much more, and had more… and in any case, in this 2020 budget year, I realized that all of these memorandums of understanding for the state agencies, they all ended 119 00:21:24.460 --> 00:21:36.510 Laura Belin: around mid-March of 2020, instead of going through the fiscal year through June 30th, like they usually had in previous years. So that is why I wondered, are they using some kind of COVID money to cover the last 120 00:21:36.510 --> 00:21:39.420 Laura Belin: Few months of the budget year, which it turned out they were. 121 00:21:39.690 --> 00:21:48.160 Dave Price: And I should mention the development of this week was the release from the U.S. Treasury Department, essentially saying that 122 00:21:48.580 --> 00:21:49.560 Dave Price: I’m gonna… 123 00:21:49.700 --> 00:22:09.610 Dave Price: interpret here. This is not a verbatim, but basically, it’s fine. They didn’t misspend any of this money, I think it was $449,000. So then the governor’s office sent this letter out. The head of the Department of Management, the former House Speaker, Craig Paulson, then insisted that State Auditor Rob Sand issue 124 00:22:09.610 --> 00:22:14.410 Dave Price: a new release to show that Treasury said that this was 125 00:22:14.410 --> 00:22:26.429 Dave Price: okay, since Sand has been critical of this for, now, almost 6 years. That then led to Rob Sand putting out a statement saying, no, it’s not okay. And I’m paraphrasing everything here, but… 126 00:22:26.430 --> 00:22:38.149 Dave Price: No, it’s not okay, and this was wrong back then, it’s still wrong now, and just because you get a friendly administration to put a letter out 6 years later doesn’t cover up the fact that this was not the way to do it. 127 00:22:38.650 --> 00:22:41.379 Kathie Obradovich: Because the Treasury, under Biden. 128 00:22:41.510 --> 00:22:54.140 Kathie Obradovich: agreed with Rob Sand that this was not, you know, approved spending. So this is like the Trump administration treasury essentially reversing itself, isn’t it? I mean, they’re… 129 00:22:54.270 --> 00:22:55.440 Kathie Obradovich: Sort of. 130 00:22:55.440 --> 00:23:12.249 Laura Belin: Yeah, I mean, the State Auditor’s Office released material in 2021 that said, you know, we talked to people at Treasury’s Office of Inspector General, and they agreed with our interpretation. I have to say that every time I reached out to the Office of Inspector General. 131 00:23:12.250 --> 00:23:29.890 Laura Belin: in 2021, and I think I even went back to them in 2022 to find out, did you make a final determination about whether this was allowed? And they kept referring me to the Iowa State Auditor’s Office, so I never exactly got an independent… I didn’t get a message from Treasury OIG that said, like. 132 00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:53.399 Laura Belin: we agree this is definitely not okay, but I also never got anything from them that said, no, this is fine for the governor to spend the money this way. And the state auditor’s office issued… they had this back and forth going with the Department of Management and Craig Paulson back in 2021, saying, no, this is what… we talked about it, and the Treasury says you would have to submit it 133 00:23:53.400 --> 00:24:01.199 Laura Belin: You would have needed to submit contemporaneous documentation for this to be an allowable expense, so… 134 00:24:01.590 --> 00:24:05.840 Laura Belin: But it is true that clearly they have a more friendly administration now. 135 00:24:06.100 --> 00:24:18.429 Laura Belin: that reversed the finding. I don’t really know how it benefits Republicans. I guess it feeds their narrative that they think Rob Sanders politicized their office. And if I were them, I’m not sure I would reopen this whole can of worms, though. 136 00:24:19.340 --> 00:24:28.199 Dave Price: Hey, there… I know we’re coming up on time here, but this… this was such a big… there are… Supreme Court… the U.S. Supreme Court had several big rulings this week, but one of them… 137 00:24:28.840 --> 00:24:42.919 Dave Price: I was paying close attention to, just because of what we watched in the Iowa legislature, where they had discussed the idea of providing some additional protection for pesticide manufacturers to protect them against lawsuits. 138 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:51.670 Dave Price: And this all stems for… from… there have been hundreds, maybe it’s thousands of these individual lawsuits across the United States where people 139 00:24:51.670 --> 00:25:05.520 Dave Price: are alleging, and it’s primarily from the use of Roundup, both if you were using it maybe in your garden, or maybe on the more commercial side of it on a farm or something. But a lot of these people who got sick, I believe, were using it on the 140 00:25:05.520 --> 00:25:21.240 Dave Price: residential side. Non-hodgkin’s lymphoma was a couple of the primary diagnoses for a few of these folks who got ill. And there was the one case in Missouri where a gardener 141 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:29.890 Dave Price: got cancer, and I think had been awarded… it was one and a quarter million, I think. It was either one and a quarter or one.5 million, and I think that was the case. 142 00:25:29.970 --> 00:25:39.249 Dave Price: that was central to this recent United States Supreme Court ruling this week. Then you also had that humongous one that was, like, a $2 billion… 143 00:25:39.650 --> 00:25:53.450 Dave Price: case for a man in Georgia who also had that same form of cancer. Kathie, you do… your team does extensive work, covering agriculture, which is kind of one of your core tenets. 144 00:25:54.390 --> 00:26:06.360 Dave Price: Capital Dispatch, which I’m… now I’m gonna toot your horn. One of the things that I think you especially do well, and I say this as I’m gonna go speak to a group today, and I know this stuff’s gonna come up, where… 145 00:26:06.360 --> 00:26:22.699 Dave Price: I think we are finding out in the traditional legacy media, you can’t be all things to all people, and one of the brilliant things of whoever organized all of you that I think is so impressive about what you do at Capital Dispatch is you have, like, your… 146 00:26:22.840 --> 00:26:25.090 Dave Price: Kind of your tent poles of… 147 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:36.839 Dave Price: Of primary coverage, and that’s why, rather than chasing every car wreck or house fire, not that those things don’t matter to people, but you really dig into certain… 148 00:26:37.030 --> 00:26:48.970 Dave Price: certain beats, kind of old-school beats, and that’s why you dominate in these areas, so… Anyway, so now it’s time to teach your horn. I don’t know who came up with your mission, but they’re freakin’ geniuses, whoever they are. 149 00:26:48.970 --> 00:26:50.119 Kathie Obradovich: Well, thank you. 150 00:26:50.120 --> 00:27:06.429 Dave Price: And ag doesn’t… unfortunately, agriculture… and I’m biased on this because I do a side gig where I work with agriculture, but traditionally, the traditional legacy media don’t do a lot of coverage of agriculture, which is really too bad, and there are so many intersections of… it’s not just the people 151 00:27:06.870 --> 00:27:21.450 Dave Price: people who farm on the land, but it’s the production of food, the water that’s necessary. In this case, it’s how you grow it and the chemicals involved. Sorry, this is a long windup. But glyphosate, this really, really effective weed killer. 152 00:27:21.450 --> 00:27:27.640 Dave Price: That is used in Roundup, and that’s why farmers use this stuff. It’s so, so, so good at killing weeds. 153 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:46.639 Dave Price: And nothing in the United States, no federal agency has said that this causes cancer. And, individuals have said that they were exposed and they caught… they got cancer. But so, this big Supreme Court ruling this week, Kathie, you all had extensive coverage of it and what it means. 154 00:27:46.930 --> 00:28:11.440 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so, first of all, I think you alluded to this, but Bayer, which is the manufacturer of, they own one, Santo, which manufactures Roundup, they’ve come to the Capitol, and also in other Midwest states, the last few years, trying to, get state law to, essentially exempt them from liability for what they… what essentially are 155 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:14.770 Kathie Obradovich: Warning label, 156 00:28:14.790 --> 00:28:39.770 Kathie Obradovich: issues. If the federal government, which, you know, we’re talking… we were talking about RFK, you know, if his agency doesn’t say, you know, this product causes cancer, then the product doesn’t have to have a warning on the label, and that lack of warning is what’s causing all of these people who have come down with cancer to now sue. Also, the fact that Europe bans collect 157 00:28:39.770 --> 00:29:04.740 Kathie Obradovich: glyphosate, and, because they say it causes cancer. So, you’ve got this situation where glyphosate is not sold in Europe. Farmers, you know, they want to use it here because it’s so effective, but on the other hand, and you’ve got the federal government who are not saying that it causes cancer, and you would think that RFK Jr, who is, you know. 158 00:29:04.740 --> 00:29:21.770 Kathie Obradovich: he’s supposedly against big ag, but he is not telling his agency to review that finding. So, now, you know, our state has not passed that legislation saying, you know, that you’re going to be exempting this pesticide maker from liability. 159 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:31.819 Kathie Obradovich: If people get cancer in a state where cancer rates are rising, you know, it is… it’s a… it is a very political… 160 00:29:31.820 --> 00:29:43.149 Kathie Obradovich: issue, even though it comes down just to a sort of a dry thing about, you know, warning labels. So that Supreme Court ruling, probably kicks 161 00:29:43.150 --> 00:29:45.590 Kathie Obradovich: All of these hundreds of lawsuits. 162 00:29:45.590 --> 00:30:00.239 Kathie Obradovich: out of court. This is a big, big win for Bayer. It’ll be interesting to see if we see that legislation come back in Iowa, despite this ruling, like, you know, essentially trying to 163 00:30:00.350 --> 00:30:21.729 Kathie Obradovich: close the barn door after the horse is out. But, you know, the interesting thing to me as well was the reaction from our two gubernatorial candidates, Bullsack Lane, who has said he’s against big ag and concerned about, chemicals and the, you know, potential for cancer and water quality, pollution. 164 00:30:21.880 --> 00:30:29.979 Kathie Obradovich: And Rob Sand, both of them have said this is a bad ruling. It’s bad for Iowa, bad for Iowans’ health. 165 00:30:30.210 --> 00:30:54.670 Kathie Obradovich: And so, if nothing else, if presumably one of these guys becomes governor, we’re probably not going to get a bill signed into law that reinforces this, really. So, but yeah, you know, it puts the spotlight to me back on RFK Jr. to say, you know, where, you know, put your money where your mouth is and review this, decision that 166 00:30:54.670 --> 00:30:56.680 Kathie Obradovich: Glyphosate does not. 167 00:30:56.680 --> 00:30:59.089 Kathie Obradovich: You know, present a risk for cancer. 168 00:30:59.560 --> 00:31:22.920 Laura Belin: And I think that, in theory, since this was a statutory-based decision, not a constitutional decision, the Supreme Court was interpreting this labeling law. This is the kind of ruling that, in theory, Congress could overturn. I mean, they could pass an amendment to the law that clarifies, no, we don’t mean, when we say this about the labeling, we don’t mean that this precludes 169 00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:41.619 Laura Belin: court claims. I don’t think that that would ever get through Congress, nor do I think Donald Trump would sign that kind of a law, but it’s possible that Bayer and their allies might continue to be pushing for state-level laws like this, because in theory, because it’s not a constitutional decision, it is something that Congress could overturn. 170 00:31:42.090 --> 00:31:43.439 Dave Price: You know what I wish? 171 00:31:44.170 --> 00:31:49.170 Dave Price: I wish Rick Stewart on that recording would have asked RFK about this. 172 00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:53.669 Dave Price: The recording was, like, 2 weeks ago, right? I believe. 173 00:31:53.670 --> 00:31:55.680 Laura Belin: By the 11th, I think it was on the 8th. 174 00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:01.970 Dave Price: We’re just releasing it, but I wish that… because part of it he was talking about, Stuart was talking about COVID. 175 00:32:02.080 --> 00:32:09.750 Dave Price: And he was talking about some other stuff too, but I wish somehow they would have gone into this so that we could have had RFK 176 00:32:09.930 --> 00:32:15.900 Dave Price: at least his voice recorded talking about this, because, I mean, he can’t… 177 00:32:16.770 --> 00:32:21.189 Dave Price: Like, he can’t… he can’t be in favor of this, right? Based on stuff he’s said in the past? 178 00:32:21.670 --> 00:32:27.050 Kathie Obradovich: Well, you certainly, you know, have that connection now between RFK Jr. and Zach Lahn. 179 00:32:27.510 --> 00:32:51.130 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, Zach Lahn presents himself as a Maha candidate, etc, and so you do, you know, if RFK is silent on this, ruling, makes no effort toward, you know, encouraging an EPA review, of this, or I should probably, 180 00:32:51.130 --> 00:32:59.930 Kathie Obradovich: FDA review. You’ve got, you know, you’ve got a disconnect there, then, you know, so it’s… it’s just an interesting dynamic. 181 00:33:00.610 --> 00:33:03.440 Dave Price: I really wish I would have asked him about this when he was in town. 182 00:33:04.010 --> 00:33:05.450 Kathie Obradovich: He’ll be back. 183 00:33:05.750 --> 00:33:11.560 Dave Price: Huge mistake, huge mistake. All right, we squeezed it all in. Thank you for doing that. 184 00:33:12.460 --> 00:33:13.409 Laura Belin: Thank you. 185 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:21.400 Dave Price: And thanks to all of you for joining us this week here on the Iowa Down Ballot podcast. Thanks to all of you who’ve become new subscribers. 186 00:33:21.690 --> 00:33:39.469 Dave Price: For the new paid subscribers, our hearty thanks. Thank you for helping us to keep this going week after week, and thanks to all of you for not just watching, listening, reading this, but also sharing it to your family and friends. That helps us grow, and it is fun to see that week after week, so we very much appreciate you. 187 00:33:39.470 --> 00:33:50.619 Dave Price: Thank you to Laura, thank you to Kathie, we appreciate you as well. And we were able to, all in one show, praise the both of you for your journalistic dedication. 188 00:33:51.300 --> 00:33:53.780 Dave Price: To both of you, so thank you. Have a great weekend. 189 00:33:53.780 --> 00:33:54.939 Laura Belin: Have a great weekend. 190 00:33:55.090 --> 00:33:57.169 Dave Price: Thanks, everybody, 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 6/20/26

Kathie got caught up on Derek Wulf as Lahn’s pick for Lieutenant Governor, this time noting his Ag Committee chairmanship could ease some rural skepticism toward Lahn. Then Laura dropped the real news: court filings show close to a million dollars in foreclosure and judgment cases tied to Wulf’s farm, something his campaign chalks up to broader struggles facing family farmers. We also dug into Kim Reynolds’ legacy as Lieutenant Governor compared to how visible Branstad kept her, plus Laura’s own frustrating run-ins trying to get access during COVID. Read more on that here: Branstad determined to make Reynolds next governor [https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2014/02/03/branstad-determined-to-make-kim-reynolds-the-next-iowa-governor-updated/] and here: Reynolds hides Gregg [https://laurabelin.substack.com/p/six-takeaways-from-adam-greggs-surprise] And we have some interesting Libertarian news. Two of four candidates got bounced from the ballot, one over a name dispute, one over missing paperwork, with both heading to court. Laura also reported candidates say they got pressure calls from RFK Jr. and a visit from Zach Nunn’s camp urging them to drop out before the challenges hit. To continue to help us cover production costs for this incredibly informative podcast please consider becoming a paid subscriber by clicking the link above, or click the link below to make a one-time contribution that helps Julie Gammack and her work with the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative including Iowa Down Ballot. Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:10.280 --> 00:00:20.650 Dave Price: Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, our weekly confab with two collaborators from the Iowa Writers Collaborative. 4 00:00:20.650 --> 00:00:31.699 Dave Price: Usually two. Last week was one. Kathie Obradovich has returned by popular demand. Laura Bellin was here with us last week and returns as well. Hello, ladies. 5 00:00:31.700 --> 00:00:34.219 Kathie Obradovich: Hello! Happy Friday, happy Juneteenth. 6 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:35.720 Laura Belin: Yeah, happy Juneteenth. 7 00:00:35.720 --> 00:00:39.310 Dave Price: Happy Friday slash Saturday, I’m gonna say, since this… we recorded 8 00:00:39.730 --> 00:00:43.230 Dave Price: drops on Saturday. Last week, we were… 9 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:52.399 Dave Price: not so artfully, behind the scenes trying to figure out a record time, because Kathie, despite the fact that she was supposed to be off. 10 00:00:52.710 --> 00:01:02.819 Dave Price: not working on Fridays so she could spend time with family, was still dedicated to try to do the podcast, and we were trying like crazy to make sure we knew the news about 11 00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:14.430 Dave Price: Zach Lahn choosing State Representative Derek Wulf as his running mate, so we were trying to figure all that into our record time, and the math did not work, so we left Kathie 12 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:22.729 Dave Price: Unfortunately, out of the conversation. So, should we do it like a PS on that, Kathie, since you didn’t get to weigh in? What’d you think of the choice? 13 00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:38.769 Kathie Obradovich: You know, I think, that, I had predicted he would pick, you know, somebody with legislative experience, so that certainly, qualifies, and, you know, his choice of. 14 00:01:38.770 --> 00:01:55.810 Kathie Obradovich: of Derek Wulf as, you know, he’s the Ag Committee Chairman in the House. You know, I think, definitely plays up to rural interests that perhaps Zach Lahn may not be that close to, in the case of some of the big ag 15 00:01:55.810 --> 00:02:01.750 Kathie Obradovich: Manufacturers and producers who, you know, he’s had a kind of an anti-big-ag message. 16 00:02:01.750 --> 00:02:16.569 Kathie Obradovich: That, so I don’t know what the choice of Wulf signals there, that maybe he’s, you know, perhaps a… a little bit of a moderating force on that particular line of questioning. 17 00:02:16.570 --> 00:02:34.840 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, I think, it seemed like, you know, despite the hiccup at the Republican state convention, where some of Adam Steen’s supporters tried to nominate him, you know, I think that that, you know, ultimately 18 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:41.370 Kathie Obradovich: Republicans probably felt fairly confident or comfortable with Wulf as a choice. 19 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:51.700 Dave Price: I always wonder what’s going on behind the scenes, and whether Rob Sands’ choice of Dave Mulbauer as his running mate, and of course, Dave is a farmer. 20 00:02:51.750 --> 00:03:04.969 Dave Price: Derek is a farmer. Did that have anything to do, you know, did that push Derek up the list to try to combat… combat this so we can go cattle rancher versus cattle rancher in this Lieutenant governor debate, where they both… 21 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:11.439 Dave Price: They both wear their hats, and maybe we do this debate out on a countryside or in a barn or something, in a different. 22 00:03:11.440 --> 00:03:23.069 Kathie Obradovich: I was laughing, laughing at the hats. It’s like, you know, if somebody accidentally switched photos of these two guys, would anybody notice? 23 00:03:23.070 --> 00:03:25.249 Dave Price: They do look a little similar. Their wives would probably disagree. 24 00:03:25.630 --> 00:03:28.159 Dave Price: But they do look really similar when they’re in their heads. 25 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:46.550 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, no, I mean, ultimately, I don’t think the choice of lieutenant Governor really makes that much difference, to voters. I mean, unless it turns out to be a terrible choice, and that, you know, the Lieutenant Governor candidate becomes, you know, something of a target. But… 26 00:03:46.790 --> 00:04:06.369 Kathie Obradovich: you know, where it does matter, I think, is whether the governor and lieutenant governor can be a team and work together. That is something that Terry Bransted always lived by, that he, you know, ultimately what was more important to him was picking somebody that he could actually trust and work with. 27 00:04:06.370 --> 00:04:20.969 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know, obviously somebody who could be prepared to take over if the worst should happen. So, I think those are the things that are important. I don’t think that otherwise the Lieutenant Governor Choice really brings that much to the ticket, you know, in terms of trying to get elected. 28 00:04:21.320 --> 00:04:33.180 Laura Belin: Dave, one thing we didn’t talk about last week, because it was so new and I hadn’t had time to look into it, but last weekend, I was looking on Iowa Courts Online and going through some of the filings. There are a lot of 29 00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:38.400 Laura Belin: Legal cases, and a petition for foreclosure, and a few legal judgments. 30 00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:53.880 Laura Belin: against Derek Wulf or his farm, and so I feel like… I mean, that’s only what is available right now on Iowa Courts Online. I feel like if there are more legal issues that we don’t know about that may come out during the campaign, I feel like that’s a risk 31 00:04:53.940 --> 00:05:07.439 Laura Belin: that Zach Lahn didn’t necessarily need to take. Although the Lane campaign told me that this is just an example, a lot of farmers are having hard times, and that basically this is an example of why we need to work to help 32 00:05:07.440 --> 00:05:25.670 Laura Belin: farm stay in family hands, and that they… they told me that Derek Wulf is working on some kind of refinancing, and that all of the debts are going to be paid. But it’s… if you add up all these cases together, it’s close to a million dollars in unpaid bills and other obligations. 33 00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:33.219 Dave Price: I find it fascinating that, you know, probably unintentionally, but on the Republican side. 34 00:05:33.870 --> 00:05:52.920 Dave Price: both of these guys, their private lives will be part of public discussion now, right? With Derek Wulf and his family, and the financial struggles they’ve had with their farming operations, and he’s… as he tries to refinance all of that to get on the right side of that. 35 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:57.769 Dave Price: Clearly, that if they choose to, that could be… that could, 36 00:05:57.770 --> 00:06:04.280 Dave Price: Provide an entry point to talk about how difficult life is for so many small farmers who live on the margins. 37 00:06:04.280 --> 00:06:20.649 Dave Price: And as they’ve been squeezed with higher input costs, and this whole trade uncertainty, and obviously now the… you’ve got two wars going on with Iran, and then the Russian-Ukraine thing that’s been going on forever, that has disrupted so many different things on the energy side and on the fertilizer side. 38 00:06:20.650 --> 00:06:23.489 Dave Price: If he’s willing to talk about this, and this could… 39 00:06:23.490 --> 00:06:38.869 Dave Price: Obviously, it’s very personal stuff, and his family may or may not want to talk about this stuff. And then we have Zach Lahn, who we’ve already discussed, but here’s a guy in his second marriage, and he has children in two different states, and so people may have different views of 40 00:06:39.190 --> 00:06:51.819 Dave Price: How he and his current wife and ex-wife, because his current wife also had a previous marriage where she had children as well, so they have kids together, they both have kids with other people. 41 00:06:51.830 --> 00:07:07.040 Dave Price: from their former marriages in Kansas, so that becomes a complicated situation, and I sat down with Lane and talked about that. He used the word complicated to talk about this, and I’m fascinated about how, especially on the Republican side. 42 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:19.499 Dave Price: These two are going to be willing, if they are, to address some of this personal stuff, because it does, if they want to, provide a kind of an opening into some pretty complicated measures. 43 00:07:20.200 --> 00:07:28.289 Kathie Obradovich: not that hypocrisy is a thing in politics anymore, but I can’t see all of these Trump voters, you know, somehow 44 00:07:28.290 --> 00:07:51.250 Kathie Obradovich: being shocked and appalled by someone with a messy personal history and, you know, multiple, spouses, etc, and messy personal finances. I mean, I just, that narrative, seems to have gone right over Trump voters’ heads in Iowa. 45 00:07:51.250 --> 00:08:00.110 Kathie Obradovich: And so I, you know, I do have, you know, I question how much that stuff still matters in politics. 46 00:08:00.110 --> 00:08:04.530 Dave Price: I do too, and I wonder how effective Sam’s side will be. 47 00:08:04.670 --> 00:08:20.860 Dave Price: to try to, you know, paint Lane as a carpetbagger, and not really an Iowan, and really more of a Kansas resident. I mean, does that kind of stuff stick, or does Lane counter that by saying, hey, I’m trying to be active in my kids’ lives, and I have the means to do it, I have a plane, and… 48 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:29.729 Dave Price: I fly back and forth, and we make sure that this is the arrangement we have with the respective parents, and we want to be there for our kids. 49 00:08:30.050 --> 00:08:43.610 Laura Belin: Well, Rob Sand at his general election rally, he said, you know, God bless Zach Lahn and his commitment to his family, but we need a full-time governor. I think that’s something that we’ll continue to hear from his campaign, because 50 00:08:43.610 --> 00:09:06.540 Laura Belin: Zach Lahn hasn’t yet spelled out exactly how this is going to work. I mean, he said that it’s not going to interfere with his ability to be governor, but is he going to be scheduling official duties and other… and official events around his kids? I don’t know, what’s if one of… if his kids are in a school concert or an important sports game? I mean, what… how is this going… 51 00:09:06.540 --> 00:09:12.230 Laura Belin: to work, with… with… if his kids are continuing to live in another stage. And if… 52 00:09:12.270 --> 00:09:37.229 Laura Belin: if he claims that they’re coming to live in Iowa, I mean, how is it… usually that kind of thing is not something that one parent can decide unilaterally. If there’s a divorce agreement and a custody agreement, that’s not something that you can just up and change right away. So I think that will be a story. I don’t know about Derek Wulf. I mean, all this Rob Sand campaign has said about Derek Wulf so far is that he voted for school vouchers, he voted to defund the 53 00:09:37.230 --> 00:09:47.869 Laura Belin: water sensor, monitoring sensors, and that he’s, you know, part of the status quo, and so they’re… they haven’t brought up anything related to his… his finances. 54 00:09:49.650 --> 00:09:53.370 Dave Price: Did… I’m curious what you both think on… 55 00:09:53.540 --> 00:10:06.679 Dave Price: You know, we just spent the first X number of minutes here talking about lieutenant governors, essentially, and it’s hard to imagine that a lot of people really are going to choose either Zach Lahn or Rob Sand because of the choice and the number 2. 56 00:10:06.680 --> 00:10:21.960 Dave Price: But one thing that I’m thinking about, and Kim Reynolds was just on Iowa Press this week, when you think about her legacy, Kathie, you brought up Terry Bransted, and I just remember covering… I wasn’t here for the first, when Terry Bransted was governor the original time. 57 00:10:21.960 --> 00:10:29.099 Dave Price: But… he seemed to have Kim Reynolds featured prominently, and she was… 58 00:10:29.100 --> 00:10:43.870 Dave Price: usually always there in the news conferences and that. I don’t know that maybe at the beginning when she had Adam Gregg, he was there, but that seemed to change, and Adam Gregg wasn’t really… we didn’t really get public schedules with his events for a lot of weeks. 59 00:10:43.870 --> 00:11:02.389 Dave Price: And then when… when Greg quit, to leave politics, basically, and Chris Kanoyer got in there, she’s been pretty low profile as a lieutenant governor. Does it strike you at all, the difference in the way Bransted used Reynolds versus Reynolds featured her? 60 00:11:02.460 --> 00:11:02.970 Dave Price: Lieutenant. 61 00:11:02.970 --> 00:11:27.919 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so, first of all, I think, you know, it’s worth pointing out that Bransted had a lot higher profile than Kim Reynolds did. I mean, he did, he did weekly news conferences every single week, and yes, she was there. And I think, you know, part of it was that he was up front, that he was grooming her to be his successor. I mean, he. 62 00:11:27.920 --> 00:11:33.940 Kathie Obradovich: he… he made that clear up front, you know, and I think that part of it 63 00:11:33.940 --> 00:11:48.460 Kathie Obradovich: You know, might have been because he was older and, you know, a lot more experienced as governor, and probably a lot more secure, you know, in his, his… both his public persona and 64 00:11:48.550 --> 00:12:05.830 Kathie Obradovich: you know, there was a little… now that I think about it, there was a little hiccup early on, where Reynolds said something off the cuff, or sort of off the reservation. There was a message… I don’t remember if it was about gay marriage, or if it was about… 65 00:12:05.830 --> 00:12:09.960 Laura Belin: I thought that was during the campaign. Was it during the campaign? It was about civil unions. 66 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:10.869 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so… 67 00:12:10.870 --> 00:12:13.949 Laura Belin: Something like she wasn’t against civil unions or something. 68 00:12:13.950 --> 00:12:38.930 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, so that… there was a little bit of a hiccup there, and, she was not as prominent on the campaign trail immediately after that, but… but once they were elected, yeah, she was always a fixture. She traveled with him, a lot, and I, you know, I… I looked at it as, yeah, she’s learning the job. People did, you know, say, oh, well, she’s just, you know, all she’s 69 00:12:38.930 --> 00:12:47.300 Kathie Obradovich: does is stand behind him, you know? Sure. But being… there’s a lot to say for being present and learning that job. 70 00:12:47.300 --> 00:12:49.480 Kathie Obradovich: And, you know. 71 00:12:49.600 --> 00:13:12.259 Kathie Obradovich: I wish that she would have learned the lesson from Bransted that, being present, you know, also means being present for media. I mean, she, she went through, you know, you mentioned Adam Gregg. I mean, she went through periods, not only was he invisible, but so was she. And so, I do think 72 00:13:12.260 --> 00:13:24.089 Kathie Obradovich: You know, it didn’t surprise me when he left when he did, for certainly a job that pays a lot better than being Lieutenant Governor. But yeah, it didn’t feel like she gave him a lot to do. 73 00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:35.530 Laura Belin: We’ll… maybe we’ll see if we can get our producer to put these in the show notes, but I wrote a whole series of posts in around 2013 and 2014 about how unusual it was 74 00:13:35.560 --> 00:14:00.559 Laura Belin: for the way Terry Branstad was bringing Kim Reynolds along to all of his events, because normally you would deploy… the lieutenant Governor would cover a lot of events that the governor didn’t have time to go to. That’s what Sally Peterson and Patty Judge were doing, but Branstad and Reynolds were always doing events together, and he gave her a lot of really prominent roles and jobs. And then, when Adam Gregg resigned. 75 00:14:00.560 --> 00:14:02.790 Laura Belin: unexpectedly, I think, to most people. 76 00:14:02.810 --> 00:14:19.510 Laura Belin: I wrote something about the contrast, where she really didn’t give him anything. I mean, it was shocking how few obligations and responsibilities he had, and he also wasn’t visible to the media. But beyond that, he just didn’t seem to have much of a role in her administration at all. 77 00:14:19.880 --> 00:14:32.360 Dave Price: And I wonder, this might be a deep dive conversation for another day, but especially when Kim Reynolds is out of office and she goes back and reflects on this, I had wondered if… 78 00:14:32.790 --> 00:14:39.599 Dave Price: going through COVID when she was very, very accessible, and my recollection… 79 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:40.430 Laura Belin: me, Dave. 80 00:14:40.430 --> 00:14:41.150 Dave Price: Well, yeah. 81 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:45.180 Dave Price: That may be true. 82 00:14:45.500 --> 00:14:50.960 Dave Price: to… for the daily news conferences that she did at Iowa PBS. 83 00:14:51.390 --> 00:14:58.410 Dave Price: which may have been called Iowa Public Television back then, I can’t remember when the rebrand happened, but out in Johnston. She was doing… 84 00:14:59.430 --> 00:15:03.619 Dave Price: updates every day, usually around 11 a.m. during COVID. 85 00:15:03.930 --> 00:15:09.929 Dave Price: Which… That has to… That has to be brutal to go through. 86 00:15:09.930 --> 00:15:33.129 Dave Price: to stand through. Obviously, there were… if you, as we all know, there was so much they didn’t know back then about COVID, and remember way back, we were wondering whether we were supposed to wash down our groceries and all kinds of stuff that we just had no idea, and she’s standing there trying to explain, each day after day after day, are you gonna force masking and vaccinations and shut this down and shut that down and all that? 87 00:15:33.130 --> 00:15:40.270 Dave Price: And that had to really… I feel like she probably changed During that process. 88 00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:46.450 Dave Price: And I’m not sure she was nearly as accessible as frequently. 89 00:15:46.930 --> 00:15:55.829 Dave Price: after that. I mean, she’s been governor for quite a while here, better part of a decade. Lately, this year, it’s a little… I feel like she’s sort of stepped up. 90 00:15:55.830 --> 00:16:08.170 Dave Price: during this last legislative session, it was more frequent doing news conferences and gaggles, as we call it, where we have a chance to ask our off-topic questions and all those kind of things after an event, but 91 00:16:08.410 --> 00:16:14.809 Dave Price: I know that there were years in there where we would… we would go weeks without seeing anything on a public schedule. 92 00:16:14.980 --> 00:16:20.879 Dave Price: And having any ability to really ask her anything, which was really a change from… 93 00:16:21.110 --> 00:16:36.070 Dave Price: the predecessors. We sort of got spoiled by Terry Bransted’s Every Monday Morning thing, because, I mean, man, that sort of set the agenda for the week. Culver wasn’t that way. Vilsack probably did a lot, maybe he did more of those than Culver did, but… 94 00:16:36.260 --> 00:16:43.059 Dave Price: Without a doubt, we, you know, we would like to at least have access once a week where you can ask the governor of the state. 95 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:45.600 Dave Price: You know, pertinent questions. 96 00:16:46.140 --> 00:17:02.280 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, and, you know, is weekly access really necessary? I don’t know. I mean, Vilsack didn’t like to do those unless he had something to announce. I mean, Branstead would just, you know, there were times when he would just, you know, stand up there and take questions, and not. 97 00:17:02.280 --> 00:17:03.440 Dave Price: Which is awesome for us, right? 98 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:04.390 Kathie Obradovich: No, not… 99 00:17:04.390 --> 00:17:04.980 Dave Price: anything good. 100 00:17:04.980 --> 00:17:22.649 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, and Vilsack definitely wanted to have, you know, something prepared every time that he did it, and didn’t want to do it if he didn’t have, you know, something like that, which I can understand. But yeah, it’s, you know, and, you know, just to spin it forward into the current. 101 00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:31.349 Kathie Obradovich: campaign. I mean, that is something that I think people should ask candidates, you know, that they should ask them, you know, what is your commitment to 102 00:17:31.390 --> 00:17:46.579 Kathie Obradovich: you know, putting out a public schedule, to meeting regularly with the media, to, you know, taking questions, to having your staff respond to questions, for heaven’s sake. You know, I think that that… 103 00:17:46.580 --> 00:17:59.740 Kathie Obradovich: It’s not just for us, it’s for our readers and viewers, and so there’s my little soapbox about, you know, please, please, next governor, you know, be more open and more accessible. 104 00:17:59.960 --> 00:18:24.919 Laura Belin: I’m just… while we were talking, I just looked up a post that I wrote in 2019, because during one of the governor’s debates in 2018, she had been doing somewhat regular press conferences, then she stopped in the summer of 2018, and she didn’t do any more press conferences for about the last 4 months of the campaign, and it came up in one of her debates against Fred Hubbell, and she said that if elected, she would do weekly press conferences, but I wrote 105 00:18:24.920 --> 00:18:25.900 Laura Belin: this piece. 106 00:18:25.900 --> 00:18:50.900 Laura Belin: in, looks like, August of 2019, because she was already not keeping up with the weekly press conference promise promise. And you may say that it’s not important, but I think it is important. And I just… sorry to interrupt you earlier, Dave, but I just had to say that, because during my experience during COVID is that I was never allowed to participate in a single press conference that she did, and her office stopped responding to any of my public records requests, which led to the loss 107 00:18:50.900 --> 00:19:08.339 Laura Belin: that Iowa Capital Dispatch was also involved with in late 2021, more than… I had… I had multiple records requests that were more than a year old, with no response until we filed the lawsuit, so… And I would say… Anyway, we got a little bit off track there. 108 00:19:08.340 --> 00:19:22.669 Dave Price: Oh, sure. I think Governor Reynolds also, and maybe this is typical, but I think she was better served by some of her top staffers at different points during her tenure than she was at others. In particular, what you went through, Laura. 109 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:32.100 Dave Price: you know, there was a change after that. There are… there’s a big difference between somebody who sort of comes of age during… on the campaign side. 110 00:19:32.340 --> 00:19:34.920 Dave Price: And how that person views… 111 00:19:35.570 --> 00:19:49.610 Dave Price: you know, you’re a public employee, and your job is to provide information to Iowans, in our case, since we’re in Iowa, and the campaign is over, and while those things get intertwined quite a bit, I think 112 00:19:50.110 --> 00:20:05.789 Dave Price: there is a… there is a difference in roles, campaign side versus the official side, and I think we appreciate those who commit to the official side to see this as the conduit of information. They’re always going to spin it to try to make their boss look good, perhaps, but… 113 00:20:05.990 --> 00:20:09.860 Dave Price: We would hope they still see a role in public service of 114 00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:15.400 Dave Price: being the disseminator of information that is pertinent to Iowa’s… Iowans. 115 00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:33.709 Kathie Obradovich: Well, and good… people… it’s a cliche because it’s true, but good policy is good politics. And… and I always thought, and I’ve said this before, that Kim Reynolds was always her own best advocate, you know? And I think that by sort of… 116 00:20:33.710 --> 00:20:58.499 Kathie Obradovich: making herself inaccessible for the periods that she did. She was just… she was missing great opportunities to advocate for her policies. And, you know, those… those opportunities, once they’re missed, they… they never come back. So… so I do think it wasn’t really, you know, it just wasn’t in her best interest, and that’s too bad, because I… I thought… I always thought 117 00:20:58.500 --> 00:20:59.060 Kathie Obradovich: that. 118 00:20:59.060 --> 00:21:06.799 Kathie Obradovich: You know, when she was out on the trail and making a case for her policies, that she was her… she was the best advocate for herself. 119 00:21:08.490 --> 00:21:12.840 Dave Price: Okay, let’s… let’s not talk about Republicans or Democrats. 120 00:21:13.410 --> 00:21:15.439 Dave Price: Let’s talk about libertarians. 121 00:21:17.230 --> 00:21:26.710 Dave Price: That is a party that has interested me almost for the time that I’ve lived in this state, because… no offense to you libertarians listening. 122 00:21:27.650 --> 00:21:35.449 Dave Price: However, the organizational side of this for libertarians could be a Netflix doc. 123 00:21:35.860 --> 00:21:36.870 Kathie Obradovich: And… 124 00:21:37.050 --> 00:21:43.329 Dave Price: two steps forward, three steps back, right? They seem to struggle 125 00:21:43.790 --> 00:21:59.749 Dave Price: they make some progress, they get on the ballot as a major party, and then things blow up, and then they have to sort of start all over again. Without a doubt, they face different obstacles, and Laura, you sat in the room and watched this, and, you know. 126 00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:10.950 Dave Price: As we know, for Republicans, they don’t necessarily want to see a bunch of libertarians on the ballot, especially in 2026, where the governor’s race looks competitive, some of these congressional races look competitive. 127 00:22:10.950 --> 00:22:21.769 Dave Price: They’re not so sure that they remember the case of, you know, Cindy Axne getting elected to Congress when David Young was the Republican incumbent, and there was a Libertarian in that race. 128 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:30.469 Dave Price: Took some votes, David Young lost, they know how to add up math here. So, Laura, can you kind of walk us through… you were inside that room. 129 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:45.069 Dave Price: maybe a little setup here about what’s going on, but this… this boils down to whether these libertarians did the process correctly to get on the ballot for November. It’s a little more complicated than that. 130 00:22:45.450 --> 00:22:55.900 Laura Belin: So there were 4 Libertarian candidates who filed, Thomas Lane for U.S. Senate, Nicholas Gluba for Governor, Marco Batali in the 3rd Congressional District, and Rick Stewart in the 2nd. 131 00:22:55.900 --> 00:23:19.580 Laura Belin: And we all knew Republicans are going to go through everything as close… looking as closely as they can to find any reason to remove these libertarians from the ballot. That’s what happened two years ago, where there were three Libertarian congressional candidates, and they were all kicked off the ballot in a challenge brought by Republicans. So, they could… apparently, they could find nothing wrong with Thomas Lane’s nominating papers, because 132 00:23:19.580 --> 00:23:40.250 Laura Belin: he was… was not challenged. But the other three libertarians were challenged, and 2 out of 3 of them were kicked off the ballot, at least that was the ruling of the state objection panel, which normally consists of the Secretary of State, Paul Pate, Attorney General Brenna Bird, and most of the time, State Auditor Rob Sand, although he recused himself 133 00:23:40.250 --> 00:24:00.330 Laura Belin: from hearing the objection to Nicholas Gluba’s nominating paperwork for governor because he’s running for governor, and obviously it could be a conflict because a Democrat would benefit from having a Libertarian on the ballot. So they unanimously ruled that Rick Stewart can stay on the ballot in the second district. The challenge was 134 00:24:00.330 --> 00:24:25.319 Laura Belin: claiming that his petition said Richard Stewart, but his other… his affidavit, and what he wanted to appear on the ballot was Rick Stewart, and that that didn’t match, and they… they held that there are many examples of candidates running under shortened versions of their name, so they, they dispense with that one quickly. Marco Battaglio was not as fortunate. It turns out that that’s not his name. I had no idea. I’ve been writing about this guy since 135 00:24:25.320 --> 00:24:49.619 Laura Belin: since 2018. I mean, I’ve covered… I’ve been very interested in libertarians as well, so I’ve written quite a bit about the Libertarian Party of Iowa over the years. Never knew that his name, his legal name is Mark Anderson. That’s what he signed on his affidavit of candidacy, but all of his petitions said Marco Battalia. And so this was a split decision with… Rob Sand would have kept him on the ballot, but Paul Page and Brenna Bird held that 136 00:24:49.620 --> 00:25:10.989 Laura Belin: Iowa code does not allow somebody to run for office under a fictitious name. And the libertarians are going to appeal to court, and the statute does… it just says the candidate’s name. It doesn’t say the candidate’s legal name or the candidate’s real name, so I think that’ll be the central issue there. Marco Batalia has been on the ballot a number of times before and was never challenged for that reason. 137 00:25:10.990 --> 00:25:12.769 Dave Price: as Marco Battalia. 138 00:25:12.770 --> 00:25:13.709 Laura Belin: Yes, as Mark 139 00:25:13.710 --> 00:25:38.630 Laura Belin: I mean, in fact, and Rob Sands said this during the meeting, it would actually be more confusing to voters if he were on the ballot as Mark Anderson, because there have got to be a lot of Mark Andersons in Iowa, but he’s the only Marco Battalia, and he’s run for office before. His advocate, the Libertarian Party of Iowa State Chair, who was speaking on his behalf at the meeting, Stephanie Berlin, said, you know, I mean, there’s so many articles, if you Google Marco Battalia. 140 00:25:38.630 --> 00:25:57.370 Laura Belin: find all of this coverage. If you were looking for information about Mark Anderson, you wouldn’t have any idea that it was connected to this person. But the argument that the Republicans will bring, and Alan Ostergen was the attorney representing the Republicans who brought the challenge, who are both connected to Zach Nunn. 141 00:25:57.490 --> 00:26:12.910 Laura Belin: he said, look, if you allow this to happen, then next election, somebody can go and collect signatures and be on the ballot and say, my name is Chuck Grassley and I’m running for Senate. You know, if you just let people pick any name. So that… so I don’t know what the court is. 142 00:26:12.910 --> 00:26:14.049 Dave Price: Yeah, it’s complicated. 143 00:26:14.050 --> 00:26:38.480 Laura Belin: It is going… it is going to court. And the Libertarian one, I just… I’m frustrated with myself, because I went to the Capitol on June 2nd, the day they submitted their papers, and I interviewed the candidates at the Capitol. But I did not walk with them over to the Lucas Building, which is where the Secretary of State’s staff are located, and where they actually turned in their paperwork, because there’s a factual dispute. 144 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:44.099 Laura Belin: And it turns out to be really important. It would have been very helpful if I had been there to see what happened, because 145 00:26:44.100 --> 00:27:04.290 Laura Belin: Nicholas Gluba’s running mate, Jules Cutler, did not submit an affidavit of candidacy to be the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and she maintains that she was there, that she offered this affidavit, and that the staffer in the office said, no, that’s not necessary, we don’t need that, so she took it home. 146 00:27:04.290 --> 00:27:27.819 Laura Belin: Whereas the Secretary of State staffer denies that that happened. She says she… there are certain things she doesn’t remember, but she denies that she was ever presented with this affidavit of candidacy, or that she ever said that it wasn’t necessary. So, the upshot is that the law says both the governor and lieutenant governor candidate have to submit an affidavit of candidacy, and Jules Cutler didn’t. 147 00:27:27.820 --> 00:27:40.109 Laura Belin: Therefore, the ticket is off the ballot, even though more than 8,000 people signed their signatures… signed their petition. So, that’s going to court as well, and I don’t know how that’s gonna work out. 148 00:27:42.010 --> 00:27:44.760 Dave Price: What’d you make of all this, Kathie? I mean, this is… 149 00:27:45.110 --> 00:27:55.459 Dave Price: I appreciate that these people are, you know, this is their lives for the next couple of months, whether they get on the ballot or off the ballot, but it’s so complex, it’s also so fascinating. 150 00:27:56.180 --> 00:28:10.430 Kathie Obradovich: it will be the most press that the Libertarian Party has had, you know, and probably the most they will have all year. So, on the one hand, I don’t think that it hurts them to… 151 00:28:10.430 --> 00:28:31.179 Kathie Obradovich: you know, make the case that they’re being persecuted by, you know, the major party, that they are so afraid of us, that they… they don’t want to let us on the ballot. You know, that kind of narrative for a… for an underdog, might be… might be helpful for those who actually make the ballot. But… 152 00:28:31.180 --> 00:28:49.289 Kathie Obradovich: it is also a helpful narrative, I think, for Democrats, that, you know, that, Republicans have to, you know, once again, as part of sort of a narrative, with the Trump administration as well, that, you know, they can’t beat us, 153 00:28:49.440 --> 00:29:08.260 Kathie Obradovich: you know, except by, you know, try to rig, rig the ballot, or, you know, make, make a, you know, try to, try to take voters’ choices away, basically, I think, is, you know, what we’re gonna hear there. And, and so. 154 00:29:08.460 --> 00:29:28.420 Kathie Obradovich: I think that the libertarians, what you said before about their organizational ability, you know, they did… they had to have known that their, you know, all of their paperwork was going to be under scrutiny, and… and they still didn’t make it. It always… it always, you know, befuddles me, you know, when candidates 155 00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:46.400 Kathie Obradovich: can’t do… and yeah, these are difficult things, but candidates can’t, do the paperwork to make the ballot. You know, it does make you wonder, well, you know, how are they gonna run a campaign, and how are they going to do in office if they can’t get this part right? So… 156 00:29:46.400 --> 00:29:49.990 Laura Belin: Dave, I forgot to mention that Marco Battalia 157 00:29:49.990 --> 00:30:11.390 Laura Belin: has asserted, and Rick Stewart also, supposedly, they both received phone calls from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, urging them to withdraw their candidacies before these objections were filed. And Marco Battalia further alleges that Zach Nunn and one of his campaign consultants came to his house 158 00:30:11.390 --> 00:30:16.489 Laura Belin: And tried to pressure him to withdraw his candidacy before the challenges were filed. 159 00:30:17.170 --> 00:30:34.859 Dave Price: Which adds yet another layer to all of this. Let’s leave it at that for this week. Kathie, Laura, good to catch up with you. Have a great weekend. Kathie enjoyed… Kathie, once again, is supposed to be spending time with a loved one right now. 160 00:30:34.950 --> 00:30:41.189 Dave Price: And as we record, he’s probably in the other room saying, man, I’m hungry, I sure hope we eat lunch. 161 00:30:41.350 --> 00:30:42.040 Kathie Obradovich: Yes. 162 00:30:42.490 --> 00:30:55.170 Kathie Obradovich: Well, we get Juneteenth off in my organization, so… so it’s a day off. But, you know, I never want to miss an opportunity to talk to you guys and everybody out there. 163 00:30:56.410 --> 00:30:57.889 Laura Belin: Dave, happy Father’s Day. 164 00:30:57.970 --> 00:31:22.789 Dave Price: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend. Thank you all for joining us for Iowa Down Ballot Podcast. Thank you for those of you who’ve become new paid subscribers. We very much appreciate you. You allow us to keep doing this week after week. If you haven’t done that yet, and you have the ability to do that, please look for the link below this post where you can do this, and please also share the links from this podcast to your 165 00:31:22.790 --> 00:31:29.830 Dave Price: Friends and family, coworkers, neighbors, all those kinds of things that allows us to grow week after week as well. 166 00:31:29.830 --> 00:31:32.080 Dave Price: We will talk to you next week. Have a great week. 167 00:31:36.920 --> 00:31:38.859 Dave Price: Thank you both. 168 00:31:39.120 --> 00:31:41.049 Laura Belin: Sorry, I got us off track with 169 00:31:41.340 --> 00:31:45.299 Laura Belin: And then we did… we can circle back on the ESAs and the. 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 6/13/26

Zach Lahn named state rep Derek Wulf as his running mate, a cattle farmer and early Trump endorser, likely a move to shore up MAGA support after Lahn didn’t get Trump’s endorsement in the primary. Trump has since walked that back publicly, saying he got “bad info.” Rob Sand went with Dave Muhlbauer, a rural Democrat who’s held office in deep-red Crawford County. The pick sends a clear message that Sand isn’t writing off small-town Iowa. Both tickets are now set, several Libertarian candidates are fighting ballot challenges on paperwork technicalities, and debate talks are underway. Laura called this the most exciting Iowa election cycle she’s ever covered. Hard to disagree. Thanks for subscribing, we continue to grow! We reached 30k total audio downloads since we launched this show a little over a year ago. If you would like to support the shows production costs, please hit the subscribe button above. If you’d like to make a one-time donation please click the button below. Auto-generated transcript below: 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 6/6/26

Two big results: Zach Lahn edged out Randy Feenstra in the Republican gubernatorial primary — a surprise upset fueled by a dominant Polk County performance and a late push from conservative commentator Steve Deace. On the Democratic side, Josh Turek won the U.S. Senate primary more comfortably than expected. Looking ahead, we talked about why Lahn is a trickier general election opponent for Rob Sand than Feenstra would have been — he’s a change candidate with no voting record to attack. With both the governor’s race and U.S. Senate seat open simultaneously for the first time in 58 years, Iowa’s general election is set to grab A LOT of attention. Thanks so much to those of you that have become paid subscribers or made a one time donation. Please click the subscribe button above or one-time donation button below to pitch in! Also, we reached #70 on Rising U.S. Politics on Substack this week. We wouldn’t have been there without your support. THANK YOU! Auto-generated transcript below: 00:00:17.360 --> 00:00:34.689 Dave Price: Welcome, everybody, to the Iowa Down Ballot podcast, the post-primary election edition. I’m Dave Price, joined by Kathie Obradovich and Laura Belin. Hello to both of you as we begin this first weekend past the primary. How are you? 3 00:00:35.230 --> 00:00:36.650 Kathie Obradovich: Fabulous. 4 00:00:36.650 --> 00:00:39.090 Laura Belin: I’m recovering. 5 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:40.039 Dave Price: We survived. 6 00:00:40.040 --> 00:00:40.920 Laura Belin: Nights, yes. 7 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:43.030 Dave Price: Yeah, but 8 00:00:43.170 --> 00:00:52.269 Dave Price: All in all, to have primary night wrapped up by the time everything essentially was, was not bad. Kathie, what’s your headline? 9 00:00:53.330 --> 00:01:09.919 Kathie Obradovich: So, couple of surprises. One, I thought that this U.S. Senate Democratic primary, would be a lot closer than it was. It caught us off guard a little bit when AP called the race, excuse me, for Josh Turek. 10 00:01:10.070 --> 00:01:34.609 Kathie Obradovich: as early as they did, we thought it would go, go later and be a lot closer. And then secondly, you know, I think we saw that this could have been a possibility of Zach Lane edging out, Randy Feenster for the nomination. I mean, we saw the trend lines happening there. But again, you know, I sort of thought. 11 00:01:34.690 --> 00:01:58.689 Kathie Obradovich: you know, we were going to be going till 2AM on this race, or, you know, the potential for it to go to convention, and, the fact that, here’s the surprise, that Feenstra conceded, really, at the… at the… he was less than a percentage point behind Lane, and he conceded even before AP called the race. So, that surprised me as well. 12 00:01:59.650 --> 00:02:00.890 Dave Price: Laura, what was your headline? 13 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:13.090 Laura Belin: Oh, I think the lane surge. I was kind of feeling the lane-mentum. I went to his rally in Ankeny on Sunday, and on Tuesday night, I started the evening at the Iowa Democratic Party’s 14 00:02:13.090 --> 00:02:36.220 Laura Belin: election night event, but when I saw the Polk County number come in really big for Zach Lahn, he had a margin of about 2,500 votes from Polk County, and Polk County tends to be one of the first to report, I scooted over to West Des Moines to go to the Lahn Victory Watch, because even though it was tight, he was hanging in there. I don’t think he ever gave up the lead at any point when they were 15 00:02:36.220 --> 00:02:41.810 Laura Belin: adding batches of votes. So, but my biggest surprise was not that Lahn won the primary, but 16 00:02:41.810 --> 00:02:52.570 Laura Belin: how many counties he carried. He carried 52 counties, and he actually carried most of the counties in Feenstra’s own congressional district, which I thought was amazing. He got 17 00:02:52.570 --> 00:03:16.439 Laura Belin: 40% of the vote in Sioux County, even. I mean, Feenstra carried Sioux County, but you would expect him to be absolutely dominating in his home county, so that did surprise me. I was also surprised in the second congressional district. Joe Mitchell won the… that was expected that he would win the nomination, but he only had, like, 62% of the vote or so. I thought he would do better against a very underfunded 18 00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:23.530 Laura Belin: opponent. So, in general, there was a pretty big anti-establishment streak in those Republican primary results. 19 00:03:23.630 --> 00:03:24.149 Dave Price: We have… 20 00:03:24.150 --> 00:03:47.299 Kathie Obradovich: It was interesting to see… just a quick addition to what Laura said. It was interesting to see how dominant Lahn was in the third district. You know, that’s really where he won it. Feenstra, they were pretty close, in the first and second district. Feenstra carried his own home 4th district, but not, as Laura just said, not by very much. 21 00:03:47.300 --> 00:04:03.270 Kathie Obradovich: But I think where Lahn really won it, was in the 3rd District, Central Iowa, Polk County, and he, he was… he was quite a bit further ahead there. So, I was a little bit surprised by that. 22 00:04:04.480 --> 00:04:20.019 Dave Price: I also was surprised that the Turek margin was as big as it was, although it really did feel like… I think we all sort of hinted at this the week before, that, it was… he looked like he had established himself as the… as the frontrunner with this. 23 00:04:20.029 --> 00:04:20.769 Laura Belin: It was… it was. 24 00:04:20.769 --> 00:04:22.189 Dave Price: The one thing that… 25 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:30.109 Laura Belin: I was… I’m sorry, the Vote Vets’ internal polling was showing him 20 to 25 points ahead, so it was pretty consistent with that. 26 00:04:30.110 --> 00:04:40.120 Dave Price: Yeah. The one thing I thought about is, I don’t remember exactly at what time lanes, numbers… 27 00:04:40.350 --> 00:04:56.269 Dave Price: jumped above Feenstra. I was standing behind, in front of this big monitor for our TV streaming broadcast that we did all night, and it would automatically refresh. And I remember looking, and all of a sudden, Lahn had jumped up, the early numbers had Feenstra up. 28 00:04:56.270 --> 00:05:06.809 Dave Price: But it just reminded me that this is not scientific by any means, but I talked about this a couple of weeks ago here on the podcast. Like, sometimes you can just feel some stuff. 29 00:05:07.330 --> 00:05:21.750 Dave Price: When you go out and witness some of these campaigns in action, and it doesn’t… what you… maybe what you feel as the reporter, at least for me, doesn’t necessarily match, maybe, my head. 30 00:05:21.750 --> 00:05:28.829 Dave Price: So, like, when this campaign started, Feenster’s clearly the frontrunner, right? Most money, most well-known. 31 00:05:28.830 --> 00:05:45.580 Dave Price: a member of Congress, you know, whatever. And we have talked numerous times on this podcast about, boy, you know, it doesn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for this guy, whatever. Laura, you went to the Lahn event in Ankeny. I went to the one Friday night in West Des Moines right beforehand. 32 00:05:45.580 --> 00:06:10.110 Dave Price: Which, P.S, great point about Polk County, because they really leaned in hard to point… to Polk County and won handily. And that’s the margin right there, if you start looking at his overall numbers. But you could just feel the juice, and Friday night, I felt like you could still feel the juice in Lahn rally, even though hours before, they got the gut punch that the president had endorsed Feenstra. 33 00:06:10.590 --> 00:06:27.599 Dave Price: and, you know, changed his mind, or whatever happened behind the scenes, or somebody influenced him to get involved in the race. But it was just another indication to me about sometimes what the… I would say head and heart, but, I’m neutral here, so I don’t really have the heart involved in these things, but sort of heart and gut, maybe? 34 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:32.100 Dave Price: But Gut was telling me that Lahn was gonna surpass, and Head was telling me… 35 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:47.040 Dave Price: boy, Feenster should probably be able to hold on here, right? And then, boy, once that flip happened, and I was texting throughout the night with, Feenster supporters, and you could tell that there was angst almost from the get-go. 36 00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:56.230 Dave Price: And then desperation sort of set in, like, they were looking at Montgomery County numbers, which were late… later coming in, but that was sort of the Hail Mary… 37 00:06:57.220 --> 00:07:01.050 Dave Price: And, you know, there weren’t enough people there that were gonna make enough of a difference anyway. 38 00:07:01.890 --> 00:07:02.580 Kathie Obradovich: I was… 39 00:07:02.580 --> 00:07:25.600 Kathie Obradovich: You know, beforehand, we weren’t… didn’t really have a lot of information about what Lahn’s get-out-the-vote operation was going to be like. You know, I was sort of assuming that Feenstra and Steen might both have an advantage there, with Steen, you know, having his tried-and-true supporters from the family leader, etc. 40 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:50.180 Kathie Obradovich: But, yeah, the… either, you know, that organization is not quite as influential as it has been, or, there wasn’t enough difference between Steen and, Lahn and Feenstra in terms of how people felt as far as their, you know, religious, Christian conservative, values. 41 00:07:50.180 --> 00:07:51.280 Kathie Obradovich: So… 42 00:07:51.280 --> 00:08:00.670 Laura Belin: Well, Steve Dace, who was an early Steen endorser and a big Steen endorser, came out on Saturday, the day after the Trump endorsement, and said. 43 00:08:00.880 --> 00:08:07.269 Laura Belin: I’m still voting for Steen, but if you want to stop Randy Feenstra, who’s gonna lose to Rob Sand, you have 44 00:08:07.270 --> 00:08:31.550 Laura Belin: You have to vote for Zach Lahn. That’s what he said. You have to vote for Zach Lahn. And when he… I mean, he has a big megaphone, he has tens of thousands of followers, the Lahn campaign texted this video of Steve Days to everybody, and I gotta believe that that got him a couple thousand votes. I mean, his margin statewide over Feenster was only a couple thousand votes, so that also, I think, when people started to see Steen as less viable. 45 00:08:31.880 --> 00:08:43.050 Laura Belin: That… that could have pushed Lahn over the top for sure. I wanted to mention, this is something we did, like, a special post-election broadcast of KHOI’s Capital Week, and I noticed when I was looking at the county results. 46 00:08:43.049 --> 00:09:08.030 Laura Belin: that Feenster had these clusters where he did, well, like, in the… he won almost all the counties in the Quad Cities market, most of the counties in the Omaha market, in the Rochester, Minnesota market, and I think Lahn only won one county in the Omaha, or not Omaha, Ottumwa, Kirksville market. And I would guess that Lahn probably just wasn’t spending that much on TV outside Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City. 47 00:09:08.030 --> 00:09:32.410 Laura Belin: Because it just seemed to me like in the areas with those smaller media markets, that people just didn’t know as much about Lahn, and Feenstra was able to hang on. So, Feenstra’s strategy all along of, like, well, let’s just assume that nobody else can consolidate the support, if you didn’t have Zach Lane putting in $2.5 million of his own money to fund this very aggressive advertising campaign, I think that 48 00:09:32.410 --> 00:09:45.270 Laura Belin: that would have worked for Feenstra. And the Trump endorsement, I mean, what if Trump had endorsed a few months ago? Maybe Lane never would have gotten that momentum. Or what if he had endorsed last summer, and maybe Lane would have decided not to run for governor at all? 49 00:09:46.210 --> 00:09:47.340 Dave Price: I, I would like… 50 00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:48.750 Kathie Obradovich: Interesting questions. 51 00:09:48.750 --> 00:09:53.760 Dave Price: Yeah, I would love to have… Exit polling on this. 52 00:09:54.130 --> 00:10:12.119 Dave Price: because I had wondered at the time, was it too late when the president got involved, and would it even… these were 5 guys who all supported the president, so you didn’t have any of them who, you know, were speaking ill of the president by any means. I’m still super curious who… 53 00:10:12.170 --> 00:10:19.660 Dave Price: who convinced him to get involved in this so late? There had to be some kind of behind-the-scenes effort. I really question that he did this on his own. 54 00:10:19.890 --> 00:10:21.430 Laura Belin: Oh, no, there, no, yeah. 55 00:10:21.430 --> 00:10:26.370 Dave Price: Some, something, something caused this, and, contributed to this, 56 00:10:26.640 --> 00:10:42.549 Dave Price: within our border, I would assume. But I would love to know, somehow, if we could find out how many people, if any, were motivated to support Feenstra because of the president’s endorsement, but then this whole thing with Steve Dace at the end, and really even Bob Vanderpla’s. 57 00:10:42.550 --> 00:10:50.629 Dave Price: did they… did that make any difference at all? Did people look at this like… because there… I got messages from people about, what is this? 58 00:10:50.640 --> 00:10:53.879 Dave Price: So you got a guy who’s endorsed him, now he’s saying this. 59 00:10:53.930 --> 00:10:59.669 Dave Price: And then he took credit after the election that maybe what he did, 60 00:10:59.830 --> 00:11:04.240 Dave Price: made a difference here and contributed to the win. Would love to know, like. 61 00:11:05.880 --> 00:11:11.899 Dave Price: some proof, one way or the other, you know, like, I don’t know how we’re ever gonna know, it’s all gonna be anecdotal. 62 00:11:12.510 --> 00:11:37.500 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I mean, we talked to voters in all four, all four congressional districts on Tuesday, my reporters and some stringers, and some of the Feenstra voters did, you know, specify that the president’s endorsement, you know, made a difference to them. Some said, that they were Trump supporters, but that they hoped Trump’s endorsement 63 00:11:37.500 --> 00:11:42.060 Kathie Obradovich: would not, influence people’s votes, because they were, they were Berlain or steampunk. 64 00:11:42.060 --> 00:11:42.740 Dave Price: Oh, sure. 65 00:11:42.740 --> 00:11:57.329 Kathie Obradovich: So, Trump’s endorsement was, you know, maybe, important to some voters, but, it wasn’t an anti-Trump vote if they… if people chose Lane or some other candidate. 66 00:11:57.920 --> 00:12:07.109 Laura Belin: Oh, Gary Loeffler, the Trump tractor guy, was a big Lane supporter, and he was there… he was there in Ankeny on Sunday, and he was there on Tuesday night at the Victory Party. 67 00:12:08.400 --> 00:12:14.019 Dave Price: I’m, like, looking ahead toward the general election, I’m really fascinated 68 00:12:14.520 --> 00:12:17.699 Dave Price: what the LAN campaign will look like. 69 00:12:17.950 --> 00:12:27.069 Dave Price: how the campaign team will grow, who comes into this, are they gonna bring… bring in some Feenstra people? Are they gonna bring in… 70 00:12:27.540 --> 00:12:33.419 Dave Price: outside people, will Republican Governors Association be part of this? I mean, there had been talk… 71 00:12:33.680 --> 00:12:43.719 Dave Price: about the RGA getting involved if Feenstra held on to get a different-looking campaign post-primary, because there was so much… 72 00:12:44.230 --> 00:12:51.679 Dave Price: consternation about the way they ran it, and I… I can’t remember if I mentioned this on the podcast, so… just… 73 00:12:51.800 --> 00:12:55.450 Dave Price: beat me out here if I’m repeating this, if I’m doing an old man, 74 00:12:55.660 --> 00:13:07.879 Dave Price: a recount that I’ve already said this once before, but big picture, and maybe I was only talking to a friend of mine, and I didn’t say this on the podcast, so I’m a little careful with what I say on here before something happens. 75 00:13:08.220 --> 00:13:08.960 Dave Price: I… 76 00:13:09.130 --> 00:13:16.569 Dave Price: I would be curious with you two, with all the campaigns we’ve covered over the years, both statewide and presidential. 77 00:13:16.970 --> 00:13:36.739 Dave Price: When I was talking to a friend, I was trying to think of a time when there was a legit candidate, not some fringy, nobody knows who this person is kind of thing, but somebody who’s, like, legit, who was looked upon as somebody who could win. I don’t remember ever covering a campaign like Randy Feenstra’s. 78 00:13:36.740 --> 00:13:42.240 Dave Price: where I had so many true supporters of his, Complaining. 79 00:13:42.550 --> 00:14:01.479 Dave Price: about what they were and were not doing, and I’m wondering if either of you can help me… I’ve got 25 years here now, and I was going through my middle-aged memory bank to try to see if I could remember anybody, and I can’t think of anybody that would be a good comp, and I’m wondering if either of you can? 80 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:11.540 Kathie Obradovich: I mean, I think the closest parallel I can draw is with Jim Ross Lightfoot, where, you know, this was, 81 00:14:11.540 --> 00:14:35.249 Kathie Obradovich: again, an open governor’s race. He was the prohibitive favorite, and nobody knew who Tom Vilsack was. And, you know, that it wasn’t a situation where Lightfoot wasn’t getting out, and wasn’t doing media, or wasn’t doing debates, etc. The concern was his, was more like his message discipline, that 82 00:14:35.250 --> 00:14:58.049 Kathie Obradovich: he couldn’t stop talking about, you know, and sort of in technical terms, legislation in DC, as opposed to stripping down a message and focusing on state issues. So I think that that was the main thing that you would hear, you know, supporters of his saying, yeah, he’s got to stop talking about Washington, D.C. so much. 83 00:14:59.160 --> 00:15:16.029 Kathie Obradovich: You know, but that… that’s… I think that… that is not a direct, comparison, and… and you’re right, it’s been a, you know, it’s been a long, long time since we’ve seen, that much kind of grumbling behind the scenes about, you know, the party frontrunner. 84 00:15:16.790 --> 00:15:32.609 Laura Belin: I was living overseas at the time of the Vilsack-Lightfoot race, so I was not on the ground to observe it. I’ve never seen a worse candidate than Randy Feenstra in my life. I mean, and we had a warning sign when he only got 60% of the vote in his own primary. 85 00:15:32.610 --> 00:15:57.049 Laura Belin: two years ago against Kevin Virgil, but it seems like they didn’t learn any lessons from that. He was completely inaccessible to people, even in his own district, heavily conservative areas, and I think that he was just counting on being able to sail through in a fractured field, and I also thought that he was on track to win. I thought that several of the other people could beat Feenstra one-on-one, but with four-on-one, I thought that they would all 86 00:15:57.090 --> 00:16:14.050 Laura Belin: split the vote. So, but then when you have one of those four being extremely well-funded, and able to get his message in front of voters, and people were just looking… I mean, what reasons was Randy Feenster even giving people to vote for him? His ads were just all about how he’s with Trump. 87 00:16:14.050 --> 00:16:20.360 Laura Belin: But he wasn’t really giving anyone any reason to feel inspired about his campaign. 88 00:16:20.410 --> 00:16:28.170 Dave Price: And I believe we talked about that on here, that clearly they felt like the Trump thing was a problem. 89 00:16:28.540 --> 00:16:31.540 Dave Price: And they had to convince the base that… 90 00:16:31.730 --> 00:16:45.370 Dave Price: Feenstra was with the president and would support the president, and it was Trump, Trump, Trump, all the time in his launch videos, really everything, his introductory videos, and that was… they kind of ran on Trump, and he’d never… 91 00:16:45.880 --> 00:16:51.109 Dave Price: never shared any kind of vision. I was trying to think through, like, you know, you try to think of, like. 92 00:16:51.840 --> 00:17:01.659 Dave Price: obviously, from our standpoint, we want everybody to debate, and I did a four-candidate debate and really wanted to do a moderate a five-candidate debate for obvious reasons, right? 93 00:17:01.660 --> 00:17:16.030 Dave Price: But I guess I understood their point in that they felt there was nothing to be gained, and they thought he could be… if he was going to get pulled too far to the right on some issues, standing up there with the other four, it’d be hard to… 94 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:22.510 Dave Price: to push back toward the middle, let’s just say, if that was one of their concerns or whatever. But they didn’t counter-program. 95 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:24.139 Dave Price: So if that’s what. 96 00:17:24.140 --> 00:17:24.640 Kathie Obradovich: what you’re. 97 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:30.549 Dave Price: about, then you could choose to go do… look what Rob Sand does with the 100 town hall things. 98 00:17:30.890 --> 00:17:44.320 Dave Price: Like, Feenstra could have done something similar, and just non-stop… and I appreciate he’s got a job in Congress, so it makes it a little more challenging to do it. But he had time. He also took a long time to officially get into the race. 99 00:17:44.490 --> 00:18:01.880 Dave Price: Which, frankly, annoyed some Republicans who were wondering, do you want this job? Do you not want this job? What the heck’s going on? But they could have counter-programmed, they could have been all over the place, and they chose not to. It was a really low-profile thing, and it wasn’t really until some of the activists and donors were grumbling that he… 100 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:04.549 Dave Price: Kinda got out there a little bit more, but… 101 00:18:04.790 --> 00:18:09.700 Dave Price: Doing these sort of small pizza ranch gatherings and little select… 102 00:18:10.020 --> 00:18:19.649 Dave Price: almost felt like private-type things, they weren’t really private, but there was just no energy when you compare it to Lane, and even on a smaller extent, to Steen. 103 00:18:20.100 --> 00:18:23.370 Kathie Obradovich: One of the few… one of the few times that he actually did 104 00:18:23.370 --> 00:18:45.480 Kathie Obradovich: do an event. Was it the Westside Conservative Club, where he put his foot in his mouth, you know, and basically said, yeah, the ESA program, the Educational Savings Account, public dollars for private tuition, that those private schools should, if they’re going to take that money, should have to accept 105 00:18:45.490 --> 00:18:52.440 Kathie Obradovich: all students. And, you know, that, was basically a democratic talking point against. 106 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:57.259 Dave Price: Yeah, which… Which is probably a pretty good general election. Yes, it would have been. 107 00:18:57.490 --> 00:18:58.380 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah. 108 00:18:58.380 --> 00:19:21.970 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, but I, you know, all of the other candidates jumped on him, the governor jumped on him, the Republican lawmakers were unhappy with that, and so, you know, that sort of made me wonder, it’s like, okay, is this why they’re keeping him away from, you know, that he’s gonna put his foot in his mouth if he gets asked the right question, by a reporter? 109 00:19:21.970 --> 00:19:24.660 Kathie Obradovich: Or, you know, or somebody in the audience. 110 00:19:24.660 --> 00:19:49.659 Laura Belin: Look, I mean, even the last week, we talked about this because you went to that house party, Dave, that he did, but I was following his social media last week, and he was doing these private events, basically, at somebody’s farm or somebody’s home for 20 or 25 people. I was just speaking to the Urbandale area Democrats last night, and they had about 50 people just at their regular monthly meeting. I mean, I’ve seen larger meet and greets for city 111 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:56.490 Laura Belin: council candidates than Randy Feenster was having in the final week of a statewide campaign for governor. It’s just ridiculous. 112 00:19:56.820 --> 00:20:08.740 Dave Price: I also wondered, you know, does it demonstrate, and we’ll see how Lane does this, he, he, Lane has brought in some new subjects, right? He is talking about some stuff, and we’ll have to see how it plays with people. 113 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:09.890 Dave Price: But… 114 00:20:11.110 --> 00:20:36.090 Dave Price: We knew going into this, the challenge is, no matter who the Republican nominee is, you’re following long-time Republicans in the… who have been on the job, right? Since Brandstick got back in in 11. That’s a long time of Republicans, they’ve had the trifecta since 17. You’re not gonna realistically go in there, you wouldn’t think, and rip on what your party has done, so you have to 115 00:20:36.090 --> 00:20:40.420 Dave Price: Thread a needle about how you’re gonna… sort of, 116 00:20:40.490 --> 00:20:55.060 Dave Price: stay the course, to use George W.’s line from 04, you know, kind of build on it, though. And that… there is a little bit of a thread there, because you don’t want to rip on it, and you saw Feenster try to do that a little bit with Butt. He questioned how they did the budget. 117 00:20:55.110 --> 00:21:08.010 Dave Price: He doesn’t think that they should be dipping in all the reserves to make up for the deficits. And, you know, there were some people who didn’t like that, but that’s probably a theme he was going to have to have for the fiscal management side if he was governor. 118 00:21:08.520 --> 00:21:32.390 Kathie Obradovich: Right, and Lane, you know, a big part of his campaign was, you know, pushing back on big corporate control, you know, big pharma, and, you know, that comes out with, sort of with his MAHA affiliation, Make America Healthy again, and, you know, aligning himself with RFK Jr, who’s the Health and Human Services Secretary. 119 00:21:32.390 --> 00:21:35.310 Kathie Obradovich: There’s an anti-vaccine component to that. 120 00:21:36.430 --> 00:21:59.850 Kathie Obradovich: And then, you know, second, and this is, you know, he’s talking about Iowa’s skyrocketing cancer rate, and tying that concern to Big Pharma to that. Also, the big ag, and, you know, tying, tying farm chemical contamination also to Iowa’s rising cancer rate, which most other Republicans are not willing to do. 121 00:21:59.850 --> 00:22:16.980 Kathie Obradovich: they’ll talk about cancer, but they’re not really… they really don’t want to make that connection to farm chemicals, so… so he broke away from his party a little bit there. I’ll be interested to see how much he, emphasizes that part of his message now, going into the general election. I think that that… 122 00:22:17.450 --> 00:22:30.590 Kathie Obradovich: part of his message, can appeal across party lines, and so it may be worth it for him to continue with that discussion. But yeah, Lane, I think he’s… it’s going to be more difficult 123 00:22:30.590 --> 00:22:40.109 Kathie Obradovich: for Rob Sand to run against Zach Lane. He’s more of a wild card than it would have been for him to run against Randy Feenstra. You know, I think that Zach Lane 124 00:22:40.230 --> 00:23:04.439 Kathie Obradovich: there’s still a lot of things that we don’t know about him. He doesn’t have a voting record, etc. The Republicans did raise some negatives about him during the primary campaign, especially right at the end, when suddenly he started looking like a threat. But, you know, his part-time, residency in Kansas, or previous residency in Kansas, you know, his… some of his invest… 125 00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:28.160 Kathie Obradovich: investments that were sort of eyebrow-raising. Those, those things have, you know, started to come to light, or, or, you know, people are sort of digging into those a little bit more now, and I think that there’s, you know, more to know about Zach Lane, you know, potentially, things that are good for his campaign, maybe some things that aren’t so good. Rob Sand, on the other hand, you know. 126 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:37.110 Kathie Obradovich: Republicans have been, running against him now for at least 7 years. They’ve raised a lot of, you know, they’ve raised concerns about him. 127 00:23:37.250 --> 00:23:48.370 Kathie Obradovich: over 7 years, but I don’t know if there’s anything new that we’re likely to hear about him, because they, you know, Republicans have been running negative, messaging about him for such a long time. 128 00:23:48.560 --> 00:24:12.899 Laura Belin: I think this is a very tricky matchup for Rob Sand. I’m sure that he would have rather run against Randy Feenstra, who was completely uninspiring and part of the old guard, and could be tied to both the state management and mismanagement fiscal, according to Rob San, and also the unpopular things that Congress has done, whereas Zach Lane basically blank slate, Dave, as you’ve mentioned, running on a change message. 129 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:18.379 Laura Belin: And we saw the first memo from Rob Sand, and in some of his comments. 130 00:24:18.380 --> 00:24:43.079 Laura Belin: to reporters since the primary, saying things like, well, we’ve had 10 years of one-party rule, and Zach Lane just wants to continue another 4 years of one-party rule. Well, Zach Lane is going to present himself as very different from what Iowa’s had up to now. So that’s part of what Rob Sand is trying to do now, is going to be to convince people that he’s really going to bring more change, because he would bring divided government and 131 00:24:43.080 --> 00:25:08.069 Laura Belin: and all of the other things, rather than Zach Lane. But I do think it’s trickier. But Rob Sand is already making fun of all the time that Zach Lane spends in Kansas. There was Des Moines Register reporting about his many trips in Kansas where some of his children live, and that he made a comment to the Register, Zach Lane did, something like that he’s already had this conversation with his family, that if he’s elected governor, he’ll have 132 00:25:08.070 --> 00:25:15.499 Laura Belin: to spend as much time in Iowa as humanly possible. And Rob Sand quoted this in a video, and he said, most of us just live here. 133 00:25:16.890 --> 00:25:25.340 Laura Belin: Instead of saying, I’m gonna spend as much time in Iowa as humanly possible. So, that’ll be a theme we hear quite a bit about during the general election campaign. 134 00:25:25.340 --> 00:25:35.859 Dave Price: I do wonder how people are going to look at that. I mean, he’s… this is not a… this is not a summer home he has in Wichita. He has a home there because he has children there. 135 00:25:36.300 --> 00:25:47.470 Dave Price: And so, he goes back and forth. I’m gonna be curious how willing he is to be open about this, because you start talking about this, then this gets into your tricky first marriage and all of that stuff. 136 00:25:48.610 --> 00:25:51.300 Dave Price: But it’s probably… he’s going to have to… 137 00:25:51.950 --> 00:26:00.560 Dave Price: Probably speak at length about this, to explain how this is going to work, and how is he going to navigate this if he’s the governor. 138 00:26:01.010 --> 00:26:09.609 Dave Price: When I was… when you were talking about the ads that went against him, can we just get these dual ads out of the way, where… 139 00:26:10.020 --> 00:26:18.970 Dave Price: Lane invested in a company that later produced sex toys. Rob Sand used to be an underwear model. Can we just do a split-screen 140 00:26:19.330 --> 00:26:31.190 Dave Price: joint ad, get it over with, so we can then start talking about issues. They’re gonna find… Rob’s saying they already have the video of him, like, on a skateboard, or whatever that stuff is. They’re gonna make… 141 00:26:31.910 --> 00:26:35.859 Dave Price: The idea’s gonna be maybe make the other guy look like a weirdo. 142 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:40.989 Dave Price: But I also think we can get rid of… 143 00:26:41.220 --> 00:26:48.710 Dave Price: the nature of these two candidates, it’s gonna be tough for Republicans to rip sand for being… 144 00:26:48.850 --> 00:26:49.859 Dave Price: The rich guy. 145 00:26:50.490 --> 00:26:51.810 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, I think. 146 00:26:51.810 --> 00:27:02.299 Dave Price: I think Lahn has probably made money on his own, too, but he married into money, so you’re gonna have to deal with that. Then you’ve got two guys who are really kind of pushing for change, so that kind of… 147 00:27:02.740 --> 00:27:19.720 Dave Price: balances each other out. I need to ask you both about… I don’t even know if you had time to read this. Kathie, you… you were knee-deep in a conference while you were doing everything else this week, covering the election, but have you read the release from the SAN campaign about the debate proposals? 148 00:27:19.860 --> 00:27:20.640 Laura Belin: Yes. 149 00:27:21.560 --> 00:27:28.100 Dave Price: So, he is… He’s basically trying to take charge… 150 00:27:28.230 --> 00:27:39.549 Dave Price: of the debate system, rather than having the media outlets, like we usually do, propose it, and then we negotiate with the candidates. He is saying he wants 4 of these, and this is… 151 00:27:39.550 --> 00:27:50.039 Dave Price: Part of this is similar to what Lahn did when he challenged Feenstra. He wants four regional debates, so spread across the state, and he picked the four bigger media markets. 152 00:27:50.110 --> 00:27:51.350 Dave Price: And… 153 00:27:51.470 --> 00:28:07.999 Dave Price: essentially, if I’m reading this right, the media outlets sort of apply to be able to do debates. I don’t know if SAN’s campaign thinks they’re the ones who are gonna make the decision on this, and put it all together, and then it’s up to Lahn to agree or not agree, but it’s gonna be four regional ones. 154 00:28:08.180 --> 00:28:27.410 Dave Price: And, if it doesn’t happen, then I think he’s got a challenge in there that Lahn needs to do a bunch of town halls or something like that. Clearly, it’s different. I like the idea about having four of them. I know, selfishly, as we put the one together that we did statewide with my company and with KCCI in Des Moines. 155 00:28:27.580 --> 00:28:35.170 Dave Price: that it’s hard. We had 90 minutes with 4 candidates, and so much that you want to ask about, you can’t. 156 00:28:35.360 --> 00:28:51.679 Dave Price: And you don’t get in-depth enough on stuff, you know? I mean, with 4 of them, you could get into a lot of things if, they would actually agree. It does sort of feel kind of an old-school way to do this, but I’m not sure what the media outlets are gonna think about SAN, if it looks like sand’s kind of in charge. 157 00:28:51.680 --> 00:29:16.650 Kathie Obradovich: Well, and if I were… if I were Lahn campaign, I would be really uncomfortable with having my opponent be the one to, you know, organize and bet the debates. I mean, the reason that the media outlets are the ones who organize it is that they’re, you know, at least, you know, expected to be neutral in terms of not, you know, trying to give an advantage to one campaign or another, or, you know, to 158 00:29:16.790 --> 00:29:36.919 Kathie Obradovich: you know, choose their moderators, you know, based on, you know, whether we think they’re going to ask tougher questions of the opponent. So I am uncomfortable with the… I love the idea for debates, regional debates. It’s good to get out around the state. Don’t love the idea of the SAN campaign trying to be the one to organize it. 159 00:29:37.090 --> 00:29:48.920 Laura Belin: Well, I… what I thought was interesting about the proposal is he kept saying, if our opponent does not agree, so it seems like he’s only interested in debating Zach Lahn, whereas 160 00:29:48.920 --> 00:30:13.889 Laura Belin: I mean, most of the time, Rob Sand is talking about how the two-party private clubs shouldn’t have a monopoly on this or that. I went to watch him vote on Tuesday morning, and he spoke to reporters, and the first thing he said was that this is… a third of the state is disenfranchised because independents have to declare with a party to vote in the primary, and so on, but it looks like a libertarian is going to be on the ballot. They’ve qualified for the ballot, Nicholas Gluba. 161 00:30:13.890 --> 00:30:37.290 Laura Belin: filed his nominating papers on Tuesday. I haven’t seen whether those will be challenged. He told me on Tuesday he was very comfortable that he was way above the threshold and wouldn’t be knocked off the ballot, but I didn’t see anything in Rob Sands’ proposal that indicated that he’s willing to debate anyone other than his Republican opponent, so that’s something I’m gonna try to find out next time I get a chance to ask him a question. 162 00:30:38.050 --> 00:30:44.550 Dave Price: Laura, you… I wanted to, do a little PS on what you just said there. I’ve heard the criticism 163 00:30:44.580 --> 00:31:01.929 Dave Price: from some Republicans about sand, and that he’s basically trying to run away from being a Democrat. The one thing listening to you talk there reminded me that for almost as long as I’ve covered him, he has talked about the weaknesses of a two-party system. 164 00:31:01.930 --> 00:31:12.030 Dave Price: He is not talking about ranked choice voting, but I know he’s done… I think he’s read books on this, and he’s looked into how this would work and all of that. I mean, he’s got his own… 165 00:31:12.030 --> 00:31:22.629 Dave Price: his own, ideas that he’s put out there, but there are certain things for those who have talked to him for quite a while, he has been consistent about 166 00:31:22.770 --> 00:31:28.399 Dave Price: some of the things he’s talking about out there on the campaign trail as governor. This isn’t just… 167 00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:41.020 Dave Price: that the Democratic Party brand stinks, or something like that, and he’s trying to get away from it. He has… he has been talked… he has talked about the traps of a two-party system for quite some time. 168 00:31:41.020 --> 00:31:46.639 Laura Belin: Oh, yeah, years ago, I remember hearing him talk about it, and this primary, sort of a jungle primary. 169 00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:47.060 Dave Price: system. 170 00:31:47.060 --> 00:31:48.050 Laura Belin: That he wants to have. 171 00:31:48.620 --> 00:32:12.270 Laura Belin: That’s a newer proposal, but I think that he’s been open to that. I forgot to say, to pick up on something that you were talking about earlier, that the Zach Lahn wealth maybe makes it difficult for Republicans to campaign against Rob San. Zach Lahn, in his victory speech on Tuesday, tried to thread that needle by saying, kind of a Trumpian line of, I’m my own biggest donor, and therefore, I can’t be bought. 172 00:32:12.540 --> 00:32:29.460 Laura Belin: But Rob Sand is putting Iowa on the auction block because he’s taken money from these billionaires and also his wife’s family, so kind of… and glossing over the fact that Rob Sand has raised millions of dollars from thousands of donors, and 173 00:32:29.460 --> 00:32:42.970 Laura Belin: Zach Lahn has very few small grassroots donors by comparison, but in any case, they’re going to try to differentiate it that way, but I do think that it makes it complicated, that message is complicated, by Zach Lahn. 174 00:32:43.800 --> 00:32:49.790 Dave Price: All right, well, we will have much to discuss in the months ahead, and we are going to continue 175 00:32:49.990 --> 00:32:57.459 Dave Price: our weekly podcast. We may take a break, late summer, for everybody to get a little time off, but we’re gonna keep this sucker going. 176 00:32:57.570 --> 00:33:15.990 Dave Price: Can you seriously imagine what this year is going to be? We didn’t even really deep dive into the U.S. Senate race, which we will do in the weeks ahead, but the Hinson-Turek matchup is gonna be so fascinating, Sand and Lahn fascinating. We’re gonna have… 177 00:33:17.070 --> 00:33:19.000 Dave Price: 2, maybe 3? 178 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:20.160 Laura Belin: 3… 179 00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:38.359 Dave Price: competitive congressional races, plus, I mean, you know, they’re always… I feel like the legislative races are always interesting on their own, you know, maybe they’re more hyper-local, I suppose, but seriously, though, for a non-presidential year, this is gonna be something else, right? 180 00:33:38.670 --> 00:33:41.170 Kathie Obradovich: Yeah, oh, I think so. 181 00:33:41.170 --> 00:34:04.800 Kathie Obradovich: I’ve referred to this before as it’s basically a generational opportunity for change in Iowa. You know, considering that it’s the first time we’ve had both an open governor and simultaneously U.S. Senate… open U.S. Senate race in 58 years, that is longer than almost everyone has even been able to vote. 182 00:34:04.800 --> 00:34:27.040 Kathie Obradovich: Let alone, you know, a lot of voters weren’t alive the last time that, that we had this wide open of a race. So, so yeah, and, you know, of course, it trickles all the way down the ballot. So, so this is a really big opportunity for change. Somebody also asked me, you know, could Iowa go back into the purple state category? 183 00:34:27.489 --> 00:34:31.960 Kathie Obradovich: And it’s like, well, if it can, this is the year, you know? 184 00:34:32.350 --> 00:34:33.300 Kathie Obradovich: It’s gonna be the year. 185 00:34:33.469 --> 00:34:51.839 Laura Belin: And, yeah, absolutely. I’m a believer in that second congressional district in Northeast Iowa. That is in play, definitely, in addition to the first and third, and we haven’t even talked about the Attorney General, Secretary of Agriculture race. Those are both going to be very interesting. So, I think it’s the most exciting Iowa election cycle I’ve ever covered. 186 00:34:52.260 --> 00:34:56.600 Dave Price: This… our Writers Collaborative features a lot of… 187 00:34:56.699 --> 00:35:14.080 Dave Price: different perspectives on things. For my personal standpoint, I don’t, I don’t go partisan either way, I’m neutral, I don’t take part in primaries. But may I just say, the most unsettling part of 2026? Do you know what that is for me personally? 188 00:35:15.620 --> 00:35:19.239 Dave Price: Regardless of which candidate 189 00:35:19.720 --> 00:35:32.140 Dave Price: becomes our next governor, regardless of which candidate becomes our next United States senator, I am guaranteed that I will be older than both of those winners. 190 00:35:32.450 --> 00:35:35.539 Dave Price: And I don’t know how to come to terms with this. 191 00:35:36.810 --> 00:35:53.990 Kathie Obradovich: This would be a first time for me, as well, so I… I would, yeah, you start to feel old when your, when your doctors, your priests, and your, you know, your governor are… are actually younger than you, so… 192 00:35:53.990 --> 00:36:05.049 Dave Price: I noticed that this was the first cycle where, like, especially talking to friends, I more frequently found myself referring to people, by their first names. 193 00:36:05.500 --> 00:36:12.849 Dave Price: And I don’t think that it was a sign of disrespect for anybody, I think it was the fact that some of these people are well younger than I am. 194 00:36:13.390 --> 00:36:15.600 Dave Price: It’s just what came out, so I… 195 00:36:16.240 --> 00:36:18.940 Dave Price: This is how it’s always going to be now, and I need to… 196 00:36:19.630 --> 00:36:22.470 Dave Price: Sit down in a quiet place and come to terms with this. 197 00:36:24.680 --> 00:36:38.019 Dave Price: Oh, that’s definitely a good place to wrap this sucker. Thank you to all of you who have joined us for all of our conversations about the Iowa legislative session. Let’s see if there’s going to be a special session, by the way. 198 00:36:38.500 --> 00:36:40.410 Dave Price: just… I’m just gonna throw that one out there. 199 00:36:40.410 --> 00:36:41.370 Kathie Obradovich: Probably not, but… 200 00:36:41.370 --> 00:37:06.129 Dave Price: You know, that’s still gonna… we’re gonna… those rumors will percolate occasionally. Anyway, for sticking with us on the long legislative session, getting through the primary election, now that we look ahead to the general election, we very much appreciate your support. We don’t do ads on this. We very much appreciate all of you who have made contributions to keep this going week after week after week, and we are committed to continue doing these throughout the general 201 00:37:06.130 --> 00:37:11.350 Dave Price: election, and the more support we can get from the community, the more 202 00:37:11.350 --> 00:37:19.470 Dave Price: that allows us to keep this going. So we very much appreciate all of you who have helped us do that, and if you’re thinking about doing it and haven’t yet. 203 00:37:19.470 --> 00:37:36.070 Dave Price: This would be a great time to get on there and do it. I’m gonna sound like those, fundraising drives on Iowa Public TV or Iowa Public Radio, but if you’re able to do it, we’d very much appreciate it. Thank you to Kathie and Laura. Ladies, have a great weekend, and we’ll talk to you next week. We will talk to everybody 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 5/30/26

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]