The Des Moines Register this evening has released additional details from a poll done on high-profile political figures. The one that Tom Beaumont has just dropped on his blog shows 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is in strong favor among Iowa Republicans. But her unfavorability rating among Iowans overall is 55 percent, compared to the 37 percent who view the former Alaska governor unfavorably, the poll showed.

And Beaumont summarizes, “Those feelings are intense: The percentage of Iowans who view Palin very unfavorably is more than twice as large as the percentage who view her very favorably.” Right — those who deride Palin as “Caribou Barbie” do so with profound dislike, while fans will line up for hours to see her in a Dec. 6 Sioux City book tour and not resent the time spent whatsoever.

The part of The Register poll from yesterday shows President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has fallen to 49 percent, down four percent from September and from 68 percent as he assumed the presidency in January. Obama got 54 percent of the vote in Iowa a year ago.

Got a tip (thanks, Cliff Tufty) of a Sioux City native running for major political office, as 1965 Central High graduate John Munger is running for governor in Arizona. Munger has firm roots in Republican Party politics, as his father, Robert P. Munger, served in the Iowa House and Senate. He got a start in politics serving as an intern for former Iowa 6th District Congressman Wiley Mayne of Sioux City in 1967, prior to getting a degree from Stanford University. Apparently, he’s been a southwest U.S. guy ever since.

He formed a law firm with brother Clark Munger in Tucson in 1977, then gained some impressive positions as Arizona Republican Party Chairman (in 1983) and as a member of the Republican National Committee. In 2008, he chaired the John McCain for President Arizona Campaign. The Journal archives are pretty good, and turned up the flyer the mustachoied Munger had for his state party chairman bid. It’s full of words like leader, budget, task force, door-to-door and Reagan. One portion notes the push to recruit minorities to run as Republicans.

Fast forward to today, Munger obviously isn’t afraid of an intraparty battle, as he’s running against Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, the former Arizona Secretary of State who was elevated to governor earlier this year when Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano joined the Obama administration as Department of Homeland Security Secretary. For a bit, former GOP Gov. Fife Symington thought of running again himself in 2010 (shades of Terry Branstad), but in October Symington endorsed Munger.

Not all Mungers, however are Republicans — first-cousin Sioux City attorney Stan Munger said with a laugh that he’s the rare Democrat. “I’m proud of it,” he said.

Stan Munger sees his cousin every two or three years, and he’s looking for a win, even though they differ politically. He’s not the least surprised John is running for governor.

“John has been very active politically and he loves politics,” Stan Munger said. “I am totally supportive and would love to see him succeed. He’s a great guy.”

Munger’s campaign theme is “Real Leadership, No Excuses.” He cites Arizonians having watched “in frustration as jobs and businesses disappear, our education system fails our children, a water shortage looms on the horizon, our transportation system totters, all while government has grown at twice the combined rates of inflation plus population growth for the last many years.”

Blasted John Deeth, beating me to the punch with a post of plentious sagacity. Iowa City-based Deeth not only has his original JohnDeethBlog site, but lately he’s moved onto periodic posts for The Des Moines Register. Two nights ago in handling what I’m hoping (please!) is my last time raking leaves in 2009, my mind went to 2010 gubernatorial politics and the Republican field. I was thinking how if the large GOP field isn’t settled by the June primary, Bob Vander Plaats would be the favorite in a special convention to pick the nominee.

I dawdled on that topic for a post, but Deeth laid that thought out similarly here. Give it a read, I’m essentially in agreement. As said in this blog previously, in his third attempt in running for governor, Vander Plaats enjoys a strong constituency of supporters who won’t want to move to another candidate. I’ll put that at 30 percent, perhaps 35 percent, that the Sioux City management consultant can lock-it-in count on. I don’t believe any other candidate, Terry Branstad included, has such a rabid core of supporters.

There could be a field of three or four from among Vander Plaats, Branstad, Chris Rants, Jerry Behn, Christian Fong and Rod Roberts still going come June, and if the primary doesn’t result in one of the candidates amassing the 35 percent threshold in the primary, I posit that Vander Plaats would have the advantage in the convention. Vander Plaats might want to hope for the biggest field possible to ensure no one gets 35 percent in the primary. On the other hand, the smaller the field, the more likely it is that someone like Branstad or Rants could squeak out a 36-to-38 percent win.

These special conventions are rare but interesting, as evidenced by the summer 2002 event in Denison that included horsetrading before then-State Sen. Steve King emerged with  the Iowa 5th District Congressional GOP nod.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is a guy some Republicans want to see a run for president. After his bruising 2004 win that knocked Democratic heavyweight Tom Daschle out of a seat, Thune can be forgiven if he takes his 2010 re-election bid with less concern and actually looks ahead at a 2012 presidential bid.

But he might want to watch his words, as he’s received some attention for a line in a CNN profile. Downplaying any presidential aspirations, Thune obliquely referenced the important Iowa caucuses in the selection process, speaking thusly: “I may go across Iowa, but it will be to get somewhere.” That caused Democratic activist Taylor West to tweet that Some of us think Iowa IS somewhere.

Of course, Thune has been in Iowa before, including earlier this year when he spoke at an event set by Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King and again Sept. 1 at an Ag Committee hearing in Sioux City. (He’s pictured at right, beside U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.)

Speaking of the 2012 presidential contest, Republicans with either vague or profound thoughts, however coyly expressed, of running to unseat President Barack Obama are coming through Iowa with repetition. We had Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Saturday in Des Moines, former New York Gov. George Pataki spoke at a Scott County GOP function last night and on Friday and Saturday Texas Congressman Ron Paul will appear in Ames and Des Moines events. Paul, who has a strong Libertarian bent in with his Republicanism, had a small but impassioned band of supporters during the run-up to the January 2008 Iowa caucuses.

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 Sarah Palin autobiography recapping her journey from basketball player to Alaska governor to 2008 vice presidential candidate drops next week. Palin kicks off her “Going Rogue: An American Life” book tour in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Nov. 18, and she has one Iowa stop slated — right here in Sioux City.

It’s an amazing get for the Barnes & Noble store at Southern Hills Malls, as Palin will be signing her book at 1 p.m. that day. She’ll then head north for another stop up Interstate 29 in Sioux Falls.

Many conservatives in the Republican Party want Palin to plow ahead with a 2012 presidential bid. Palin will undoubtedly get a positive response with her Sioux City stop. Of course, progressives might also want to sneak in the two-letters-swapped nonflattering  book produced by The Nation: “Going Rouge.”

ADDED 3:10 p.m.: How could I forget this piece of context — Palin has been in Sioux City once previously, when in October 2008 she spoke to an overflow crowd at West High School just days before the election.

Posted on Twitpic by Somethingfishie

Federal health care reform talks have achieved critical mass, as the end of this week will be a key time to see whether reform moves forward. The U.S. House could vote on a measure Saturday, and today some local chapters of the American Association of Retired People are holding press conferences to talk about support for the House bill. That will happen in a few minutes in Des Moines with Iowa AARP talking about advocacy efforts.

On the flip side, at noon Republicans like Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann will follow through with a press event called a “house call” on the east steps of the Capitol in Washington to beat back reform. Two days ago King and other reform critics called on Americans to “fill the streets of Washington and opposed the (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi health care bill. ”

“For liberals, this legislation is the crown jewel of their socialist agenda,” King said, since it “will place bureaucrats between patients and doctors,” and raise taxes on small businesses. Bachmann pitched the “house call” with, “Nothing scares members of Congress like freedom-loving Americans.”

With equal conviction he’s right on the issue, on Tuesday a Storm Lake newspaperman gave testimony to the Senate Health, Education, Health and Pensions Committee hearing on health insurance, as invited by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. Art Cullen of the Storm Lake Times spoke about how the newspaper has struggled to continue to provide health insurance to 12 employees as costs rise. He cited rates doubling (and then annually increasing by double digits) after an employee had a kidney transplant in 2005, and bemoaned an inability to change insurers because of employees with pre-existing conditions.

“The Storm Lake Times now pays nearly $50,000 per year for health insurance coverage. That’s almost as much as we pay for newsprint. Were it not for such high insurance costs we could add more employees and help to grow our local economy,” Cullen testified.

Cullen noted Buena Vista County families have an average household income of $36,000 and it costs about one-third of that amount to buy an annual private health care plan. Click here to see the 176-minute hearing, including the very last minute in which an incensed, arms-waving Cullen goes off prepared testimony to vent about  insurance companies “screwing” Americans.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard a person pitch Steve King for president in 2012. Mere weeks after the 2008 election in which Barack Obama was selected as president, we at The Journal took a look at what names Northwest Iowans might see in the ‘12 race. (Yes, some readers said, too much, too soon.) That involved asking  Republican Party chairpersons in many surrounding counties to list their top three picks for four years off. A county chairwoman was quick to put King’s name on her list.

With GOP people like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney and others taking top mentions in early 2009, I forgot about King as a possible presidential candidate. The speculation was whether this would be the year King ran for governor, which he ultimately did not pursue.

Then last month, when interviewing Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for a profile piece on King, I asked about her perceived interest in the presidency. Before saying she had no intention to pursue the presidency, Bachmann first brought up King’s name as getting mention on Capitol Hill.

And last night, Dave Price of WHO, the Des Moines NBC affiliate, aired an interview with King in which the four-term congressman won’t rule out running for president. And why should he? King is beloved by the conservative base of the Republican Party, which in many states has a big role in pushing candidates toward victories in primaries and caucuses. King loves having a national voice on issues of importance, which doesn’t hurt his profile with the base. (Yeah, sure, he riles up Democrats, that’s a given.)

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who King has noted is essentially his twin, ran for president in 2008. Why shouldn’t Steve King?

When we get missives from the press office of the Terry Branstad for Governor campaign (yes, still technically in ‘exploratory’ status), they’ll be the product of an area native. Ida Grove’s Tim Albrecht this morning has been announced as Branstad’s communications team director, and he’s on the job this very day.

Albrecht, 32, has had a hand in a lot of Republican political campaigns after leaving the University of Northern Iowa. He was part of the Steve Forbes presidential campaign, worked for Steve Sukup when he ran for governor in 2002, then served for four years as spokesman for Iowa House Speaker Chris Rants of Sioux City.

Rants was a very early supporter of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential race way back in late 2006, and Albrecht became press secretary for Romney’s campaign in Iowa. I figured at some point, Albrecht would come on board with Rants in his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Many of you know Albrecht about a year ago launched a popular Web site, TheBeanWalker, which is a right-of-center news aggregator, a sort of Iowa-ized Drudge Report. Albrecht announced the site will continue with a new publisher. He also is leaving behind his job as communications director for American Future Fund, the group that in 2009 brought to the state a batch of high-profile GOP people with supposed designs on the 2012 presidency, including U.S. Sen. John Ensign to speak here in Sioux City.

Will he run for the 2010 governor spot? Certainly.

Here’s the key quote made late yesterday by former Gov. Terry Branstad, after journeying  from Iowa City (after the Hawkeyes defeated Indiana) to Wilton to speak at a fundraiser for Republican State Rep. Jeff Kaufmann: “This is a Saturday we’ll always remember — the day the Hawkeyes set a record nine straight wins… and the day I had the opportunity to re-enter the political fray.”

Wait, did Branstad in any way cite the Iowa State football program?