This weeks Civic Skinny 01-19-06

[Debi]

It is all about $$

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Chet Culver announced last week that he has raised some $1.14 million, and we're hearing chief rival Mike Blouin will announce he has a little more than half that. Not bad in a crowded field, but both still pale mightily in comparison to the $2 million Republican Jim Nussle announced last month. And while Democrats are sweating Nussle's money and hoping Republican Bob Vander Plaats can at least make his race with Nussle interesting, we have learned that more than the governor's office is at stake with Nussle's big-money connections. A top Republican said that not only has Nussle raised more money than all the Democratic candidates combined, but Nussle has also been telling top party people that he wants a governing majority in the Iowa Legislature when he "takes back Terrace Hill." To do this, we've heard Nussle has guaranteed that he is going to find $1 million more strictly for legislative and executive council races. "Democrats are going to have to rely on a lot of national money if they hope to get back the governor's office, because they're obviously divided and are going to have to spend a ton down the stretch just to settle on a candidate. That hurts the smaller races. Add a million dollars to Republican legislative war chests and that spreads them really thin," our source said. When we asked this individual whether there was any truth to Vander Plaats' opting out of the race to run for Secretary of State so that Nussle could concentrate on next November, our source said, "It doesn't really matter."

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http://www.dmcityview.com/skinny.shtml

[DU9598]

1. Scary

Gov. Nussle and a republican majority? That would be enough to push me to Chicago.

[Debi]

2. All of us!

Good to see you here :hi: What have you been up to?

Did you go to caucus?