New subscribers: Every Monday, you’re invited to join a live Zoom podcast conversation with a person of interest. Next week, we’ll turn our attention to Greenland. The following week—January 26—Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute, will join us for a timely conversation about the future of journalism.
This podcast features a wide-ranging, call-in discussion with Iowa political journalist Laura Belin about the coming Iowa legislative session and the larger forces shaping state politics. Laura frames the session as “interesting” but constrained: Governor Kim Reynolds enters as a lame duck, leadership has shifted in both chambers, and new committee chairs could change what bills advance—especially on major issues like property-tax reform. With big Republican majorities and a tense House–Senate dynamic, Laura and several participants describe a Legislature that feels increasingly dysfunctional, less transparent, and less open to minority-party amendments than in past decades.
As the conversation opens up to the group, participants explore what lopsided power can mean for democracy, the decline of statehouse journalism, and how citizens can stay informed—often by subscribing to watchdog outlets and advocacy-group newsletters. The group also digs into the state’s fiscal outlook: Laura argues Iowa is heading into sustained deficit spending due to deep tax cuts, rising voucher costs, and shrinking federal support, and she warns proposed constitutional amendments could lock in a flat tax and make future revenue fixes harder. Later, discussion ranges to water quality, high cancer rates, and the defunding of water monitoring, along with concerns about avian flu, public health skepticism, and how environmental and agricultural policy is shaped more by the federal farm bill than by the state. The call ends with Laura inviting guest columns at Bleeding Heartland and Julie previewing expanded legislative coverage through the Iowa Down Ballot podcast and Laura’s KHOI “Capitol Week,” alongside a push to support local journalism.
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(00:00:02) Julie: I’m so glad to have everybody on board with Laura Bellin,
(00:00:09) who is an amazing analyst of all things Iowa politics—and certainly the Iowa
(00:00:16) Legislature.
(00:00:18) Laura portrays a Legislature increasingly shaped by national politics,
(00:00:26) executive power, and campaign strategy,
(00:00:29) often at the expense of transparency,
(00:00:33) deliberation, and everyday Iowans’ needs.
(00:00:36) Her reporting consistently shows lawmakers governing with one eye on 2026 and the
(00:00:43) other on Donald Trump.
(00:00:45) We’re going to talk to her primarily about the Iowa Legislature, but as those of you
(00:00:50) who are familiar with this podcast format know, any question is fair game for Laura—
(00:00:56) and I’ve seen her answer it all. So, Laura, what is your take on the Iowa Legislature
(00:01:04) coming up? What do you think are the surprises? How is it going
(00:01:08) to be different from the last session?
(00:01:10) Laura: Well, I think it’s shaping up to be kind of an interesting year.
(00:01:13) One thing that’s different is that Governor Kim Reynolds is a lame duck right
(00:01:17) now going into the session.
(00:01:19) So I do think she’ll have less leverage over the Republican lawmakers than
(00:01:23) she’s had in the past.
(00:01:25) We’ve also had some pretty significant leadership changes on both sides.
(00:01:29) On the Senate side,
(00:01:31) Jack Whitver,
(00:01:32) who was the longtime majority leader—
(00:01:33) he’d been the majority leader since 2018—
(00:01:36) stepped down.
(00:01:37) So now there’s a new majority leader, Mike Klimesh.
(00:01:40) And that led to a little bit of a reshuffle on some of the significant committees
(00:01:44) over on the Senate side.
(00:01:47) I don’t anticipate huge changes in how Mike Klimesh runs things, but you never know.
(00:01:52) There could be some slight differences.
(00:01:55) On the House side,
(00:01:56) the number-two guy in the House—this is confusing because in the Senate,
(00:02:00) the majority leader is the top person.
(00:02:02) But in the House, the speaker is the top person and the majority leader is the second person.
(00:02:06) So on the House side,
(00:02:08) the longtime majority leader,
(00:02:09) Matt Windschitl,
(00:02:10) stepped down from that role because he’s running for Congress in the Fourth
(00:02:13) District.
(00:02:14) And that meant Bobby Kaufmann moved up to be House Majority Leader.
(00:02:18) And at least a half dozen—
(00:02:20) I think more than a half dozen—House committees now have new leadership because
(00:02:24) of that,
(00:02:24) the knock-on effects from that.
(00:02:26) Plus also, Shannon Lundgren, who is running for Congress in the Northeast Iowa district,
(00:02:32) has left the position of House Commerce Committee chair.
(00:02:35) So, in any case, when committee chairs have a lot of discretion over
(00:02:41) what bills get through their committee,
(00:02:43) it can be rather important who’s in charge of some of these key committees.
(00:02:48) So that’s one thing I’ll be watching.
(00:02:49) Generally speaking,
(00:02:52) in an election year,
(00:02:53) the Legislature likes to adjourn a little bit earlier,
(00:02:56) because they like to get home and start campaigning.
(00:02:59) I think that’s going to be especially true this year because some Republican
(00:03:03) legislators will have primary challengers.
(00:03:06) The scheduled adjournment date is April 21.
(00:03:11) We see they usually do go into overtime.
(00:03:14) And I think the one issue that could push them into longer overtime this year
(00:03:19) would be property taxes,
(00:03:20) because that is going to be very complicated.
(00:03:23) It’s something Republicans have been promising to do for years.
(00:03:26) I don’t think they can afford to go home empty-handed.
(00:03:29) And yet it’s a really difficult thing to solve.
(00:03:32) There’s not a lot of money in the state budget to help cushion the blow for local government.
(00:03:36) So I’m not sure.
(00:03:37) But there are these cross-cutting pressures: getting to an agreement on property taxes
(00:03:41) might be quite difficult,
(00:03:43) but then legislators really are going to want to get back in their districts and campaign.
(00:03:48) And one thing many people aren’t aware of is that while the Legislature is in session,
(00:03:51) the campaign committees of state lawmakers
(00:03:55) can’t accept any contributions from PACs.
(00:03:59) And that’s very significant for a lot of legislators—
(00:04:03) except for the very top leadership.
(00:04:05) In many cases, the majority of what they raise comes from PACs.
(00:04:10) So if they can’t accept PAC donations until after the Legislature adjourns,
(00:04:15) and the primary date is coming up in early June,
(00:04:19) I think a lot of people are really anxious to get back home and start campaigning.
(00:04:24) And I’ll be very interested in following some of the primaries on both sides—
(00:04:28) Democratic and Republican—
(00:04:30) but I think the Republican primaries are going to be especially interesting this year.
(00:04:36) Julie: So if you could pick three words to describe this upcoming Legislature—or
(00:04:43) legislative session—what three words come to mind?
(00:04:49) Laura: Well, I think the Legislature generally is fairly dysfunctional.
(00:04:52) And I say that even though there is a trifecta: the relationships between the House and Senate Republicans
(00:04:56) are not good.
(00:05:00) They haven’t been good for a while.
(00:05:01) I’m curious to see whether that improves a little bit with the new leadership on the Senate side.
(00:05:06) But they had a big mess near the end of the last session in the Iowa Senate—
(00:05:13) a wild debate on eminent domain that leadership didn’t want.
(00:05:18) Nobody I talked to had ever seen anything like it: a group of rebels forced leadership to bring a bill to th…
