Big names — national and local — continue to show up on the list of donors to Democrat Christie Vilsack, who’s trying to unseat five-term Congressman Steve King in the newly drawn Fourth District. Vilsack raised $1,155,123 in the latest quarter, according to Federal Election Commission figures, and had $751,530 cash on hand on Dec. 31. King raised $817,142 and had $529,490 under the mattress at year-end.

Big names on Vilsack’s list include Obama adviser David Axelrod, Hollywood’s Norman Lear, New York social leader and philanthropist Lewis Cullman, Washington art collector and lobbyist and insider Heather Podesta, Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney, billionaire George Soros’ son Jonathan, New York City deputy mayor Howard Wolfson, a handful of Hollywood writers and producers — and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Givers from Des Moines are the usual suspects — names like Urban, Newlin, Riley, Knapp (and Knapp and Knapp and Knapp and Knapp), Abel, Bookey, Zimpleman, Blumenthal, Campbell, Crawford, Conlin, Eychaner and so forth. In all, the Vilsack campaign lists 764 contributions.

King lists 463 contributors. He, too, has lots of out-of-state money, but not much from names recognizable to Iowans. His in-state contributors include Des Moines physician Tom Carlstrom, Iowa Speedway owner Conrad Clement, state representative Peter Cownie (whose mother is a Vilsack contributor), Denny and Candy Elwell, Brenna Findley of the governor’s staff, former legislator Thurman Gaskill, wrestler and politico Jim Gibbons, Bob Horner, Budweiser distributor Mark Doll, Gary Kirke, Bill Krause, Don Lamberti, Chuck Larson, Fred Nesbit, Bruce Rastetter, Nick Ryan, John Ruan (whose wife is a Vilsack contributor), Matt Whitaker and the like. ...

The Republican leaders of the Board of Regents are discovering their party ties aren’t much help in dealing with the money folks in the Legislature. Board president Craig Lang — who took over from Democrat Dave Miles in a GOP coup of sorts — and president pro tem Bruce Rastetter were confident they could turn around the steady drop in funding for the state’s three public universities. After all, they’re both big-time Republicans and were hand-picked for the Regent leadership by Gov. Terry Branstad. But their fellow party members, who control the House of Representatives, don’t seem to be listening to them or their lobbyists — or the governor.

In fiscal 2011, the state gave the Regents $548.9 million, and last year the number was $528.4 million. This year, the governor has recommended $551.4 million — but the House leaders are far lower and might come in $50 million below the governor’s recommendation, or $25 million to $30 million below this year’s level. Legislators hadn’t settled on a final number by week’s end, though they are close and could announce it this week. One thing that particularly irritates Regents supporters: The Republicans don’t plan any cuts in the budgets of the area colleges — which have political support because they’re spread around the state (and, probably, because they don’t have high-priced coaches and administrators). Money that might have been cut from the area colleges will instead mean deeper cuts for the Regents.

“The Regents universities could use some tough questions, especially the University of Iowa,” says Rep. Jeremy Taylor, a teacher from Sioux City who is vice chair of the House Education Committee. In his newsletter to constituents, he complains that while tuition was rising 4 percent the university hired Tysen Kendig as vice president for strategic communications for $280,000 and pays $200,000 to Mark Braun, chief of staff to President Sally Mason. (For the record, there is no vice president for nonstrategic communications.) He adds: “Two positions for ‘parking administrators’ are respectively $142,000 and $102,000.” And he says: “Cuts should come from the top.”

Regents supporters are realizing that legislative Democrats are their best friends. Republicans who care about the universities suddenly have a love-hate relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, who is no loud champion of the Regents schools but who will maneuver to get some — maybe all — of the money that Branstad proposed. It used to be a hate-hate relationship with Gronstal, who single-handedly stops the Republicans from legislating their social agenda.

At any rate, it will all be settled in the back rooms eventually.

The Republicans can’t blame bad times for their proposed cuts in the Regents budgets. The state’s revenue now is consistently showing year-to-year increases — and the situation is even better than the numbers indicate. Net receipts to the general fund for the first seven months of the fiscal year totaled $3,440,700,000, up 1.9 percent from the $3,378,100,000 of a year earlier, according to new figures from the Legislative Services Agency. But last year’s figures include $100 million in tobacco taxes, which this year were deposited instead in the Health Care Trust Fund. But even not counting that money, the increase in revenues is outpacing the estimate the Revenue Estimating Commission made less than two months ago.

So why the cuts to the universities? “The Republicans, including the leadership, just don’t like the Regents,” says one guy who spends most of his time taking the temperature of the Legislature. Put another way, they’d rather put money into area colleges or even under the mattress then send it to the universities — especially to Iowa City. ...

When Branstad took office 13 months ago, he promised to add 200,000 jobs over five years. At the time, non-farm employment in Iowa totaled 1,488,100. At year-end, the number was 1,495,900, according to the latest figures from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency. That’s down 11,100 jobs from the 1,507,000 of a month earlier. He has 48 months and 192,200 jobs to go — not that anyone is keeping track. ...

Although the Republican Party screwed up the caucuses this year, it succeeded in luring Democrats and Independents into the ranks of enrolled Republicans, presumably so they could vote for — or against — a particular candidate. As a result, the two parties now have virtually the same enrollment — 633,747 Democrats and 629,269 Republicans — though the independents, with 704,049 still lead. Just before the caucuses, the number of independents fell by 15,000 and the number of Democrats by 11,000. The number of Republicans increased by nearly 15,000. The number of registered independents in Iowa now is virtually the same as it was eight years ago. The number of Democrats is up by nearly 100,000 and the number of Republicans by around 45,000.

Four years ago, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were battling in Iowa, Democratic voter-registration rolls jumped by nearly 60,000 the month of the caucuses. Registration jumped about 7,000 for the Republicans, who were deciding between Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, John McCain and — remember him? — Fred Thompson, among others. The number of registered independents dropped by 50,000.

It’s hard to tell if the latest switches were done just to be able to vote or were the result of ideology changes. The short-term trend is clear: In the past four years, the Republicans have gained more than 45,000 voters in Iowa while the Democrats have lost about 30,000. But the long-term trend is clear, too: In the past eight years, the Democrats have gained about 70,000 voters and the Republicans have gained about 50,000. The number of independents fluctuates year-to-year but hasn’t changed much over the past eight years. ...

Arnie Garson, a longtime reporter and editor at The Des Moines Register who then worked at and ran a few Gannett newspapers, is retiring as president and publisher of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, where he has been the boss for the past 3 1/2 years. Friends say he plans to move back to Sioux Falls, where he spent many years running the Argus Leader. He’s 70.

Garson was a superb reporter at the Register, and he could find out anything about anybody. A leading — stalwart and upright — businessman once told the paper’s editor: “If you ever decide to have Arnie Garson or Dick Gibson write a profile of me, just let me know and I’ll quietly quit my job and leave town.” Gibson went on to a long career at The Wall Street Journal. CV