Pocahontas County Democrats

Minnesota Officials Propose Third Way On Voter ID That Prevents Fraud Without Disenfranchising Voters

2012-03-11T10:46:00.001-07:00

Minnesota Officials Propose Third Way On Voter ID That Prevents Fraud Without Disenfranchising Voters: pThe debate over voting rights, which sprung up again with force last year, comes down to a simple issue in the end: access versus integrity. Progressives want to ensure that everyone, regardless of race or wealth, has equal access to the ballot box, while conservatives are preoccupied with preventing voter fraud, whatever the cost. This [...]/p

Pocahontas Platform Debate Saturday

2012-03-06T10:41:00.003-08:00

You can help build the Iowa Democratic Party platform on Saturday in Pocahontas. Part of the county convention will involve platform resolutions. A dozen resolutions were submitted from two of our January caucus groups. You can propose new ones in writing before the debate begins.

Here are two that are now pending:

We support electing the President by majority of individual votes cast.

We support limits on bank size: no bank should be larger than 1% of GDP.

Assessor to Address County Democrats

2012-02-26T13:55:00.004-08:00

UPDATE: Due to a death in her family, Sue Reigelsberger will not attend the county convention as planned.

Pocahontas County Democrats will hear about property taxes from Sue Reigelsberger of Rolfe. She is the deputy county assessor and is about to succeed the retiring Brian DeWall.

Everyone in Des Moines claims to want property tax reform. But what does that mean for the many wind turbines in the county? What about the factories in Laurens or the taxes on Main Street? Will residential taxes go up when commercial taxes are cut? How is the plan of Iowa Democrats different from the Branstad plan?

Reigelsberger will speak to the county convention at the Courthouse on the afternoon of Saturday, March 10. The meeting convenes at 1:30 p.m. The convention will also select delegates to the state convention, approve a platform and elect local officers.

The public is invited. Registered Democrats may get to vote in the convention if their home precinct lacks a full delegation. Delegations were originally selected at the January precinct caucuses--first in the nation!

The Nation’s Most Radical Abortion Bill? Iowa GOP Proposal Would Ban All Abortions, Sentence Doctors To Life In Prison

2012-02-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

The Nation’s Most Radical Abortion Bill? Iowa GOP Proposal Would Ban All Abortions, Sentence Doctors To Life In Prison: pIn the escalating war on women’s rights in statehouse across the country, Iowa state Rep. Kim Pearson (R) may have just dropped the biggest bomb yet. Pearson, a freshman Tea Party lawmaker so extreme that she’s already drawn scorn from fellow Republicans and decided not to run for re-election, introduced a bill yesterday morning that [...]/p

Grassley Holds Domestic Violence Victims Hostage To Lash Out At Gay Victims And Immigrants

2012-02-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Grassley Holds Domestic Violence Victims Hostage To Lash Out At Gay Victims And Immigrants: pCongress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, and it’s been reauthorized without a hitch twice since then. Now that it’s up for reauthorization again, however, Senate Republicans have suddenly decided to use it as part of an anti-gay and anti-immigrant crusade. Every single Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against reauthorization, [...]/p

Shaw Comment 93 Years Out of Date

2012-01-25T20:12:00.000-08:00

Our state representative thinks libraries should rely on wealthy patrons like Andrew Carnegie for their funding. He fears raising the gas tax because it might be diverted to libraries. But he has nothing against libraries, he says.

The surprising comments came in an interview with the Pocahontas Record-Democrat published this week. Shaw had been asked about the possibility of increasing the gasoline tax due to the poor condition of many Iowa roads, and bridges.

Shaw expressed opposition to hiking the gas tax, fearing it may be diverted to other causes. To explain his fear, Shaw said gambling money was supposed to go to infrastructure, but "It was spent on libraries."

"We've got to get back to identifying what our needs are, and what our wants are," Shaw said to the Record-Democrat. "For libraries, I've got two words: Andrew Carnegie."

The Andrew Carnegie Foundation indeed financed the construction of the original library in Laurens, shown above. Such grants have not been awarded for 93 years. Other grants remain available, including the Gates Foundation grants which help libraries connect to the internet.

Closer to home the Pocahontas County Foundation granted money just this week to local libraries. This is indeed gambling money awarded to the county by the legislature. Again the money is going mostly to computer purchases. These grants are only a small part of the library budgets. Similar grants were given to Laurens and Pocahontas police departments for computers.

It would appear to be impossible for gasoline tax money to be spent on anything but the road system, because a 1942 amendment to the Iowa Constitution restricts money collected for the Road Use Trust Fund.

Shaw appears to say libraries are not really needed. If you want a good local library, ask some tycoon to fund it for you. Maybe that will work for the road system, too.

Auditor Bunda Addresses Caucus

2012-01-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

County Auditor Margene Bunda was the highlight of the Pocahontas Democratic Party caucus Tuesday night. Bunda provided maps of the new county supervisor districts and the new polling place arrangements. The biggest changes are the closing of polling places in Havelock, Plover, Gilmore City, and Varina. The supervisor districts have barely changed.

The purpose of the caucus is to select delegates to the county, state and national conventions. Since there was no one challenging President Obama, disaffected Democrats who feel Obama has failed them probably stayed home. However, at least one precinct elected a delegate who is not committed to Obama.

Thirty delegates were selected for the county convention in March. There were only thirty-six people who attended the eleven precinct caucuses in this county, so virtually all of them will have been elected to represent their caucus at the county convention in Pocahontas about ten weeks away.

The caucuses began with a chili supper and an address by President Obama via video feed. The technology was too much for us, however, as the feed failed. Sherri Williams of Pocahontas was understudy for Obama for nearly fifteen minutes before a telephone connection was established. The audience was quiet enough to hear the speaker phone audio of the last fifteen minutes of Obama's remarks.

January 3: Chili Caucus at Courthouse

2011-12-22T19:16:00.001-08:00

All Pocahontas County precinct caucuses will meet in one spot so as to make a worthwhile meeting. You can eat chili at 6 p.m. During the meeting time (7 p.m.) county auditor Margene Bunda will discuss her decision to close some polls.

The big question regarding the caucuses is whether any precincts will elect any delegates other than Obama fans. It still takes only 15% of your caucus to capture a delegate to the county convention. In sparsely attended precincts, Obama protestors should win some seats. Some are saying they will vote "uncommitted" while others are planning to support Ron Paul for his anti-intervention views.

The Iowa Democratic Party has promised to make the local results known to the world the same night as the caucus, but they are not using the wonderful (and verifiable) system of 2008. Unfortunately they are also promoting a video address by the President during the caucus. I don't know if we will be saddled with that in Pocahontas, so you will have to come and find out for yourself.

County Closing Four Precincts

2011-12-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

The polls will be farther away for some voters next year. Pocahontas County proposes to have only seven polling precincts (Three of them in Poky) instead of the current eleven. The remaining voting places will be in Laurens, Fonda, Palmer, Rolfe and Pocahontas. This means no voting in Varina, Havelock, Plover or Gilmore City. This news was first reported in the Record-Democrat.

Havelock and Plover voters must go to Rolfe. That's a drive of nearly 20 miles from the northwest corner of the precinct and ten miles for the folks in Havelock or Plover. Varina voters go to Fonda, except those in southern Marshall township, which will go to Pocahontas to vote with south Sherman and Grant townships at the fire station. Gilmore City goes to Pocahontas. The Palmer precinct adds the voters of southern Lake township (southwest of Gilmore City), but is otherwise quite similar to its previous self.

Auditor Margene Bunda told the county commissioners that shrinking population and the difficulty of getting poll workers caused the consolidation.

Iowa's generous absentee voting laws will lessen the hardship for those far from the polls. About a third of Iowans already vote absentee. Now there will be more in Pocahontas County. But there will also be more people who miss out on voting altogether.

The rise in absentee voting may also have contributed to the poll closings. As both population and in-person turnout decline, it makes for pretty quiet polling places that still require at least three workers. Asking people to drive 15 miles will not increase turnout or make more workers volunteer for poll duty.

Presidential caucuses will not be affected this year, but by 2016 this will greatly curtail turnout from people in the closed precincts.

Thanksgiving Reconsidered

2011-11-24T05:09:00.000-08:00

Paul Krugman says Thanksgiving is un-American:

" . . . . a bunch of people got together, with each group bringing what it could — the Wampanoag brought deer, the Pilgrims apparently shot some birds, etc.. Then everyone shared equally in the feast — regardless of how much they brought to the table. Socialism!

Worse yet, many of the lucky duckies benefiting from the largesse of this 17th-century welfare state were illegal immigrants. (That would be the Pilgrims)."

Paul has an idea on what to do instead, but you'll have to follow the link to see what it is.

Harkin: Tax Speculation on Wall Street

2011-11-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

Finally one Senator proposes to tax speculators! It's our own Tom Harkin. His tax on Wall Street is so small (.03%, or three cents on a hundred dollars of wheeling and dealing) that it won't affect real investors at all. Your next car loan won't be taxed by this plan because first transactions are not covered. But if the banksters collect thousands of car loans (or home mortgages) and resell them as fool's gold to Wall Street clients, well, then the tax is due from those trades.

Only two other Senators sponsor the bill and neither is named Charles Grassley. A handful of Congressman are behind a House bill, including Iowa's Bruce Braley. Someone should tell Boswell and Loebsack to get in gear.

The tax would raise more money in one year than the cost of the jobs bill that Republicans filibustered to death last month: $35 billion. It would curb speculation where traders try to make a penny or two on each share in a huge transaction, such as in high speed trading of stocks. Did you know the average share of stock is owned by its "investors" for only 22 seconds?!!! Our whole stock market is more speculative churning than it is real investing. Did you ever notice how the newscasters give the market report every hour?

Farmers who complain about all the speculators in the corn market will love Harkin. Drivers who want speculators to get out of the oil market will love Harkin. Europeans who are proposing the same tax will love Harkin. Wall Street will wail. Obama opposes the tax, too. Surprise, surprise.

Sometimes known as the Tobin tax, this idea dates back to John Maynard Keynes eighty years ago. Tobin and Keynes could see the danger in speculators run amok. We live in the aftermath of their mess from the housing bubble. It's time they paid a teeny, tiny tax.

Thank Harkin here: Thanks, Tom.

Beall Gets Boost From Pocahontas Forum

2011-11-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

Three preschool teachers, four former educators, a school board member, two farmers, a lawyer and the county economic development director hashed over education matters to the benefit of our new state senator Daryl Beall Tuesday in Pocahontas. Funny that the only active teachers to appear were all preschool teachers, a program not mentioned at all in the Governor's reform plan.

Although Beall said he was glad to see school reform get so much attention, the audience was skeptical of many details: the do-or-die reading test at the end of third grade, the removal of the best teachers from the classroom to become master teachers, the ability of the state to pay up for new initiatives over the long run, etc.

The plan's pay scales for teachers seemed disconnected from the reality of this area, where the top pay reaches up to a level considered just average in the rest of the state. And why wasn't collective bargaining mentioned at all? Some former teachers said they remembered the days when women were paid less than men, elementary teachers less than high school teachers, and the way a firing could be appealed only to the same board that had made the original decision.

When it was over the Senator said it was the best of his forums so far. The Record-Democrat sent a reporter, so watch for more coverage in that paper next week.

How To Pay Teachers? Forum Tuesday Nov 15 In Pocahontas

2011-11-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

6-7 p.m

Tuesday, November 15

You can offer your opinion on how teachers should be paid and other aspects of the Governor's proposed changes (pdf; 18 pages, Oct 3, 2011) to Iowa schools November 15 at the the Pocahontas Library. The one hour forum is being hosted by the two state senators who represent us: Democrats Jack Kibbie of Emmetsburg and Daryl Beall of Fort Dodge. Kibbie has represented us for ten years and technically still does. But Beall will be our senator under the newly redistricted map of 2011.

Much of what the Republican Governor has proposed is controversial: New tests for kindergarten kids? Require the SAT for seniors? Replace the Iowa Basic Skills Test? Curtail public pre-school?

And on teacher pay: Is this a way to kill collective bargaining? A way to raise pay? How can teachers be only 80% teachers and also be 20% mentors?

As Desmoinesdem reported on her blog:

"Note: the teacher pay changes are likely to be among the most controversial Branstad administration proposals. For more details on how the system would work, read pages 5 and 6 of the blueprint (pdf). The idea is to have a new "statewide pay system with local flexibility." Starting teacher salaries would be higher, and current teachers could choose whether to stay in "step and lane" or switch to the new system. Master and mentor teachers would be paid significantly more, but those will be limited to 5 percent and 15 percent of the teaching staff, respectively. "

For a look at how teacher pay and tenure would change read "Branstad to seek new teacher pay system for Iowa (updated) "

One hour is not enough to digest this topic. With local schools consolidating and jumping on the laptop bandwagon, this should be a stimulating meeting. See you there.

Democrats Dine, Beall & Kibbie Speak, Gruber Auctions

2011-10-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

State Senator Darryl Beall of Fort Dodge met some of his new constituents Saturday night at the Pocahontas Country Clubhouse for dinner. Beall spoke on matters of Iowa taxes, pre-school, discrimination, civility, and local employment offices. He compared Democratic ideas with Republican policy and encouraged the audience to join in the refrain following each comparison: "Friends, there is a difference" between the two parties.

Senior party activist Calista Hammes of Pocahontas was honored as was Senator Jack Kibbie. Kibbie will retire in one year. Pocahontas will be represented by Senator Beall until the election of 2014. Pictured here are organizer Helen Beneke, auctioneer Dick Gruber, Jack and Kay Kibbie.

Kibbie said he will devote the next election to his work for Christie Vilsack in an effort to oust Steve King. Kibbie said that as bad for the public good as is Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, Steve King is worse. At another point he observed "The closer a legislator lives to the interstate highway, the less likely" he is to vote for a gasoline tax increase.

Donated items were auctioned by incoming Pocahontas mayor and former high school teacher Dick Gruber.