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Iowa Democrats have new chair — Michael Kiernan

January 31, 2009 By

The Iowa Democratic Party's state central committee today ratified Governor Culver's choice for party chairman.  Michael Kiernan (pronounced KEER-nan) met with reporters at about noon today.  You can read the Radio Iowa story and listen to the entire six minute news conference here.

Iowa Republicans recently elected 35-year-old Matt Strawn as their new chairman.  After his election by the Iowa GOP's state central committee, Strawn changed his Facebook status to reflect his new, well, status as party chairman, then Strawn spoke to a room of reporters gathered at party headquarters.

Today, during a news conference at Iowa Democratic Party headquarters, a reporter asked Kiernan — who is 33 years old – if he'd changed his Facebook status. "You know, I haven't changed it yet and that should show you guys a lot of respect," Kiernan told the handful of reporters who were crowded into an office at IDP headquarters.  "I actually didn't change my status yet on Facebook.  I was going to wait to get together with you and that'll be the first thing that I'll do — and I'll probably even 'friend' Matt Strawn." 

Here's a post from a few days ago with background on Kiernan.

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An Iowa connection to Steele

January 30, 2009 By

The new chairman of the Republican National Committee is Michael Steele.  I know of at least one Iowa-related link to Steele.  Mary Ann Hanusa, the 2006 GOP candidate for Iowa Secretary of State, is married to Charles Johnson, a Maryland native who worked with Steele in Maryland.  After Steele gave a speech to the Iowa delegates at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Johnson and Steele hugged, then talked for a few minutes. Hanusa was a delegate at the convention; her husband was a guest, so that's why the couple was there in Minnesota. Hanusa and Johnson live in Council Bluffs, Iowa; They formed a political consulting company called CampaignOne Consulting.

Steele was also the keynote speaker at the Republican Party of Iowa's fall fundraising banquet in 2007.

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Iowa Democrats get hacked?

January 30, 2009 By

An alert reader of this blog sent a link to the website that Democrats in the Iowa House of Representatives have established. Scrolling down through the list of "House Members" (it's on the right hand side of the page) and clicking on the link for Rep. Michael Reasoner (D-Creston) took you to a website for a "Michael Reasoner" who is definitely a fan of Sturgis and Kid Rock and a bunch of other really "gnarly" stuff, dude!  Apparently a hack, or a bad link.  It's been fixed according to a spokesman for House Democrats. 

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Gronstal, pen pals with Vaudt & Vander Plaats?

January 29, 2009 By

Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs issued a challenge today, after telling reporters he's warned legislators to sharpen their pencils and look for even deeper cuts in the state budget than Governor Chet Culver (D-Des Moines) suggested Wednesday.

"I would also tell you I'm sending a letter to Auditor Vaudt and Bob Vander Plaats who both expressed concern about the state budget and made suggestions that we cut deeper.  I want to hear their suggestions as to what it is that we should cut.  Vander Plaats, in particular, indicated that the governor should have been more specific in his cuts and was concerned about him suggesting a six and a half percent cut for state departments.  I want to hear what his selective cuts would be and I'm going to ask them for that," Gronstal said.

As you may know, State Auditor Dave Vaudt and 2002/2006 gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats are both Republicans and both have indicated they may run for governor in 2010.

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Linn County legislator explains “no” on Linn County bill

January 29, 2009 By

The Iowa House just passed a bill which was sought by some Linn County officials.  It deals with the local option sales tax.  Apparently, Linn County missed the deadline for placing the tax on the ballot this spring, so the legislation allows a vote in March and the tax would take effect on April 1, 2009 if voters approve it. 

House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen is from Hiawatha, which is in Linn County.  He told reporters this morning he opposed the bill for specific reasons, which you can hear him enumerate here in this 3-minute-long mp3.

Here's the lobbyist declaration list — basically, it tells you what groups were lined up in favor of and in opposition to the bill. The City of Cedar Rapids, the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce, Linn County, the City of Coralville, the Iowa Chamber Alliance, the Iowa League of Cities were all on record in favor of the bill.  The only group registered as opposed was Iowans for Tax Relief.  The long list of other groups and organizations registered as "undecided," including CRST International which is Paulsen's employer. Paulsen is CRST's in-house counsel. 

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Never say never when it comes to gas tax

January 29, 2009 By

This is Thursday, really a sort of Friday when you're covering the Iowa legislature as Thursday is the last day of their work week in Des Moines.  Democratic legislative leaders held a news conference, then Republican legislative leaders held one, as is the custom.  Democrats made it clear they intend to continue discussions about an increase in the gas tax.  Read details here. 

And you can listen here to Democratic leaders in the Iowa House talk about the drunken boating bill which passed the Senate 49-1 this week.  The bill in the past few years has bogged down in the Iowa House.  House Speaker Pat Murphy discussed the desire of some Democrats to write the bill in such a way as to ensure insurance companies, when drawing up higher rates for those caught operating a water vessel while drunk — establish some connection so the smaller the boat the drunken boater is caught operating, the smaller the rate increase.  He also suggested the size of the "pond" or "lake" should have some bearing on the insurance rate increase the drunken boater will likely be charged on their auto insurance.

Here's the key quote from Murphy: "The big argument that's been is the impact it has on operating a motor vehicle, how it affects your insurance and some of those issues because if there's a person sitting out on a pond up in Lake Okoboji and he's fishing and drinking beer and gets picked up, it's much different than a guy who's driving a high-powered speed boat across Lake Okoboji."

Iowa Public Radio reporter Jeneane Beck followed up with a question: "That makes it sound like if you drive a small Yugo that you can do less damage than a semi.  There's no different penalty for drunk driving depending on what kind of a vehicle you're driving or what street you're on.".

"I think either one of them will kill you if they run over you," Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal replied.

Filed Under: Legislature, Uncategorized

Another potential GOP candidate for governor

January 28, 2009 By

Agribusinessman Bruce Rastetter was at the Iowa statehouse today.  Read this Radio Iowa story which features quotes from an interview of Rastetter, as well as some background information about the potential 2010 Republican candidate for governor. 

One item missing from the Radio Iowa story was his response to another reporter's question about Bob Vander Plaats, the 2002 and 2006 GOP candidate for governor who made clear this week he'll be running again in 2010.  "I'm still trying to add up the number of days that Bob Vander Plaats has been running for governor," Rastetter said.  "I wasn't the world's greatest in math, but I think it's a significant number."

Nick Ryan, Jim Nussle's 2006 campaign manager, accompanied Rastetter on his statehouse rounds earlier today.  Rastetter razzed Ryan when the pair arrived in the statehouse press room, as Ryan didn't find it on the first go — he hadn't been to the statehouse since the press room was moved about 50 feet to the east.  The old press room area is now vendo-land on the ground floor of the statehouse.

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First-in-the-nation Caucuses?

January 28, 2009 By

Marc Ambinder has a post worth reading if you're among those Iowa pols interested in keeping Iowa's Caucuses first-in-the-nation.

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Culver unveils details of state budget

January 28, 2009 By

Governor Chet Culver held a news conference this morning in his statehouse office to talk about the budget details he formally presented to lawmakers. Here's a link to the documents if you want to scroll through/see for yourself. 

Culver spoke for the first 18 minutes of the news conference, then his staff got him out of the room and chief of staff Charlie Krogmeier and Dick Oshlo of the Iowa Department of Management answered reporters' questions for another 25 minutes. I wrote "got him out of the room" in that sentence as Culver seemed to bristle with anger when Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen asked a question at about 15 minutes into the news conference.  The text of that exchange is below.

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Kiernan as Iowa Democratic Party chair

January 27, 2009 By

Souces indicate Des Moines City Councilman Michael Kiernan is Governor Chet Culver's choice to be the Iowa Democratic Party's chairman.  Dave Price of WHO-TV blogs about it here.  Since there are no permalinks on Dave's blog and you may be reading this in March when the post has rotated off the WHO-TV website, here's what he wrote:

"Democratic sources confirm to me Michael Kiernan is expected to be "elected" the new chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party this Saturday. Of course, the State Central Committee elects the chair Saturday. But Governor Chet Culver more than has his say in this. And apparently he has had his say."

Kiernan was elected to the Des Moines City Council in May of 2004. His current term ends in January, 2010. That means both he and Culver are up for reelection in 2010. While Kiernan and his wife (WHO-TV anchor Erin Kiernan) live in the historic Sherman Hill Neighborhood of Des Moines, Kiernan is an "at large" member of the city council; rather than representing a specific district or "ward" of the city, he represents all Des Moines citizens.

Kiernan father, Gary, was a member of the Madison County Board of Supervisors and his mother, Joan, once worked as a secretary for the Iowa Democratic Party, so he grew up around politics. 

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