I’ve just wrapped a second-day piece on the announcement that 2008 Republican Party vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will bring her “Going Rogue” booksigning tour to Sioux City. It will be her only Iowa appearance, so many Siouxlanders are pumped to see Palin. I spoke with Barnes & Noble community relations manager Elisha Karr, who said she heard from up the chain that Palin specifically asked to come to Sioux City. Seems she’d been buoyed by a crowd of 4,500 people at West High School here in the last few days before the 2008 election. I was there, Palin was definitely embraced by the crowd that day.

Karr said her understanding is that Palin will be heading a bus tour that day. Since she also has an appearance in Sioux Falls, S.D., 80 miles north, four hours after the Sioux City event starts, Karr said it would be hard for Palin to piggyback another non-booksigning event.

A call this afternoon to Woodbury County Republican Party Chairman Brian Rosener of Bronson revealed he’s requested an appearance by Palin on the trip. But he didn’t sound hopeful, citing that many Republican organizations are hitting Palin, “one of the most sought-after speakers in the U.S.”, with appearance requests.

Lastly, from a handout Karr gave me, here are the particulars to know at this point if you want to see Palin at B&N:
– Wristbands will be handed out on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning at 7 a.m. Dec. 6. You must be present to get a wristband.
– You must present your Barnes & Noble receipt for “Going Rogue” in order to get a wristband.
– Maximum of two copies of “Going Rogue” per person will be signed.
– No posed photos with Palin.
– No personalization of signings of the books, Palin will be providing only an autograph.

The results of the Sioux City Council race yesterday demonstrated how incumbents have had a rough go of it in the 2000s, as the sole councilman seeking re-election placed fourth, not in the money for the three seats that were set. Jim Rixner, who was elected in 2005, will be leaving the council in January. Additionally, two councilmen didn’t seek re-election — Dave Ferris after eight years and Brent Hoffman after four years, so a combined 16 years of tenure goes by the wayside.

Replacing the three are furniture store associate Keith Radig (who ran unsuccessfully for the Iowa House in 2002 and 2004 as a Republican), former councilman Tom Padgett and long-time contractor John Fitch. Padgett brings eight years of council experience, which is helpful, while the other two men on the council, Mayor Mike Hobart and Councilman Aaron Rochester, are two years in on four-year terms. In the aggregate, not a lot of experience.

Going into the election, I had one thought on sole incumbent Rixner’s chances — just how ticked off would Sioux Cityans be over the new city ordinance limiting pit full ownership? Rixner has taken some hits over supporting the pit bull ordinance, and after the loss he said the pit bull ordinance anger factored into his defeat.

He also said there was a “furious effort” by the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce to defeat him. Hmmmm. I guess we can see the merits of nabbing a chamber endorsement — in the Sioux City School Board race, the three candidates who were endorsed by the chamber (Molly Williams, Nancy Mounts and Doug Batcheller) won the seats, while that happened again now in the council race. The pro-business chamber, indeed, endorsed Fitch, Radig and Padgett.

The final results: Padgett, 4,245 votes; Fitch, 3,915; Radig, 3,030; Rixner, 2,840; and Ian Rappolt, 2,758.

Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill traditionally has two benchmarks to gauge voter turnout — he has the polling places call in totals at 11 a.m. and then 4 p.m. Gill just got the latter time results, and said voter turnout is tracking at less than 10 percent. He said typically half the voters have been cast by 4 p.m., so with 3,980 votes cast at this point, it will be hard to get beyond 8,000. There are currently 43,876 active registered voters in Sioux City.

Voters are picking among five men for three Sioux City Council positions: incumbent Jim Rixner, Keith Radig, John Fitch, and the two men who essentially tied in topping  fundraising, Ian Rappolt ($7,667) and Tom Padgett ($7,665).

The race for three Sioux City Council seats will be decided two nights from now. The five candidates include the sole incumbent, Jim Rixner, former councilman and mayor Tom Padgett, 2002 and 2004 statehouse (Republican) candidate Keith Radig, developer John Fitch and political newcomer Ian Rappolt, who works at Boys and Girls Home. Rappolt may be a newbie, but he’s a formidable fundraiser, especially in tapping into the political action committees of local labor unions. Again the story of the another campaign finance reporting period is how Rappolt is raking in from union PACs.

Rappolt has raised a total of $7,667, virtually a dead heat with the $7,665 Padgett has amassed. Of that $7,667 for Rappolt, he’s got $3,950 from union PACs. He’s gotten a lot of guff for that from commenters to the Journal’s Web site, but Rappolt said he’s heard not one word of concern from anyone he’s visited with while campaigning.

Here are the key Sioux City Council candidate totals, from two reporting periods with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board:

Funds raised first report: (1) Padgett, $5,800, (2) Rappolt, $4,205, (3) Fitch, $2,200, (4) Radig, $2,055 and (5) Rixner, $1,030.

Funds raised second report: (1) Rixner, $4,690, (2) Rappolt, $3,462, (3) Fitch, $3,150, (4) Padgett, $1,865 and (5) Radig, $1,500.

Funds raised all told: (1) Rappolt, $7,667, (2) Padgett, $7,665, (3) Rixner, $5,720, (4) Fitch, $5,350 and (5) Radig, $3,555.

Funds raised from PACs: (1) Rappolt, $3,950, and (2) Rixner, $1,450.

Woodbury County Republican Party Chairman Brian Rosener this morning confirmed State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone can’t work around some conflicts and won’t be present tonight in the county party gubernatorial debate at the Sioux City Convention Center. Former Gov. Terry Branstad also is saving up his first appearance with the other candidates for Nov. 7 in Des Moines, so that leaves a field of four: Sioux Cityans Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants, Christian Fong and Rod Roberts.

The event is a fundraiser for the party at $10 per head, and Rosener said a few hundred might attend. “We certainly hope there are a lot of people out to see where these guys stand on the issues,” he said.

The topics will be the economy, state budget, taxation, education and marriage, on the day that same-sex marriage hits six months in Iowa. Rosener said the 90-minute event will involve a debate-style format, so while there will be time limits on answers, if the back-and-forth gets instructive, the candidates will be allowed to keep going. “We want it to flow a little bit,” he said.

Rosener said he’s disgruntled over the state of the state budget, with K-12 schools and law enforcement being included in the 10 percent across-the-board budget cut Democratic Gov. Chet Culver announced earlier this month. Rosener said state auditor David Vaudt and Republican lawmakers warned the budget was too plump in a time of recession, yet Culver didn’t insist on racheting back the budget during the session. Waiting until the early October state revenue estimate indicated a crisis was poor leadership by Culver, Rosener said.

“This state of Iowa is in such a critical situation,” he stated.

Next week will be an important period for candidate forums. More short-term focused will be the Oct. 29 evening forum at city hall for the five Sioux City Council candidates, John Fitch, Tom Padgett, Ian Rappolt and councilman Jim Rixner. That session should provide fodder for making candidate voting decisions in the Nov. 2 election.

But the forum that could draw more attention is the Oct. 27 Woodbury County Republican Party forum and fundraiser to which seven 2010 gubernatorial candidates have been invited. Those extended opportunities to speak are Sioux Cityans Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants, Cedar Rapids business executive Christian Fong, state lawmakers Rod Roberts of Carroll, Jerry Behn of Boone and Paul McKinley of Chariton, and one more guy you may have heard of, former Gov. Terry Branstad.

Branstad on Friday, of course, made news by resigning his position as president of Des Moines University while still not announcing if he’d run for governor in 2010. He’s formed an exploratory committe, hired staff for that committee and quit his job — you do the math. Branstad said he’s going to travel all 99 counties to get input in making his decision.  Could this provide the opportunity to see Branstad stand alongside other candidates?

Woodbury County Republican Party Chairman Brian Rosener of Bronson is enthused about the possibilities the forum holds to get a big field of candidates. He’ll have a handle on who will attend in a few days, but this afternoon said he expects at least four to be on  hand. Rosener said the event will be the biggest for the county party in 2009, so he’s hoping for a big turnout by those providing $10 to witness the forum.

“We are coming at it with the viewpoint that Iowa is in pretty critical condition or heading that way,” Rosener said.

He said people need to hear where the candidates stand on methods to improve the shaky state budget situation, while learning about positions on social issues like same-sex marriage, which became legal in April following an Iowa Supreme Court ruling. Same-sex marriage is an important issue for 2010, Rosener said, since “it is a social issue as well as a judicial issue.”

(The original post excluded Padgett’s name in the list of candidates, while including Rixner twice. My apologies.)

Just before yesterday’s candidate forum for the men seeking three Sioux City Council positions, David Wantland announced he’s bowing out of the race. Further, Wantland announced he wants supporters to move to back Keith Radig. Wantland said the two are fiscal conservatives who won’t raise taxes to run city programs.

Wantland will likely get some votes Nov. 2, as his name remains on the ballot. He told Journal reporter Lynn Zerschling  he doubted he could bring in sufficient funding in the final push before the election to hop up from his sixth-place city primary finish (in the field of 11) to emerge with a council seat.

Still in the race are Radig, incumbent Jim Rixner, former councilman and mayor Tom Padgett, Ian Rappolt and Jim Fitch.

The field of 11 Sioux City Council candidates has been winnowed, with James Gengler, Douglas Van Der Voort, David Hays, Tom Venesky and Victor Vara falling by the wayside, and Tom Padgett (22 percent), John Fitch (18 %), councilman Jim Rixner (15%), Ian Rappolt (11%), Keith Radig (10%) and David Wantland (8%) moving onto the Nov. 2 election. From those six, three men will land four-year terms. The expiring terms are held by Rixner along with David Ferris and Brent Hoffman.

Voter turnout ended at 8.5 percent after tracking in late morning to be about 7 percent, Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill said yesterday. The turnout was the lowest since 1993. Gill said typically about 10 percent of city voters participate in city council primaries, which he said are “usually a popularity contest” in which known city movers have the upper hand.

You might note the top six placers spent the most money of the 11. In the campaign finance report filing period ended last week, former councilman and mayor Padgett led the field in raising $5,800. Having a history as a long-time businessman certainly helped Fitch, and Rixner — as much as he’s irritated some Sioux Cityans with past votes or statements — obviously has good name ID. Does that make Padgett, Fitch or Rixner locks to join the council?

I’m looking over campaign committee finance reports this afternoon for the 11 Sioux City Council candidates for a piece that will be published shortly in The Journal. Here are some tidbits to whet your appetite, and at the bottom of  the post I’ll provide links to seven reports available at the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board to peruse at your leisure.

Tom Padgett, the former Sioux City mayor and councilman, leads the field with $5,800. His top donor is Norm Waitt Jr. of Dakota Dunes, a former Gateway official, who donated $2,000, which doubles the next highest donation anyone in the field received.  Padgett’s list of donors giving typically from $100 to $250 is a Who’s Who of city movers.

Yes, as tipped here a few days ago, one candidate is receiving money from political action committees. Ian Rappolt — the youngster in the field (Keith Radig is young too, but not as young as just out-of-college Rappolt) — has received $1,750 from three political action committees affiliated with labor unions. I spoke briefly with Rappolt, who said he’s getting money from Democrats, Republicans and in between, and he’s not apologizing for taking some PAC money. He’s being hammered by some for being beholden to unions.

This is fairly new turf in Sioux City Council race history. Two years ago you had the groundbreaking participation by the PeaceMakers PAC operated by local minister Cary Gordon. Some don’t like the PAC presence, but hey, political action committees have every right to funnel money to candidates of their choosing.  For what it’s worth, the amount Rappolt’s received (to this point) pales to the $11,000 Aaron Rochester received from PeaceMakers in 2007 in his victorious campaign. And the $4,000 councilman Brent Hoffman received from PeaceMakers PAC in 2007 didn’t enable him to jump to victory in the mayoral contest.

Click on the following names  for campaign finance  information on Tom Padgett, Ian Rappolt, Keith Radig, David Wantland, incumbent Jim Rixner and James Gengler and John Fitch.  Good luck with a few of the handwritten names.

There are no reports on the disclosure board Web site for candidates Victor Vara, David Hays, Douglas Van Der Voort and Thomas Venesky.

On Tuesday night we’ll know which six Sioux City Council candidates moved out of the city primary and onto the ballot for the Nov. 3 election. Eleven Sioux Cityans are vying in the primary, which is starting to take on some immediacy, as more campaign signs are staked into lawns and candidates are out in neighborhoods.  I spoke briefly with a candidate yesterday casting an absentee ballot down in the Woodbury County Auditor’s office.

Some people are talking about Ian Rappolt being the recipient of union political action committee campaign contributions. Thus, like in 2007 when the PeaceMakers Political Action Committee donated $3,000 to Brent Hoffman and $11,000 to Aaron Rochester, PAC contributions — which have not been the norm in city council elections — will be part of the campaign finance story I’ll write later this week. And people can debate if the city council races are being more “politicized.”

The Taxpayers Research Council has surveyed the 11 candidates about their views on use of taxpayers’ money, TRC executive director James Van Bruggen relates. Their full responses can be found at www.siouxlandtrc.org.

The candidates vying for three four-year positions include incumbent Rixner and Tom Padgett, who served two terms on the council from 1994-2001 and served as mayor from 1998-2000. The other nine are Rappolt, Victor Vara, Keith Radig, John Fitch, David Hays, David Wantland, Douglas Van Der Voort, James Gengler and Thomas Venesky. Radig twice ran unsuccessfully for the Iowa Legislature in 2002 and 2004 and Van Der Voort ran unsuccesfully for the Sioux City School Board in 2008.

The top six votegetters Tuesday, regarding of the percentage of votes received, move on. Councilmen Hoffman and Dave Ferris are not running for re-election.