This is the place to be if you are interested in Iowa's 4th Congressional District. Visit this site to be posted on the latest concerning Tom Latham and Democratic events in the district. As this site develops, we will have more links to the 28 county parties in the district, as well as other sources of information.
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Did you know that Barack Obama won the 4th District by 8 pts. and carried 21 of the 4th's 28 counties?
Did you know that Senator Harkin carried all of the counties in his re-election?
Did you know that 12 of the district's 20 Iowa House members are Democrats, and 8 of the 10 state senators are Deomcrats?
Latham Watch
DOES LATHAM AGREE WITH FELLOW REPUBLICANS - END SOC SEC AND MEDICARE?
Posted on 02-06-2010Believe it or not, Republicans in the House are proposing an alternative budget that would dismantle Social Security and Medicare through privatization. The Republican proposal comes from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), ranking member on the House's budget committee.
From Americans United for Change: "Iowa's seniors deserve to know: Where do Steve King and Tom Latham stand?"
LATHAM, STIMULUS DENIER
Posted on 02-03-2010Despite evidence to the contrary and common sense, Tom Latham continues to deny any effect from the national stimulus money:
"Somehow (the idea) the stimulus has been working is just a fallacy," Latham said.
Most of the jobs paid for with stimulus funds were at schools across the state. The governor's office said in a new report that 5,379 education positions were funded with stimulus funds. Another 830 positions were paid for in the construction sector, it said. Overall, the state says, 8,309 jobs were funded with stimulus funds that flowed through its coffers.
Latham brags that he voted AGAINST bringing desperately needed money back to his district?
LATHAM WORRIED THAT VOTERS WON'T LIKE HIS PERFORMANCE?
Posted on 01-31-2010In a Des Moines Register article on the anti-Washington mood:
"Rep. Tom Latham, an Ames Republican, said the anti-incumbent mood is more palpable now than it was in 1994, the year he was elected and Republicans captured both houses in Congress.
'The intensity is far greater today, with the disgust that there is with how Washington, D.C., has been operating for this last year,' Latham said."
People really are disgusted with the way Republicans obstruct everything coming down the pike, and no one represents that obstructionism better than Latham and Chuck Grassley.
CORPORATE TOM
Posted on 01-24-2010From the Des Moines Register's 2 Cents' Worth:
After Thursday's Supreme Court ruling, will we see political campaign commercials with Charles Grassley wearing John Deere jackets, Tom Latham wearing Latham Seeds hats and Terry Branstad wearing Iowa Select Farms coveralls?
- Not surprised
LATHAM OPPOSED TO IOWA'S BIODIESEL INDUSTRY
Posted on 01-09-2010In early December, Tom Latham voted against the Tax Extender's Act of 2009, which was needed to keep biodiesel subsidies, which are critical to help Iowa's farmers and maintain the bioenergy industry in Iowa. Even Chuck Grassley is for it, though it has not yet come to a vote in the Senate. According to Lynda Waddington of the Iowa Independent, "Iowa’s three Democratic representatives in the U.S. House have penned a letter to the chamber’s leadership requesting that a 2010 renewal of the biodiesel tax credit be made a priority." Besides voting against the act, he refused to join the his Iowa colleagues in penning the letter to the leadership.
LATHAM IS AN AGRICULTURE SOCIALIST
Posted on 12-23-2009Tom Latham gives lip service to smaller government, but that is really only for the regular people. He and his family are on the welfare roles of the USDA, with substantial crop subidies in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Latham Seed Co. received nearly $450,000 in federal subsidies in the 1995-2003 period, and his Dtb Farms LLC. received $360,000 in the 2003-2006 period. Tom Latham, welfare king!
The Environmental Working Group also reports that Tom Latham represents the third biggest agriculture welfare district in the country.
MASKE LAYS INTO LATHAM ON HIS ANNOUNCEMENT TOUR
Posted on 12-23-2009From the Decorah Newspapers on Bill Maske's announcement tour:
"Tom Latham has been more concerned with serving special interests and the privileged few and voting no," he said.
Maske mentioned Latham's "no" votes regarding affordable health care, hate crime prevention, children's health insurance, equal pay for equal work, credit card holders' bill of rights, stem cell research, veterans benefits and more.
U.S. REP. LATHAM OPPOSES HIRING MORE COPS . . . AGAIN
Posted on 12-12-2009From the DCCC: Despite the economic emergency forcing Iowa’s communities to cut back on law enforcement, Representative Tom Latham has once again opposed a bill to hire more police officers to fight violent crime and keep families safe.
“Representative Tom Latham’s vote against helping Iowa communities hire and retain more police officers during a time of steep budget cutbacks proves once again how out of touch Latham is with the economic emergency on Main Street,” said Ryan Rudominer, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The very last thing Representative Latham should be willing to sacrifice in tough economic times is the safety and security of Iowa families.”
LATHAM VOTES AGAINST LOWERING ESTATE TAX MAXIMUM RATE
Posted on 12-07-2009Our congressman frequently whines about wealthy families that need to pay estate taxes, but when it came down to the vote to limit the maximum rate of estate taxes, he followed the orders of the Republican Party leadership and voted against it.
Latham votes against the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009 - The House approved this legislation that would lower the maximum rate of estate and gift taxes to 45% after 2009. The bill now goes to the Senate.
"PARTY OF NO" AND LATHAM OBSTRUCTING HEALTH CARE REFORM
Posted on 12-06-2009Tom Harrington writes about the obstructionism by Latham and his Republican colleagues in a letter to the Ames Tribune:
Once you sort through the misinformation, health care reform comes down to us vs. the insurance industry, the Democrats vs. the “Party of No.”
HEALTH CARE DISTORTIONS BY LATHAM
Posted on 11-24-2009Jim Jorgensen calls out Latham's distortions in a letter to the Des Moines Register:
Our 4th District U.S. representative was quick to send out criticism of the health-care reform bill that passed the House. The statement by Tom Latham is filled with distortions. This historic legislation is a first step of many that need to be completed to solve this country's health-care dilemma. It is a step toward an affordable accessible health-care system for all. The notion that market forces will solve this is not common sense - it is fantasy.
LATHAM HAS AN OPPONENT
Posted on 11-24-2009Bleeding Heartland comments on Bill Maske's entry into the 4th District congressional race. Iowa Independent's Jason Hancock and Greg Giroux of Congressional Quarterly also chime in. Bill is a school administrator from Truro in Madison County. Good luck Bill!
DCCC: REP. LATHAM TELLS SENIORS TO FIND A NEW DOCTOR
Posted on 11-21-2009Representative Tom Latham today said no to protecting seniors and people with disabilities by telling them to go find a new doctor. By voting against the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, Latham refused to protect Medicare patients’ ability to keep seeing the doctors they know and trust by refusing to stop a 21 percent slash in Medicare payments to physicians.
DCCC: REP LATHAM'S HYPOCRISY ON FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
Posted on 11-21-2009While Iowa’s middle class families struggle harder to live within their means during these tough economic times, the same can’t be said of Representative Tom Latham when it comes to spending the taxpayers’ money. Yesterday, Latham had an opportunity to back up his rhetoric about fiscal responsibility by voting to restore the pay-as-you-go principles that House Republicans let expire under George Bush. Latham’s response? No.
PRIVATE INSURANCE NOT THE VEHICLE TO HEALTH REFORM
Posted on 11-20-2009
LATHAM WETS PANTS OVER GITMO DETAINEES IN ILLINOIS
Posted on 11-18-2009Linda Waddington of the Iowa Independent covers Latham's threat to introduce legislation to stop the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to a nearly-empty, high-security prison in Illinois, near Clinton, Iowa. Congressman Bruce Braley asked Republicans not to politicize the debate, and he thinks it is a terrific economic opportunity, as do the locals in Illinois. But Latham fears the presence of ". . . terrorist-detainees in our backyard." He apparently doesn't trust our prison systems or our court systems. Could the Republicans be any more cowardly?
Latham's irrational fear of Muslims is legendary. When questioned about his support of George Bush's Iraq War after Iowans had turned strongly against it, Latham responded to a group of constituents in Ames: "I would rather lose an election than have my children or grandchildren live under Sharia Law."
UPDATE: The fool actually went ahead and introduced the legislation. Not that it matters. In his entire 15 year career in the House, Latham has never had a significant piece of legislation pass. His xenophobic move is for show only. Latham and King, what a pair!
HEALTH CARE REFORM IS NO GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER
Posted on 11-18-2009Charles Vogelhuber of Charles City had this LTE published in the Charles City Press and the Mason City Globe Gazette:
Opponents of the public health insurance option charge that it would lead to a government takeover of all health care in this country. They say that private health insurance companies would be unable to compete with a competitor that would have unlimited access to the federal treasury. They would have a strong argument if such a competitor actually existed.
MORE BS FROM LATHAM ON HEALTHCARE
Posted on 11-13-2009Jim Jorgensen, a veteran from Ames, has another LTE on Latham's lame heathcare stance:
Our 4th District representative was quick to send out a criticism of the health care reform bill that passed the House last Saturday night. The statement by Rep. Tom Latham is filled with distortions. Surely the world is coming to an end. Surely we would be better off staying with the status quo.
REMEMBER LATHAM'S VOTE ON HEALTH CARE
Posted on 11-12-2009Jerry Peltier is another disgruntled constituent in his letter to the Ames Tribune:
With many compromises and a lot of arm twisting the House of Representatives finally passed a Health care bill. The bill is far from perfect, but at least it will correct some of the rotten practices carried on by health insurance companies denying coverage to increase their profits. Of course, our District 4 representative was more interested in party politics then the people he is supposed to represent, so he voted against it. I only hope that voters will remember that when the next election rolls around. Some of these out-of-touch politicians conveniently forget who picks up the tab for their health care.
LATHAM LEAVES OUR VETS BEHIND
Posted on 11-12-2009From the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:
As we honor Veterans Day by paying tribute to the sacrifice made by our men and women in uniform, we are reminded of Representative Tom Latham’s long record of just saying no when it comes to standing up for America’s veterans. On everything from improving veterans’ health care benefits to providing housing vouchers for homeless vets, Latham has a long record of saying the right thing to veterans back home, only to desert them when it comes time to vote in Congress.
Events
2010 County Conventions
March 13 or 20, 2010TBA by the county chair
4th District Democratic Party Convention
April 24thNorth Iowa Fair, Mason City