Steve King's Town Hell

You've possibly seen this by now.  It's a picture of Saturday's town hall held by Rep. Steve King (R-IA). And importantly, no, It is not photoshopped. What you see is what you get -- there is only ONE attendee, Jessica Birch on the left. 

Yes, it looks like two people attended, but the other person there on the right is a paid King intern.

One person. And she isn't even a Republican. Ms. Birch is a Democrat, a college student studying public administration who admitted to being hungover but felt it was her civic duty to attend. 

There's a wonderful article about it all in the local Iowa paper, the Iowa Starting Line, which you can read here.  In it, Ms. Birch says that she apologized later to the six policemen there for security, telling them that she felt bad making them stay there for work because of "someone as rowdy as me." She also comments that she turned down an offer to have a picture taken shaking hands with Rep. King, explaining she plans to run for office some day and didn't want the photo to haunt her.

Does this all mean that Rep. King will lose his race in 2020?  After all, he on re-election in the 2018 mid-terms even though his district knew about his latest racist comments that got his committee appointments stripped from him.

There's no easy answer. After all, it's certainly possible he could get re-elected. It's also reasonable to think that NO REPUBLICAN showing up at a town hall is a very bad sign and that something did shift in the zeitgeist this time.

A couple of things suggest such a shift. Having one huge problem that gets you to lose your committee positions can be dismissed by voters as a "one-off." Having a second one is less easy to dismiss. But also, this recent "gaffe" last week could, in part, be seen as a slam at not just the world, but at the people in his own district. "Everybody rapes and has incest" is not a good look from the person you've chosen to select you.

What's worth noting, as well  -- Steve King won his race in 2016 by 23 points. But he won in 2018 by only 3 points. Not only is that a very bad direction... but most candidates would try to be on their best behavior under those conditions and not have a new huge scandalous problem to deal with.

But could he get re-elected? Absolutely. Though it would appear less-certain than in the past. Especially considering his 20-point drop in 2018.

And by the way, there's actually even a post-script to this all.  You probably thought that Steve King couldn't make the situation worse for himself.  But the, You Don't Know Steve King!  King is now demanding an apology from the liberal media and from Republican leadership! That's quite a combo.  He says that he was (of course...) misquoted about his comments on rape and incest being so commonplace that it wasn't for them, the history of mankind might cease to exist. Mind you, the problem with getting such an "apology" (no seriously, he's demanded one -- from both the liberal press and Republican leadership) is that it was the unedited, in-context VIDEO of his comments that got the most attention.

But clearly, Steve King has never let reality get in the way of pretty much anything he says.
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