Yes, I am specifically attached to this race since I live in the district currently served by Leonard Boswell (D).

Leonard came into office in 1997. When he first entered Congress, he promised that he would serve no more than 4 terms. He has served 6 already. He votes along party lines over 95% of the time. Although he has supported President Bush on some key bills that served a more conservative agenda, he also voted with Bush on the $700 Billion Bailout. Reviewing his record, he appears to be both socially and fiscally moderate to slightly liberal.

Kim Schmett (R) has served as the chief administrative law judge with the Iowa Department of Inspections and[...]

I just got home from the GOP Fest fundraiser here in Polk County.  I was a bit disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong.  I thought the speakers were great, the food was good.  The governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, gave an encouraging stump speech for McCain and Palin.
It’s just that the event was so lightly attended.
I walked [...]

Today was the first day of the Iowa State Fair.  I had intended to participate in the early morning event (but slept in instead) to break the record for the most corn-dogs eaten by the most people at the same time in the same place.  Sounds like it was a rip-roaring success, with over 15,000 [...]

Tonight I attended my first Polk County (Iowa) Republican Central Committee meeting. I have never been at this level of politics (okay, 2008 continues to be a year of firsts for me in local politics), and it was more interesting than I expected.
I won’t get into a lot of details about the meeting, except [...]

The afternoon of the convention went fairly smoothly. As I mentioned yesterday, we heard the results of the National Committee Man and Woman.
I appreciate the way that Stew Iverson kept things moving by inserting speeches at places where there were dead spots because of voting and such.
We heard the report of the Nominating Committee. [...]