The gaveling in of the Iowa Legislature’s 84th General Assembly last week signaled an end to the 2012 Presidential Caucus season and the return of a more local political focus for Iowans.

There is no doubt that much of the session’s oxygen will be sucked up by the major issues that failed to produce any legislation following last year’s battles. These issues include reforming the tax code, mental health services, and education, as well as another round of sparring over Iowa setting up a health insurance exchange to work in conjunction with Obama Care.

While these will grab a majority of the headlines, and a good share of our attention here at The Conservative Reader: Iowa, there have already been a number of very interesting …

This is second installment of a 2-part interview.  To read part one click here.

Health Insurance Exchange

The debate raging on a national level regarding Obama Care has produced 50 separate state level clashes on this unpopular legislation’s viability, practicality, and future. Currently 27 states are suing the Federal government on the grounds the law is unconstitutional, while last week a referendum in Ohio resulted in 66% of voters expressing their wishes to be excluded.

In Iowa the form this debate has taken largely centers on the state level requirement to set up a health insurance exchange to work in accordance with Obama Care. Democrats tried last session to construct this exchange but the measure failed and set the scene for an all-out slug …

This is the second installment of a two-part interview, to read part one click here.

Education

Governor Branstad’s legacy-minded education reform proposal has struggled to draw support since its release on October 3rd, and you can count Mr. Landon as one of those lacking in enthusiasm.

A core tenet of Landon’s philosophy is local control. The benefit he sees in applying this principle to education is that the parents of each child, and the teachers in the actual class room, will have their voices better heard and their concerns more directly dealt with,

“My first reaction (to the governor’s plan) is that it drives us towards more state control and more mandates on levels of performance. I think that we are going to

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This is part one of a two part piece.  A link to the second installment covering the topics of education, health care, illegal immigration,  gay marriage, the tea party and an early analysis of this race can be found at the end of this article or by clicking on Part 2 here.

The population explosion the city of Ankeny has seen over the last ten years has brought many changes to this Des Moines suburb. Along with construction of a new high school and the surge of large retailers that accompany a population growth from 27,000 to 45,000 in one decade, Ankeny has also received a make-over in its state legislative districts.

In terms of the Iowa House, what resulted is for the first time Ankeny has been …

Thursday morning John Landon put fellow Republicans and House District 37 residents on notice that he plans to run for the newly created seat in the Iowa legislature.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as The Conservative Reader:Iowa will follow this developing primary and have a sit down interview with Mr. Landon as he embarks on this campaign.

The following is the press release sent out by the Landon camp:

For immediate release

October 5, 2011

ANKENY, Iowa — Pledging to be an aggressive leader for a balanced state budget, economic development, education reform, and agriculture, Ankeny resident John Landon today announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Iowa’s State House District 37.

A lifelong Iowan with a background in business, Landon (525 NE …

Though the third longest session in Iowa history has been over for two weeks, Governor Branstad still has until the end of July to sign or veto any of the legislation that was passed.

While there were some notable and very positive accomplishments, Senate Democrats also stood in the way of a lot of positive progress.

Here are a few accomplishments followed by some of the missed opportunities.

1) Sustainable Budget

We finally are back on the path to long-term fiscal sustainability with a budget that spends less than we take in and funds Iowa’s priorities. Is there more we can cut? Absolutely. But it’s a good start and a real break from the problems of the last four years.

2) Rule & Regulatory Reform…

For the past few years, I have been watching my weight carefully.  I value the life I have been given, and I want to take good care of myself through proper sleep, diet, and exercise.  In March, my mother-in-law died, and it only took a couple weeks of constant grazing through the meals of generous friends and families to result in a weight bulge.  I could feel the extra weight at my waistline.  Try as I might, sucking in my stomach didn’t make the problem go away.  A similar lack of discipline with spending has put Iowa and other states in financial messes.

The Iowa Legislature annually engages the state’s school funding formula to provide “allowable growth” to public school districts.  Because of the state’s …

Paul McKinley is the Iowa Senate Republican Leader

Iowans received more sobering news on the economy late last week. Unemployment ticked up to 6.9 percent with 116,800 Iowans out of work – an increase of 2,600 from the month before.

This news comes as Governor Culver is traveling the state touting his $1.7 billion dollar I-JOBS program that he promised would create 30,000 jobs and spur an economic revitalization of Iowa’s economy. But since unveiling his I-JOBS idea during the Condition of the State address in January 2009, Iowa has actually lost over 30,000 jobs while nearly $1.7 billion has been added to the state’s credit card.

Based on employment numbers from Iowa Workforce Development, the graph below illustrates the month by month unemployment numbers …

I was given the opportunity to sit on the floor of the Iowa House (thanks to Erik Helland) during tonight’s public forum on House File 2420, which allows unions to collects fees from employees that work in the Executive Branch of the Iowa government to cover the costs of contract bargaining and grievance assistance. It became clear that the new selling title for this bill is “Reasonable Reimbursement”.

In the Iowa House chamber, there were 58 speakers today, 32 in favor and 28 against House File 2420.

Almost every speaker in favor of the bill had little more to say than “everyone benefits, so everyone should pay”. Not much explanation why someone who does not want to be represented by a union has to …

Evidently anticipating a challenging public presence (although as of 5:10 PM there are only about 100 people in the Iowa House galleries), Speaker Murphy provided the following list of rules:

1. Persons signing up to testify will be permitted on the House floor during a public hearing.
2. To testify, members of the public will be required to enter the House chamber through the main entrance off the rotunda and will be required to sign-in.
3. Testifiers on the House floor during a public hearing are restricted to the area in the rear of the chamber and may not sit at legislators’ desks or clerks’ desks.
4. Testimony will be received at microphones located in the rear of the House chamber.
5. Each legislator may bring no more than one

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