This weekend the Iowa legislature voted to mostly repeal the rule on where sex offenders can sleep. The rule kept them 2000 feet from day care centers and schools, but it didn’t actually restrict their movements during the day. The new law reverses the situation by addressing loitering instead of sleeping.

Back in 2002 when the old law was passed only two legislators voted against it. One thing legislators fear more than sex offenders is the chance of being called soft on crime. Indeed that is what happened in 2008 when one of those legislators, Ed Fallon of Des Moines, offered progressives the opportunity to vote for a better Congressman. Incumbent Leonard Boswell smeared Fallon as soft on sex offenders. Boswell won, too.

The Iowa legislature began this session by passing an obscure campaign finance law that was a rebuke to the way Fallon had run a previous campaign. They ended the session by voting exactly like Ed had voted in 2002–against the 2000 foot folly. Ed has been proven right and every Democrat realizes it. His foresight was not acknowledged during the debate.

The other correct vote in 2002 was cast by state senator Johnie Hammond of Ames. She will be honored for her leadership on civil liberties this Saturday at a dinner in Iowa City. The ACLU-IA will recognize Hammond with its Louise Noun Award. Louise Noun served as president of the Des Moines chapter of the League of Women Voters in 1948, the Iowa Civil Liberties Union from 1964 to 1972, and the Des Moines chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 1974 to 1976.

These two progressive voices have prevailed.  We need more like them.