DES MOINES – Sen. Rand Paul won a standing ovation for declaring Hillary Clinton unfit for higher office, but a full house at an Iowa GOP fundraiser was quiet when he called for immigration reform and outreach to Latinos and African Americans. Otherwise, it was a noisy, enthusiastic, sometimes raucous crowd Friday night at the [...]

DES MOINES – Dubuque businessman Rod Blum plans to join the race for the 2014 Republican nomination for the U.S. House from Iowa’s 1st District. There’s been little publicity about Blum’s plans to make his announcement March 27. His campaign website, www.rodblum.com, simply has a message: “We’re coming very soon.” He will join Steve Rathje, [...]

IOWA CITY – Complacency by Democrats and conditions ripe for an upset helped Republicans end a 55-year losing streak in  Johnson County Tuesday, political insiders said. But that doesn’t mean Democratic dominance will cease any time soon in what is sometimes referred to as the People’s Republic of Johnson County, some of them added. Republican [...]

Despite the fact Senate Republicans are on the short end of a 26-24 split, Sen. Bill Dix says Iowans can count on spirited opposition from the minority caucus. Dix, a melon, squash and pumpkin farmer from Shell Rock, was selected by fellow GOP senators to lead their caucus for the 2013 session that begins Jan. [...]

Sen. Chuck Grassley is staying out of the intra-party fight over the future of the GOP Straw Poll – at least for the time being. Grassley has taken no position on Republican Gov. Terry Branstad’s suggestion the party drop the straw poll fundraiser it holds the August before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses. Grassley’s concern, he [...]

  By Mike Thayer —   Why do people in Johnson County give money to the Johnson County Republican Central Committee? Does the committee find candidates for office? A core mission of the central committee, they haven’t successfully recruited anyone for several elections. People who have run for office under the Republican banner have done [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS — For some Iowans, voting can be as quick and simple as filling in one little oval. For people who want to vote a straight-ticket — vote for all the Democrats or all the Republicans on the ballot — they can simply fill in one oval near the top of their ballot [...]

MARION – A key legislator in state budget discussions and his challenger presented opposing views on how best to make use of Iowa’s best financial position in years. Rep. Nick Wagner, R-Marion, who is in line to lead the House Appropriations Committee that crafts budgets, called for returning surplus funds to Iowa taxpayers. His Democratic [...]

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz said Friday he hopes access to federal citizenship data will help state officials determine whether non-Iowa citizens have voted illegally in past elections and take steps to prevent anything improper in the future. Based on comparisons of state voter registration and driver’s license records, Schultz determined that 3,582 foreign [...]

  DES MOINES — Iowa first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses produced two winners and one big loser — the Republican Party of Iowa. Initial results showed Mitt Romney won the January caucuses by eight votes, but after the results from more than 1,700 individual precinct caucuses were certified, Rick Santorum was the winner by 34 votes. “We [...]