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Branstad to DC Wednesday for GOP summit

November 29, 2010 By

POLITICO is reporting Governor-elect Terry Branstad is one of 15 “new” Republican governors who’ll be attending an event Wednesday in D.C.  Branstad, as you may recall, just won a fifth term as governor after serving four terms from January, 1982 to January, 1999.  The event on December 1, 2010 in D.C. is billed as a summit “to talk about spending cuts and jobs,”   (UPDATE:  The New York Times suggests the event is on Wednesday of next week.  When asked via email if Branstad would be attending the event in D.C. on Wednesday, Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said yes.  I didn’t ask which Wednesday, however.  The statement on Boehner’s website lists December 1 as the date for the meet-up, so it is this week.)

Here’s another Branstad story, about the $10,000 budget for the transition of power.

Filed Under: Politics, State Government Tagged With:

Turkey Week Tidbits

November 28, 2010 By

Thanksgiving 2010 has come and gone.  A quick review of the week’s political highlights:

  • Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made a stop in West Des Moines Saturday, part of a nationwide tour promoting her new book.  Hundreds waited in line, including her first boss.  Palin will be at the Walmart in Spirit Lake, Iowa, on December 2 for another book signing event.
  • Iowa Governor-elect Terry Branstad is neutral, for now, on the 2012 presidential race.  He endorsed Bob Dole in 1996, but was neutral in the ’88 race which was during Branstad’s second term as governor.
  • One political party has chosen its nominee for the special election in state senate district 48 — to replace Kim Reynolds of Osceola.  (Reynolds is the lieutenant governor-elect of Iowa.)  Republican Joni Ernst of Red Oak, the Montgomery County Auditor, was selected at a nominating convention.   Democrats in the district will hold a nominating convention on December 1.   Senate District 48 includes Montgomery, Adams, Union, Clarke, Taylor, Ringgold, and Decatur Counties.
  • Chuck Grassley’s Twitter account is becoming a ticker for UNI scores. 
  • John Bolten’s 2008 visit with Iowa delegates at the Republican National Convention wasn’t a fluke.  The former United Nations ambassador says he’s mulling a bid for the presidency.  Fred Karger, a retired political consultant who is gay, wants to be the first gay presidential candidate.  Karger spent $1000 to run an ad on FOX News Channel on 7 Iowa cable systems this past week.   The 90-second spot probably aired 10 times, total, based on that buy.  (Karger pronounces his name KAR-ger — a hard G sound.)
  • Gentry Collins, a political operative with a lot of Iowa on his resume, wants to become the Republican National Committee’s chairman.
  • Iowa First Lady Mari Culver hints her husband’s job search may be outside of Iowa.
  • Although this was posted on November 18 — before Thanksgiving week) – and it really has nothing to do with politics, you should still read what Cedar Rapids Gazette columnist Todd Dorman wrote about the demise of the phone book.  In my childhood home we kept our phone book tucked behind the potted plant on the kitchen counter that was to the left of the refrigerator.  In my current home, the yellow pages are on a shelf in a kitchen cupboard that’s to the left of the refrigerator. 
Filed Under: Congress, Politics, State Government Tagged With: , ,

Iowa Family Leader event (AUDIO)

November 21, 2010 By

The Iowa Family Policy Center’s “Celebrate the Family” event this Sunday afternoon attracted a crowd of about 1500 to a church sanctuary in Des Moines.  Click here to listen to speeches by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Iowa Family Policy Center president Chuck Hurley and Iowa Family Leader president Bob Vander Plaats.

The Iowa Family Leader is a new, umbrella organization for the Iowa Family Policy Center, Marriage Matters (a subsidiary of IFPC which offers counseling to troubled couples), and IFPC’s PAC.  Vander Plaats is the 2002, 2006 & 2010 Republican candidate for governor who led this year’s successful effort to oust three justices from the Iowa Supreme Court.

Huckabee held a news conference before today’s event.  Listen to it here, and find a live blog of the news conference as well the entire Iowa Family Policy Center/Iowa Family Leader event by following that link.

UPDATE:  Julie Summa from IFPC emailed a news release on Tuesday, pointing out the name of the group is The Family Leader, hence the strike throughs above.

Filed Under: Iowa Caucuses, Politics, State Government Tagged With: , ,

Huckabee: I can beat Obama, too (AUDIO)

November 21, 2010 By

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is scheduled to keynote an Iowa Family Policy Center event this Sunday afternoon.  He spoke with reporters before it started. Listen to the mp3 of the 15-minute news conference: HuckabeeSunday

As for where he is in the decision-making process about another bid for the White House in 2012, this is what Huckabee said:

“Honestly, I’m not on a time table. I’m not on somebody’s calendar to say, ‘This is the time when I have to decide.’ Am I keeping the option open? Yes.  Am I open to it, considering it and giving, you know, thought?  Of course.  I think I would be foolish not to in light of having been through it,understanding what it’s about.

“…I’m in a very different position than I was four years ago when I was an asterisk in the polls and most people didn’t think that I was even going to be serious and this time, in most of the national polls, I’m either the top or near the top and that certainly is a different position to be in, but it doesn’t mean that I’m automatically going to do it either. There’s a lot of deep, internal soul-searching and another thing for me is that, as I’ve told many people, I don’t plan to jump in a pool unless there’s water in it.”

In response to a question about it, Huckabee said a statement he made on FOX News Sunday that it would be “less than likely” that he would run in 2012 had been taken “completely out of context.”

“I was being asked…essentially, if you had to make the decision today. Well, I didn’t have to make the decision today,”Huckabee said. “…That was not an indication of a complete lack of interest or a denial and I think it was reported that ‘Huckabee says he won’t run’ and I’ve never said that…That was a year ago.  Ask me in six months and I’ll have a clearer answer.”

Huckabee was asked if a Sarah Palin candidacy would discourage him from running.

“One of the things I’ve learned in politics is you never make your decisions based on what other people are going to do or don’t do because, first of all, they can change their minds,”Huckabee said. “And, second of all, the one thing I learned running four marathons is you run your race, your pace.  You do not go out there and look around and constantly wonder what somebody else is going to do.

“No question she will be a very, very strong presence and force if she gets in, you know, she may run away with it and that’s one of those things that everybody as to be prepared for, but the decision I make won’t be based on what she does. If I get in it, I would prefer that she not and that she endorse me.”

Huckabee laughed, as did the three Iowa Family Policy Center people flanking Huckabee as he stood before the cameras.  Huckabee quickly continued:  “But if she does then, you know, I welcome her because that I think she’s got a very strong and important voice and has brought a lot of energy to the grassroots of the Republican Party and that I think is very, very positive by anybody’s standards.”

A reporter noted that Palin said this week she could beat Obama, then asked Hucakbee: Could you?

“I always believed I could,”Huckabee said. “I wouldn’t have run the last time if I didn’t think I could and the good news for me is a majority of American voters seem to think that. In the last poll, I was the only one who polled above (Obama) outside the margin of error.”

Huckabee a few moments later said as he mulls a run in 2012, he’s considering how to finance a campaign. “I’m probably going to give more weight to that this time than I did before because I understand far better than I can even begin to tell you how tough it is to run a campaign on fumes, without fuel,” he said.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Congress, Iowa Caucuses, Politics, State Government Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Culver strikes deal with AFSCME; GOP reacts

November 19, 2010 By

Not-for-much-longer-Governor Chet Culver has struck a deal with AFSCME, the union which represents the largest share of executive branch workers.   It would give those roughly 21,000 workers a two percent boost in their base pay on July 1.

Republicans aren’t happy.  They point to the so-called “step” increases which allow workers who have not risen to the top of their pay grade to, perhaps, get a raise of up to 15 percent.

House Speaker-elect Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha talked about the deal at the beginning of this weekend’s edition of Iowa Press on IPTV. 

AFSCME state president Danny Homan talked with Radio Iowa this afternoon.  Read what Homan and Paulsen had to say here.

Rod Boshart of The Cedar Rapids Gazette has this story about today’s developments (and mention of another state workers’ union which has struck a deal with Culver).  Gazette columnist Todd Dorman blogged these observations.

Jason Clayworth of The Des Moines Register has this wrap-up of the story.  Register columnist Kathie Obradovich was at the Iowa Press taping and has written a blog post about Paulsen’s comments.

At 1:47 p.m. this afternoon, I asked Angel Albert in Governor Culver’s office if the governor had a prepared statement to issue on the contract talks.   At 1:57 p.m. she replied:

We do not. We are waiting to release a statement once the union members vote on the agreement. Because this is not final and now back to the union for approval, we do not want to issue a statement…

An hour later, at 2:52 p.m., Culver issued a statement:

Governor Culver Issues Statement on AFSCME Agreement

DES MOINES – Governor Chet Culver issued the following statement regarding the State’s acceptance of a new two-year agreement with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 61:

“Like all hardworking Iowans, state employees have struggled through a historic recession. They agreed to take unpaid furloughs and suspension of employer deferred compensation contributions in Fiscal Year 2010 so the State could better adjust to economic conditions and lower revenues. These people are on the front lines of delivering vital services and information to the people of Iowa and deserve to be paid in accordance with their qualifications and efforts.”

Branstad’s communications director had issued a statement an hour and a half earlier, at about 1:30 p.m. this afternoon:

Culver’s backroom deal on salaries is reckless and irresponsible

Agreement leaves taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in salary increases
 
(URBANDALE) – The transition team of Gov.-elect Terry Branstad today released the following statement from chief of staff Jeff Boeyink, in response to the new agreement between Gov. Culver and the unions.

The contract would put Iowa taxpayers on the hook for $103.5 million the first year alone, and hundreds of millions in subsequent fiscal years.

Boeyink’s statement is as follows:

“Taxpayers are the losers in this backroom deal.

“Governor Culver’s decision to rush through a collective bargaining deal with state employee unions before he leaves office is reckless and irresponsible. This will cost Iowa taxpayers $103.5 million the first year alone, and hundreds of millions in subsequent fiscal years.
 
“At a time 113,000 Iowans are out of work and thousands more are seeing significant pay reductions, it is the wrong time to ask taxpayers to pick up the enormous cost of these pay raises.
 
“Iowans elected Terry Branstad on a promise to reduce the size of Iowa’s budget and Governor Culver has taken the unprecedented step of effectively removing to voice of the taxpayers from this process.
 
“This is unaffordable, and we will review all of our options.”

Filed Under: Iowa Caucuses, Politics, State Government Tagged With: , , ,

Branstad/Reynolds “Proof” party

November 17, 2010 By

Governor-elect Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Reynolds will co-host a party at Proof in a couple of weeks.  Proof is a restaurant in downtown Des Moines which features North African and Eastern Mediterranean cusine.  Try the falafel.  Proof in the context of this restaurant is ”the baking term for rising dough” and is not a reference to the calculation of how much alcohol is in an adult beverage.

The Tuesday, December 7 event is billed as a “pre-inauguration celebration” according to an invitation I’ve seen, but according to Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht: “The event at Proof is not related to the inaugural.”

There will be a separate committee to raise money and plan the inaugural.  The fundraiser at Proof next month ”is to provide resources to our campaign committee to help fund our transition efforts, as the Legislature and governor did not provide an appropriation for the transition in the current year’s budget,” Albrecht says.

The December 7 event at Proof is scheduled to last 90 minutes (from 4:30 to 6 p.m.)  ”Sponsorship Opportunities” of up to $10,000 are offered.

Filed Under: Politics, State Government Tagged With: ,

January 4, 2011 special election for Reynolds’ seat

November 17, 2010 By

Governor Chet Culver has set the date for a special election in southern Iowa to fill a vacancy in the state senate.

Governor Culver Sets Date for Special Election

Election will fill vacated seat in the 48th Senatorial District

DES MOINES – Governor Chet Culver today announced that the special election to fill a seat vacated in the Iowa State Senate will be held Jan. 4, 2011. The seat was vacated when Lt. Governor-elect Kim Reynolds resigned the post last week.

The 48th district in south central Iowa includes Clarke, Decatur, Taylor, Adams, Montgomery and Ringgold counties, as well as portions of Union County. The text of the proclamation directing the special election is below.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Iowa Caucuses, Politics, State Government Tagged With: , ,

Medal of Honor winner Giunta to be honored in Iowa

November 16, 2010 By

“You’ve just got to try to do everything you can when it’s your time to do it.” – the advice Salvatore Giunta says he heeded in a 2007 fire fight in Afghanistan

A 25-year-old who grew up in Hiawatha, Iowa, was honored today with the nation’s highest military honor.  Army Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta (pronounced JOON-tuh) is now a member of an exclusive fraternity of American war heroes.  As President Obama noted during today’s ceremony, Giunta is the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.   A ceremony for Guinta and his family is being planned in Des Moines, at the statehouse, on Tuesday, November 23.

[Photo at left courtesy of Congressman Bruce Braley (D-Iowa)]

Headlines about today’s event use words and phrases like “patriot” and  ”gallant” and “as humble as he is heroic.”  Watch the video of the ceremony.   Giunta was only 22 years old when the fire fight happened in the fall of 2007.  Obama recounted it in gritty detail before he placed the blue ribbon holding the medal around Giunta’s neck.  (Read the president’s full remarks below.)

It’s not just news in the United States.  The BBC, The Canadian Press and Radio New Zealand all have stories online.  The Hill posted a few of the tweets from famous folks like former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullin. Giunta’s hometown paper, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, has a gallery of photos from today’s ceremony.

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Gingrich on presidency, judicial branch (AUDIO)

November 16, 2010 By

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, co-author of the newly-released book Valley Forge, spoke to a crowd of about 100 this afternoon in a Borders book store in West Des Moines, Iowa, then he signed copies of the book before speaking with a small group of reporters for a few minutes.  AUDIO: 7 min

Gingrich answered a question about a potential presidential run:

“I think the real question is could we build a movement of replacement big enough that it would be able to effect deep into the elected system, not just the presidency.  There are 513,000 elected officials in the United States and if you really want to fundamentally make this country competitive and healthy and capable of creating a better future, you’re talking about a wave of change much deeper than just the presidency and I’m frankly trying to sort out whether that is doable and whether or not I’m the right person to try to do it and being out here (in Iowa) is a part of it.  I’ll be with the Republican governors in San Diego on Thursday and I’ll keep talking to people and Calista and I will make a decision probably in February or March.”

Gingrich also talked about the federal and state judicial branches of government:

“If you read The Federalist Papers, the legislative and executive branches who re elected ultimately are expected to win over the judicial branch.  I mean that’s exactly what Hamilton and Madison wrote and they said the judicial branch will be very timid because, in the end, in a straight up fight it can’t win and i just think for the last, since 1958 we have allowed this whole model of judicial supremacy to run amok so that lawyers rig the game in favor of lawyers and you have a very elitist view in which they impose on the rest of us things that are absurd…You have federal judges today who are pretending that they’re the commander-in-chief, making decisions about national security with zero comprehension of the consequences and we shouldn’t tolerate it.  We don’t have to impeach them. That’s a long, lengthy trial. Just simple (say), ‘You want your court abolished? We’ll abolish it.’ We have the absolute precedent of Jefferson, 1802.  There’s no question that Jefferson and Madison understood the Constitution and their precedent was to eliminate 18 out of 35 judges — over half.  I’m only suggesting one demonstrational effect: the 9th circuit.”

As you may know, voters in Iowa ousted three of the seven members of the Iowa Supreme Court in a judicial retention vote.  The issue:  an April, 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling which paved the way for same-sex marriage in Iowa.  Gingrich was asked what he would ask of the four remaining justices on the Iowa Supreme Court:

“Ask them to step down, as a matter of honor.  It’s clear, if they’d have been on the ballot, they’d have been repealed and it seems to me — this is pure Thomas Jefferson — if the integrity and the authority of the system comes from the consent of the governed — which is the Declaration of Independence — then the governed have indicated that they don’t agree with this court.  I don’t think anybody in this state believes the other four justices would have survived, and so I think if they have any sense of integrity about protecting the courts, they’ll step down and if the bar association has any sense of integrity, they will deliberately not pick radical judges and will not make recommendations to the new governor and if Culver has any sense of integrity, he will not appoint anyone.  I mean, for a defeated governor to try to replace defeated judges by repudiating the values of the people of Iowa strikes me as the absolutely opposite of a free society.”

During his speech to the crowd of about 100, Gingrich said the 2010 election results had been a “rejection of the left” and he said it’s time to find a “replacement for the left” in America.  Gingrich expanded on that idea during his 7-minute discussion with reporters:

“The fact is we rejected the left in ’72. We rejected the left in ’80. We rejected the left in ’84. We rejected the left in ’94 and we rejected the left in the last election — ’10 — but the left still survives…I think we’re at the end of the 80-year cycle of  the ‘New Deal’.  I think the country’s ready to recognize that many of these institutions don’t work anymore and that we have to have a fundamental rethinking of where we are and that requires a much broader and bigger coalition than the traditional Republican Party.”

Gingrich is giving a speech and signing books tonight at Iowa State University in Ames.  Tomorrow night he’ll be in Cedar Rapids at a book store, giving a short talk about his new book and then signing copies of Valley Forge.

Filed Under: Iowa Caucuses, Politics, State Government Tagged With: , ,

Iowan on the inside critiques RNC chair Steele

November 16, 2010 By

Jonathan Martin of Politico has obtained a letter written by long-time Iowa GOP insider Gentry Collins.  It’s a sort of no-holds-barred indictment of Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s leadership.

Collins was the leader of Mitt Romney’s 2008 Iowa Caucus campaign and in the 2008 general election he worked as regional director for the McCain/Palin campaign. Collins was campaign manager of Doug Gross’s 2002 campaign for governor and he served as executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa in the next election cycle.

His title at the Republican National Committee (until his resignation) was political director.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: ,
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