Saturday, January 12, 2013
The Minnesota congresswoman rose to the top and then sank to the bottom of the race of the GOP presidential nomination in Iowa.
An evangelical organizer credited with helping Michele Bachmann win the 2011 Ames Straw Poll is now accusing the Minnesota congresswoman of not paying members of her Iowa ground team. Ex-aide Peter Waldron said he and several other staffers are still owed paychecks and suggested the former GOP presidential candidate's senior team might be withholding the money because the staffers cooperated in a legal investigation. “I’m disappointed,” Waldron told the Washington Post. “Working with her, I know her to be a person of good faith. However, I also know that she is surrounded by what the Bible says is men of lesser sorts.” Eric Woolson, Bachmann’s Iowa campaign communications chairman, said people were paid in full and they didn't expect to …
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The presidential election is now over, but some moments from the past year and half we just can't forget - as hard as we may try.
After more than a year and a half, presidential campaigning here in Iowa has come to an end. So, for the next week until election 2016 visits begin, we are going to relax and try to recuperate. Still, there's a few moments from the 2012 campaign that are hard to forget - as hard as we may try. Here are some that stick out from our Patch editors in Iowa. I'll start with my own. 1. Michele Bachmann meets gay robot By late 2011, presidential candidates had seen it all: hecklers, protesters, haters of all shapes and sizes. As it turns out, not all. On a bitterly cold day, then-Republican hopeful Michele Bachmann (that's one l and two n's) visited Hamburg Inn No. 2 in the liberal confines of Iowa City. The Minnesota congresswoman, a hard-nosed …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, has endorsed Mitt Romney for president.
Update: Moments after posting this article. GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has announced he is suspending his bid for president, according to multiple news outlets. Previous coverage: If you need another sign that the race for the GOP nomination for president is over, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has made an endorsement. Branstad endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a few moments ago. Branstad had steadfastly refused to endorse a candidate throughout the Iowa Caucus season and ever since, even as Romney pulled further and further ahead in the delegate count. If you'll recall, Romney won, then lost the Iowa Caucus. In reality, the double-digit vote divide between Romney and Rick Santorum, who was declared winner, was so narrow…
Monday, March 26, 2012
We're the state that brought Santorum's campaign to life. But, after a loss in Illinois last week and a larger imbalance in the delegate count, are the campaigns for Santorum, and the rest of the not-Romneys, for practical purposes dead?
The very fact that the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nominee has always been between Mitt Romney and a revolving door of not-Romneys shows the power behind the former Massachusetts governor's campaign. Rick Santorum is the foremost not-Romney, and we get to claim some credit for that. It was the Iowa Caucus that gave his nearly dead campaign a vital boost of power that he still seems to be riding. But, has the former Pennsylvania senator taken the post-Iowa Caucus momentum as far as it will go? It's true that many stories are touting Santorum's Saturday Louisiana primary victory as proof that the race is still on, but the state only added 10 delegates to his total. Other stories point out that Santorum's victory will come from …
Monday, January 23, 2012
U.S. President Barack Obama seems to have a love affair with the Hawkeye state, but is the love mutual or is it a one-way street?
It is no secret that U.S. President Barack Obama isn't as popular as when he was sweeping the nation in 2008, campaigning on hope and change. Even though his approval ratings have dropped across the country, he still seems to have a special relationship with the Hawkeye state. Let us know how you feel about President Obama's visit to Iowa on Wednesday in our Patch Poll and join in the conversation in the comment section. After winning the Iowa Caucus in 2008, former Illinois senator made Iowa City the first stop upon passing his historic health care legislation. On Wednesday, Cedar Rapids will be his first stop in a five-state, State of the Union tour. It's clear Obama has high hopes for Iowa's voters. But is this love affair a one-way …
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The former U.S. Speaker trounces Mitt Romney in South Carolina, which makes Santorum's victory in Iowa -- however late -- all the more important.
Former U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich trounced Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primary less than 24 hours after GOP officials finally acknowledged that Rick Santorum -- and not Romney -- won the Iowa Caucus. Gingrich's victory in South Carolina proved that reports of his campaign's death back in June were decidedly premature. The polls Saturday night had barely closed when the country's major news outlets projected Gingrich the winner. With 95 percent of the vote counted, Gingrich was at 41 percent to Romney's 27 percent, with Santorum at 17 percent and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) at 13 percent, the Associated Press reported. Had Romney won in South Carolina, as he looked on his way to accomplishing just a week ago, Iowa's mishandling of the …
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Some Iowa political insiders are not happy with the state party officials' handling of the 2012 Iowa Caucus, which ended with less than an earnest declaration of who won.
- ELECTIONS
- B.A. Morelli, Deb Belt, Megan VerHelst, Anne Carothers-Kay, Jessica Miller, Scott Raynor, Stephen Schmidt, Alison Gowans, Beth Dalbey, Jody Gifford, and Ashlee Kieler
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
A key Republican activist had perhaps the harshest criticism of Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn's handling of the 2012 Iowa Caucus, and he joins many others saying Iowa hurt its claim to first-in-the-nation status. "For Matt Strawn to refuse to declare a winner of the caucus, it makes the Caucus a joke," said Craig Robinson, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Iowa Republican and former political director overseeing the caucus for the state GOP. "He cast a huge cloud of suspicion over the caucus process." "Matt Strawn should step down as GOP chairman," he said. Robinson's main point of contention wasn't necessarily the eight uncounted precincts, it was Strawn's refusal to declare Rick Santorum the winner after the vote certification was …
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The 2012 Iowa Caucus winner may never be known.
With the race for the GOP nomination for president full on in South Carolina with its primary on Saturday, the winner of the Iowa Caucus remains in doubt and may stay that way forever. Officials with the Republican Party of Iowa are in the final stages of certifying the Iowa Caucus vote. GOP Chairman Matt Strawn declared Mitt Romney the winner by eight votes over Rick Santorum in the early hours of Jan. 4. Counties have two weeks from the Iowa Caucus to certify their results. Strawn told the Des Moines Register the final paperwork is due by 5 p.m. Wednesday. The Iowa GOP may be able to announce the results of the certification process by Friday, Strawn told the Des Moines Register. However with most of the paperwork already in, Iowa GOP …
Thursday, January 5, 2012
One Iowa precinct says the votes were miscounted on Caucus night Tuesday. If so, it would make Rick Santorum the rightful winner of the first in the nation caucus for the GOP presidential nominee, they say.
First or second, at this point does it really make that much of a difference? On Tuesday night, well Wednesday morning actually, Mitt Romney walked away from the Iowa Caucus the winner by the narrowest of margins. A grand total of eight votes separated the former Massachusetts governor from runner-up Rick Santorum. But, gold and silver in this case is nearly interchangeable. Because the vote was so close, both candidates are expected to earn an equal number of Iowa delegates, which go towards deciding the nominee. Second seems to be treating Santorum pretty OK, too. He has brought in $2 million in the two days since the Iowa Caucuses. Still, there is the matter of bragging rights, and now it's even less clear who gets them. Des Moines TV …
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Iowans picked polar opposite candidates, but will that hurt its standing as first-in-the-nation Caucus?
Iowans offered the nation something less than a clear path forward with Tuesday night’s razor-thin finish, which gave the rest of the country a vastly disparate trio of top candidates in the Iowa Caucus. Republican consultant Chris Drummond, who ran U.S. Sen. John McCain’s South Carolina campaign in 2008, told a Charleston, SC news station, “This is obviously step one for the process. For us here in South Carolina, it means absolutely nothing.” It raises an interesting question: Did Iowa hold up its end of the bargain as voters prepare to hit the polls in New Hampshire on Jan. 10 and in South Carolina on Jan. 21 and so on throughout the nation? Political watchers in Iowa and elsewhere backed Iowa’s first-in-the-nation performance this time…
PAM
11:17 pm on Saturday, January 12, 2013
This is how a lot of the,so called,Christians treat people,"in the name of God of course!!!! more ›