A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper
Retired Sen. Tom Harkin endorsed Josh Turek of Council Bluffs for the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat that Harkin once held. As such, Turek could benefit from Harkin’s tutelage on how to campaign as the happy warrior who takes on the power structure. Turek will need it if he finds himself in a general election campaign against the formidable Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion.
First, Turek must get past Zach Wahls, a state senator from Coralville who out-performed Turek in an Iowa PBS televised debate. Some of their enmity for each other came out. Afterwards, Turek’s campaign called Wahls a millionaire and a hypocrite. As if Turek does not suck up to millionaires and billionaires in the Beltway. Millions of dollars in political action money flowed from DC to exceptionally good TV ads for Turek.
Turek did not object when surrogates and advocates went negative on Wahls, calling him a phony and plastic. They should not have gone there. Turek would have built a lead just on the strength of those tremendous TV ads of the candidate pumping his wheelchair up the hills of the Bluffs. Tell us about your determination to win a gold medal in Paralympics basketball for Team USA, and how it made your hearts well with patriotic pride for the American Way. Don’t talk trash on your Brother Wahls.
It must prove that he has what it takes to savage Ashley Hinson, because that is what her campaign will attempt to do to him. Hinson will claim that he is owned by Chuck Schumer and George Soros. She is submersed in the tank for Trump, who will spend any amount of money to get her elected. We need a Senate that can put a check on Trump, not another puppy like Sen. Joni Ernst.
Wahls makes a coherent argument about how corruption in Washington and economic decline in Iowa are connected. Wahls supports Medicare for All — does that sound like a water boy for corporate interests? He would move to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act if the Justice Department does not protect independent livestock production. Wahls would not vote to deputize local law enforcement to sweep up immigrants for ICE as Turek did. Turek and Wahls each are married to immigrants.
Turek claims to be a “prairie populist.” JD Scholten of Sioux City actually is one. He was our guy in the Senate primary but had to drop out because the big money was not with him. Scholten endorsed Turek.
With some training from Harkin on candor and cheer, and some education from Scholten on what ails Northwest Iowa, Turek could become a candidate who can beat a savvy Hinson, a former TV news anchor who completely understands how to manipulate a message inside-out. He is not that candidate yet, judging from the debate performance and the unworthiness of his campaign’s take on Wahls. If Turek wins the primary he will have work to do mending fences within the party, which is already at a structural disadvantage.
Turek also must craft a message of hope prevailing over greed and division, which he is uniquely qualified to deliver. That is the Tom Harkin technique. If he can make that pivot with a lead heading into the June primary, Turek will be positioned to run a competitive general election campaign.
Sen. Joni Ernst came to Storm Lake to give the Cobblestone Inn an award, and made herself available to the local and regional press afterwards for assorted questions. Our own reporter Tom Cullen asked Ernst about hard times in agriculture in the here and now, and she reverted to the talking point that it is Joe Biden’s fault. It’s like flipping on a switch with her. She is programmed. Our man pushed back, noting higher fertilizer and fuel prices, and Ernst called him a “liberal hack” in front of the TV cameras. He was just a reporter asking a question on behalf of farmers in the Corn Belt. That is what our politics has become. Shoot the messenger.
Fortunately, Ernst is not running for re-election. We would not call her a hack, but ProPublica reported last year that Ernst had affairs with two high-ranking military officials while on the Armed Services Committee. Her former husband alleged her extra-marital dalliance with a soldier in divorce proceedings. She denied it. We certainly would not call her a liberal. But while serving in the governing majority Ernst has voted to drive our federal deficit and debt to record levels with Trump as president. So we could not call her a conservative.
What we would call her is yesterday’s news. Her datebook likely will have openings.
One unintended result of the Iran war and the stricture on petroleum flow is an acceleration away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy, according to a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi. As global oil supply is interrupted perhaps long-term, the price of renewables is plummeting.
“Renewables are entering this new territory,” said Francesco La Camera, director general of the agency, quoted in The New York Times. “In this case, storage will make renewables become dominant in the energy system. There is no doubt.”
Battery costs have dropped 93% since 2010. New technology is driving down costs that make them safer and more stable. Some solar projects in China are delivering constant electricity at half the cost of gas. China is building best-of-class electric vehicles for as little as $10,000, which are coming to the Americas. Interest in used electric vehicles in the US is up considerably with gasoline prices swelling.
This has enormous implications. Are biofuels done, or will they deploy in air transport? Fertilizer costs are not going down. Will ag production systems adjust to make do with less, and in the process help prevent surface water pollution in Iowa? Could a protracted heightening of fertilizer prices force different crop and livestock production systems? The war might force a reckoning that we have delayed for generations.
Given the report, which urges the US to get moving with renewables, of course the Trump Administration is dropping out of the agency.
Politicians are fighting a war over legislative redistricting from Texas to Tennessee that distorts democracy and intensifies division. Fortunately, Iowa is held up by the National Council of State Legislatures for conducting non-partisan redistricting since 1980. They even call it the “Iowa Model” where the legislative services agency drafts maps that the legislature can reject three times until the Iowa Supreme Court is called in to settle on a map. There have been very few complaints. For now, Iowa has a completely Republican congressional delegation. After the election, there is a strong chance it will be a split delegation. Even if you tried to gerrymander in Iowa it probably would not affect the results that much. It’s a pretty conservative state.
President Trump started the war when he called on Texas to redistrict in the middle of a census period, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was happy to oblige. Trump thinks he would pick up five seats in the House. So California upended its Iowa-style system and voters approved of gerrymandering. Then Virginia. Now Tennessee is wiping out the only Black-majority district in Memphis. Bottom line is that the Democrats probably will still take control of the House in the November elections. It is not clear if Republicans actually will pick up five House seats in Texas with new maps. Rio Grande Latinos that have been trending GOP are getting fed up with Trump and his immigration crusades.
The solution is for Congress to adopt the Iowa Model for all 50 states. Gerrymandering is as old as the Republic so we do not count on it. We are glad that Iowa is sticking with non-partisan redistricting every 10 years. The last thing politics needs is more chaos and power plays. We pray all the gerrymandering falls flat and people come to their senses but …
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here