Sunday, February 3, 2013
A cultural war is taking place within the Republican Party. In Iowa, where gay marriage opponents and social conservatives Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have come out winners in the first-in-the-nation caucus, the conversation is critically important.
The first article in a two-part series. Read Part 2, Fight Against Gay Marriage? Not if Iowa GOP Wants Young Voters, on Iowa City Patch. __________ Troubled by polling data that shows traditional positions on issues like same-sex marriage are costing elections, the Republican Party is going through what its leaders politely call a period of introspection. More brutally, it's a question of whether the GOP can hold its nose and keep quiet on same-sex marriage and other social issues in order to welcome in a new group of young voters whose priorities center more on fiscal values than family values. The conversation is critically important – and difficult – in Iowa, where the results of first-in-the-nation caucuses and the Straw Poll leading …
Friday, February 1, 2013
In Iowa, where fiercely anti-gay marriage candidates Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have come out winners in the first-in-the-nation caucus, a cultural war is taking place within the Republican Party.
Troubled by polling data showing traditional positions on issues like same-sex marriage are costing elections, the Republican Party is going through what party leaders politely call a period of introspection. In brutally plain terms, however, the question facing the Republican party comes down to this: Can GOP leaders hold their noses and keep quiet about social issues if it means welcoming in a new group of young voters whose priorities center more on fiscal values than family values? Two Republican strategists – including the now openly gay architect of President George W. Bush’s successful 2004 campaign – were in Iowa this week making the case that it’s politically pragmatic to ease up on social issues, such as stopping the struggle …
Sunday, November 18, 2012
What a year!
Iowa spent a memorable year under the media glare. Here are some moments you may have missed.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Iowans have been tripping over presidential candidates for months. Here’s something you might have missed.
Adam Kokesh, a self-described “ libertarian propagandist prone to committing random acts of journalism,” showed up at a Michele Bachmann press conference in West Des Moines. Here’s a bit more about Kokesh.
Monday, May 14, 2012
The Texas Congressman said today he won't campaign in the states that have yet to hold primary elections, but that doesn't mean he's done with the GOP presidential nomination process.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Monday that he will no longer campaign in primary states that have not yet held primaries, but he is not completely withdrawing from the GOP presidential politics. According to the Huffington Post, Paul urged those who support his candidacy for president to continue organizing in states that have voted, in order to win delegates to the national convention. "We will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted," Paul said in a statement. "Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have." There are 11 states that have not yet held Republican primaries or caucuses, including Paul's home state of Texas, the website reported…
Monday, March 19, 2012
The state GOP chairman announced Monday party leaders will look at what went right — and wrong — on caucus night. The party was heavily criticized in January when votes were not counted and it took two weeks to declare Rick Santorum the state's winner.
- ELECTIONS
- Deb Belt
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Iowa Republicans have begun work to examine what went right on caucus night and what went wrong in the process, party officials announced in a news release Monday. “The purpose of the committee is to conduct a full audit and review of the Republican Caucus,” said Bill Schickel, state party co-chairman, who will lead the overview. “We’re going to review what went right and what went wrong. We will fix what went wrong and promote what went right.” The party received heavy criticism from Iowa voters and from national presidential campaigns and the media for the delay in declaring a winner of the Jan. 3 caucuses. And then the canvas of votes changed the winner from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick …
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The GOP presidential nominees now include only the top four finishers in the Iowa caucuses.
Iowans must be getting used to it now: The griping that comes with the state's presidential caucuses, the griping that says placing so much importance on the votes of so few people skews the nominating process and lets "the crazies" take over the party. Worse than that are the grumblings that Iowa's caucuses are irrelevant. Well, guess what Rest of the World: The Iowa caucuses matter, and "the crazies" here got it right. How relevant are Iowa's caucuses? Is the conservative Christian movement in the Republican Party to stay? Tell us in comments. The proof is in the remaining GOP field. It's down to four candidates – the four top finishers in January's Iowa vote. That would be Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and, yes, still, Ron …
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Late Friday night, the Iowa Republican Party, criticized by Rick Santorum's supporters for not declaring him the outright winner of the Caucuses, did just that. The candidates are in South Carolina today for that state's primary.
- ELECTIONS
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Iowa Caucuses managed one last gasp of news late Friday night: Rick Santorum has been declared the winner. On Tuesday, two weeks after the Jan. 3 vote seemed to end with Mitt Romney the winner, Santorum was pronounced the winner of certified tallies. Iowa GOP officials had spent two weeks checking vote counts to find that results changed in 131 precincts around the state and votes from eight precincts were never turned in. So the certified results gave Santorum the win, but Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn wouldn't declare the former Pennsylvania Senator the outright winner, telling the press that wasn't his place. While Santorum used the flip-flop in vote totals to declare himself the Iowa winner during CNN's candidate debate in South …
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The state GOP has certified that results changed in 131 Iowa precincts from Caucus night and missing ballots in eight precincts weren't counted. Some are upset by how the finish was managed, while others defend that human error is to be expected.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
A messy, drawn-out finish to the Iowa Caucus appears to wrap up on Thursday with Rick Santorum leap-frogging Mitt Romney into first place after changes in 131 precincts and the exclusion of votes from the conclusion of eight precincts. After a Caucus night that would not end because of missing precincts, the certification process was equally problematic. Iowa Republican party officials say they don't trust the results from those precincts and they will never be certified. The final totals swung an eight-vote win for Romney on Caucus night to a 34-vote margin in favor of Santorum, according to a certified vote released on Thursday morning. The final tally gives the former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum a win with 29,839 ballots over 29,805 …
The ding against the Iowa Caucus process may have some staying power, some party activists fear.
The snafu over which GOP presidential candidate – Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney – won the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses is an embarrassment, a handful of influential West Des Moines Republican said, but it shouldn’t cost the Hawkeye State its prized first-in-the-nation role in winnowing the presidential field. The Republican Party of Iowa said Thursday morning that Santorum garnered 34 more votes than Romney to finish first in the Iowa Caucuses, but missing results from several precincts apparently means that nobody will know who truly won the Jan. 3 vote. In perhaps the biggest debacle in Iowa's Caucus history, an unknown number of votes will never be counted. Do you think Iowa should lose its first-in-the-nation bragging rights because of the …
Jon Trouten
12:27 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Maxine: It hasn't always been one man and one woman. It still isn't always one man and one woman. The Bible itself shows us that marriage sometimes has more than two spouses. We haven't always called our relationships "unions". Back when Vermont's supreme court told the state that there was no reason to deny us marriage licenses, the legislature came up with civil unions to provide us with … more ›