Capitol ideas: A tried and true campaign slogan lives on

Sometimes a campaign slogan is so good it's used more than once.

By multiple candidates. From opposite political parties. In consecutive elections.

'Building Iowa's Future” may seem to the average Iowan like a simple, run-of-the-mill motto. But apparently it's one of the greatest campaign slogans in Iowa political history, at least recently.

When a new candidate for governor used the slogan on his campaign website, Iowa political watchers noted the same slogan has been used in an election very, very recently.

Nate Boulton, a Democratic legislator from Des Moines, last week announced his intention to run for governor in 2018. Upon his announcement, his new website featured the slogan, 'Building Iowa's Future.”

Republicans were quick to point out that exact slogan was featured in Iowa's most recent gubernatorial election, in 2014, when GOP Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds used it as their re-election slogan.

The GOP even had a hearty chortle about it. It poked fun at Boulton's use of the slogan - which no longer appears on his campaign website - and national Republican groups even made note of it in campaign literature in the days since.

But not so fast, Iowa Democrats announced.

Neither did the slogan originate with Branstad and Reynolds in 2014. Five years prior, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin embarked on a tour of the state in an effort to convince Iowans of the need for federal health care reform in the lead-up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

The name Harkin coined for his tour: Building Iowa's Future.

I'm no expert on political campaigns, but shortly after Harkin's tour, the Affordable Care Act was passed into law, and Branstad and Reynolds won re-election in 2014 by winning 98 of Iowa's 99 counties.

Maybe Boulton should not have taken down that slogan after all.

IMAGINE THIS FUROR OVER LEGAL OPINION

Last week, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller gave his formal opinion that once she replaces Branstad as governor, Reynolds will not have the authority to appoint a new lieutenant to serve alongside her.

The opinion was a reversal of Miller's original informal take - which he offered in December - on the matter, and his about-face made Iowa Republicans livid.

They accused the Democrat of giving a new legal opinion fueled by partisan politics rather than a reading of the law.

'No Iowan can follow the mind-bending partisan acrobatics Miller underwent to argue his ridiculous assertion against the law giving the governor the authority to appoint his or her lieutenant governor upon taking office,” state party chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement.

If Reynolds was not permitted a lieutenant governor for the remaining 19 months of the term, the next in line for the governor's office is the Iowa Senate President. Should Reynolds for whatever reason vacate the governor's office, state Sen. Jack Whitver, a Republican from Ankeny, would become governor under the scenario laid out in Miller's legal opinion.

But what if Democrats still controlled the Iowa Senate, as they did before the 2016 election?

In that hypothetical situation, a Democratic attorney general would have issued a ruling that would have meant a Democratic state senator would be next in line to a Republican governor.

Imagine the reaction to that one.

Health care vote shapes races

After the Republican-led U.S. House narrowly approved legislation that would uproot much of the federal health care law passed under former President Barack Obama, a top political forecasting website changed the outlook on 20 House races for 2018, including one in Iowa.

The Cook Political Report moved Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Rep. David Young in his second term, from 'likely Republican” to 'leans Republican.”

'Although it's the first of potentially many explosive votes, House Republicans' willingness to spend political capital on a proposal that garnered the support of just 17 percent of the public in a March Quinnipiac poll is consistent with past scenarios that have generated a midterm wave,” David Wasserman wrote for the report.

U.S. Rep. Rod Blum, a second-term Republican in Eastern Iowa's left-leaning 1st District, also voted in favor of the bill. The Cook Report kept that race in the 'leans Republican” category.

Young thus far has one potential Democratic challenger in the 3rd District: Pete D'Alessandro, a former Bernie Sanders campaign worker.

Two Democrats have already said they want to challenge Blum: Abby Finkenauer, a legislator from Dubuque; and Courtney Rowe, an engineer from Cedar Rapids.

Erin Murphy covers Iowa politics and government. His email address is erin.murphy@lee.net.