Fallon unhappy

Former State Representative Ed Fallon (D-Des Moines) ran for governor in 2006 and lost in a three-way primary (Chet Culver, the current governor, won the thing). Fallon and the other competitor, Michael Blouin, endorsed Culver in a news conference on the capitol steps.  Later the season, Fallon sang a song about Culver. Fallon then ran for congressin 2008, challenging Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-Des Moines) in a primary.  Fallon lost and endorsed Boswell for the general election.  

Late last year, after the election, Fallon applied for the job of the White House farmer.  

Today, Fallon issueda news release to complain about Culver.  Read it below (BTW:  I did not edit out the apostrophes which should appear in passages like "Culver's office" and "Culver's victory. The apostrophes were not in the original document).

Fallon: Culver inaccessible, unresponsive, reneges on promises

Today, Ed Fallon released a record of the past three-and-a-half months contact between himself and Governor Culvers office. The record shows eleven unreturned phone calls to a Governors staff person, Jamie Cashman, one returned call from Cashman and one abbreviated meeting with the Governor. Fallon recently sought to establish a more positive working rapport with the Governor after efforts to do so in 2007 failed.

After Culvers victory in November, 2006, Fallon made repeated efforts to establish substantive dialog with the Governor and his staff. This culminated in one five-minute meeting with Culver in February, 2007, a long string of mostly unreturned phone calls to staff, and zero follow-up on the three promises made by Culver to Fallon in June, 2006.

In June, 2006 after our hard-fought but civil primary campaign, I agreed to do everything I could to support Culver in his race against Jim Nussle, said Ed Fallon. Culver promised me that, as governor, he would take seriously some of the issues important to me and my supporters. He specifically promised to advocate for serious campaign finance reform, to support legislation to control urban sprawl, and to involve me in his work in a meaningful way. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, that hasnt happened, and its clear to me that the Governor has no intention of making it happen.

Many in the core of the Democratic Party are deeply disappointed with Culvers lack of leadership on several key priorities, said Lynn Fallon. Beyond that, we constantly hear from Iowans who feel they have little or no access to either the Governor or his staff. We went so far as to offer to serve as liaisons between the Governor and Iowa citizens. We know how busy the Governor and his staff are, but it seems disingenuous to ask for help and support during a campaign and then turn ones back on those same people once in office, concluded Lynn Fallon.

UPDATE:  Phil Roeder, Governor Culver's deputy chief of staff for communications, emails the following response.

"Governor Culver and Lieutenant Governor Judge have always considered Ed Fallon a friend and committed public servant. That is why Governor Culver appointed Mr. Fallon to the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council in 2007.

"In addition, the Governor has met several times with Mr. Fallon over the last two-and-a-half years, most recently in a very productive meeting with him on January 6 of this year.

"Mr. Fallon has contacted our office on several occasions asking the Governor to create a new, full-time paid position within the office and to provide him a full-time assistant and support staff. The position Mr. Fallon seeks does not exist and will not be created. Many people want to work for the Governor, and not all of them can be accommodated.

"As to the issue of campaign finance, the legislature passed and the Governor signed into law a significant reform this session. Unfortunately, it was without Mr. Fallon’s support."