On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

The Iowa Family Policy Council issued a news release today saying 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin won’t be coming to the organization’s Nov. 21 banquet.

But, the IFPC says, “she has asked if she could speak at a future mutually agreeable date.”

This all comes on the heels of a flap over whether Palin demanded a speaking fee for the event.

You can see my post on it here. In sum: A Politico article and headline suggested yesterday that she did. A Palin’s spokeswoman said she didn’t.

I won’t go over the whole thing again. See my post.

Lest there be any confusion over Palin’s future appearance, the IFPC closes out its news release today with this: “She will not accept any fees for her appearance.”

Sen. Tom Harkin, never one to mince words, seems to be warning Sen. Joe Lieberman that if he joins a Republican effort to block a vote on a health reform bill his chairmanship of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee might be at risk.

According to the Iowa Independent, Harkin predicted Lieberman would come around, but also noted what might be the consequences if he doesn’t.

“As I said before, when it comes down to getting the 60 votes necessary to pass this bill, I do not believe that Joe Lieberman would want to be the one person who caucuses with the Democrats … to bring this bill down. I don’t think he wants to go down in history like that,” Harkin said.

“He still wants to be a part of the Democratic Party although he is a registered independent. He wants to caucus with us and, of course, he enjoys his chairmanship of the [Homeland Security] committee because of the indulgence of the Democratic Caucus. So, I’m sure all of those things will cross his mind before the final vote.”

The Iowa Family Policy Center issued a news release earlier this week that raised a few eyebrows. And a piece in the Politico today adds even more intrigue.

The release, issued Tuesday, said the IFPC had invited former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to its Nov. 21 banquet.

Nothing unusual there. She’s in high demand. But the group also added it had begun “soliciting financial support for the event this week in anticipation of the Governor’s potential visit.”

That’s what was unusual. Potential presidential candidates aren’t usually paid to come to the state. Getting in front of Iowa activists is seen as the payoff.

Jonathan Martin’s fascinating story in the Politico today explores the whole business. In it, he quotes some familiar GOP operatives — Steve Scheffler, Ed Failor, Jr., Dave Kochel, Tim Albrecht, etc. — talking about the unusualness of paying a potential presidential a fee to speak in Iowa.

But in the article, IFPC spokesman Bryan English says he is not personally aware of a speaker’s fee.

Yet, the Politico piece says: “At the request of the Iowa Family Policy Center, Team Sarah, a national pro-Palin organization not formally connected to the former governor, has begun raising money among its members in an effort to collect the $100,000.”

As I say, intriguing. Of course, Palin’s visit would be the same night that Vice President Joe Biden is in Des Moines for an Iowa Democratic Party event. An intriguing possibility in itself, as noted earlier this week by Kay Henderson.

The bottom line in this, however, is that it appears unlikely the two 2008 vice presidential candidates will be in the same city, if not the same stage, on Nov. 21. A spokesman for the former governor tells Martin it would be “incredibly difficult” for Palin to attend given her book tour.

Alas. (Maybe)

UPDATE: (2:15 p.m.). The mystery deepens. A Newsweek blog called The Gaggle, reports that a Palin spokesperson, Meg Stapleton, says the former governor isn’t asking for a speaking fee.

Writes Newsweek’s Holly Bailey:: “Meg Stapleton, Palin’s spokeswoman, tells your Gaggler that Palin “has not requested anything” and that she “does not charge people to campaign for them.” According to Stapleton, Palin would instead cover such travel costs through her political-action committee, SarahPAC.

Incidentally, Bailey quotes Stapleton saying it’s unlikely Palin will be in Iowa for the IFPC event.

It looks like video gambling may have new life in the Iowa Legislature. House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Dubuque Democrat, is calling the issue “a live round to be discussed.”

That’s a difference from July, when I started poking around to find out if Iowa would match Illinois’ decision to allow video poker. Recall, Illinois approved video gambling as part of a larger budget package that included a long-awaited capital bill.

Back then, Murphy didn’t shut the door on the possibility, but said “I think it’s a tough uphill fight.”

Apparently, the hill has flattened a bit.

The Des Moines Register reports Murphy said yesterday that legislators who may have turned their nose up at it a year ago may be looking at it differently now.

Certainly, video gambling would bring money into state coffers at a time when there’s a round of budget cuts going on. But it would also inject gambling expansion into an election year, which is likely to ruffle some feathers.

Des Moines lawyer Roxanne Conlin apparently is getting ready to join the Democratic field wanting to run against U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Tom Beaumont of the Des Moines Register has the story here.

Conlin tells the Register it’s “more likely than not” she’ll run.

Already, Bob Krause of Fairfield and Tom Fiegen of Clarence are seeking the Democratic nomination.

There’s been growing speculation a well known Democrat would join the race ever since party chair Michael Kiernan said a high powered “first round draft pick” was waiting to run.

Not sure if Conlin was the person Kiernan was speaking of, but she’s certainly a well known Democrat in political circles, and she does bring an ability to raise money.

Of course, it’s been 27 years since she’s been on a statewide ballot. She ran for governor in 1982 against another familiar pol who appears to be looking to make a comeback next year, Terry Branstad.

Iowa’s unemployment rate for September stayed steady at 6.7 percent, Iowa Workforce Development said this morning.

It had been rising. The 6.7 percent matches the revised 6.7 percent rate for August.

The state says 113,100 people are out of work; last year at this time, it was 71,000.

Despite a stabilizing unemployment rate, the outlook still is fragile.

“A growing problem for the state is persistent long-term joblessness,” says Elisabeth Buck, director of Iowa Workforce Development. “Due to fairly consistent monthly job losses this year, people are staying out of work longer with no job prospects in sight.”

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is complaining the Obama administration may be breaking the law with a web site that has a button asking visitors to “state your support” for passing heath insurance reform this year.

The button leads to a form letter expressing support for a series of reform principles and lets them leave their names and contact information.

Grassley sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, saying, “the use of the official HHS.gov Web site for activities that seem to be nothing more than government propaganda raises many serious questions,” according to a story posted last night on Roll Call’s web site.

An HHS spokesman, Nick Papas responed: “Healthreform.gov is a valuable resource for the American people and we look forward to discussing this resource with the Senator,” Roll Call says.

A few things to come across my desk today:

* Iowa Gov. Chet Culver’s re-election campaign has a new web site. It’s at www.chetculver.com. Among the highlights: The governor took a 10 percent pay cut and his new TV commercial explaining his decision to implement across the board 10 percent cuts.

* U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reports raising nearly $833,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30. He had $4.4 million in the bank, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Go here for a list of Grassley’s reports. (The FEC says they’ll post Grassley’s 3rd quarter report as soon as they get the report from the Secretary of the Senate’s office.)

* An aspiring Grassley opponent, Democrat Bob Krause of Fairfield, is pushing for extension of the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers.

“Without the extension, I am concerned that the economy will relapse in the months ahead as housing problems compound,” Krause said in a news release today.

The Iowa Republican has an interesting piece speculating about whether Mitt Romney will skip the 2012 caucuses. You can find it here.

Romney, recall, came into Iowa gangbusters before the ‘08 cycle and was thought to be leading most of the way. Then things fell apart and he lost to Mike Huckabee by nine points.

Craig Robinson, the author of the IR piece, notes that while there are a number of Republicans showing interest in Iowa for the 2012 cycle, Romney’s Iowa  PAC is paying staff salaries but not sending money to Iowa candidates and parties.

Robinson writes:

“I’m confident that Iowa will once again kickoff the nomination process. The field of Republican candidates will be of a greater caliber than their 2008 counterparts. And once again media outlets from all over the globe will descend to Iowa to cover the race – whether or not Mitt Romney decides to participate.”

Republican candidate for governor Christopher Rants was in about a week ago and he had an interesting observation about Terry Branstad getting into the race. Specifically, he talked about a lack of easily-retrievable articles about the ex-governor.

You want to know something about me, Rants said, and all you have to do is Google my name and there’s a 1,000 articles.

He has a good point. Today’s politics is a lot different than it was in Branstad’s hey-day. Today, opposition research is pretty easy. Google makes it so. Even looking for the really embarrassing courthouse stuff is easier, thanks to the Internet and the increasing willingness of courts to post documents online.

But, as Rants pointed out, Branstad is shielded from some of this because the stories written about his four terms are all pre-Google.

Well, today it looks like Rants is trying to even the scales. He’s added a new feature to his web site — an archive in which he’s scanned “news from the 80s and 90s,” as he puts it.

Don’t expect a lot of stories about Duran Duran, Big Hair or the A-Team.

Rants first article, posted today, is about……yes, Terry Branstad.

The piece, an 11-year-old David Yepsen column in the Des Moines Register, is headlined “Branstad, the liberal governor”.

Rants promises a “blast from the past” every week. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other candidates follow suit. In fact, there are probably a lot of folks visiting their local library to pull copies of old articles to be scanned onto web pages.