League of Women Voters of Siouxland holds final Legislative session of 2025
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — The League of Women Voters along with the Sioux City branch of the NAACP held their third and final legislative town hall of 2025 this morning.
It was an overflow crowd at the Sioux City Public Museum as local state legislator's discussed topics and answered questions from their constituents on topics like education, healthcare and civil rights.
According to organizers, forums like this are important so both the elected officials and voters have a chance to discuss things face to face.
'It's the key to our Democracy at a time when there are those that are speaking against Democracy,' said Carolyn goodwin, with the League of Women Voters of Siouxland. 'The League of Women Voters has always encouraged people to vote. We want them to have an informed vote. To listen to legislators, to listen to political parties. We do not support candidates, nor do we support political parties as an organization.'
There were five legislators in attendance. From the Iowa State House of Representatives, Democrat JD Scholten and Republicans Robert Henderson and Jacob Bossman. From the State Senate, Republicans Rocky De Witt and Kevin Alons.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ohio Democrats elect Kathleen Clyde as new party chair ahead of 2026 election
Former state Rep. Kathleen Clyde will lead the Ohio Democratic Party as candidates prepare for 2026 and seek to break the Republican Party's hold on Ohio. The Democrats' executive committee tapped Clyde to replace former party chair Liz Walters, who resigned to become CEO of a political data firm in Washington, D.C. The shakeup came months after a brutal election for Ohio Democrats, leaving state Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner as the only Democrat in statewide office. Get The Scoop!: Sign up for our weekly Ohio politics podcast Despite past defeats, Clyde believes the party has an opportunity to capitalize on backlash against President Donald Trump and reclaim power in 2026. In her new role, she'll help recruit and support candidates, raise money and organize get-out-the-vote efforts. "Democrats need to unify around a message that shows what these harmful policies coming out of Washington and the statehouse mean for our economy, our health care, social security," Clyde told the statehouse bureau ahead of the June 10 vote. "We need to offer a compelling message about what Democrats do when they're in power." Clyde, a Portage County native who lives in Columbus, was once considered a rising star in the Ohio Democratic Party. She served four terms in the Ohio House and unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state in 2018. After that, she was appointed to the Portage County Board of Commissioners, but lost when she ran for her seat two years later. Clyde had the backing of former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who Democrats hope will run for governor or U.S. Senate in 2026. Several Democrats challenged Clyde in the race for chair, but her biggest rival − state Sen. Bill DeMora of Columbus − dropped out before the vote. DeMora said he wasn't supporting any remaining candidates, including Clyde. As party chair, Clyde said she wants to tackle urban, suburban and rural areas with different strategies and work with county parties to meet voters where they are. She said Democrats also need to address depressed turnout in Ohio's largest cities and ensure they listen to the needs of Black voters who abandoned the party. "I feel confident that we can come together as Democrats and focus on the work ahead of turning the state around and winning at all levels of government for the working people and putting the needs of Ohioans first," Clyde said. State government reporter Haley BeMiller can be reached at hbemiller@ or @haleybemiller on X. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Kathleen Clyde to lead Ohio Democratic Party for 2026 election
Politico
25 minutes ago
- Politico
New Jersey's long, expensive primary turns to counting votes
Polls have closed in the crowded and hotly contested primary for New Jersey governor. Six Democrats and five Republicans are running to replace the term-limited Democrat Phil Murphy in an election marked by personal vitriol and dominated on both sides by President Donald Trump. No matter who wins, it's a historic election. It is the most expensive, with more than $120 million spent over two years of campaigning, and the first in generations without a ballot design that gave party bosses extraordinary influence. It sets up a general election that will be watched nationally as a test of Trump's appeal in a traditionally blue state that he lost by a closer-than-expected six points last year. Only one other state, Virginia, has a gubernatorial election this year, so both states' outcomes in November will also be read for clues into next year's midterms. In New Jersey, the primary results will be analyzed to see how traditional Democratic machines perform without the 'county line' — a structure used for decades by party leaders that gave the candidates they endorsed favorable placement on the primary ballot. That follows a judge's 2024 decision to toss the line in the Democratic primary and a new law mandating office block ballots for both parties, similar to those used in every other state. Among the Democrats, Rep. Mikie Sherrill has long been the front-runner, but not the prohibitive one. With the backing of many but not all of New Jersey's county leaders, the four-term former Navy helicopter pilot and former federal prosecutor has found herself her opponents' top target for allying with power brokers in Democratic-rich counties in North and Central Jersey. But Sherrill projected herself as the top general election candidate early, using the last few weeks of the primary to reinforce Republican front-runner Jack Ciattarelli's association with Trump and touting legislation she introduced in April to require Elon Musk and top DOGE staff to take drug tests. 'MAGA's coming for New Jersey, with Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli. We've gotta stop them,' says a recent Sherrill ad. Sherrill has faced the most caustic criticism from rival Steven Fulop, the longtime mayor of Jersey City who eschewed the political bosses he once courted and has run to Sherrill's left with aggressive and detailed policy plans, including support for the type of suburban residential development that has proven a liability for Democrats in general elections. He's called her 'Tammy 2.0,' referring to First Lady Tammy Murphy's dropped bid for U.S. Senator last year that stirred resentment in the party base, and criticized her for refusing to 'take any position that is risky.' Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, is also running to Sherrill's left and has appealed to Democrats by aggressively challenging the Trump administration, resulting in his widely-condemned trespassing arrest at a Newark ICE facility last month. The arrest gave him massive publicity, but does not appear to have propelled him to the front of the field, while his fundraising lags his rivals. Former Senate President Steve Sweeney and Rep. Josh Gottheimer have run more moderate campaigns, with Sweeney voting to repeal New Jersey's policy that limits local law enforcement's cooperation with immigration authorities and Gottheimer pledging to cut property taxes by 15 percent. Meanwhile, Sean Spiller, the former mayor of Montclair and president of the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association, has run a campaign with progressive messaging fueled almost exclusively by a super PAC funded with $40 million from his union, making it by far the most expensive of any candidate's effort. The size of the field and their extensive resources has led to the most expensive and least predictable statewide primary in decades. And that's largely because of progressives' successful challenge of the county line last year. While this is the second Democratic primary not to feature it (and the first Republican one), the 2024 U.S. Senate primary was over before a judge barred the line since Murphy dropped out and effectively handed the party nomination to Andy Kim While Sherrrill has had a lead in the few public polls released in the race and every leaked internal campaign poll, it's rarely been in the double digits. With six candidates, it's possible a Democratic candidate could win with just 20 percent of the vote. The Republican primary is nothing like the Democratic one. The two main candidates, Bill Spadea and Ciattarelli — who was the Republican nominee in 2021 and came within 3 points of ousting Phil Murphy — spent most of it competing as much for an endorsement of Trump as they did appealing to the state's 1.6 million registered Republicans. Spadea, who has long aired anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election, appeared to be in the running for Trump's endorsement. Ciattarelli had in 2015 called Trump a 'charlatan' and, while he gradually warmed to him, largely sought to avoid association with him in his 2021 campaign. But Ciattarelli recently expressed unbridled support for Trump, while his allies dug through thousands of hours of Spadea's programs to find Trump criticism. They also highlighted fundraising and poll results that showed Ciattarelli way ahead. It culminated with an ebullient Ciattarelli getting a photo op sit down with Trump at his golf club in Bedminster. Not to be outdone, Spadea showed up the next day and met with Trump in the golf club's hallway, but did not post a photo of the encounter. It paid off for Ciattarelli with a Trump endorsement, writing on Truth Social that 'Jack, who after getting to know and understand MAGA, has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!)' Spadea sought to reassure disappointed supporters by saying Trump 'endorsed a poll, not a plan' in Ciattarelli. But most political observers counted that as the end of the Republican primary, and subsequent events showed it. Spadea has struggled in fundraising, earning only about half of the matching funds he was eligible for from the state. New Jersey's off-year general election in November — along with Virginia — will be read as a bellwether for the 2026 midterms. While Democrats have an 800,000 registered voter advantage over Republicans, New Jersey voters have often been willing to elect Republicans as governor. And the GOP in recent years has gained more than 100,000 voters, while Trump's relatively close loss in the state in 2024 has given Republicans hope of taking the governorship. The election saw well over $120 million poured into it from the candidates themselves, state-financed matching funds that most of them took, and, most of all, super PACs. It's only set to intensify in November, when the field will be less crowded but the stakes higher.
Hamilton Spectator
28 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Trump administration says he has the authority to cancel national monuments that protect landscapes
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump's administration say he has the authority to abolish national monuments meant to protect historical and archaeological sites across broad landscapes, including two in California created by his predecessor at the request of Native American tribes. A Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday disavowed a 1938 determination that monuments created by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act can't be revoked. The department said presidents can cancel monument designations if protections aren't warranted. The finding comes as the Interior Department under Trump has been weighing changes to monuments across the nation as part of the administration's push to expand U.S. energy production. The Republican in his first term reduced the size of two Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah, calling them a 'massive land grab.' He also lifted fishing restrictions within a sprawling marine monument off the New England Coast. Former President Joe Biden reversed the moves and restored the monuments. noting that Bears Ears was the first national monument to be established at the request of federally recognized tribes. The two monuments singled out in the new Justice Department opinion were designated by Biden in his final days in office: Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California. The Democrat's declarations for the monuments barred oil and natural gas drilling and mining on the 624,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) Chuckwalla site, and the roughly 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) Sáttítla Highlands site near the California-Oregon border. Chuckwalla has natural wonders including the Painted Canyon of Mecca Hills and Alligator Rock, and it is home to rare species of plants and animals like the desert bighorn sheep and the Chuckwalla lizard. The Sáttítla Highlands include the ancestral homelands of and are sacred to the Pit River Tribe and Modoc Peoples. All but three presidents have used the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources, and about half the national parks in the U.S. were first designated as monuments. But critics of monument designations under Biden and Obama say the protective boundaries were stretched too far, hindering mining for critical minerals. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit wrote in the Trump administration opinion that Biden's protections of Chuckwalla and the Sattítla Highlands were part of the Democrat's attempts to create for himself an environmental legacy that includes more places to hike, bike, camp or hunt. 'Such activities are entirely expected in a park, but they are wholly unrelated to (if not outright incompatible with) the protection of scientific or historical monuments,' Pettit wrote. Trump in April lifted commercial fishing prohibitions within an expansive marine monument in the Pacific Ocean created under former President Barack Obama. Environmental groups have anticipated more actions against monuments by Trump since his first days in office. They said Tuesday's Justice Department opinion doesn't give him the authority to shrink monuments at will. 'Americans overwhelmingly support our public lands and oppose seeing them dismantled or destroyed,' said Axie Navas with The Wilderness Society. Since 1912, presidents have issued more than a dozen proclamations that diminished monuments but did not outright revoke them, according to a National Park Service database. Dwight Eisenhower was most active in undoing the proclamations of his predecessors as he diminished six monuments, including Arches in Utah, Great Sand Dunes in Colorado and Glacier Bay in Alaska, which have all since become national parks. Trump's moves to shrink the Utah monuments in his first term were challenged by environmental groups that said protections for the sites safeguard water supplies and wildlife while preserving cultural sites. The reductions were reversed by Biden before the case was resolved, and it remains pending. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after lobbying by educators and scientists who wanted to protect sites from artifact looting and haphazard collecting by individuals. It was the first law in the U.S. to establish legal protections for cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands.
