Iowa's Top Bloggers

Published Jan 02 2008, 03:04 PM by David S. Bernstein

For well over a year, I've been a regular peruser of Iowa political web sites. So, I thought I'd give a shout-out to some of the ones I've particularly liked. I'm not including the "regular" media sites, like the Des Moines Register (which in particular has been outstanding).

One of the best blogs in the state has been Iowa Independent, where John Deeth was up early this morning to post on the candidates' song choices at campaign events. His observations include this line on a Rudy Giuliani event, that blasted "AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Guns N' Roses, with no discernable message other than kick ass. (Kind of like his campaign.)" Also at Iowa Independent, Chase Martyn surveys the various endorsements and other signs of campaign strength in the state.

Iowa Politics has been an indispensible non-partisan site, keeping a constant update of news, campaign press releases, event listings, and commentary. The site only launched a blog in the final week, unfortunately.

The single best individual caucus blogger, in my opinion, has been former Iowa Democratic Party Chair Gordon Fischer at Iowa True Blue. He came late to the game -- launching the blog in August -- and his endorsement of Barack Obama has hurt the blog considerably in my opinion, but he still knows his stuff and his state, and is quirky enough to have challenged Evan Bayh to a rap battle.

I also have a fondness for Essential Estrogen, although her verbosity is a little off-putting. Century of the Common Iowan is always a good lefty read.

For multi-voice sites, the Blue Mass Group-ish site Bleeding Heartland has been a good read for progressive perspectives.

On the right, young Don McDowell -- co-chair of the Iowa Federation of Young Republicans -- has been a regular read for me at Cyclone Conservatives, and I congratulate him on completing his project of getting his picture taken with every significant GOP Presidential candidate! The Real Sporer -- Ted Sporer, vice-chair of the Iowa Republican Party -- is always informative. Caucus Cooler was my right-wing fave early in the year, but he took seven months off. (Returning strong in the final month, though.) Krusty Konservative was great, until he mysteriously disappeared amid strange allegations of threats to "out" his identity.

There are others, of course, but those are my top picks. BTW, the Iowa Democratic Party has set up a web site to display caucus results (in real-time! supposedly) tomorrow night. I suspect the state GOP will do likewise, although I don't have any info on that. The Register and others will probably be reporting results quickly.