2010 elections not as far away as they seem

A reasonable question Iowans interested in state politics could ask is: who are Iowa's emerging new leaders in next year's elections?

Bruce Braley? He's running for the U.S. House again. Dave Loebsack? Same with him. Besides, both will have had four years under their belts by November, which means they no longer can carry the "newcomers" banner.

New leaders seem to be hard to come by at this point in Iowa's political history. Why else would the two biggest races drawing early attention for next year be getting buzz because of the following?

• The re-emergence of the two main candidates in Iowa's 1982 gubernatorial race -- Terry Branstad, who is seeking a Republican nomination to return as governor, and Roxanne Conlin, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
• The 76-year-old incumbent senator with 35 years of congressional experience -- Chuck Grassley.
• An incumbent governor -- Chet Culver -- who has been in state government since 1998 and whose father, John Culver, was ousted from the Senate in 1980 by none other than then-U.S. Rep. Grassley.

It's a reunion tour.

These could be characters in a television series. Call it "That '80's Show." Gazette columnist Todd Dorman called this convergence of political players "time warp time" in his Thanksgiving Day column.

The only thing missing from the show would be those teenage or 20-something characters who bring sex appeal, which brings highly coveted viewers.

You can be certain that people like Republican gubernatorial hopefuls Bob Vander Plaats, Christopher Rants, Rod Roberts, Jerry Behn and Cedar Rapids' Christian Fong believe they will bring viewers to the table. Likewise with Democrats Bob Krause and Tom Fiegen, seeking that U.S. Senate nomination.

But Democratic and Republican leaders want candidates who tip the balance at the polls, and apparently have been concerned about their challengers at this stage. Thus, you have Branstad and Conlin interested in campaigning.

It is not too early to think about the November 2010 elections, even as Cedar Rapids voters try to wrap up this year's City Council election with the Tuesday, Dec. 1, runoff vote.

The reason: the first big election is not a year away. Rather, it is a little more than six months away, on June 8, when Iowans vote in primary elections on their political party's candidates for the November election.

On Monday, Nov. 30, political reporter James Q. Lynch takes a look at one aspect of the pending 2010 election season -- the attention a Grassley-Conlin matchup would attract. People from outside of Iowa are looking at that possibility, should Democratic primary voters want to see it, because of Grassley's role in health care reform efforts and Conlin's name recognition.

Recognition, at least, for those harking back to the first years of MTV.

New look Dr. Donahue

Dr. Paul Donahue will look different in his Monday, Nov. 30, Gazette column. I mention this because the photo his syndicator had distributed was far from current and some of you may wonder if we used the wrong photo with the column.

Donahue's column is running every Monday with our health report. Some readers have asked that we run him daily but we've settled on Mondays because the column fits the health theme there, and so we can have variety in the paper the rest of the week.