Free Republic

Sen. Ted Cruz, pacing as he always does when making a stump speech, looked out on a room packed with people and made note of the furniture. “The reason I’m optimistic is because we ran out of chairs,” Cruz (R-Tex.) said to the crowd at the Longbranch Hotel, some in straight-backed chairs, others massed in the back. It’s a line Cruz would use more than once on his first trip to Iowa as a declared presidential candidate, underscoring his status as an emerging top-tier contender in the crowded 2016 race. On a two-day, five-stop swing that took him from Sioux...

<p>When the mayor vetoed the building of a sports stadium in a residential neighborhood, SAU sold the property to Assumption High School which was not restricted to the residential zoning regulations.</p> <p>This has been going on for a couple of years now.</p>

According to a New York Times report, Sen. Ted Cruz is making some critical inroads in Iowa, including gaining the support of “more than a dozen party leaders for his statewide campaign.” Some of that support is coming from the state’s libertarians, or Liberty movement, generally assumed to be aligned with Rand Paul. One, Iowa state Senator Jason Shultz, endorsed Rand’s father, Ron Paul, in 2012–and two others, Joel Kurtinitis and Chad Steenhoek, are former members of the Iowa GOP’s central committee. NYT reports: “The assumption of lot of people has been that the Liberty movement would roll over and support Senator Paul,’’...

During a stop in Iowa on Friday, Louisiana Gov. and possible GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal said he supports an effort in his state to strengthen religious liberty laws just as other states have dialed back laws with potential for discrimination against gays and lesbians. State Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Bossier City, is drafting a bill to enhance Louisiana’s 2010 Religious Freedom Restoration Act to prevent the government from penalizing a business for acting based on religious beliefs, according to a Times-Picayune report this week. The bill would allow businesses to deny service to gays and lesbians based on conflicts with...

I love this guy’s strategy. He’s making a strong statement even with his ad purchases: POLITICO – Ted Cruz is scheduled to become the first 2016 presidential candidate on the airwaves. The Texas senator is purchasing a small amount of airtime on television affiliates in the early states of Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Nevada on Easter Sunday, according to ad tracking sources. At least some of the advertising will air during a showing of the NBC program “AD: The Bible Continues.” As of Thursday afternoon, Cruz had booked a total of over $9,000 worth of airtime on affiliates...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is the only major Republican likely 2016 presidential candidate who hasn't weighed in on the controversy over Indiana's "religious freedom" law that erupted this week — and his explanation for avoiding the issue is questionable.

He has never won re-election with less than 64 percent of the vote. His approval rating is 67 percent. This is not some senator from a deep red or deep blue state. He is, in fact, a Republican representing a swing state in a presidential year, and Democrats would quite like to unseat him. So why does Sen. Charles E. Grassley seem almost politically invincible? (SNIP) Democrats looking to topple him will not have an easy path. His lowest re-election margin of victory was 64 percent in 2010. (He won 66 percent of the vote in 1986, 70 percent in...

Had the opportunity to hear Ted Cruz speak today in Cedar Falls, IA. He was accompanied by Rod Blum, our newly elected representative. Event was well-attended. Cruz was articulate, positive, and laid out his message and vision with passion and grace. It was like a ray of light in the murk of the obamanation we have endured for the last 6 years. I am on board.

Late last summer, with midterms consuming the attention of the political class, a group of GOP activists spent two days in Des Moines trying to convince their fellow Republicans that change was coming to their party. With eyes on 2016, they attended the Iowa State Fair, talked with newspaper editorial boards, and even ventured onto conservative talk radio. To cap it off, on the last evening, supporters gathered at 801 Chophouse, the upscale watering hole of the city's political elite, as if to announce their movement had gone mainstream. That it couldn't be dismissed as fringe any longer. Their issue,...

A selfie-obsessed tourist apologized Sunday for posting an online pic of herself grinning at the site of the deadly East Village inferno. After The Post exposed her with a front-page story headlined “Village Idiots,” Christina Freundlich said she was “deeply sorry for my careless and distasteful post.” “It was inconsiderate to those hurt in the crash and to the city of New York,” she said in an e-mail to The Des Moines Register. “What happened last week in the East Village is not to be taken lightly and I regret my course of action.” Freundlich, who worked on both of...

The Texas Republican's devotion to principle – or an unyielding insistence on getting his way – could propel him to the front ranks of Republican contenders for president or render him unelectable.Ted Cruz looked out over a sprawling audience of Iowa farmers and agri-business leaders, people who rely on federal subsidies of ethanol, and the man who would be president stuck it to them. “I know you’d like me to say I’m for the renewable fuel standard” – that’s the subsidy of their product – “that’d be the easy thing to do,” he said. “But I’m going to tell you...

Sen. Chuck Schumer says tea party members "hate immigrants," and blames congressional Republicans' fear of their hard-right members for preventing passage of a Senate immigration bill last year. (SNIP) "Why doesn't he? Because the tea party, these 80 to 100 folks from the hard right, none from New York, say they hate immigration, they hate immigrants.

Rep. Steve King says Rep. Steve Israel twisted his comments about Democratic support for Israel, and tells Newsmax TV that the New York Democrat should face him "man to man." "Sure he is [distorting]," King, an Iowa Republican, said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. ow "He demanded an apology in a tweet, and he also demanded that the Republican Party repudiate me. "I just tweeted back and said that's the kind of request that he should make eye-to-eye and man-to-man."

Think politics does not play a part in hiring decisions at universities? Think again. Teresa Wagner, a conservative lawyer, has been in the center of a years-long legal battle with the University of Iowa’s Law School over their decision not to hire her because of her conservative political views. Legal Insurrection, a legal blog, explains her case here. She recently spoke at the conservative family think tank Family Research Council, where she once worked before moving to Iowa. wagner v jones frc event Wagner said that the Iowa law school has “50 tenure track faculty members and there [was] only...

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, whose path to the Republican nomination requires a breakout performance in Iowa, has quickly recruited more than a dozen party leaders for his statewide campaign, who are to be announced in coming days, according to people told of the choices. Most significantly, Mr. Cruz has peeled away three leaders of the Libertarian faction in the state, known as the Liberty movement, who are the base of Senator Rand Paul’s support in Iowa. They included state Senator Jason Shultz, who endorsed Representative Ron Paul for president in 2012; and two former members of the state Republican...

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation has released a 12 second video captured from Burlington Police Officer Jesse Hill’s body mounted camera on January 6th–the day that Hill shot Autumn Steele when responding to a domestic dispute. In it, it shows the moment of the shooting. While Autumn Steele is grabbing and pulling at her husband Gabriel, Hill orders the couple to stop. “He’s got my kid!” Steele responds. Immediately afterwards, a dog can be heard. Hill orders the couple to “get their dog”. A shot is fired. The camera falls backwards as Hill slips on the snow. Another shot...

Teresa Wagner is a distinguished attorney, professor, and author. The mother of four, who in the 1990s served as a senior leader here at FRC, is also probably the first FRCer ever to obtain a favorable ruling in a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Sadly, her victory before the nation’s highest legal bench is not one she ever wanted to obtain. It only came about because in 2009, Teresa was denied a position at the University of Iowa’s law school because she’s a self-identified conservative who believes in protecting the unborn and sustaining one-man, one-woman marriage. Again, this...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)[95%] will today announce he is running for President. At our very first RedState Gathering, Ted Cruz showed up. He was the Solicitor General of Texas. I did not know him, but he’d gone to law school with a friend and several other friends highly recommended him. He stood on stage to speak along with another guy named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)[82%]. Both of them dazzled the crowd in Atlanta. They both got repeated standing ovations. They both took questions from the crowd and never made a misstep. I hope they will both return to Atlanta this...

Conservatives are seething after an outside group aligned with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting a trio of Republican lawmakers over threats to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. Tea Party Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) equated the attack ads to GOP “cannibalism,” while his conservative colleague Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) called them a “stupid” tactic that would backfire. American Action Network, a nonprofit whose board includes former Boehner chief of staff Barry Jackson, launched the $300,000 ad campaign earlier this month with TV spots depicting terrorists and accusing GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Tim...

An online communications strategist working for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) campaign-in-waiting resigned late Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, after controversy erupted over disparaging comments she had made disparaging comments about Iowa?