Articles Tagged: Iowa Legislature

Democrat Mark Campbell has chaired the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission since 2021

Mike Klimesh faces daunting challenges, in his own caucus and throughout the Capitol, as he steps into the role of Iowa Senate Majority Leader.

Plus, the 2nd Congressional District Republican primary field is growing.

Iowa Sen. Mike Klimesh, of Spillville, is the new legislative agenda-setting leader of the Iowa Senate, as selected by his Republican colleagues Wednesday

Rockwell City Republican resigns House seat to take job as state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Iowa Rural Development office.

Time has run out on a short-term plan to continue funding a network of sensors that monitors the water quality in Iowa’s rivers and streams. Unless new funding can be secured, dozens of sensors will be taken offline next year, eliminating the ability to measure nitrate and phosphorus to see if conservation practices are working.

Jack Whitver, the Iowa Senate Majority Leader who has been battling a brain tumor for more than a year, will not seek re-election and will step aside as leader, he announced Tuesday.

New public employees would be given the opportunity to opt out of the state retirement program, and teachers would receive financial bonuses for student achievement under recommendations being put forward by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ citizen-run task force on government efficiency.

Catelin Drey, a northwestern Iowa Democrat who won an August special election and broke the Republican supermajority in the Iowa Senate, was sworn in at the Iowa Capitol Monday morning.

The Board of Regents’ pared-down funding ask comes after lawmakers rejected its $30.3 million request last session and instead offered a $4 million bump, largely supporting legislative priorities and ignoring university appeals.

Iowa students are beginning their second school year under a new Iowa law that defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10 percent of days in a grading period. During the first year of the law, the majority of charges for truancy were dismissed in Linn and Johnson counties as families made an effort to improve their child’s school attendance.

Republican legislative leaders said they will use money from the state’s $2 billion general fund surplus and $4 billion in the Taxpayer Relief Fund to cover the difference between how much revenue the state takes in and how much it’s budgeted to spend.

The campaign for Iowa Senate District 1 lasted two months and cost more than $100,000 in total campaign spending and involved tens of thousands of volunteers. And as of last Tuesday, the Democrat stands as the winner, breaking the GOP supermajority in the Iowa Senate and flipping the seat from R to D.

On the eve of a Board of Regents vote to change its academic freedom and class content policies to satisfy legislative concerns about “indoctrination,” the national Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — or FIRE — reached out with a plea.

With the buzz surrounding plans in Texas and California to carve up state maps in a tit-for-tat redistricting battle, one curious Iowan asked The Gazette: Could the same happen in Iowa?