Mighty Hunter Comes Up Short

Finance reports were due yesterday — while the Iowa Field Report team reviews them, there is one thing that stands out. Our auditor, Rob Sand, raised almost nothing last year. This is noteworthy because he has been roundly praised for his fundraising prowess and crowned as the savior of the Iowa Democratic Party. Iowa Field Report’s article from last week highlighted that this ability to raise money for his campaign had very little to do with his skills as a fundraiser and more to do with his wealthy in-laws. At first glance:

• Raised less than $40k for all of 2019.
  • $21k of that was a refund from a media buyer.
  • His next largest donation was from himself. $5k

His reports can be found here.

Des Moines Register takes Democrat donor at his word

The Sunday the Register gave center stage to Democrat Dave Swenson to rail on how Poorly Iowa is doing in terms of job growth. He wrote a paper on how, despite our record low unemployment rate, wage growth of over 10% in the third quarter of 2019, and stronger than expected revenue, we still suck. 

We here at IRF don’t take issue with him writing papers on the topics he studies, It’s a free country, and that’s his job. For what it is worth, the paper looks comprehensive and well written. What is an issue is his clear political bias being ignored in the article.

• Swenson is a Registered Democrat
  • A major donor he is not, but he’s made hundreds of dollars in donations in just the last few years to Democratic candidates, including:
    • Kayla Koether
    • John Norris
    • Linda Murken
    • Deidre DeJear
  • He is a frequent contributor to the Liberal/Progressive Blog, Bleeding Heartland.

The Des Moines Register’s article frames Swenson as an unbias academic when nothing could be further from the truth. He’s a left-wing ideologue whose Twitter feed could be mistaken for Paul Krugman’s (a comparison we’re confident he will take as a compliment). Suppose the media wants to cite Mr. Swenson in their pieces, fine. He appears to be the go-to for lazy journalists looking for an easy quote or quick hit on the GOP. But they should identify him for what he is, a Liberal Activist, not the apolitical academic presented to the public by the DMR. 

OPED Rebuttal 

Last week, the Des Moines Register ran an op-ed by an Iowa City liberal (redundant, I know) who declared that Gov. Reynolds should resign because–wait for it–she did not utter the words “climate change” in her Condition of the State Address and because she will not devastate Iowa’s Ag industry. 

Nevermind the fact that Gov. Reynolds has championed Iowa’s renewable industries. Nevermind the fact that, in her speech, Gov. Reynolds proposed a significant water-quality and conservation proposal. That doesn’t matter to Iowa Democrats. Because Gov. Reynolds will not sacrifice Iowa’s farmers and really our entire economy on the altar of liberals’ climate-change religion, they want to evict her from Terrace Hill. 

They’re not joking, but they are the joke. 

Look, climate change is an important issue, but it’s not the only issue. This is just one of many examples of liberals showing their true agenda. For them, it’s not really about the rising mercury; it’s about taking as much power away from the people as possible. About making government the end-all-be-all. 

AOC’s original Green New Deal document said it most bluntly: It’s about giving money to people “who are unable or unwilling to work.” 

But if you think AOC is an outlier, think again. 

Elizabeth Warren, who has won the heart of so many Iowa Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Janet Peterson, wants to ban fracking, which will wipe out at least $3.5 trillion, “making our energy supply less green, and make our foreign policy more dependent on bad regimes and the Middle East.”

Bernie Sanders, another top Iowa caucus contender, has proposed a $16.3 trillion plan (roughly $127,000 per household) to deal with climate change, even though that’s above what even so-called climate-change experts believe the costs to the US will be. 

And let’s not forget about the Liberal Royalty: Last month, our Hollywood elite refused to eat meat at the Golden Globe Awards to “‘send a signal’ about the impact of animal products on climate change,” yet they had no problem arriving to the lavish party in their private limos and flying into LA on their private jets. 

But hey, let’s call on Gov. Reynolds to resign because she didn’t mention climate change in her speech. This is what the Democratic Party has become. My, my.