IOWA INSIDER

After a flap the day before over one Democratic Gov. Chet Culver’s appointees, Bonnie Campbell rolled to a smooth confirmation to the Iowa Board of Regents in the Iowa Senate Wednesday afternoon.

The Senate voted 46-4 to confirm Campbell, Iowa’s former attorney general and the Democrats’ nominee for governor in 1994.

Campbell was one of Culver’s top campaign advisers and led his transition team. She is also a personal family friend of the Culvers. (more…)

Liberals in the Iowa Legislature enjoying the new Democratic majority are about to walk from this session having suffered a major defeat.

A measure that would add gays and lesbians to Iowa’s civil rights code is short of the Democratic votes needed to pass in the Iowa House.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure, and Gov. Chet Culver has pledged he would sign it. (more…)

A tug-of-war between Republican Senators and Democratic Gov. Chet Culver ended in the rejection of one of Culver’s nominees Tuesday night.

The Senate GOP sunk the nomination of Gene Meyer as the commissioner of the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Meyer is well-known and well-respected in state government as the former director of the Division of Criminal Investigation, an arm of the department he had been handpicked to lead. (more…)