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Friday, August 27
Iowa Gets Dean Dozen Candidate: Rep. Greg Stevens, Democratic Incumbent, Iowa House District 6, Milford
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 27 Aug 2004 03:06 PM CDT
Iowa Gets Dean Dozen Candidate:
Rep. Greg Stevens, Incumbent
Iowa House District 6, D-Milford
Rep. Greg Stevens
Greg
Stevens, a two-term incumbent from Milford, originally ran for a seat in the Iowa State House to beat
longtime incumbent John Greig. A current English and Debate teacher at
Okoboji High School,
Greg is always exposed to new ideas and has particular interest in the
youth vote. When it comes to education, no one has a better
pedigree than Greg Stevens. He is a fourth generation teacher; his
mother and his grandparents taught for a total of nearly a hundred
years in the Estherville school system. In fact, Estherville’s Demoney
Elementary School is named after his grandfather.
Greg is running for re-election with an eye towards
continuing his work of protecting the environment and improving the
business climate. With our support, Greg can overcome Mike May's
attempt to make this a Republican seat once again.
Greg was one of the
first of Iowa's elected officials to endorse Howard Dean's candidacy
for the presidency. His seat is currently the number one House seat
being targeted by the GOP. House District 6 includes Milford,
Spencer, Spirit Lake, and Okoboji in NW Iowa.
To learn more about Rep. Greg Stevens, click here.
DFIA would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to Rep. Stevens on being selected a member of the Dean Dozen!
To contribute to the Stevens for Statehouse campaign, please send your check or money order to:
Stevens for Statehouse
23438 221st Street
Milford, IA 51351
Iowa Values Fund Deal Appears To Be In The Works
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 27 Aug 2004 01:44 PM CDT
Iowa Values Fund Deal Appears To Be In The Works
by Darrell Lewis
Gov.
Vilsack has called a special session of the Iowa Legislature to deal
with the debacle brought on by legislative Republicans. Until
today the word was that the Gov. called the session absent an agreement
between himself and the Republican-controlled legislature.
The word
out now is that Senate Republicans are signing off on a compromise
offered by Governor Vilsack on the Iowa Values Fund, but only after the
proposal was endorsed by a powerful business group
Senate
President Jeff Lamberti said that since the Association of Business and
Industry signed off on the plan, Senate Republicans would now follow
suit. "I think they were waiting to see what ABI said - that was their
biggest concern," Lamberti said of his fellow Senators.
"Senator
Lamberti's frankness gives working families a rare peek behind the
workings of the Iowa Republican Party,” said State Senator Mike
Connolly of Dubuque. “Lamberti admitted that Republicans weren’t
concerned about the impact of proposed legislation on injured workers,
Iowa schoolchildren, college students and the tax burden on working
families.”
“Instead,
their only consideration was the opinion of a handful of business and
industry people. meeting behind closed doors in downtown Des Moines,”
Connolly said. “That is a slap in the face to thousands of hard-working
Iowa families, students and seniors."
Of
course, this is no surprise to us. We've been talking here for
months now about the self interest/special interest Senate leadership.
Isn't it
interesting as the election grows near, the radical right leadership in
the Iowa Senate suddenly seems to be concerned about doing what is
right, about doing what they could have done during the last
legislative session.
This article first appeared on the Drury for Iowa Senate website.
For more on this story, click here.
News & Notes from Voter-owned Iowa
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 27 Aug 2004 11:11 AM CDT
News & Notes from Voter-owned Iowa
Below
is a link to an AP story which ran in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier,
the Newton Daily News and elsewhere. It highlights the amount of
money being spent by gambling interests to lobby our state legislators
- over $900,000. Whether or not you support expanded gambling,
big money should not play a part in our political process.
Combine this with the $100,000 in campaign contributions and the big
money involved with gambling has injected over $1,000,000 into Iowa's
political system. That much big money is devastating to
democracy. It also serves to drown out the voices of Iowans who
attempt to get the attention of our elected officials. This is
just another example of why Iowa needs to have Voter-Owned Elections
and why we will continue to work until Iowans have the democracy we
deserve.
Click here to read the story.
And
there is big news out of Arizona, too. Big money special interests have
failed to take democracy away from the citizens of Arizona.
Arizona's popular and groundbreaking Clean Elections system has been
under attack by big money interests who wanted it struck down.
The Arizona Supreme Court recently affirmed that an initiative to
dismantle Clean Elections is unconstitutional. This is a huge
victory for Iowa CCI and other groups across the country who are
fighting for Voter-Owned (Clean) Elections in our own states.
Click here to read more about the victory in Arizona.
Voter-Owned Elections:
Restoring Government for the People!
www.voterownediowa.org
Poverty Up, Income & Health Insurance Down in Iowa
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 27 Aug 2004 05:10 AM CDT
Poverty Up, Income & Health Insurance Down in Iowa
The Iowa Policy Project
New Census Figures Show Erosion of 1990s Gains
MOUNT
VERNON, Iowa (Aug. 26, 2004) Median household income has fallen while
poverty and the number of uninsured are on the rise in Iowa, according
to a new federal government report.
The U.S.
Census Bureau released new data Thursday from two surveys on poverty
and household income in Iowa and the nation. The Census Bureau figures
suggest that the improvements in income that occurred in Iowa in the
late 1990s were eroded during the recent recession and subsequent
lackluster recovery.
"It will
come as no surprise to many Iowans that our incomes are lagging. But
the new Census numbers hold a staggering loss of almost $2,900 in
median household income since 1999," said David Osterberg, executive
director of the Iowa Policy Project. "That gave Iowa the nation's
eighth-largest percentage decline - 6.5 percent - over the period. In
addition, the figures showed 1 in 10 Iowans were not covered with
health insurance in 2002-2003."
In figures adjusted for inflation to equal the purchasing power of the dollar in 2003:
*Median
household income in Iowa decreased by $1,497 between 2000-2001 and
2002-2003, falling from $43,184 to $41,687. This 3.5 percent decrease
in median income was not statistically significant, according to the
Census Bureau.
*While
that difference was not considered significant, the decline from the
1999-2000 period was considered significant. Between 1999-2000 and
2002-2003, median household income fell by $2,889 (or 6.5 percent);
from about $44,575 to $41,687.
*In the
1990s, by contrast, incomes rose substantially in Iowa. The income of
the typical Iowa household grew from $36,432 in 1992-1993 to $44,575 in
1999-2000. This is an increase of $8,143, or 22 percent. The new
figures show that much of the gain of the late 1990s has been lost.
*In
2003, 173,000 Iowans worked full time, year round and still earned less
than $20,000. This is equal to 17.8 percent of all full-time, year
round workers in Iowa.
The recent economic downturn also appears to be increasing the number of Iowans in poverty:
*The
poverty rate increased by 1.2 percentage points between 2000-2001 and
2002-2003 (rising from 7.9 to 9.1 percent). While this change was not
statistically significant, it suggests that more families are living
below the poverty line, which is $18,810 for a family of four.
*Poverty
rate estimates for 2003 were available for Des Moines, Waterloo, and
the Quad-Cities Metropolitan area. Their respective poverty rates were
7.3 percent, 16.8 percent, and 10.4 percent.
On a
positive note, it appears that child poverty rates in Iowa have
decreased from 13.7 percent in 2002 to 11.7 percent in 2003 (although
this change also was not statistically significant). For children under
5 years old, the decrease was significant, dropping from 18.5 percent
in 2002 to 14.6 percent in 2003.
Elderly
poverty rates also dropped from 8.5 percent in 2002 to 7.6 percent in
2003 (although, again, this change was not statistically significant).
The data
also provided a first look at changes in health insurance coverage
rates over the last year, with a statistically significant increase in
the rate of uninsured Iowans between 2001-2002 and 2002-2003; up from
8.5 percent to 10.4 percent.
In
comparison with the nation, Iowa showed mixed results. Iowa's poverty
rate of 9.1 percent is well below the national poverty rate of 12.3
percent, and Iowa's uninsurance rate of 10.4 percent is also below the
national uninsurance rate of 15.4 percent. However, Iowa's median
income of $41,687 is below the national median income of $43,349, a
significant difference of $1,663.
"We
still have not recovered in Iowa from the national recession of 2001,"
said Elaine Ditsler, research associate for the Iowa Policy Project.
"The declining income and increasing poverty is reflective of the
economic downturn that is affecting Iowa and the entire nation."
She noted Iowa's average annual unemployment rate has risen from 2.5 percent in 1999 to 4.4 percent in July 2004.
The
Census Bureau used data for the income analysis, poverty rates for all
people, and health insurance rates from its 2003 Current Population
Survey. For state analysis, the Census Bureau recommends using two-year
averages of that data in order to ensure accuracy. Other data came from
the bureau's 2003 American Community Survey.
The Iowa
Policy Project is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization
based in Mount Vernon. IPP reports are available to the public, free of
charge, on the web at www.iowapolicyproject.org
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