Iowa

Fierce Blizzard Forces GOP Iowa Caucus Into Deep Freeze

Published

11 months ago

January 12, 2024

URBANDALE, Iowa — As a historic blizzard bore down on the first presidential caucus state of Iowa, a shivering Ron DeSantis joked that his team “can handle” the weather despite being “a Florida-based campaign.”

But as he stood outside his Des Moines-area campaign headquarters early Friday afternoon, DeSantis was wrapping his second and final campaign event on a day in which he was scheduled to hold four events.

As the entire GOP presidential field is finding out, Mother Nature can’t be outworked or out-organized, no matter how close the Iowa caucus looms on the calendar.

Thanks to what the National Weather Service called “life-threatening” blizzard conditions pummeling the state, nearly all the major Republican presidential candidates canceled campaign events for Friday.

While Nikki Haley scrapped her three events for the day and turned them all into “tele town halls,” Donald Trump’s campaign punted on their main event for the day, a rally headlined by campaign surrogate and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake.

While DeSantis’ campaign added the event at his Urbandale headquarters late—which attracted plenty of restless press snowed in around the capital city—his Never Back Down super PAC axed its events for the governor for later in the day.

Characteristically, it was far-right longshot Vivek Ramaswamy who sought to keep his full Friday campaign schedule of four events around the state. “George Washington braved the weather to cross the Delaware,” Ramaswamy said in an irony-free post on X.

As for the campaigns’ active efforts to reach Iowa voters—which entails sending legions of volunteers to knock on doors—the whiteout conditions around the state would seem an obvious obstacle.

Yet the DeSantis, Haley, and Ramaswamy operations all confirmed to The Daily Beast that their canvassing plans plowed ahead on Friday despite the weather. (The Trump campaign did not return a request for comment.)

“People are still activated and excited,” a spokesperson for the Haley campaign told The Daily Beast. “Iowans are used to the weather!”

Iowans handle the cold better than most, but the final days of the caucus campaign will see record-breaking extreme cold. This year could wind up as the coldest Iowa caucus in modern history, with highs on Monday likely to fall below zero and stiff winds making conditions even more dangerous.

The Friday mess drains valuable time for DeSantis and Haley to organize and rally crucial support ahead of Monday’s caucus, in which Trump is strongly favored to post a comfortable victory.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis leaves a campaign office after meeting with his staff on January 12, 2024 in Urbandale, Iowa.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Now, seemingly everyone in Iowa is attempting to game out whether the weekend’s cold, on top of the Friday blizzard, could meaningfully alter the landscape of a contest that has thus far been frozen in Trump’s favor.

While Haley and DeSantis likely aren’t expecting victories in Iowa, even the slightest hints of momentum could influence the primaries in the more competitive states of New Hampshire and South Carolina.

If the blowing snow and life-threatening cold conditions are going to help anyone by potentially deflating turnout on Monday, it’ll be Trump, said Steve Scheffler, a Republican National Committeeman for Iowa who’s remained neutral in the race.

Scheffler has been involved in every caucus going back to 1972, and told The Daily Beast in an interview that “turnout will be affected a little bit, but not a lot.”

The “diehards,” Scheffler said, will come out no matter what. “The major campaigns, especially Trump and DeSantis, have done a good job” cultivating their own supporters, the seasoned Iowa veteran said, but he remained adamant the cold shouldn’t depress turnout too much.

Whiteout conditions, on the other hand, could be a major problem, according to Scheffler, especially in rural areas. “Especially if you’re in rural Iowa,” he said, “and they’ve only got three or four caucus locations where you have to drive 15, 20 miles to get there.”

Still, there are others who see these conditions as a potential hurdle for Trump. According to the Des Moines Register, some Iowa Republicans believe the former president is poised to attract the votes of the vast majority first-time caucus participants—which would be good news for him, save for the fact that first-timers are seen as less likely to show up in bad weather.

Some DeSantis and Haley loyalists seem prepared to compete for every last vote, no matter how miserable it gets in Iowa. Tom Davis, a South Carolina state senator and Haley supporter, posted on X that his flight from Charlotte to Des Moines was canceled—so he planned to rent a car and drive the 800 mile trip instead.

Meanwhile, DeSantis was joined in Urbandale on Friday by a top ally, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who drove eight hours from St. Louis after his flight to Des Moines got canceled. “A true alpha male right there,” a DeSantis volunteer remarked before the pair headed outside to address reporters.

With nowhere else for the press to go on a snow day, DeSantis played media critic after insisting “our voters are by and large committed caucus goers.”

Speaking with a Newsmax microphone right in front of him, the Florida governor called out the conservative media for treating Trump with kid gloves. Referring to Fox News and unspecified outlets as “basically a Praetorian Guard” protecting Trump, DeSantis charged “they don’t hold him accountable because they’re worried about losing viewers.”

“That’s just the reality,” DeSantis continued. “That’s just the truth.”

Now, the strength of his Iowa operation will be put to the test along with everyone else’s, but the remark from DeSantis signaled a potential excuse for a widely predicted Trump victory—regardless of how the weather impacts the contest.

Indeed, though the late stages of caucus campaigning have been derailed by the weather, Scheffler, the longtime Iowa Republican, said the major dynamics of the race are already locked in.

The most important players in Monday night, he said, could end up being the campaign representatives who speak at their local caucus sites right before Iowans cast their ballots—effectively the final impressions campaigns can make on any remaining undecided voters.

“In terms of the trajectory, I don’t think there’s much you can change at this point in time,” Scheffler said. “I think maybe 10, 15 percent of people are going into the night undecided, so it’s important to have a good person giving the speech up there.”

Still, he said the former president shouldn’t have much to worry about if the cold keeps any significant number of likely caucus goers indoors.

“And again,” the seasoned Iowa hand said, “Trump supporters seem to be more in concrete than the others are.”

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Iowa

Iowa State women get back on track, hold off in-state rival Drake

Published

6 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Iowa State women get back on track, hold off in-state rival Drake

Returning to Hilton Coliseum was just what the Iowa State women needed, as the eighth-ranked Cyclones held off Drake Sunday afternoon in Ames, 80-78.

Returning sophomore standout Audi Crooks had the game-winning bucket with just :00.3 seconds left in the game, finishing off a 33-point effort to lead Iowa State (5-1).

Crooks, a preseason honorable mention All-American, added four rebounds to her night while shooting 15 of 25 from the field.

Emily Ryan had a double-double, scoring 11 points while dishing out 12 assists. Addy Brown added 13 points and Mackenzie Hare chipped in 10. Brown led the team with eight rebounds while Ryan had six with two steals.

Arianna Jackson had three steals and no turnovers in almost 31 minutes of action.

For Drake, another former Iowa prep standout put up a big number vs. the Cyclones, as Katie Dinnebier knocked down eight 3-pointers and scored a game-high 39 points. Anna Miller had 18 with eight rebounds, as Dinnebier also had five rebounds, two steals and two assists.

The win marked the 300th non-conference victory for Iowa State under Bill Fennelly all-time, as he improved to 616-314 with the Cyclones and 782-367 overall in his coaching career.

Iowa State added to its NCAA-record streak for consecutive games with a made 3-pointer, stretching it to 933 straight.

Up next for the Cyclones will be defending national champion South Carolina on Thanksgiving at 12:30 p.m. on FOX. The Gamecocks had their 43-game win streak snapped with a 77-62 loss in Los Angeles.

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Iowa

Double scolding to Iowa DNR is a moment to pivot and stand up for water quality | Opinion

Published

15 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Double scolding to Iowa DNR is a moment to pivot and stand up for water quality | Opinion

Iowa leaders do not have to abandon or betray pro-business stances if they want to do better for Iowa water and for Iowans.

The Register’s editorial
| Des Moines Register

Monitoring: DNR wrongly omitted rivers from impaired-waters list, EPA says
Regulation: Availability cannot be the only consideration in water-use matters
Enforcement: Attorney general should step up its enforcement
Spending: Time to finally raise sales tax for the outdoor trust fund
The stakes: Protecting water is Iowa law

The battle for clean water in Iowa has been locked in a stalemate for years. Advocates jump up and down pointing to obvious evidence that dangerous chemicals pervade streams, rivers and lakes, threatening people’s health and taking away recreation opportunities. The state’s elected and appointed officials, citing various measures of their own, say things are getting better thanks to their strategy of working together with agricultural and industrial polluters. Little changes (except continued damage to waterways).

A pair of developments this month, though, call into question Iowa’s entire approach to managing water. A state administrative law judge and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, in unrelated writings, say the Iowa Department of Natural Resources thinks too narrowly about water pollution.

If state leaders take the criticisms seriously, they can chart a different course of more aggressive protection and restoration of this precious resource. New approaches to monitoring, regulation, enforcement and spending can spur a better future for the welfare of Iowa and its people.

Monitoring: DNR wrongly omitted rivers from impaired-waters list, EPA says

The EPA chided the DNR in a letter this month, saying stretches of the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon and South Skunk rivers should have been included on the DNR’s list of impaired waters in the state. The assessments involved are technical, but the gist is that Iowa improperly treated nitrate pollution as though it does not have toxic effects on humans. Nitrates are a form of nitrogen that commonly results from manure and fertilizer runoff.

The rivers involved supply drinking water for large cities, including Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. It is distressing to learn that the DNR could miss the mark on such a crucial question of public health – all the more so when considering the possibility that the EPA might cease to be an effective backstop on such questions. New York congressman Lee Zeldin, Donald Trump’s announced choice to take over the EPA, pays lip service to conservation, but he, Trump and other voices likely to be influential in the new White House have made plain their top priority is removing restrictions on business. In the future, responsibility could fall solely on the DNR to correctly look out for drinking-water interests.

Regulation: Availability cannot be the only consideration in water-use matters

Another of the DNR’s tasks is to manage water-use permits for farms and other businesses that use a lot of it. According to an order by state administrative law judge Toby Gordon, the DNR’s management mostly focuses on availability of water. Gordon, reviewing a permit for a controversial feedlot in northeast Iowa, says that’s contrary to state law, which calls for environmental impact to be considered, too.

Indeed, here’s Chapter 455B of the Iowa Code: “The general welfare of the people of the state requires that the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use which includes ensuring that the waste or unreasonable use, or unreasonable methods of use of water be prevented, and that the conservation and protection of water resources be required with the view to their reasonable and beneficial use in the interest of the people.”

DNR Director Kayla Lyon can accept Gordon’s order or seek changes. She should agree to it in this case, but more importantly, she and her department need to adopt this reasoning in all contexts, not just water-use permitting. They should more often push back on the operations in Iowa whose proposals risk — or promise — damage to the environment.

Industry, including agriculture, drives Iowa’s economy, of course. And that will still be true if DNR personnel insist more often that industry take responsibility for side effects. The DNR has the authority it needs; it’s a matter of discretion.

Before voting no on Lyon’s confirmation this spring, state Sen. Pam Jochum, a Dubuque Democrat, told colleagues that “I think that Kayla Lyon — if she was allowed to do what a director can do, provide policy direction to this body on what the problems are and how to fix them and the funding that needs to accompany that to solve those problems — this state would have clean water.”

Many tools are available to Lyon, her DNR and state boards responsible for the environment: They can reject applications. They can impose more conditions on permits. They can fine offenders more often. They can refer more severe offenders for prosecution.

Enforcement: Attorney general should step up its enforcement

In egregious cases, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office can take over enforcement actions and seek penalties of greater than $10,000, the statutory limit for the DNR’s administrative process.

If regulators believe that some Iowa businesses count those meager fines as merely a cost of doing business, then they should more freely get the attorney general involved.

Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office should have the resources to pitch in. Unlike almost all other state agencies, which have as usual requested status quo budgets for 2025-26, Bird is asking lawmakers for $1.7 million in new money to hire seven attorneys and a paralegal for various needs. In addition, Bird has unquestionably fulfilled her 2022 campaign promise to use the office’s resources to litigate furiously against the Biden administration – which won’t exist after Jan. 20. Maybe dashing off memos and briefs in favor of Donald Trump’s agenda will take just as much time. Or maybe some time could be sliced off for work more directly relevant to Iowans’ lives and communities.

Spending: Time to finally raise sales tax for the outdoor trust fund

Even if Iowa transformed its regulatory scheme on a dime into one that reliably preserved water quality, the problems that have accumulated over decades will require investment for mitigation and restoration. State appropriations and other sources can be a piece of that puzzle. But Iowa also has a ready-to-go mechanism for spending on conservation and recreation priorities: the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, approved by 63% of voters in 2010 and stubbornly empty since.

Filling the trust fund’s coffers requires increasing the sales tax, which the Iowa Legislature has refused to do. Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed this in early 2020, but the idea fell apart when COVID-19 tanked most of that year’s legislative session. Lawmakers’ bills to take similar steps also have fizzled.

With Republican majorities passing income tax reductions and proposing to take a new bite out of property taxes, there’s no time like the present to fund some necessary government work, including conservation, with a higher sales tax.

The stakes: Protecting water is Iowa law

Private environmental groups have done laudable work bringing the DNR’s shortcomings to light and collecting wins in court and in administrative proceedings. They’ll continue to do that even if the EPA gives up on water quality. But those battles are costly, and the environmental groups lack the authority of government.

Lyon and the DNR, as well as Bird, Reynolds and majority leaders in the Legislature, do not have to abandon or betray pro-business stances if they want to do better for Iowa water and for Iowans. But they need to realize that doing better for water quality and for people is part of their charge. It’s been there in state law for decades.

Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board

This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register’s editorial board: Carol Hunter, executive editor; Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.

Want more opinions? Read other perspectives with our free newsletter or visit us at DesMoinesRegister.com/opinion. Respond to any opinion by submitting a Letter to the Editor at DesMoinesRegister.com/letters.

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Iowa

Iowa victorious in 20th straight Cy-Hawk dual, winning 21-15

Published

23 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Iowa victorious in 20th straight Cy-Hawk dual, winning 21-15

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – With four victories after intermission, including a technical fall and major decision, the Hawkeyes extended their winning streak over Iowa State to 20 in a row.

The Hawkeyes took the dual 21-15.

Early on, the matched looked dead even, with the teams trading decisions. But at 157 pounds, Iowa State’s Paniro Johnson picked up six points with an injury default win over Jacori Teemer. Teemer appeared to injure his hamstring, but Iowa head coach Tom Brands did not comment further on his status.

Iowa responded four straight wins from Michael Caliendo, Patrick Kennedy, Angelo Ferrari and Stephen Buchanan to seal the dual. Kennedy’s win came by technical fall, Buchanan’s by major decision. Yonger Bastida defeated Ben Kueter at heavyweight to earn the last points for Iowa State.

With the win, Iowa improves to 4-0. With the loss, ISU drops to 1-2.

No. 2 Iowa 21 – No. 12 Iowa State 15

125 – Adrian Meza (ISU) dec. Kale Petersen (Iowa) , 5-1

133 – Drake Ayala (Iowa) dec. Evan Frost (ISU), 11-7

141 – Zach Redding (ISU) dec. Ryder Block (Iowa), 5-4

149 – Kyle Parco (Iowa) dec. Anthony Echemendia (ISU), 4-3

157 – Paniro Johnson (ISU) inj. default Jacori Teemer (IA), 3:32

165 – Michael Caliendo (Iowa) dec. Connor Euton (ISU), 12-7

174 – Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) tech. fall Aiden Riggins (ISU), 19-4

184 – Angelo Ferrari (Iowa) dec. Evan Bockman (ISU), 8-2

197 – Stephen Buchanan (Iowa) major dec. #20 Christian Carroll, 10-0

285 – Yonger Bastida (ISU) dec. Ben Kueter (Iowa), 7-2