Iowa Racist Steve King: "We're All God's Chillun"

Iowa, a swing state, has swung light blue in recent years. Bill Clinton won both times. Al Gore beat Bush in 2000. Obama won both times as well, 54-44% against McCain and 52-46% against Romney. The Democats control the state Senate and the GOP holds the state House. Party registration shows 689,794 Democrats (32.0%), 672,308 Republicans (31.2%) and 792,363 (36.8%) independents and others.

The only really conservative congressional district in the state, is IA-04, home to one of Congress' most outspoken racists, Steve King. Of course, King's is the whitest district in the state and gives the Republicans their biggest margins. While Obama rolled up wins in the other 3 districts, IA-04 went for McCain, 50-48%, and for Romney 53-45%. And last cycle the R+5 district gave King a 53-45% win over a very strong campaign by Iowa's former first lady Christie Vilsack (although it was his lowest margin of victory ever). He spent $3,815,765 on the campaign and she spent $3,355,948. Outside groups spent around $1.9 million on behalf of King and $2.7 on behalf of Vilsack. The district has 39 counties and King won 29 of them. Of the 3 counties with substantial populations, King took Woodbury (Sioux City) and Vilsack won Story (Ames) and Cerro Gordo (Mason City). But all those small, rural counties add up. The only public polling of the district done this cycle shows that voters there are weary of King's extremism. He's vulnerable. His Democratic opponent, Jim Mowrer, is a string candidate, albeit completely ignored by Steve Israel and the DCCC. As of the June 30 reporting deadline Mowrer had out-raised King and had $714,150 cash on hand to King's $442,673.

But King knows he doesn't have to spend money explaining away his outrageous racist comments to his backers in the rural parts of the state. They're fine with him they way he is, mostly because they're just like him-- small-minded, paranoid, bigoted and filled with right wing Hate Talk Radio garbage instead of brains. People in Ames, Boone, Fort Dodge and Mason City may have been mortified but they're not going to ever vote for King anyway.

An old crony of King's, reactionary Hate Talk Radio host and former congressman J.D. Hayworth (defeated in 2006 when Republicans defected after he was caught taking bribes in the Abramoff scandal) fed him questions that led him right to where they both wanted to go: that there is no independent investigation needed into the murder of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown and snarkily remarking that "I've seen the video. It looks to me like you don't need to bother with that particular factor because they all appear to be of a single origin, I should say, a continental origin might be the way to phrase that."

Beltway prognosticators predict that King will win reelection in November. Without help for Mowrer from the DCCC, its not likely there could be any other outcome.