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The former mayor of Irwin Iowa Republican Bret Richards is the first candidate in Iowa's Fourth Congressional District to gather the necessary signatures to have his name placed on the 2020 Republican primary ballot.
Republican candidates in the district next year are required to gather 1,874 signatures or 1 percent of the total number of votes cast for the party's 2018 gubernatorial nominee, Other Republican 4thdistrict candidates include incumbent Steve King of Kiron, state senator Randy Feenstra of Hull, and Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor. So far one Democrat, Sioux City’s JD Scholten is running for the seat for the 4thdistrict seat. Scholten lost to Steve King last year by three percentage points.
A legislative committee has delayed a portion of new sports gambling rules that would allow the state to collect some the winnings of those who owe child support, back taxes or criminal debt. The Iowa Administrative Rules Review Committee today approved a request by the state's casinos to delay that portion of the rules. The delay will allow lawmakers until next year to clarify how they want debts collected from sports gambling winnings.
Democratic Sen. Rob Hogg voted against the delay, saying people who owe child support, back taxes or criminal debt to the state should pay up.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds today declared this week to be Wind Week in the state, and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst has introduced bipartisan legislation to help incentivize and promote the development of wind power and wind jobs in Iowa.
The Wind Workforce Modernization and Training Act would promote training opportunities for students, community colleges, and technical schools; facilitate the modernization of the current U.S. wind technician workforce; and create career pathways for veterans to more easily enter the wind workforce through the creation of a veterans-focused jobs program similar to the Solar Ready Vets program.
