2012 campaign

Vote button on american flag

Presidential campaigns greet Iowans 1 last time

Ryan, Obama make final bids for support before election

DES MOINES — President Barack Obama and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan punctuated their 2012 campaigns with high-energy rallies Monday they each hope will deliver the final push that will propel them across the finish line in Iowa today. Thousands of Obama supporters filled the downtown streets last night around an East Village building [...]

continue »

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses supporters at Dubuque Regional Airport on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012, in Dubuque. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

Romney makes impassioned pitch for Iowa votes

About 4,500 Iowans turned out for a Sunday morning campaign rally in Des Moines

  DES MOINES – GOP president candidate Mitt Romney told cheering Iowa supporters Sunday he’s counting on them to help punch his ticket to the White House on Tuesday. “I need your vote, I need your work, I need your help,” Romney told about 4,500 enthusiastic Iowans who turned out at Hy-Vee Hall for a [...]

continue »

Supporters cheer on first lady Michelle Obama as she rallies her husbands efforts and progress at the Sheraton Hotel in Iowa City, Iowa, on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Kyle Grillot)

Democrats push voting on Iowa bus tour

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer: “Iowa will decide this election”

DES MOINES – Democrats boarded a bus Tuesday to make a final statewide sweep to close the deal for President Obama with Iowa voters and to implore them to cast their ballots early. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said America has gone “from the brink” of economic disaster in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers “went broke” [...]

continue »

Mitt Romney

Romney to propose agenda for rural America

GOP candidate to speak at Van Meter farm at noon today

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney will take aim at President Obama’s rural record when he addresses supporters at a central Iowa farm Tuesday. “We already ask our farmers and ranchers to cope with natural disasters,” Romney said in remarks prepared for delivery at a campaign rally at the James and Margaret Koch farm. “They should [...]

continue »

Sportsmen back Obama’s re-election bid

DES MOINES – The Obama of America Iowa campaign has launched the Iowa Sportsmen for Obama Council, a group of hunters, fishers and conservationists from across Iowa who share the President’s vision for America’s great outdoors.   “As an avid sportsman, I support the president because his conservation and recreation strategy will ensure Iowa’s outdoor [...]

continue »

Justice David Wiggins asks a question as the Iowa Supreme Court listened to oral arguments in the Varnum v. Brien case, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008. (John Gaps III/The Des Moines Register)

New group launches ‘Yes on Retention’ campaign for Iowa judges

Battle lines forming well ahead of Nov. 6 vote

Leaders of a newly formed Justice Not Politics Action group announced plans Wednesday to launch a “Yes on Retention” campaign in support of all Iowa justices and judges whose names will appear on the ballot in Iowa’s Nov. 6 general election. The group plans to kick off its grassroots voter outreach effort with events in [...]

continue »

obamas+and+bidens

Obama, Biden coming to Iowa on Friday

Iowa stop on Friday follows the Democrats’ nominating convention that officially launches Obama’s re-election bid

DES MOINES – Obama for America campaign officials said Sunday that President Barack Obama is slated to return to Iowa this week, one day after addressing the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden were scheduled to travel to Iowa for a [...]

continue »

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is surrounded by delegates at the Democratic National Convention holding lights during a Sept. 11 remembrance as 16-year-old violinist Gabe Lefkowitz performs "Amazing Grace" on stage Monday, July 26, 2004 at the FleetCenter in Boston . (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

Many Iowa congressional candidates don’t attend national conventions

Hopefuls prefer to focus on campaigns, especially in newly-drawn districts

The glitz and partisan excitement of the national political conventions apparently don’t hold the appeal and drawing power this year for office-holders and office-seekers that they once had. Several members of Congress facing re-election this year and their challengers, in what are billed as competitive contests, have indicated they will forego the upcoming presidential nominating [...]

continue »