Category: Living in Society

Politics mostly social commentary.

Categories
Living in Society

Winning Elections

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

How does a person win an election? By getting 50 percent of the votes cast plus one. Some say there is more to it than that, but in the end, a candidate has to track his/her votes before the election, make sure there are enough of them, and then turn out those votes before or on election day. In politics there is nothing more elemental than this.

Last Thursday, while debating one of two resolutions (see below), a friend stood and addressed the county Democratic Central Committee, saying instead of this debate, we should spend more of our time working to win elections. The debate we engaged in did not win elections and took time away from that, he asserted.

It is ironic that when State Senator Janice Weiner arrived, she was praised by the committee for her leadership in winning two special elections to the state senate this year. One of those elections gained national attention. A number of people in our county helped win those elections yet Senator Weiner’s leadership contributed undeniably. While we may debate issues, she was busy winning elections.

The main reason I stayed until the end of the meeting was to hear the debate and vote on the two resolutions.

During the first presidential election after my wedding, I attended the Iowa Caucus where I was elected to the county convention as a George McGovern delegate on the platform committee. At caucus we had a discussion of political issues and made some decisions about what should and should not be on the county platform. At the county convention some of the decisions we made were overturned. I noted some delegates came to the county convention with the explicit intent to reintroduce platform planks that were voted down at the precinct. My initial experience with the county Democratic Party was soured by this experience.

In my political work in this county, I never again joined the platform committee. Most years, I don’t even read the platform. I’m not sure it is even necessary. At the same time, I see the two issues in the proposed resolutions are important and relevant to what we do as Democrats. The DEI resolution is a result of the impact of the president’s policy on the University of Iowa, which is a major regional employer. U.S. support for the Israeli government during the Hamas-Israel War was clearly divisive among Democratic voters and likely contributed to Democratic voter suppression in the 2024 general election. Talking about these two issues as a central committee won’t change the world, yet it moves the group toward alignment in our politics. Having clear positions on DEI and the Palestinian genocide is important to winning elections. After taking time to amend the language, these two resolutions were approved by the body.

Iowa Democrats stand at a distance from winning statewide elections. First, we have to know who we are. This debate helped. As one speaker said during the debate, if we are not going to stand for our values now, then when? Here is the result of our debate:

Johnson County Democrats Statement in Support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI):

The Johnson County Democrats support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in all walks of life and as policy at the public universities of our amazing state to help foster an open and welcoming environment for all people.

We condemn in the strongest sense President Trump’s bigoted attacks on DEI policies, diversity in our state and country, and Governor Kim Reynolds’ blatant waste of Iowa taxpayers’ resources and money by having state Attorney General Bird investigate a victimless incident at a time when Iowans are struggling with rising cancer rates, undrinkable water, and untenable increases in the cost of living.

The “Freedom to Flourish” in our great state is a freedom ALL people should enjoy regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, creed, or sexual orientation. We stand for an Iowa for ALL people and ALL Iowans.

“Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”

Resolution for an Embargo on Military Aid and Weapons Transfers to Israel

RESOLVED, That the Johnson Country Democrats support an immediate embargo on all military aid, weapons shipments and military logistical support to the Israeli government; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the embargo on military aid, weapons shipments and logistical support continue until Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’tselem certify that the Israeli government is no longer engaged in apartheid rule.

Categories
Living in Society

We’re Going Home – Walgreens

Photo by Yuugen Rai on Pexels.com

The deal for private equity firm Sycamore Partners to buy Walgreens closed on Aug. 28. We know what that means.

Private equity will restructure the company, sell off what parts it can, restructure real estate holdings, close stores, layoff employees, and increase company debt, while making their executives an obscene amount of money. Walgreens bankruptcy seems likely in the near-term future based on what happened with companies like Toys R Us. Sycamore Partners’ deal is leveraged with “more than double the average debt level used by private equity firms to acquire companies last year,” said U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren in a letter to them. All of this is what private equity does in the United States. It does not contribute one whit to improving the consumer economy. Importantly, some consumers will lose access to pharmacy services when stores close.

On my way to the wholesale club I pass two Walgreens stores, which seems like a lot. I notice neither of them is within walking distance of residential housing. In other words, they depend upon our automobile culture. A person doesn’t go to Walgreens except to get something specific. This kind of shopping faces competition from online retailer Amazon where we can point, search and click to have a product Walgreens may or may not carry delivered to our home within a day or two. Amazon trucks are ubiquitous in our rural neighborhood. We see them more often than we think of going to Walgreens, whether or not we buy from them.

I have a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan and the company that administers it dictates which pharmacies are available to me. I wanted to use the nearest pharmacy to support their small business but they weren’t on the list. I picked the warehouse club because I go there twice a month for groceries anyway and getting my prescription would save a trip. The last time I went inside a Walgreens, it was because they are a UPS drop off point. I have also shopped there to review their large inventory of over the counter medications to find a specific dosage of vitamin B-12. They did not have it, so I got it by mail order from the manufacturer.

When I was a grader we had a locally owned drugstore with a pharmacy a block and a half from our home. In the mid-1960s, whenever I had extra money from my newspaper route, I would go in there to see what they had. Mainly, I looked for reading material (comic books or paperback novels) and candy. I was infatuated by baseball cards sold with a stick of bubble gum. Over the years, the drug store disappeared as automobile culture and larger scale retailers influenced our shopping. During the ten years I lived there, they were a part of the cultural landscape. In part, discounters like Walgreens contributed to their demise.

The only person I knew who depended upon Walgreens was my maternal grandmother who lived in downtown Davenport. There were no grocery stores there — today we would call it a food desert — but Walgreens sold a few grocery items like milk, butter, eggs, bread, and selected canned goods, all of which she bought. Without an automobile, it was a big production for her to visit a supermarket, involving a bus ride or having a relative pick her up and take her there. She got her prescriptions from Walgreens which was within walking distance.

Access to Walgreens is not important to me. I buy all of my bandages, ointments and sundry health items at the pharmacy in our nearby city. We went without a pharmacy for a while, and I’d like to see them be successful. Thing is, I don’t buy $100 of sundry items from them in a year, so Walgreens or no, it has been a struggle for them to survive.

The world we knew continues to change. Some parts of the future are hopeful and some definitely are not. Big Pharma will figure out how to sell us their medicines. As Walgreens begins the slow dance toward going out of business, I accept it as the failure of large retail franchises that can’t compete with Walmart or Amazon. It is a condition of modern society, and retail in particular. I hope they make it yet doubt they will. There are other causes than saving Walgreens that deserve my attention more.

Categories
Living in Society

Taking Stock of Summer

Tomatoes, fresh from the garden.

I’m getting to a place where I wrote the best of what I will about Labor Day. In 2022 I wrote this post, which covers the bases. No need to re-write it this Labor Day weekend. There is more to life than annual traditions.

It is no secret unions are in decline. In his new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, Robert Reich points to the problem. The post-World War II economy was so affluent that unions did not seem necessary to most people in the wake of reforms that happened during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. As a result, there was less impetus to form unions, and in right to work states like Iowa, a union could represent a workplace but workers were not required to join. The latest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024) is, “The union membership rate of public-sector workers (32.2 percent) continued to be more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers (5.9 percent).” As we know from the administration’s move to invalidate union contracts among Veterans Affairs workers, the pressure will be on to diminish union strength among public-sector workers.

While summer is not over, the garden is winding down with leafy green vegetables, tomatoes, hot peppers, and apples remaining to be harvested. Instead of time off this weekend, I need to focus on work in my kitchen and garden, then digest what just happened. Short version: I withdrew from in-person society and reduced my contacts with people I know to focus on the immediate place where I live. I strove to make that life better.

Vegetables and fruit grew as well as they have ever done in my garden. The abundance produced from a small number of seeds and minimal cultivation is astounding. In particular, the green beans, cucumbers, and leafy green vegetables have been of good quality and mostly pest free. All five apple trees produced fruit. So did the pear tree. This year has been a bin buster.

As my concept of a kitchen garden matures, I have become a better meal planner and cook. One of the benefits of writing a meal plan has been a reduction in our grocery bill. If we write the meal plan to the garden, and then shop to the meal plan, the tendency is to spend less money, waste less food, and cook better meals. When I go to the grocer, my cart looks a lot different from other shoppers (yes, I look). More fresh fruit and vegetables and a small percentage of branded products. Life around the garden and kitchen makes more sense. I’m thriving in it.

Right now I have three pots going on the stove: two tomatoes and one hot peppers. Learning to process these items took time, but I know where I’m going. I mostly can tomato puree from plum tomatoes. I pickle a couple of quart jars of sliced hot peppers and then make a hot pepper paste to use on tacos. I learned to can only what we need.

This summer I exercised daily, even when the weather kept me indoors part of the day. That, combined with counting calories, led me to lose about a pound of weight per week. I have a way to go to get my BMI below 30. However, I feel healthy and that is important.

It has been a summer of plain folk living our best life. There are challenges, yet it was a decent summer in a turbulent time. For that, I am thankful.

Categories
Living in Society

A New Grassroots Politics

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

If I had a nickel for every time someone said today’s Democrats need to get in the game, I’d be rich. The trouble is what do Democrats do differently to overcome the Republican advantage in Iowa?

Democrat Catelin Drey is the case that conventional Iowa political organizing can be effective. On Wednesday, after her 4,208-3,211 victory in Iowa State Senate District 1, that Trump won in 2024 by 11.5 percent, she enumerated what worked for her in an interview with Laura Belin and Zachary Oren Smith. In descending order, she said door-to-door contact, telephone contact, and person to person contact within their existing social networks helped identify her voters and get them to the polls. This is so old school, I remember my father doing it during the 1960 Kennedy campaign.

The special election environment helped. Governor Reynolds set the date for the special election to replace deceased state senator Rocky De Witt on June 30 for Aug. 26, 57 days later. The short duration meant there was no time to wait for anything. The campaign ignited with energy. Volunteers, including multiple state senators and representatives, rallied immediately to help. Importantly, volunteers arrived from all over the state, contributing to knocking some 17,000 doors during the campaign, Drey said. She had plenty of volunteer help. Money wasn’t a problem either, enough so that Republican Party of Iowa chair Jeff Kaufmann complained about it.

Things might be different in a general election when folks can’t travel to the west side of the state because local races depend on their work at home. I expect Kaufmann will add this seat to his target list when it is up again next year. Drey seemed quite talented during the interview. Maybe she can pull off a 2026 re-election in a Trump district without all the statewide help. I hope so. Well done Catelin Drew!

I’m from Iowa so I am used to working hard for a candidate and then losing the election. I can think of some things Democrats need to change to turn the Republican advantage around.

Some history. When the worm started to turn on Republicans after the U.S. Supreme Court gave the 2000 election to George W. Bush, Democrats slowly began to change. When Bush won re-election in 2004, it was game on. In Iowa, we came back in 2006 by electing Democrat Chet Culver as governor and Dave Loebsack defeated long time Republican house member Jim Leach. The 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucuses had the most interest and biggest attendance I’ve seen in 32 years living here. As we all know, and may be weary of hearing, Barack Obama won Iowa and the nation in 2008. In 2012, Obama’s margins deteriorated yet he won Iowa again. In retrospect, 2008 was the high water mark of Democratic political activism in Iowa. Loebsack got elected to seven terms, but Culver turned out to be a one-term wonder and we haven’t had a Democratic governor since.

I love memories of the 2006-2008 campaigns but the electorate has changed. I would argue it changes at least every presidential cycle. Trump successively grew his vote count in Democratic Johnson County, Iowa during each of his three elections here. Recognizing such demographic changes is the first thing Democrats must change. Nothing stays the same. We should be like Catelin Drew and talk to everyone possible.

Marc Elias of Democracy Docket did Iowa Democrats no favors when he prosecuted Rita Hart’s 2020 six-vote house race loss in the Congress. When the Iowa Secretary of State certified the election, Hart should have accepted it, even though the path to appeal was there. Given the political climate at the time, the case was dead on arrival. NBC News reported, “Republicans sought to cast her litigation as Democratic hypocrisy for trying to undo a state certification of an election after Democrats criticized 138 Republicans for objecting to the Electoral College count on Jan. 6.” The place for Democrats to win elections is in voter contacts, not in courtrooms, or in the U.S. House.

Finally, Democrats should talk in terms of the voter’s interests. For Catelin Drew, this came naturally. Because childcare was an issue for her personally, it lent credibility in conversations where childcare was the voter’s concern. We can set aside all the verbiage about the whys and wherefores of needing childcare, like Rita Hart raised in an op-ed in the Solon Economist. Candidates seem better off sharing their authentic selves and empathizing with voters as best they can.

I think we need a better name for it than grassroots politics. The electorate has changed and is changing. Democrats need to find voters where they live: on the grass, on the internet, at work, at the grocer, and at the gym. We have done it before and we should get back to it. We need a change and that could be the change we need.

~Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Living in Society

What About Our Stuff?

Detail of the Centennial Building at 402 Iowa Avenue, Iowa City, Iowa. Photo Credit – The Daily Iowan.

The decision to close the Iowa Historical Society Research Center in Iowa City has been made. On Saturday, Aug. 23, I participated in a rally to reverse the decision in a packed room at the Iowa City Public Library. The main ask from the event organizers and from State Representative Adam Zabner, who represents the district where the building is located, was to sign the online petition to reverse the decision. Click here to sign the petition. There was more.

My takeaway is the decision to close the facility is pure amateurism. Archaeologist and historic preservationist Kathy Gourley questioned whether the dire financial picture the state reported is true. She presented information about negotiations with the state legislature last session to secure an additional $1 million in funding for the center. While the legislature only provided a half million, that is not chump change at the historical society. The main thrust of this decision was that “your history” doesn’t matter.

Jonathan Buffalo, historian and director of the Meskwaki Historical Preservation Department told friends, relatives and neighbors about the proposed closure. They replied, “What about our stuff?” The Meskwaki house a collection of early photographs at the Research Center. We might all ask the same question. Communication about the closure was a surprise to almost everyone who read or heard the news. There appears to be only the vaguest of plans for the move. A lack of transparency runs throughout.

Here’s the rub. The state archivist is not following professional procedures for closing a facility like this. Donors gave consideration to what items they may have donated to the State Historical Society. Part of the deal was the artifacts would be cared for in perpetuity. Instead of assuring the public that any change would meet this obligation, it’s been like, “Let’s go to Walmart and get us some plastic bags to haul what we don’t like to the landfill.” It is amateur hour.

Rebecca Conard, native Iowan and historian at Middle Tennessee University outlined some of those professional procedures during the rally. Things like looking at the Iowa collections as a whole and then making a transparent, public decision on what to do with items that are less relevant today than they were when donated.

What about our stuff? Will it go to a warehouse? Will it be discarded? There have been no good answers. If the state had considered the public impact of closing the Iowa City Research Center, they would have researched and provided some of the answers when they announced the change. They apparently didn’t. This made a difference that, in part, created the social anxiety on display at the Iowa City Public Library on Saturday.

Valued collections live in that building today. What will happen to archives of Meskwaki photographs, the Iowa Musicians Project, pioneer diaries, manuscripts, and the rest of the materials? Let’s hope they are not rendered into oblivion either by tucking them away on a shelf in a Des Moines warehouse or by discarding.

To learn more, read Trish Nelson’s backgrounder on the issue here.

Sign the online petition to reverse the decision to close the Iowa Historical Society Research Center at the Centennial Building click here.

~Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Living in Society

Giving Back

Sky at dawn on the lake.

Since our family moved to Big Grove Township, I volunteered to make lives better. Any monetary considerations were insignificant. A regular person does not volunteer in the community for the money. Part of living a sustainable life in rural areas is contributing to the general well-being. I did what I could. I felt blessed and had to give back to the community in which I lived.

Within the first year we arrived, the home owners association asked me to join the board. I did. These organizations get a bad rap. In our case, we managed the association like a small city. We provided a public water system, a sanitary sewer district, road maintenance, refuse hauling, and real estate sales and purchases. Over time, we upgraded the roads from chip and seal to asphalt, dealt with changing government standards related to arsenic in drinking water, reduced the number of wells from three to one, complied with changing Iowa Department of Natural Resources standards for wastewater treatment plant effluent, handled a lawsuit, and coordinated activities like road use and maintenance with neighboring associations. If the board doesn’t do these things, they don’t get done. Everyone is the better for such volunteer boards. I served, off and on, for over 30 years.

In 2012, when only one candidate was running for two township trustee positions, I ran a write-in campaign and won. Being a township trustee included managing emergency response and a volunteer fire department with other townships and the city. Toward the end of my tenure, we formed a new entity to manage emergency response. We maintained the local cemetery, and supervised a pioneer cemetery where the first person to die in the township was buried. This work helped me understand how tax levies work and how they were used to support things the county did not, things like a small fire department or saving someone’s life in an emergency. There was only a single conflict during my time on the board, about the main cemetery. All of the trustees showed up at the cemetery to resolve a dispute with an individual. No one wanted the job of township trustee and someone had to do it, so I stepped up.

When the local seniors group had an opening on their board, I volunteered and became its treasurer. This lasted about two years, but it provided insight into this segment of the community. Everything we did, from providing community meals to giving home bound people rides to medical appointments to arranging outings around eastern Iowa, served an often neglected segment of the population. It was a great opportunity to learn about the life of our senior citizens before I became one myself.

The contribution to society with the most personal meaning was financially supporting construction of the current Solon Public Library building, occupied in 2001. We didn’t really have the money in our budget yet having a decent public library is something we valued. We found the money to donate. The small city library went from being located under the city band stand, to a store front, to the old jail, to a modern building specifically designed to be a library. In the beginning, the library was staffed with volunteers from the Solon Young Women’s Club and the Solon Study Club. Today, there are full and part-time paid staff that work alongside volunteers. A library is something the whole community can use. I am proud to have helped build ours.

There are other ways I gave back to the community. Giving back is a personal value to hold dear in turbulent times. We should all find ways to give back to society in this Trumpian time of self-interest. If we don’t, who will?

Categories
Living in Society

Survivor with Plans

Bur Oak tree on Aug. 20, 2025.

The Bur Oak tree near the front of our property is one of the few of our 20 trees unaffected by the 2020 Derecho. Most of the others were blown over outright or began a slow dance with nature to see when their last leaf-out will be. Most of them will be gone in five years because of injuries sustained during the derecho. A lot of work went into planting those trees. I have memories of each of them and who worked with me when planting.

When I wrote the outline for my autobiography, I figured it would end with the coronavirus pandemic. Little did I know that Donald Trump’s assault on society as we know it would be a thing. After eight months, it seems clear the baton I will take up has to do with intellectual freedom, which best matches my skill set. What form it will take is to be determined. I’m going to a rally about saving the State Historical Society building in Iowa City this Saturday. I should see like-minded people there and be able to hook up and get started on developing an initial plan with others.

I expect to be active again soon. Like the oak tree, I expect to survive the storm.

Categories
Living in Society

Summertime Heat

Pears are not ripe yet.

The last week has been a combination of ambient temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s, heat index of 105 or more, and thunderstorms. As a septuagenarian I stay inside with air conditioning once I finish early morning, outdoors chores to avoid passing out in the heat and humidity.

I took a box of cherry tomatoes to the community food pantry. My other Monday errands included filling the auto gas tank and lottery gambling. It was a quick trip, with exposure to people. I like the people part of it, and finishing while it’s relatively cool. Monday errands has become a thing in retirement.

It has been a struggle to mow the lawn, so the grass is growing long. I’ll need the cut grass for garden mulch and if nature dials down the humidity for a day or so, I’ll harvest it. I did manage to mow the ditch as it dried out, and before it got too hot. It was a workout.

When I was younger I would work strait through the heat and humidity. A few years ago I got woozy and had to lay down on the ground to recover. After that I decided to take better care of myself. As an Iowan I’m used to the heat and humidity. As a senior I learned to live another day.

Then there are the big salad dinners of summer.

Big salad (before dressing) with fennel, celery, cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, and broccoli from our garden.
Categories
Living in Society

Vegetable Prices Jump

Cherry tomatoes picked Aug. 14, 2025.

When a person grows a garden they don’t think much about the price of vegetables at the grocer. All the same, when the Producer Price Index for fresh and dry vegetables jumped by 38.9 percent in July, everyone should stand up and take notice.

“The increase is the biggest one-month move for a summer month in almost a century,” according to NBC senior business correspondent Christine Roman. Why? Unpredictable weather, including drought. The ongoing roundup and deportation of immigrant agricultural workers. Tariffs on food. It is a commonplace that margins in the grocery business are thin. These disruptions in the process that produces our food have and will cause a price increase for consumers as wholesale purchasers pass through some or all of their additional expenses.

When I return from the garden with a tub of tomatoes, apples, or greens, I have forgotten how much I spent on the seeds, supplies and equipment to produce it. I looked at my spreadsheet and found it was $921, thus far in 2025 for the entire operation, including the repair bill for my John Deere. Is it a bargain? That question is out of the scope of my gardening. Learning to produce a year’s worth of garlic is a skill that is hard to price. I generate my own seed garlic, so there is almost no financial cost to produce it. Sweat equity is also difficult to price.

The increase in the Producer Price Index for vegetables is a bellwether for other things going on in the economy. Climate conditions, labor, and tariffs will impact pricing on items other than food. The conclusion to be drawn here is everyone should begin conserving resources if they haven’t already. I doubt this once in a century price increase is the last, and we will need every dollar we can squeeze from our budgets. Hear of belt-tightening? Feel lucky you still have a belt.

For now, the refrigerator and freezer are full. The pantry is as well stocked as it has ever been. Produce continues to grow in the garden and will continue until the first hard frost. I knew living on a fixed income would be challenging. I just wish our government would take its knee off our throat, back off, and give us space to breathe.

Categories
Living in Society

Democratic Primary

Rural Polling Place

The Iowa primary for the 2026 general election is on June 2, 2026. At the end of summer the year before the primary there is plenty of action among both Democrats and Republicans. This post is a recap of where I find myself landing in three races a long distance from the finish line.

The governor announced she is not running again, which leaves an open race. Multiple Republicans put themselves forward for governor. I notice superficial aspects of their action yet am more interested in what Democrats are doing. Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register is covering the governor’s race. I was able to get through the Gannett paywall to read her latest here. Rob Sand and Julie Stauch are running as Democrats and there is a no-party candidate, Sondra Wilson. I was an active participant in the 2006 election that made Democrat Chet Culver our governor. I don’t see that type of enthusiasm this summer. In particular, Sand seems a bit droll. The filing deadline for state and federal offices is March 13, 2026. A lot can happen between now and then.

The race for U.S. Senator from Iowa is where most of my interest lies. At the end of June I donated $10 each to the three then announced candidates, Nathan Sage, Zach Wahls, and J.D. Scholten. There are at least three more kicking tires on a run. That’s too many $10 dollar donations to make another.

While a lot can happen before the filing deadline, I believe Sage, Wahls and Scholten comprise the field. Of them I like J.D. Scholten best because of his experience of running against Steve King in Iowa’s fourth congressional district. In addition, he has been prominent in national news media, appearing on nationwide broadcast outlets and newspapers. Just last week he spoke at Netroots Nation. Likewise, he has the attention of Iowa-based political reporters. His ability to attract media interest in things like his recent farm policy statement is important in the primary because Iowa Democrats do watch national news reporting and read the newspaper. His strength in person-to-person campaigning honed during his race with Steve King, combined with media attention makes him a strong contender to beat the Republican nominee whether or not it is Joni Ernst.

I don’t know Nathan Sage, and haven’t heard him speak in person or viewed a media recording. I will do that eventually. He has been making rounds of state Democratic gatherings and keeps an aggressive schedule. I don’t rule him out at this point.

I’m not dismissing Zach Wahls either. His public campaign seems focused on messaging in a way to redefine who we are as Iowans, defining values we hold in common. Iowa needs more of that. Whether that is a path to winning the general election is unclear in August 2025.

So I lean Scholten in the U.S. Senate race.

I have no opinion about congressional races except for in the first district where I live. I attended the county Democratic Central Committee meeting last Thursday where we heard from three campaigns for congress. This race boils down to whether we accept Christina Bohannan’s argument that she lost by 799 votes in 2024, and she knows how to close the gap and win the third time around. She noted in her remarks early polling has her at a 4-point advantage over Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

I don’t know if I buy that argument. At the same time, she is the only candidate with several seasoned staff members from three general election campaigns. When I think of the district, I know many of those Democrats well. They lean more conservative than Johnson County where I live. Given what is known about Bohannan, they seem unlikely to take a chance on a newcomer when they have heard or met Bohannan during the last three campaigns. I didn’t hear anything from the other campaigns to break the attention I pay to Bohannan.

There are a lot of other important races this cycle. For me, though, the focus is on these three.

UPDATE: Since posting this, Jackie Norris and Josh Turek announced for U.S. Senate. I will do an update of that race in a new post once the other person kicking tires on a run makes a decision.