Who will be left standing?

Behind their carefully-worded statements, Iowa's five congressmen still want to hold onto their seats. But --- as I've imagined current 4th Congressional District Rep. Tom Latham thinking --- "in which district?" Well, Iowa is in the midst of its once-a-decade redistricting plan and it's losing one of districts, so someone's got to go. It's a political equivalent of musical chairs. The number of seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives is based on population and Iowa's growth has been slower than other growing states. The Legislative Services Agency plan throws Republicans Steve King, currently representing the 5th District, and Latham into a new 4th District. It also throws Democrats Dave Loebsack, currently representing the 2nd District, and Bruce Braley, representing the 1st District, into a new 1st District. No incumbent lives in the new 2nd District, but much of it is the same chunk of southeastern Iowa that Loebsack now represents. Democrat Leonard Boswell --- the only incumbent not paired up --- remains in a reconstituted 3rd District that swallows the southwestern corner of Iowa that King now represents. King's supporters in that area are not happy about this. The official statements released by each congressman except Latham seem to stake out one of the new districts. Latham lives at the edge of his new district and is very close to the three others, all of which include some territory he now represents. King has stated he will be on the ballot, but also suggested he'd like to avoid a matchup with Latham. Might he challenge one of his three Democratic colleagues? Of course, more than one of the current representatives may not survive after the new congressional districts are put in place. For example, there's been a lot of speculation the Christie Vilsack, wife of the former governor and current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, may want one of the seats. Since the Vilsacks lived in the new 2nd District and there's no incumbent there now, that may be a good guess. Another guess is that she may based herself out of the Des Moines area and run in the new 3rd District. Or she may not run. And redrawing the districts may even open up opportunities for new challengers or past electoral opponents. When challenged, incumbents don't always win (but it's a good bet). The Iowa Legislature --- which is also affected by the plan --- can choose to accept or reject the plan. The earliest either house will vote is April 13. Many have speculated that the Legislature will approve the plan. If not, the LSA draws up a new plan.

It's good to be king ... of the crazy wingnuts

Congressman Steve King's refusal to discuss the possibility of a debate with Matt Campbell, the Democratic challenger for the Iowa 5th District seat, has led to the latest in a long series of his provocative attention-grabbing comments. On Aug. 30, Campbell crashed one of King's town hall meetings and confronted him for not responding to requests to set up a debate. King's response was that Campbell has "not earned" the right to debate him. Read the story and see the Sioux City Journal's video here: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/article_e06e0331-9a54-5694-a247-d0e91f7e7cc3.html. That tops a string of statements spanning his political career which have garnered a disproportionate amount of attention for their breadth of arrogance, naivete and partisianship. Some examples, you say? There was his 2004 response to Iraqi prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ia05_king/pr_040513.html; his 2006 contention that Washington D.C. is more dangerous than the Iraqi warzone: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/13/king-dc-safer/; and finally his more recent statements that President Obama is a Marxist: http://iowaindependent.com/41306/king-obama-is-a-marxist-who-is-in-violation-of-his-oath-of-office and that he has a "default mechanism" favoring blacks over whites: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/article_57612e6c-7899-11df-add6-001cc4c03286.html. Cumulatively, these show King to be a crazy wingnut. And we think he has earned that lifetime achievement award! Here's a 2006 story where King offers some insight into his own provocativeness: http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/article_ee6bf08a-38e5-5df5-a1b7-2ca3b8b82d25.html. Campbell may not get his debate with King and we'll have to wait until Nov. 2 to see who has "earned" the votes of most 5th District residents.