Iowa

Iowa lobbying records

Every filer who declared a side on at least 25 bills whose outcome is known — 797 of them — ranked by how far their results beat what those same positions would have produced by chance.

How to read this

In Iowa, between 17% and 58% of lobbied bills pass, depending on the session. So supporting a bill is not the same bet as opposing one, and neither is the same bet in a different year. Expected is how many of that filer's positions would have come out their way at the session's own pass rate. Edge is how much better they did. At least is the bottom of the 95% confidence interval — the part of the edge that survives the sample being small.

Ranked by that floor rather than by edge, because 25 wins from 25 positions is weaker evidence than a smaller edge across 150.

This is a record, not a measure of influence. Lobbyists choose winnable fights and already-sympathetic legislators, most lobbying never appears in any filing, and a contested bill has filers on both sides with no way to apportion credit between them. What is measured here is the alignment between a position someone declared and what then happened to the bill.

Best records

Filer	Positions	Won	Expected	Edge	±	At least
Greg Conard	60	29	21	+13.9%	±5.0	+4.0%
John Strathman	609	223	184	+6.4%	±1.6	+3.3%
Noah Meyers	66	27	18	+13.1%	±5.0	+3.2%
John Torbert	80	35	26	+11.9%	±4.5	+3.0%
Ben Nuelle	69	31	23	+12.3%	±4.9	+2.8%
Mona Bond	191	103	88	+7.6%	±2.9	+2.0%
Nate Monson	74	47	39	+11.0%	±4.6	+2.0%
Angelica Cardenas-Chaisson	132	70	59	+8.3%	±3.4	+1.6%
Jeff Smith	678	274	244	+4.4%	±1.5	+1.4%
William Gustoff	84	46	38	+9.5%	±4.2	+1.2%
Matt Fitzgerald	756	302	271	+4.1%	±1.5	+1.2%
Matt Gronewald	273	123	107	+5.8%	±2.4	+1.1%
Kevin Kuhle	328	135	118	+5.3%	±2.2	+1.0%
Heaven Chamberlain	110	83	74	+8.4%	±3.8	+1.0%
Marty Ryan	1,153	639	603	+3.1%	±1.2	+0.9%
Drew Mogler	57	26	20	+11.4%	±5.4	+0.9%
Stephanie Fawkes-Lee	974	523	494	+3.0%	±1.3	+0.5%
Pam Mackey-Taylor	966	463	435	+2.9%	±1.3	+0.5%
Maggie Smith-Fitzgerald	954	370	342	+2.9%	±1.3	+0.4%
Lisa Davis-Cook	983	553	525	+2.9%	±1.3	+0.4%
Brad Lint	862	490	464	+3.1%	±1.3	+0.4%
Bill Peard	49	33	27	+11.6%	±5.7	+0.4%
Nicholas Dreeszen	210	80	68	+5.7%	±2.7	+0.4%
Joshua Carpenter	57	22	16	+10.8%	±5.3	+0.4%
Larry Blixt	612	286	265	+3.5%	±1.6	+0.3%
Jim Carney	1,791	775	736	+2.1%	±0.9	+0.3%
Jennifer Dorman	1,561	682	647	+2.3%	±1.0	+0.3%
Courtney Reyes	184	130	119	+6.0%	±2.9	+0.3%
Madeline Crook	47	20	15	+11.5%	±5.7	+0.3%
Doug Struyk	1,744	748	712	+2.1%	±1.0	+0.2%
Heather Ryan	106	79	71	+7.7%	±3.8	+0.2%
Katherine Carlucci	257	131	118	+5.0%	±2.5	+0.1%
Keenan Crow	437	290	273	+3.8%	±1.9	+0.1%
Ben Stone	92	63	56	+7.9%	±4.0	+0.0%
Dennis Henderson	231	134	122	+5.1%	±2.6	+0.0%
Leslie Carpenter	450	158	141	+3.7%	±1.9	+0.0%
Melissa Peterson	1,210	654	629	+2.1%	±1.1	-0.1%
Brad Hudson	694	386	367	+2.8%	±1.5	-0.2%
Matthew Steinfeldt	619	241	224	+2.7%	±1.6	-0.4%
Tom Ferguson	189	73	63	+5.3%	±2.9	-0.4%
Brad Cranston	254	88	77	+4.4%	±2.5	-0.5%
Keith Saunders	180	86	77	+5.3%	±3.0	-0.6%
Shannon Henson	332	156	144	+3.6%	±2.1	-0.6%
Kathleen McQuillen	150	81	72	+5.8%	±3.2	-0.6%
Sarah Abdouch	68	27	21	+8.7%	±4.7	-0.6%
Mitchell Stille	311	153	142	+3.6%	±2.2	-0.7%
Midge Slater	131	69	61	+5.9%	±3.4	-0.7%
Josiah Oleson	213	76	66	+4.8%	±2.8	-0.7%
Kurtis Bower	45	28	23	+11.1%	±6.0	-0.7%
Bobby Martens	141	59	51	+5.9%	±3.4	-0.8%
Angie Long	194	71	62	+4.8%	±2.8	-0.8%
Logan Murray	491	202	189	+2.7%	±1.8	-0.8%
Mindy Poldberg	232	74	64	+4.1%	±2.6	-0.9%
Angela Davis	541	268	255	+2.4%	±1.7	-0.9%
Christopher Rants	1,172	449	433	+1.4%	±1.2	-0.9%
BRITTANY LUMLEY	629	264	250	+2.3%	±1.6	-0.9%
Courtney Craig	374	173	162	+3.0%	±2.1	-1.0%
Thomas Stanberry	295	144	134	+3.4%	±2.3	-1.1%
Rita Bettis Austen	948	553	540	+1.4%	±1.3	-1.1%
Victoria Sinclair	418	163	152	+2.7%	±1.9	-1.1%

Worst records

A negative edge often means a filer opposes bills that were going to pass anyway, or represents clients on the losing side of settled politics. It is not a measure of competence.

Filer	Positions	Won	Expected	Edge	±	At least
Eric St Clair	54	1	13	-21.8%	±5.4	-32.3%
Cohl Bultje	54	8	18	-17.6%	±5.5	-28.5%
Elizabeth Baird	102	24	38	-13.6%	±3.9	-21.1%
Meghan Van	34	1	7	-18.7%	±6.7	-31.7%
Deanna Clingan	81	8	19	-13.8%	±4.4	-22.4%
Charlie Smithson	40	2	9	-16.9%	±6.2	-29.0%
Katherine Barton	33	4	10	-18.5%	±7.3	-32.7%
Di Findley	86	22	32	-12.0%	±4.3	-20.4%
Elizabeth Sedrel	30	4	10	-18.6%	±7.7	-33.7%
Jim Hawkins	33	9	14	-16.7%	±6.8	-30.0%
Andrew Funk	72	13	22	-12.5%	±4.8	-21.9%
Larry Pope	535	200	234	-6.4%	±1.7	-9.8%
Dana Petrowsky	71	17	25	-11.9%	±4.6	-20.9%
Julie Smith	1,190	378	436	-4.9%	±1.1	-7.1%
Eric Tabor	416	122	148	-6.3%	±1.9	-10.1%
Diane Ford	58	12	20	-13.1%	±5.4	-23.7%
Mary Earnhardt	339	117	138	-6.3%	±2.1	-10.4%
Robert Hoffman	55	30	37	-12.9%	±5.5	-23.6%
Steve Falck	208	77	92	-7.2%	±2.7	-12.6%
Mark Hanson	81	15	23	-10.2%	±4.3	-18.7%
Jon Murphy	781	272	307	-4.5%	±1.4	-7.3%
Joe Kelly	897	287	325	-4.3%	±1.3	-6.8%
Nancy Robertson	95	30	39	-9.4%	±4.0	-17.3%
Todd Brown	83	13	21	-10.1%	±4.4	-18.7%
Barry Gentry	27	7	12	-16.7%	±7.8	-31.9%
Kristin Hanks-Bents	77	13	21	-10.4%	±4.6	-19.4%
Julie Leeper	76	8	16	-10.0%	±4.4	-18.7%
Susan Judkins	92	13	21	-9.2%	±4.1	-17.2%
Sharon Tahtinen	128	30	40	-7.7%	±3.4	-14.5%
Molly Kottmeyer	205	56	69	-6.5%	±2.8	-12.0%