The Iowa and Arizona Senates both took action recently to protect their states’ citizens from domestic violence, as well as to prevent violence from escalating to tragedy.

Iowa’s SF 2357, which passed on a bipartisan 36-11 vote, takes the commonsense step of prohibiting individuals with protective orders or criminal convictions against them for domestic abuse from possessing firearms. As the Democratic Caucus explains, support for this bill is based on the facts surrounding domestic violence:

Since 1995, guns have been used in more than half of all Iowa murders involving domestic abuse. Fifty-four percent of women killed by an intimate partner were shot; 50 percent of men killed by an intimate partner were shot; and 57 percent of children and bystanders killed in domestic violence attacks were shot.

Meanwhile, Arizona Senate Democrats unanimously supported two new bills aimed at making domestic violence easier to prosecute:

SB 1087, which passed 20-8, would add homicide, manslaughter, animal cruelty and sexual assault to the list of crimes that when committed against a family member or intimate partner count as domestic violence.

Given the shameful example of Republican legislators in other states on similar issues recently, it should come as no surprise that all eight of the “no” votes on this bill were cast by Republicans and included both the Senate President and the Republican Majority Leader.

A separate bill approved on the same day would upgrade the choking of a partner to a Class 4 felony. This is an important change for policymakers fighting to end the tragic outcomes that so often follow domestic violence:

[E]xperts consider choking, which can render the victim unconscious in 10 seconds, to be a serious risk factor for escalation to homicide...

Nearly half of female homicide and attempted homicide victims were choked in the past year by their male partner, according to an article in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.

All bills now move on to their respective State Houses for consideration.

After a court ruling established marriage equality in Iowa, Democrats (lead by State Senate Majority Leader and DLCC Chairman Mike Gronstal) promised to block any bill to ban same-sex marriage in Iowa. A few days ago, Iowa’s Democratic legislators delivered on that promise, effectively blocking a Republican-sponsored marriage ban for the rest of the legislative session:

What Republicans wanted was the right to pull House Joint Resolution 6 out of a committee so that it would be placed on the debate calendar and avoid a legislative deadline this week.

The effort failed in the Senate where a vote was not taken. However, all 18 Senate Republicans signed a petition circulated by Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan (…)

The House spent almost 30 minutes on a rarely used “call-of-the-House” in which each of the 100 members were ordered into the chambers to vote unless they were previously excused. The House measure ultimately failed in a 45 to 54 vote that was mostly along party lines.

What’s most striking is that each chamber had just a single Democrat willing to go on record supporting the ban. Every other rank-and-file legislator, including many Democrats facing tough re-election campaigns in conservative districts, stood with Majority Leader Gronstal and House Speaker Pat Murphy on the right side of history.

The good folks over at Bleeding Heartland took a moment to acknowledge the role Leadership played in both results:

Murphy and Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal strongly supported the Iowa Supreme Court's Varnum v Brien ruling, and they deserve a lot of credit for holding their caucuses together today. As Gronstal has promised, Republicans will not succeed in writing discrimination into our state's constitution.

Hear at the DLCC, we couldn’t be more proud of our Chairman and all the Iowa Democrats who stood up for equality this week.

Iowa’s Democratic leaders have long supported efforts to streamline state government, but now they’ve put out a call for new money-saving ideas from ordinary taxpayers.

Cutting down on waste and abuse saves taxpayer money, and it means more efficient services for constituents. But with the recession wreaking havoc with the state budget, legislators have a new sense of urgency in finding new ways to pinch pennies and avoid cutting vital programs.

If you’re an Iowa resident and you’ve got an idea to share, you can send it to the legislature at http://iowasenatenews.com/how-can-state-government-be-more-efficient/.

Or, if you want to see what others have already suggested, you can check out the General Assembly’s list of recent submissions at http://www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/SurveyResponses/Improving_StGvt/.

In Iowa, Senate Democrats are taking the lead in a new series of measures designed to protect the public from those who would take advantage of consumers during a national recession:

• Putting tighter restrictions on companies offering “debt settlement services.” These firms offer to settle a consumer’s debts but usually require an upfront fee. If the settlement effort fails, the consumer is out the fee and left in a worse financial state. These companies are now regulated under Iowa Law. Fees are limited, written contracts are required, and the consumer may quit the service at anytime without penalty.

• Moving against unfair practices among mortgage lenders. We established licensing for mortgage loan originators and strengthened current licensing for mortgage bankers and brokers, regulated loans and industrial loans. The licensing requirements include criminal history and credit background checks, pre-licensure education, continuing education, and a net worth, surety bond or recovery fund.
• Cracking down on shady car dealers. When buying a new or used car, no one wants to sink their money into a lemon. That’s why we closed a loophole allowing unscrupulous car dealers and recyclers to return to the marketplace under someone else’s name.

Senate Democrats are urging Iowans to contact the Iowa Insurance Division in order to receive more information.

Iowa Republicans recently unveiled a largely ineffective scheme to improve public education by adding yet another layer of testing – this time just before students’ high school graduations. After reading the Republicans’ “plan,” Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, who’s also Chair of the DLCC’s Board of Directors, was not impressed:

The Democratic leader of the Iowa Senate on Wednesday rejected a Republican plan to increase testing of students and teachers, calling it "a tired old idea" that wouldn't improve education in the state.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal belittled the Republican proposal to expand testing and issue annual report cards for local schools. He said the plan wasn't needed and wouldn't move through the Legislature convening in January.

"This seems like a tired old idea they had back in the '90s when they were fighting with (former Republican Gov. Terry) Branstad over education," said Gronstal, of Council Bluffs.

But Gronstal wasn’t content to simply criticize – he also reiterated legislative Democrats’ plans to improve public education, focusing squarely on Iowa classrooms:

"What's the point of testing a kid when you're done with him at the end?" said Gronstal. "The point is to make sure that kids are learning along the way."

Gronstal said Democrats will focus on raising Iowa teacher pay to the national average and refining curriculum that schools must offer.

"We're going to continue to struggle to find resources to make sure we don't lose ground on teacher pay," said Gronstal.

Like most states, Iowa’s state budget has been hard-hit by global recession, but Gronstal and Iowa’s legislative Democrats have been instrumental in protecting the state’s public schools from the most devastating budget cuts.

In the first electoral test of voters’ reaction to the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage (and Iowa Democrats’ courageous promise to defend that ruling), Democrat Curt Hanson won a fiercely-contested special election in Iowa, finishing ahead of Republican Stephen Burgmeier by 107 votes in House District 90:

While Hanson will replace Rep. John Whitaker -- another Democrat who left the legislature to take a position with the US Department of Agriculture -- Republicans poured resources and energy into an attempt to pick up the vacant seat.

All of the intangible factors seemed to favor the GOP. Burgmeier had more political experience, and he had a natural base in Jefferson County, the district’s population anchor. He also out-raised Hanson in fundraising by nearly a third. The district itself, though it leans slightly Democratic, is a mostly rural area on the Missouri border -– exactly the sort of district where Republicans expected a major backlash against marriage equality.

Right-wing groups had promised a fight over marriage equality, and they backed that up with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Iowa Republican Party, the right-wing National Organization for Marriage, and other outside groups:

The National Organization for Marriage has spent more than $80,000 to promote Burgmeier’s opposition to same-sex marriage, for instance, not mentioning Hanson in their commercial at all. Iowans for Tax Relief released a television ad attacking Hanson for being in the same party as Culver and as George Soros, a billionaire businessman who has donated to liberal causes nationally, but who has not been tied to the Hanson campaign in particular.

Republicans were convinced that this race could be nationalized and that would give them an advantage.

It didn't.

For our part, Democrats focused on turning out voters. Hanson was able to build a significant advantage in absentee ballots and won Jefferson County, which both Hanson and Burgmeier call home, convincingly.

As the Iowa Independent reported, "It was a textbook Iowa Democratic campaign, designed to push Hanson across the goal line with little fanfare and a lot of direct contact with voters. And it worked."

As states around the country consider new investments in alternative energy projects, they might first consider the experience of Iowa, which launched a $100 million initiative two years ago to provide start-up capital for energy-related projects. With Iowa now just halfway through the program, its impact on the state economy has been impressive:

• 2,300 new, private-sector jobs have been created in Iowa;

• $35 million in state investments have supported clean energy projects across the state;
• $190.4 million in private investments have been generated through the project (more than a 4-to-1 return on taxpayer money); and
• The percentage of Iowa electricity generated from wind power has tripled, establishing Iowa as a world leader in renewable energy.

Iowa Democrats deserve enormous praise for the success of this program, which was a central plank of Gov. Chet Culver’s campaign platform and a top priority for Democratic legislative leaders. And as Gov. Culver noted in interviews, the program’s economic success is particularly welcome during the current recession.

Independent observers are even more enthusiastic about the program’s impact on energy production:

"Even those of us who keep up with the wind industry were amazed that around 15 percent of our total electrical generation in Iowa is from wind power," said David Osterberg, head of the Iowa Policy Project, a liberal-leaning research group.

That puts Iowa on a par with many European nations that have stressed alternative energy for decades. Denmark, for instance, gets 20 percent of its electricity from wind.

"Iowa is pretty active, when you look at the fact that they are one of the largest producers of wind energy," said Glen Andersen, a researcher at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. "They are really up there."

With two years and tens of millions of dollars left in the program, Iowa is poised to solidify its leadership in alternative energy for years to come.

Close readers of this blog know that we’ve been following the marriage equality debate very closely in the wake of the momentous decisions of the Iowa Supreme Court and the Vermont Legislature legalizing same-sex marriage.

Today is the first day that the Iowa decision goes into effect, marking the end of a long road to marriage equality for all Iowans:

Gay and lesbian couples flocked to county buildings throughout Iowa today to marry legally for the first time in the wake of the state supreme court's landmark same-sex marriage decision.

Melisa Keeton and Shelley Wolfe, a lesbian couple in Iowa's capital city, exchanged vows outside the Polk County Administration building before a swarm of friends, family and news crews.

"By the power vested in the state of Iowa and God, I now declare you legally married," said the couple's pastor, Peg Esperanza of the CHS Rainbow Cyber Church.

"What an honor," Esperanza added. "Amen!"

Most Iowans will someday look back upon this day with pride. Pride for their state’s place at the potential tipping point of the nationwide marriage equality debate; pride for the Democratic state legislators who were so outspoken in support of equality in the first fragile moments following the decision; and pride for their friends, neighbors, and family members who can now participate in the sacred institution of marriage –- starting today.

In last week’s story about a new proposal in Texas to promote solar energy produciton, we noted that Iowa, behind Texas, is the United States’ 2nd leading wind energy producer.

Thanks to two new bills passed by the Iowa Legislature, Iowa might soon be expanding its wind energy economy and attracting new jobs to the state:

“Today’s a great day in Iowa in the realm of renewable energy,” [Gov.] Culver said before signing into law two bills designed to expand Iowa’s wind energy industry.

The governor put his signature on Senate File 456, which utilizes unused tax credits to promote small wind energy projects across the state. He also approved House File 817, which provides economic incentives for wind component manufacturers who are looking at building or expanding in Iowa.

“With my signature, these bills will continue Iowa’s efforts to chart its own course toward energy independence,” he told attendees at a bill-signing ceremony. “By doing so, we’ll continue to create jobs in every part of the state, and strengthen our role as a national leader in both the business and the practice of energy production.”

Kudos to the Iowa Democrats who supported these bills and to Governor Culver for signing them into law. Together, they’ve shown us once again how states can lead the way to a clean energy economy.

Eleven days ago, the Supreme Court of Iowa declared that the state had no right to prohibit same-sex couples from seeking marriage licenses.

Now, right-wing Republicans are trying to amend the state's constitution and target Democrats who support equal rights.

Yesterday, Bryan English, a spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center, told the New York Times:

"This isn’t over, not even for this year."

Conservatives are pledging to hold rallies at the Capitol, and Republican lawmakers have threatened to delay important budget discussions in an effort to pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Right-wing groups are already raising money to target lawmakers with this issue next fall.

If Republicans take control, this amendment is sure to be one of their top priorities.

As always, we need your help to ensure that they never get the power to enact their radical, right-wing agenda in any of our statehouses.