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Republican Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst has pulled ahead of Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley in a race for the U.S. Senate that had been considered virtually deadlocked for months, a new poll released Saturday by The Des Moines Register shows. Ernst leads 44 percent to 38 percent in the race that is considered pivotal to the GOP's effort to retake the Senate on Nov. 4, the Register reports. Twelve percent of the 546 likely voters surveyed Sept. 21-24 said they were undecided. "Very interesting, and good news not just for Ernst but also for the GOP's chances of taking the...

Republican Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst has pulled ahead of Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley in a race for the U.S. Senate that had been considered virtually deadlocked for months, a new poll released Saturday by The Des Moines Register shows. Ernst leads 44 percent to 38 percent in the race that is considered pivotal to the GOP's effort to retake the Senate on Nov. 4, the Register reports. Twelve percent of the 546 likely voters surveyed Sept. 21-24 said they were undecided. !

Meet Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky’s Dad, Marc Mezvinsky By Erin Dooley Sep 27, 2014 Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky has been dubbed “the Clinton baby,” but Chelsea’s new bundle of joy is also part of the Mezvinsky family – and Bill and Hillary Clinton aren’t her only interesting grandparents. Chelsea’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is heir to a once-powerful political dynasty. His father, Ed Mezvinsky, was a two-term Democratic congressman, representing Iowa’s first congressional district from 1973 to 1977. But in 2002, the former congressman pleaded guilty to swindling more than $10 million from family and friends in a Ponzi-esque scheme. Ed Mezvinsky himself...

-SNIP_Of the five Senate contests in purple states — Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Colorado — this is currently the closest: The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows a tie (Ernst ahead by 0.2 percentage points as of Friday). Which should make Republicans anxious as they try to take control of the Senate and as they contemplate the 2016 presidential landscape. Although Iowa has voted Democratic in six of the last seven presidential elections, the Ernst-Braley contest should not be this close. Only 38 percent of Iowans approve of Barack Obama’s performance. Braley, a past president of an...

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) -- For a small band of supercharged Democratic organizers, the pleasant Des Moines neighborhood of Beaverdale goes by another name: Obamadale. The moniker was bestowed three years ago by a motley crew of Democrats who first met as strangers over martinis at a local restaurant in the early days of President Obama's re-election bid, brought together under the aegis of the "neighborhood team" model that defined the campaign's bottom-up volunteer structure.

Gannett paper, link: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/louisiana/2014/08/28/jindal-cruz-headline-september-iowa-gop-event/14735161/

The campaign of Democratic candidate for governor Jack Hatch has suspended television ads in two Iowa markets, including Sioux City, and changed its advertising strategy in two others but denies it's a sign the campaign is struggling financially. "We're just redistributing how we're doing some things to reflect the polling that we're seeing," said Grant Woodard, Hatch's campaign manager... Television ad buys in the Sioux City and Davenport markets have been placed on hold and ad schedules on Des Moines and Cedar Rapids stations have been changed...

New York (AFP) - US corn and soybean crops could break records this year, but for farmers the bounty has a dark side: falling prices and a logistics nightmare getting crops to market. "It is not an exact science but when we look at the fields, it looks like it is going to be a big crop," said John Reifsteck, a corn and soybean farmer in Champaign, Illinois, a Midwest farm belt state.

Incumbent Governor Terry Branstad (R) and State Senator Jack Hatch (D) met in a debate for Iowa’s gubernatorial race. The second of the series of three debates focused on economic prosperity and job creation. The debate, held at Edward Stone Middle School in Burlington, Iowa, was co-sponsored by the Greater Burlington Partnership, the local alliance of chambers of commerce, as well as KWQC Television in the Quad Cities and the Burlington Hawk Eye. [*The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.] THE BURLINGTON HAWKEYE NEWSPAPERS AND THE GREATER BURLINGTON PARTNERSHIP. FOR THE NEXT HOUR, TERRY BRANSTAD AND JACK...

Bill Clinton was caught off mike in Iowa this weekend “agreeing that the [Israeli] prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] was ‘not the man’ to make peace with Palestinians — a position at odds with his wife’s pro-Israel stance, a new report said Monday. Clinton’s spontaneous comments came during an impromptu conversation with pro-Palestinian activists after he and Hillary spent the day at a political event in Iowa on Sunday.” This is part of a pattern for Bill Clinton – “blaming the Israeli prime minister for the lack of progress toward peace with the Palestinians.” What do we learn from this? 1....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek7vKh4vOzI On Sunday, Bill and Hillary Clinton were Iowa attending the final Tom Harkin Steak Fry event, and Bill was repeatedly pinned down in conversation by folks in attendance. During one such encounter, Clinton got into a discussion with a pro-Palestinian activist who managed to elicit a surprising, or not so surprising, comment from the former President. Activist: If we don’t force [Netanyahu] to make peace, we will not have peace. Clinton: Wait, wait, wait. First of all, I agree with that. But in 2000, Ehud Barak, I got him to agree to something that I'm not sure I would...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Video from the Harkin Steak Fry shows former President Clinton saying "I agree with that" to a man on the ropeline who says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is not the guy" to make peace. "If we don't force him to make peace, we will not have peace," the man says. The conversation came on Sunday after the Clintons made a high-profile return to Iowa and spoke at Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) Democratic fundraiser. "First of all, I agree with that," Clinton replies. He then makes a point defending the Israelis, saying: "But in 2000, [then-Israeli Prime Minister] Ehud Barak,...

Election 2014: Iowa Senate Iowa Senate: Ernst (R) 43%, Braley (D) 43% in PoliticsEmail thisShareThis.Related Articles Daily Presidential Tracking Poll Voters Still Think Cost, Quality of Care Will Worsen Under Obamacare 49% Favor Religious Exemption from Contraceptive Mandate, 39% Oppose Kansas Senate: Orman (I) 45%, Roberts (R) 40% Georgia Senate: Perdue (R) 46%, Nunn (D) 41% Voters Trust Republicans More Than Democrats on Nine Out of 15 Major Issues Sign up for free daily updates .Friday, September 19, 2014 The Iowa Senate race remains dead even. Iowa continues to be a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports 2014 Senate Balance of...

The one-day GreenStorm campaign blitz raised more than $250,000 for Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, along with Senate hopefuls Bruce Braley of Iowa and Rep. Gary Peters of Michigan. ... The GreenStorm fundraiser was also supported by ProgressivesUnited PAC, the Voices for Progress PAC, the National Resources Defense Fund PAC, and the Population Connection Action Fund..

We hear where she goes. We hear what she wears. We hear how much she makes. But what we don’t ever seem to hear about Hillary Clinton is what she would do as president. Her every move is reported, every speech covered as if it were a decree brought down from a mountaintop. But what does she want to do? There’s no doubt she’s running. No one goes to Iowa to watch corn grow or spend time with Sen. Tom Harkin. Yet there she was last weekend at Harkin’s “Steak Fry,” an annual “kiss the ring” event for the Democratic...

It’s “the A-Word,” and it can damn any immigration bill to oblivion. The word is “amnesty,” or as one immigration-control advocate calls it, “the death word.” It’s a charge that a lot of people want to make and nobody wants to hear. (SNIP) “For some, you would think amnesty is in the eye of the beholder because there are some critics who have nothing constructive to offer who criticize every proposal as amnesty or amnesty light,” says Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican. (SNIP) “I’ve seen no guest-worker program that didn’t include amnesty — amnesty defined by Webster’s,” says Rep. Steve...

DES MOINES—Republican Party of Iowa leaders criticized Vice President Joe Biden for using his official office to pay for a partisan, campaign trip to Iowa in the home stretch of the midterm elections. “I’d love nothing more than for Joe Biden to be a 2016 presidential candidate,” said Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa and a seventh-generation livestock farmer from Wilton. “If that wish won’t come true, then I’d at least wish he would campaign on his own dime and not bill the taxpayers of Iowa and America.”“Time and time again, when I served in the Iowa House of Representatives, I saw Republicans...

Vice President Joe Biden is preaching a populist theme during a visit to Iowa—an important early-voting state in the presidential nominating calendar. He’s telling voters to elect Democrats who support raising taxes on companies. Biden is hitting an election-year theme of restoring what he calls “basic fairness.” …

Republican Joni Ernst has pulled ahead of Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley in the Iowa Senate race, according to a new poll that points to a heated battle for votes in the final stretch. The Quinnipiac University survey showed Ernst, a state senator, leading Braley by 6 points, 50-44 percent among likely voters. The poll also showed her leading among independents, a key voting bloc. The results are a break from earlier polling which for months has shown Braley leading or tied with his GOP rival. Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll, said in a statement put out...

Neutralizing the traditional Democratic lead among women voters, Republican State Sen. Joni Ernst leads U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, the Democrat, 50 - 44 percent among likely voters in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin in Iowa, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Ernst leads among men 56 - 39 percent, while Braley leads among women by a smaller 50 - 44 percent margin, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. This survey of likely voters can not be compared with earlier surveys of registered voters. The Republican also leads 50 - 43 percent among a key...