Roxanne Conlin has written diarieshere and stayed around to talk as she starts her run for the Senate against Chuck Grassley.  Those who saw Senator "Pull the Plug on Grandma" yesterday at the health care summit can only wish her well.  She is live at CrooksandLiars right now if you want to ask her questions.  And I am sure she will be back here.

Scott Rasmussen released a new poll of the Iowa governor and U.S. Senate races today. Rasmussen surveyed 500 "likely Iowa voters" on February 18.

Given Rasmussen's usual "house effect" favoring Republican candidates, I expected the numbers to be worse for Democrats than other recent Iowa polling. Instead, they were comparable to last week's Research 2000 Iowa poll for KCCI-TV and the Selzer and Co. poll for the Des Moines Register, which was conducted three weeks ago.

Like the other pollsters, Rasmussen found Governor Chet Culver well behind Republican front-runner Terry Branstad. Like Research 2000, Rasmussen found Senator Chuck Grassley above 50 percent against Democratic challengers, but well below Grassley's usual re-election numbers and even below the numbers Rasmussen found for Grassley in late January.

More details are after the jump.

Research 2000 conducted an Iowa poll of 600 "likely voters who vote regularly in state elections" for KCCI-TV, the CBS affiliate in Des Moines. The poll was in the field from February 15 to 17, and KCCI published the results on its website yesterday.

It's not a good poll for Governor Chet Culver (D), but it's less bad than the Des Moines Register's latest Iowa poll. Republican Chuck Grassley has a comfortable lead in the Senate race, but not the kind of margin he has enjoyed against previous Democratic opponents.

We will no longer tolerate business as usual in Washington.

So, when I read this HuffPo article about Senator Shelby holding 70 important presidential nominations for ransom, because he wants sweetheart deals for a foreign airplane manufacturer that's given him more than $100,000 in political donations. I just couldn’t believe it.

Are you kidding me?!?!

Jed Lewison is right. This is blackmail!

President Obama wants to generate $122 billion to pay for a job creation bill by closing tax loopholes for U.S. companies who move patents and brands to foreign affiliates to avoid paying U.S. taxes.  Iowa Senator Charles Grassley objects:

"We’d be shooting ourselves in the foot to raise taxes on the people who create jobs right now."

Roxanne Conlin's campaign for U.S. Senate released partial fundraising numbers today, and they are impressive:

Total cash raised (Nov. 2 - Dec. 31):
$603,575.44

Cash on hand:
$502,832.84

Total individual donors:  1,649 (1,395 Iowans/85% Iowans)
Online supporters signed up:  Over 31,000
Donations $100 and under: 1,332
Donations $250 and under: 1,433

I do most of my writing for the Iowa progressive community blog Bleeding Heartland. Following up on my review of news from the first half of last year, I've posted links to Bleeding Heartland's coverage of Iowa politics from July through December 2009 after the jump.

Hot topics on this blog during the second half of the year included the governor's race, the special election in Iowa House district 90, candidates announcing plans to run for the state legislature next year, the growing number of Republicans ready to challenge Representative Leonard Boswell, state budget constraints, and a scandal involving the tax credit for film-making.

In my diary yesterday, I advocated passing the Senate bill and moving forward.  I tend to agree with Ron Wyden, Jay Rockefeller, Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd, and President Obama that even passing incremental reform will be a great improvement.

I support single payer.  I think that putting profits before patients is morally wrong and an unacceptable business practice.  I think that government of, by, and for the people should regulate our healthcare system to a much greater extent, in order to rein in costs and provide better value to the American taxpayer.

I also agree with Markos and others that the mandates should be removed.  President Obama campaigned on this in 2008, saying that, "The problem isn't that people don't want insurance.  It's that they can't afford it."  Subsidies and mandates, without a public option are simply a giveaway to the for-profit insurance companies.

But I am not giving up on the Democratic Party.  I am still here to elect more and better Democrats.  And I find it deeply cynical and even morally reprehensible for us to turn our backs on the Democratic Party when it is the Republicans who are fundamentally responsible for blocking reform.

So what does this mean for 2010?  What now?

I'm not giving up.

As Americans struggle with the worst economy since the Great Depression, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley turns a deaf ear, with yet another outrageous statement.

The same Chuck Grassley who called health insurance reform "socialism," continued to propagate the false rumors about death panels, even making outlandish statements about "pulling the plug on grandma", now proudly brags about having "lived off the public tit" for the last 35 years while receiving farm subsidies, the Cadillac of taxpayer funded health care and a senator's salary.

Enough is enough.

The Des Moines Register released more results from its latest Iowa poll by Selzer and Co., and Senator Chuck Grassley's approval rating was 57 percent, the same as in the Register's September poll. Only 32 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Grassley's work.

Chuck "I'm no nail" Grassley has a serious Democratic challenger. Former US Attorney Roxanne Conlin officially announced her run yesterday.

At Bleeding Heartland, desmoinesdem writes that, in the video:

She doesn't mention Senator Chuck Grassley directly, but she outlines the case she will make against him. Career politicians in Washington have lost their independence. Iowans were left behind when banks got bailed out and their top executives got huge bonuses. Grassley voted for the Wall Street bailout, which Conlin mentions twice in this video. No doubt we'll hear more in the coming months about Grassley's ties to various special interests and his votes for tax breaks companies use when they ship jobs overseas.

Daily Kos polling last month showed her trailing Grassley, 51% to 39%. That's a real deficit to make up, but, as kos said at the time, "the potential for a competitive race is certainly there." The populist course Conlin appears to be charting is a good start.

Roxanne Conlin made her candidacy for U.S. Senate official today, releasing this two-minute video:

Former First Lady Christie Vilsack released a statement today confirming that she will not challenge Senator Chuck Grassley next year.

Prominent attorney Roxanne Conlin spoke to the Des Moines Register on Thursday about a possible Senate bid next year.