QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Cap and trade, fine, I’ll work with that, as long as those of us that live in rural America are not in any way harmed and the biofuels industry continues to be vibrant and strong. If we’re going to have cap and trade, I want to make sure that agriculture is at the table.
– U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Cumming, on the so-called “cap and trade” provision in the Waxman-Markey climate change and energy bill. Harkin expressed doubt that the bill would be approved this year before priorities like health care reform, appropriations bills and confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Every time you turn on your light switch, you’re going to paying for it, we’re all going to be paying for it. … Since manufacturing is such a big user of electricity and energy, it’s going to probably force a lot of manufacturing out of the United States.
– U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-New Hartford, criticizing a climate change bill pending in the House as “too much, too soon” in a conference call with Iowa reporters. Listen to Grassley’s comments: http://grassley.senate.gov/news/news_conference_calls.cfm
I have never seen a Secretary of Agriculture so at odds with both Democrats and Republicans on the Agriculture Committee. A thousand-page bill of this magnitude deserves thoughtful consideration and debate. Yet, we have Speaker Pelosi ignoring the legislative process and trying to force what Secretary Vilsack calls a ‘work in progress’ through Congress.
– U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, criticizing the former Iowa governor over his support for the Waxman-Markey bill.
President Obama is a very different politician. There are not many politicians who would have picked so many people for their Cabinet who outright opposed them during the campaign
– Secretary Tom Vilsack — who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primary — on his job in the Obama Cabinet. Vilsack, along with wife Christine and former Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson, were inducted into the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame last weekend.
The Department of Energy is now looking at whether the American automobile fleet can go above 10 percent. If the existing automobile fleet can handle 15 percent, I would say let’s make that a target and go to 15 percent. This is very important for decreasing our oil dependence.
– U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, during a visit to Des Moines Monday, voicing support for increasing the percentage of ethanol in motor vehicle fuel from 10 percent up to 15 or even 85 percent. Chu also announced that Iowa has been awarded $16.2 million in State Energy Program funds for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. See the announcement: http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=162455
I could be accused of that every single day. I routinely go to five or six cities a day.
– Gov. Chet Culver denying that a rail trip to Western Iowa this week — officially organized to promote rail transportation — also served as a campaign boon for next year. He said his favorite part of being governor is that “you get to go to see Iowans all over the state all the time.”
If we choose the right candidate who can unite the party and attract enough independents and Democrats, it can be done.
– Former Gov. Terry Branstad, the last Republican to hold the office, on the possibility of knocking off Culver next year.
Governments in Cedar Rapids were asking us to call special session. I was there, they were asking me personally, ‘call for a special session.’ So I called for a special session. I tried to listen and respond to what the elected officials in Cedar Rapids were telling me. I thought we could have done a lot of things a lot sooner. It’s a question of time, and time works against people in situations where they’ve lost everything.
– Rep. Christopher Rants hinting that next year’s gubernatorial race may hinge on the response to last year’s floods. Rants, R-Sioux City, announced that he will form an exploratory committee for the 2010 race on Iowa Press. Watch his appearance: http://www.iptv.org/iowapress/
If you look at the state of Iowa’s constitution… the supreme power of the state of Iowa shall rest with the supreme magistrate of Iowa, which shall be styled the governor of Iowa. Not the Supreme Court, the governor.
– Bob Vander Plaats reiterating his vow to run for governor in 2010 in a speech to Mitchell County Republicans. Watch the speech: http://bobvanderplaats.squarespace.com/
I am asking the newest candidate for governor, Chris Rants, and all the prospective Republican candidates two questions: First, do you agree with Ed Failor’s hateful words? And second, if not, why didn’t you speak up?
– IDP Chairman Michael Kiernan in a statement criticizing comments made by the president of Iowans for Tax Relief at a GOP event June 15 in Boone County, attended by a number of high-ranking Republicans. A local paper reported that Failor likened efforts by Democrats on the economy to the rise of the Nazi Party.
The parallel I was trying to draw is that when one party seizes control, it’s bad when they start seizing the methods of production.
– Failor defending his remarks. He said Kiernan’s statement was an “outrageous distortion” of what he had said.
In rural areas the problem is really acute. We really need for the state on a sustained basis to build up the resources of those regional planning agencies.
– Mike Tramontina, director of the state Department of Economic Development, expressing concern over a lack of regional planning that could shut rural areas out of the bidding for state and federal funding for disaster recovery and economic stimulus. The state revealed its plan to divide $516.7 million in federal disaster funds last week. See the press release: http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=162293
When you’re trying to make projections, you’re trying to look into the future, and nobody has a crystal ball.
– Marty Adkins, assistant state conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, acknowledging an overestimation of the need for water in Clarke County. A reservoir planned for the area, which has drawn controversy over the project’s recreational potential, had been defended as a way to increase the area’s drinking water.
The University of Iowa agrees that if in the future a presidential search committee or other body is convened which is subject to the Iowa Open Meetings Law the University of Iowa will take thorough and sufficient steps to insure compliance with the Open Meetings Law.
– Text of a settlement between the university and retired professor Harold Hammond over technical violations of the open meetings law by the U of I Presidential Search Committee in 2007. The university will pay $65,895.54 in attorney fees under the agreement. See the press release: http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/june/061909settlement.pdf
He epitomizes what it means to be a high school football coach. He’s just a legend in terms of an incredibly powerful role model for generations of kids in the Parkersburg area.
– Gov. Culver on the shooting death of Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas, just months after he helped spearhead an effort to rebuild the tornado-ravaged school and town. See more reaction in Wednesday’s PM Update: http://iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=162707
POLITICAL STOCK REPORT
RISING
Ed Thomas: Outpouring for Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas, who was shot to death Wednesday morning by a former student and football player, was overwhelming. More than 2,500 people filled the stands at Ed Thomas Field to pray and remember the coach who gave the football stadium its name. Members of a new Facebook group “in loving memory of Coach Ed Thomas” multiplied quickly and grew to more than 7,000 by Wednesday night, just 12 hours after the shooting. Earlier in the day, word of the shooting spread quickly on Twitter, and hundreds tweeted their condolences. The news was also the top story on ESPN.com. Thomas was Aplington-Parkersburg’s football coach for 34 seasons and was named NFL’s high school coach of the year in 2003. His teams won two state titles and four of his former players have played in the NFL. Thomas’ son, Aaron, said people knew his father as a teacher, coach and a Christian man of faith. “We knew him as a father, husband, grandfather, son and uncle. We will miss him. We loved him. We have so many great memories that we will cherish forever. I will miss golfing with my dad and my brother,” Aaron Thomas said. “We love the people of Parkersburg for showing us such overwhelming support in the face of this tragedy. Thank you for the visits, phone calls and other expressions of love. In the midst of our grief, we deeply appreciate our friends and neighbors.” He went on to say: “The mark my dad left on this community will live on through our family, his students, his athletes, his church family and countless people that he has touched. We will miss him very much and thank all of you for supporting our family during this difficult time.”
Ethanol, Renewable Energy: U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu was in Des Moines this week to announce that Iowa has been awarded $16.2 million in State Energy Program funds for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Iowa. While here, he voiced support for increasing the percentage of ethanol in motor vehicle fuel from 10 percent up to 15 or even 85 percent. “The Department of Energy is now looking at whether the American automobile fleet can go above 10 percent,” Chu said. “If the existing automobile fleet can handle 15 percent, I would say let’s make that a target and go to 15 percent. This is very important for decreasing our oil dependence.” Chu said it costs about $100 in new gaskets and fuel lines to enable a car to accept up to E85, a blend which has 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. “Retrofit very expensive, but a new car, if it only costs $100 out of $15,000, wouldn’t it be nice to be put in those fuel lines and gaskets so we can use any ratio we want?” he asked. He noted that the natural tendency of the automobile industry would be to resist government intervention, but said increasing in percentage of ethanol in motor vehicle fuels is beginning to be discussed. “We’ll see if the current fleet can take 15 percent,” Chu said. A day later, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said: “The most important thing is I think we ought to concentrate on making ethanol more outlets for ethanol or I should say for E-85 ethanol. Because I think when you get the outlets, you’re going to have the cars manufactured to a greater extent and, to some extent, you’re going to make greater use of cars that already have the capability that are not burning it.”
Partisanship: From the state budget and the governor’s race in Iowa, to health care reform and the climate change bill in Washington, D.C., partisanship ratcheted up this week. Key to the tussle were comments made by Ed Failor, president of Iowans for Tax Relief, who reportedly likened efforts by Democrats on the economy to the rise of the Nazi Party, at an event attended by several potential Republican candidates for governor. The Boone News Republican reported Failor as saying that the Nazi party, which started as just another political party in Germany, began their massive rise to power by taking control of private business and means of production – which he said is exactly what the Democrats are attempting to do. Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan decried the remarks. “Those thoughts are hateful — to veterans of the Second World War who fought on D-Day, to people of the Jewish faith, and in fact to any decent person,” Kiernan said. “I am asking the newest candidate for governor, Chris Rants, and all the prospective Republican candidates’ two questions: First, do you agree with Ed Failor’s hateful words? And second, if not, why didn’t you speak up?” Also adding fuel to the partisan fire was a new poll by SurveyUSA conducted for KAAL-TV in Mason City showing that more than half of Iowans disapprove of Gov. Chet Culver’s job performance for the first time since he took office in January 2007. “Governor Culver’s free-spending, big debt, and job-killing agenda is out of touch with Iowa values and it is reflected in job approval ratings that are the lowest of his tenure as governor,” said Jeff Boeyink, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa. “More than half of Iowa voters now disapprove of the governor’s job performance.” Culver spokesman Phil Roeder retorted that a CBS News/New York Times poll released last Thursday showed Republicans had only a 28 percent approval rating, their lowest rating in that poll since 1985. “With numbers like that, I’m not sure the Republicans’ best strategy is to go around waving poll results,” Roeder said. Earlier in the week, Culver and legislative Republicans clashed over the state budget. Culver said he’s confident the state can balance its budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30, despite warnings by a fiscal analyst. But Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, accused Culver of refusing to accept reality about the budget, and described the governor’s comments as “wrongheaded” and taking a “wing and a prayer” approach. In Washington D.C., Democrats continued to push a public health option that Republicans refused to embrace. Meanwhile, Iowa’s Republican congressmen continued to fight the “cap-and-trade” energy proposal, in which the government would limit carbon emissions and require businesses to buy emissions permits, which they could then use or sell to other businesses. U.S. Rep. Steve King criticized U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s support of the Waxman-Markey climate change and energy bill, which King said would impose new energy taxes on all American energy users, raising the cost of all energy to reduce global warming.
Christopher Rants: The Sioux City Republican was in the news as he made his run for governor official. In a message via Twitter, Rants said, “Today’s to do list: 1. File exploratory committee papers 2. Tape IA Press 3. Hit the road & continue listening to Iowans kitchen table concerns.” About an hour later, he appeared on the political TV show Iowa Press to talk about it. “We’ve hit our initial fund-raising targets, we’ve started lining up supporters around the state,” Rants said. “Let’s be honest, there’s a long way to go. There are a lot more people I need to sit down and visit with, there are a lot more groups I need to spend some time listening to.” As of late last week, Rants had logged about 11,000 miles traveling around the state since the Iowa Legislature adjourned in late April. He said there’s a lot of listening Republicans need to do to be successful next fall. “I hear from people that are nervous about losing their jobs,” Rants said. “I hear from people that are nervous that their kids aren’t getting the kind of education they need to be successful. People are concerned when they see massive bonding proposals put together that their kids will have kids by the time that they can pay that off.” One former political operative, Christian Ucles, commented: “My belief is he is the only Republican who has a chance of defeating Gov. Culver.” By forming an exploratory committee, Rants joined Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats as the two candidates who have come furthest along in declaring their intentions to run for governor. State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, and Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, are also close to a decision. It only took a few hours after Rants’ announcement for Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan to go on the offense. “Chris Rants announced his candidacy today on Twitter. His tweet should have been, ‘I oppose smoking ban, Power Fund, Pre-K and I-Jobs. Favor recession. Perfect candidate for Party of Nope,'” Kiernan said.
Health care reform: Iowans kept the heat on Washington, D.C. in the push for health care reform. More than 30 Iowans were expected to attend the “Health Care ‘09” rally today. Chris Petersen, a Clear Lake farmer, expressed frustration at the excessive rise in health care costs each year. He said without a public option, any health care reform legislation would be just a Band Aid. He pays $1,300 a month for high-risk insurance through the state. “You actually don’t know what you’re getting,” Petersen said. “You pay into this insurance and then you go to use it, and you figure out it’s no good. That’s why we need a public option … I would take that public option in a minute because I think there would be more faith and more security in that at this time.” Dr. Selden Spencer of Huxley, who’s been in practice for 20 years, said health care decisions are wrongly made today for financial reasons. Spencer told the story of a young man with epilepsy who overcame his seizures, only to become a full-time worker who’s uninsured, not making enough money to buy the medication he needs to prevent seizures, and is at risk of losing his job and driver’s license. “Not a week goes by where I don’t see a situation where I’m puzzled by the decisions that are made,” Spencer said. “It just struck me that for a kid that had overcome so many challenges and had gone so far, for the lack of a simple system that would provide for his medication, a routine medical follow up, we had rendered a terrible disservice to him and to our community. This is not what we should be doing in this country.” A Health Care for America Now report showed Iowa had 7,783 non-business bankruptcies for 2008; an estimated 62 percent of bankruptcies were directly related to medical bills. It also showed that health insurance premiums increased 73 percent for Iowa families between 2000 and 2007, from $6,487 to $11,194. “Employers face a real problem today. If they’re paying 100 percent of health insurance premiums, that just can’t last,” said Don Rowen of Des Moines, president of the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans. “Either they’ll absolutely discontinue paying for insurance, or they’ll go down the road of bankruptcy.” Rowen said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley pays $326 a month for insurance as a congressman. “I wish he’d allow me to buy into the Senate plan,” Rowen said.
Passenger rail transportation: Gov. Chet Culver once again promoted the importance of freight and passenger rail transportation when he took off Wednesday for a train ride aboard the “Iowa Unlimited” through western Iowa. The ride took Culver and others from Des Moines to Earlham, Menlo, Atlantic and Council Bluffs. The event was sponsored by the Greater Des Moines Partnership and Business Publications. The goal is to bring new passenger rail lines to the state that connect more Iowa communities with Chicago. Current proposals would bring service to Dubuque, the Quad Cities and Iowa City, while longer-term plans include Des Moines and Council Bluffs. The train ride gave Culver another opportunity to promote his $830 million I-JOBS bonding for infrastructure program, which includes $10 million for multi-modal transportation projects in Iowa, including $3 million for expanded passenger rail service in the state. Iowa will also compete for federal passenger rail funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Open records advocates: The University of Iowa will pay $65,895.54 in attorney fees to settle a lawsuit filed in June 2007 against the U of I Presidential Search Committee over technical violations of the Iowa open meetings law. The lawsuit was filed by Harold Hammond, a retired U of I oral pathology professor, for the committee not revealing the location of semi-finalist candidate interviews for the post, which was eventually offered to and accepted by Sally Mason. In the settlement, U of I acknowledged that the committee violated several technical requirements of the Iowa open meetings law by failing to give proper notice of public and closed meetings, discussing matters in closed session which were required to be discussed in open session, discussing matters in closed sessions which were not directly related to the announced reasons for holding a closed session and taking final action in closed session. The University of Iowa agreed in the settlement that it will take thorough and sufficient steps to comply with the open meetings law in any future presidential search. Hammond agreed to dismiss with prejudice the lawsuit and to make no further claims under Iowa’s open records or open meetings law.
African-Americans: The U.S. Senate approved by unanimous consent a concurrent resolution sponsored by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, formally apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans. The resolution was expected to be approved by the U.S. House this week. A ceremony will be held July 7 in the U.S. Capitol rotunda to commemorate passage and enrollment. Meanwhile, Iowa observed Juneteenth last weekend, celebrated all over the country in African-American communities to recognize the end slavery. Watch video of passage of the resolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwOBC5bG08k
MIXED
Smoking ban: The Storm Celler in Lewis, Iowa this week became the 50th Iowa bar to face possible suspension or revocation of its liquor license for alleged violations of the state’s smoking ban, which will have been in effect one year as of July 1. Meanwhile, Pit Row Sports Bar & Grill in Eddyville must pay a $1,000 civil fine and will have its liquor license suspended for seven days beginning 6 a.m. Friday, July 3, under a settlement agreement for violation of the state’s smoking ban. But Lynn Walding, administrator of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, said the vast majority of Iowa businesses are in compliance with the Iowa Smokefree Air Act. He said the Iowa Department of Public Health has received complaints against only 1 percent of the more than 82,000 businesses in the state. A federal smokefree workplace policy also took effect similar to Iowa’s statewide smoking ban, but the American Lung Association pointed out that the policy will only apply to about 30 percent of all federal buildings in the United States that are under Government Services Administration control. “This potentially leaves thousands of federal workers still exposed to secondhand smoke while at work and at risk for developing diseases including lung cancer as a result,” the group said. “In order to protect all federal workers, the American Lung Association urges President Obama to issue an executive order making all federal workplaces smokefree.”
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley: His quotes and photo made the national news when talked about “dialing down” expectations for health care reform. Media reports began to question whether the legislation has enough votes during a recession. On a more personal front, members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement criticized Grassley for allowing lobbyists and political action committees from the mortgage, insurance and financial industries to host a fundraiser for him after he recently opposed legislation to allow judges to renegotiate mortgages. The group, which has been pushing campaign finance reform through public financing of elections or Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections, accused Grassley of letting lobbyists affect his vote. Iowa CCI cited data from the Center for Responsive Politics that Grassley has raised nearly $2.8 million from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector over his career for his campaign and leadership political action committee. But Grassley spokeswoman Beth Pellett Levine told IowaPolitics.com that Grassley’s position on those bankruptcy issues has been the same for more than 12 years, and a majority of the Senate agreed with him and voted against an amendment to allow judges unfettered ability to change home loans. “His position is based on the principles of personal responsibility and fairness to everyone. Allowing judges to change the terms of a home loan will lead to higher interest rates and higher down payments for everyone,” Levine said. “To use a fundraiser to rehash this point is specious. Senator Grassley only accepts money for his campaign committee that is legal and has no strings attached. To suggest otherwise is without basis.”
People with disabilities: An event at the Glenwood Resource Center commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the June 1999 Olmstead decision, a landmark Georgia case in which the U.S. Supreme Court required states to provide individuals with disabilities the choice to receive their services in a home or community based setting, rather than in an institution. Meanwhile, a new U.S. Department of Justice report showed that clinical care and nutritional management at the Glenwood Resource Center for people with mental retardation have now reached substantial compliance with standards set by the DOJ, although nursing care remains non-compliant. The report said Glenwood has now reached compliance on almost all measures, including the effective coordination of various health professions and all other standards of clinical care. The DOJ was complimentary of Glenwood’s physical and nutritional management system, which are critical because more than half of Glenwood’s 310 residents have life-threatening swallowing disorders. But nursing care is among the few remaining categories of noncompliance. The DOJ noted nursing errors in its visit in February, including the inadvertent withholding of medication on the day one resident returned from a hospital, and another case in which there was a delay in notifying doctors about a change in health status. Both residents died, although the DOJ said the mistakes did not contribute to the deaths. Twelve residents of Glenwood died last year, compared to 11 in 2006 and lower numbers in 2004, 2005, and 2007. Glenwood and its sister institution in Woodward are working to comply with a 2004 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding civil rights of residents.
FALLING
Economy, job outlook: Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 5.8 percent in May from 5.1 percent in April. “A surge in new labor force entrants combined with a drop in employment pushed the state’s unemployment rate to a 22-year high in May,” said Elisabeth Buck, director of Iowa Workforce Development. “While unemployment may continue to rise for some time, job losses are expected to progressively lessen in the months ahead.” Iowa’s unemployment rate reaching that high is bad news for recent Iowa graduates, the Iowa Policy Project analysts said. Gov. Chet Culver pointed to the national recession as the reason, but said Iowa still has the sixth-lowest unemployment rate in the nation and is in a stronger financial position than most states. Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, blamed Democrats for not doing enough to help Iowans at a time the state has more than 96,000 unemployed Iowans.
Gov. Chet Culver: A new poll by SurveyUSA conducted for KAAL-TV in Mason City showed that more than half of Iowans disapprove of Gov. Chet Culver’s job performance for the first time since he took office in January 2007. The telephone poll of 600 adults showed that 42 percent approved of Culver’s job performance, while 51 percent disapproved. The poll was taken June 12 to 14 and was released June 18. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent. “Governor Culver’s free-spending, big debt, and job-killing agenda is out of touch with Iowa values and it is reflected in job approval ratings that are the lowest of his tenure as governor,” said Jeff Boeyink, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa. “More than half of Iowa voters now disapprove of the governor’s job performance.” Culver spokesman Phil Roeder retorted that a CBS News/New York Times poll released last Thursday showed Republicans had only a 28 percent approval rating, their lowest rating in that poll since 1985. “With numbers like that, I’m not sure the Republicans’ best strategy is to go around waving poll results,” Roeder said. “What I do know is that when Governor Culver is in Cedar Rapids talking about flood relief or Davenport talking about I-JOBS or Mason City talking about wind energy — or any number of other communities across the state — people not only support but are excited about the work of the Culver/Judge administration, especially the effort to work our way out of this Republican-caused recession.” Roeder added that more Republican candidates have announced that they are not running for governor than those that are, “which says a lot about the accomplishments and strengths of Governor Culver.” Earlier in the week, Culver and legislative Republicans clashed over the state’s ending balance. A nonpartisan fiscal analyst predicted that the state might not have enough money to end the fiscal year in the black, leading to outcry by Republicans. Culver said he’s confident the state can balance its budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30, despite warnings by the fiscal analyst. But Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, accused Culver of refusing to accept reality about the budget, and described the governor’s comments as “wrongheaded” and taking a “wing and a prayer” approach. Iowans for Tax Relief weighed in on the issue, saying “The out-of-control and reckless spending has put Iowa taxpayers in jeopardy of massive tax increases.”
CENTRIST BOSWELL LOOKING A LITTLE MORE SECURE FOR DEMOCRATS IN 2010
Year after year, Republicans dream of ousting Rep. Leonard Boswell from his swing district in central Iowa. But since the Des Moines Democrat first won office in 1996, the GOP has been disappointed every two years.
Now, an array of sources in Iowa and Washington say that Boswell, while not qualifying as safe, starts this cycle as a reasonably strong favorite for 2010.
No significant Democratic primary opposition has emerged, and while two well-known Republicans are looking at challenging Boswell in 2010, neither has committed to a race. The two are former GOP state Chairman Michael Mahaffey, a lawyer in Montezuma, and three-term Polk County Supervisor Robert Brownell.
Mahaffey, who narrowly lost to Boswell for an open House seat in 1996, told IowaPolitics.com he’s in the midst of discussing with his family whether he should try again 14 years later. He said he expects to make a decision no later than Labor Day, and closer to mid-July if he can.
Brownell, for his part, confirmed in an interview that he’s looking at a run, but he added, “I would say the likelihood is not good.”
Meanwhile, Boswell got a break when two senior Democrats in the district – state House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and state Sen. Jack Hatch, both of Des Moines – took themselves off the list of possible primary rivals.
A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee said that whoever ultimately runs in the Iowa’s 3rd District, “Boswell will undoubtedly face a strong challenge in 2010, when he will be forced to defend a voting record that is in lockstep with his party leader [Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.] and completely out of the mainstream for his constituents.”
Next year, in the midterm election, Boswell also isn’t expected to get a boost from the turnout spike that Iowa Democrats benefited from in 2008, when Barack Obama led the Democratic ticket.
Indeed, Democrats tacitly acknowledged the likelihood of a credible Republican challenger in 2010 when they designated Boswell a member of the “Frontline” program, which gives extra assistance to the candidates likeliest to face a serious GOP challenge. However, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman added that Boswell has “made significant inroads with independents in the district” and benefits from a generally pro-Democratic trendline in the state and the district.
“The congressman is raring to go as long as the people continue to give him an opportunity to serve,” said Mark Daley, a spokesman for Boswell.
Another factor that gives Boswell a leg up is the influence he’s aggregated from his congressional seniority. Boswell, 75, has managed to establish an enviable power base in agriculture – the No. 1 pocketbook issue for many of his constituents.
“The most important thing about Leonard Boswell is that House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson [D-Minn.] has made him the chairman of the most important subcommittee, General Commodities and Risk Management,” said Jerry Hagstrom, the ex-president of the North American Agricultural Journalists and an agriculture reporter for CongressDaily.
“This means he is important to almost everybody with money in agriculture – the general farm groups, the commodity groups and even the commodity exchanges and the crop insurance companies,” Hagstrom said. “For a guy from Iowa to have cotton beholden to him as well as the northern commodities is quite something. He doesn’t have the meat groups [in his jurisdiction] but he previously chaired the subcommittee that covers them.”
In agriculture policy, Boswell represents one-third of a powerful Iowa triumvirate in Washington, along with Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Tom Harkin and President Obama’s agriculture secretary, former Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack. He even gave up a chance to sit on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee to keep his agriculture slot, a decision that irked some business interests in the district, a GOP strategist said.
“It’s a nice little power base,” said O. Kay Henderson, a veteran political reporter for Radio Iowa.
Meanwhile, despite having less seniority on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee than he has on agriculture, Boswell has also used the transportation panel to win points back home.
“He basically rebuilt the highway system in Polk County [which includes Des Moines] and central Iowa,” said one Democratic strategist. “That has created jobs in the most populated part of the district.” Polk County accounts for about two-thirds of the votes in the 3rd.
Such efforts have helped allow Boswell – who originally hails from rural Iowa – to make significant inroads in the more urban, populous and liberal parts of his district. It’s been so successful that Boswell last year held off a primary challenge from his left by former state Rep. Ed Fallon of Des Moines by a roughly 20-point margin.
At the same time, Boswell has managed to satisfy more conservative voters in rural areas, emphasizing his background as a farmer and a fighter pilot and assembling a voting record that’s one of the most conservative in the House Democratic Caucus.
“Boswell stays quite centrist, which is a good fit for the district, and he stays pretty visible to his constituents,” said David Redlawsk, director of the University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll.
David Wasserman, who tracks House races for the non-partisan Cook Political Report, said a Mahaffey candidacy could be “encouraging” to the GOP. But even if Boswell earns another term in 2010, he will have to worry about what happens during the reapportionment and redistricting process that will follow the 2010 Census, Wasserman said.
If current models hold, Iowa could lose one of its five House seats due to slower-than-average population growth. This would only make life even tougher for House incumbents, who already must deal with a unique Iowa system that redraws boundaries under non-partisan rules and that often create new districts that force incumbents to run in entirely new territory.
In fact, Boswell himself had to run in a radically different district after the 2000 Census. His choice to run in a more urban district than he had before left him open to a series of credible challenges – first by Des Moines lawyer Stan Thompson, a Republican, in 2002 and 2004, by then-state Senate co-President Jeff Lamberti, a Republican, in 2006 and by Fallon in the 2008 primary.
While Boswell did win each of those contests, some Democrats privately wonder whether he’d be up for running in what could be an entirely new district in 2012. “A lot of Democrats have doubts about whether a 78-year-old Boswell would be able to win in 2012 if, say, his seat is merged with” the more rural district represented by GOP Rep. Tom Latham, Wasserman said.
One Republican strategist in the state said he has heard similar expressions of concern by Democrats.
“There has been a murmur out there for a long time that the Democrats would not be disappointed when he decided to hang up his political cleats,” the GOP strategist said. When Boswell leaves, “you’ll have quite a frenzy of Democrats running for the seat,” he said. Still, the strategist said it appears for now that “the Democrats are going to keep playing nice with him and let him run as long as he wants to.”
Boswell’s camp dismisses past health problems, including a non-cancerous abdominal tumor that required chemotherapy and that caused a three-month-long absence in 2005. Not only has he “completely rebounded,” said Daley, his spokesman, but Boswell continues to fly planes and downhill ski.
Raising the age and health issues in a respectful way remains a challenge for potential rivals. Henderson said Boswell’s seniority, combined with his generally agreeable demeanor and his centrist politics, create “some reluctance” among Republicans “to go on a full-throttle attack” against him.
Indeed, Mahaffey said if he challenges Boswell, he wouldn’t “attack him personally – that’s not a good way to do it. It’s better to articulate reasons that Republicans should be elected to Congress. … My job is to convince people to vote for Mike Mahaffey, not necessarily against Leonard Boswell.”
STUDY THAT COULD REPLACE COURT REPORTERS WITH MACHINES MOVES FORWARD AS MORE THAN A DOZEN GET LAID OFF
Iowa court reporters, anxious about their jobs in light of declining state revenues and a study of whether digital video and audio recording technology should be used to replace them, will form their own task force to evaluate the issue from a different point of view and to make sure the “human side” of the story is told.
“Of course we’re feeling threatened,” said Sheryl Culver, a Polk County court reporter for 26 years and the new president of the Iowa Court Reporters Association. “We don’t feel this is the gold standard that our courts should be using.”
Karen Teig, a Linn County court reporter for 34 years who’s immediate past president of the Iowa Court Reporters Association, will chair the new task force that will be separate from the Iowa Judicial Council’s official Digital Audio Recording Technology Committee.
“Reporters are scared,” said Teig, who as a court reporter works for the state. “They’re scared that they’re going to lose their jobs, not only as a result of digital audio recording but also just layoffs. There was an article a couple weeks ago that tax revenues are not what was expected. Everybody’s watching that very closely.”
The Iowa judicial branch announced Thursday afternoon that it will eliminate or hold open nearly 50 vacant court staff positions including judicial vacancies and will lay off about 15 people, including 13 court reporters, as part of a $5.4 million reduction in the fiscal year that begins July 1. The state has 185 full-time court reporters.
“We will reduce our court reporter workforce by 10 percent and begin pooling court reporters,” said State Court Administrator David Boyd. “This will be a big change for our judges. Even so I am confident that we can effectively cover all of the trial courts’ reporting needs by pooling court reporters. Pooling is much more cost effective than our traditional practice of assigning one court reporter to one judge. It will reduce court reporter down time and save taxpayers nearly $1.5 million.”
As a double-whammy, the idea of using electronic recording technology in Iowa’s courtrooms first surfaced as a cost-saving measure during the legislative session when the Iowa Judicial Branch faced the prospect of steep budget cuts. Five other states use such technology in all of their courts – Alaska, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Utah and Vermont – while another 18 states use electronic recording in many of their courts, according to data compiled by Iowa Deputy State Court Administrator John Goerdt.
Iowa’s 18-member Digital Audio Recording Technology Committee is working to recommend to the Iowa Judicial Council by Dec. 31 whether the technology can reliably produce an accurate record of court proceedings and whether the benefits outweigh the overall costs.
But the DART committee is largely made up of judges and attorneys, along with a couple court administrators and only one retired court reporter, Gerald Olson. Court reporters say they want people to know about the limited capabilities of electronic recording.
“The digital recording services are not as accurate as a court reporter,” Teig said. “It also doesn’t take into consideration all of the additional duties that court reporters perform for their judges, everything from clerical to scheduling, to legal research.”
At the DART committee’s second meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday, four vendors will be at the Iowa Judicial Building in Des Moines to demonstrate digital video and audio recording technology that could possibly be used to replace the state’s 185 full-time court reporters in the budget-saving move being considered by the courts. The four vendors were picked from 11 who responded to a request for information.
By July 15, court staff will arrange site visits to nearby states that are already using the technology. Subgroups of the committee will observe court proceedings in those states and talk with judges, attorneys and court staff there. Likely destinations include state courts in Minnesota; Rock Island, Illinois; Fargo, North Dakota; and the federal district court in Lincoln, Nebraska. There was also significant interest in a small group visiting Salt Lake City, Utah.
Then starting in August, the digital audio recording technology will be tested in multiple courtrooms across Iowa.
Culver said she’s already visited some courtrooms that use the technology. She pointed out that a machine can’t stop the court proceedings to verify words, interrupt when people talk on top of each other, be the referee in the courtroom and provide services for the deaf and hard of hearing.
“The machine wouldn’t be able to do it,” she said. It’s just extremely hard to produce a transcript from these tapes. It’s hard to identify the speakers.”
Culver said there’s also the issue of sound quality. She said recorders will pick up the loudest noise in the room and sometimes, that’s somebody coughing or shuffling papers, rather than the person testifying. Attorneys and others can also inadvertently cover up a microphone with their papers.
“While it is advanced technology, it’s not exactly the best,” she said. “I just don’t think it will work in our courts.”
Iowa already uses some digital recording in some of its magistrate courts. But Teig pointed out that some states have gone to digital recording because they’ve had to. In contrast, she said, Iowa has a good court reporting school at AIB College of Business in Des Moines, and no shortage of court reporters.
Both Teig and Culver asserted that court reporters are more technologically savvy than the technology that could replace them.
“Court reporters at least in Iowa…have changed with the technology and have been leaders in technology. We use real-time reporting which is instantaneous voice-to-text translation for our judges, and also to assist the deaf and hard of hearing in our courtrooms,” Teig said. “It’s my position that the digital recording equipment has been trying to keep up with court reporters. We’re the ones who have been on top of technology for over 20 years.”
See agenda of today’s DART Committee meeting:
http://www.iowacourts.gov/wfdata/frame8550-1984/File4.pdf
See more on other states using electronic recording technology for trial court proceedings:
http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/wfdata/files/Committees/DART/3-DARTinOtherState&FedCts-09.pdf
Get more information:
http://www.judicial.state.ia.us/Advisory_Committees/Digital_Audio_Recoding_Technology/Information/
COUNTY FUNDRAISERS LIKE THIS WEEKEND’S FEATURING GOV CANDIDATES KEY TO GRASSROOTS EFFORT
With a little less than a year to go before next year’s gubernatorial primary, political activists say county fundraisers like the one this weekend in Sac County featuring four Republican gubernatorial candidates are key to building up the organization they’ll need to win next year.
“For county parties to be hosting different events and forums and fundraisers now, it’s simply to build up the infrastructure so that a political party can get their people elected come the next election,” said Pete Jeffries, finance chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party, which earlier this month hosted its own kickoff fundraiser with former Gov. Terry Branstad at the Hotel Patee in Perry.
State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone, Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, Rep. Rod Roberts of Carroll and Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City are scheduled to attend a fundraising breakfast for the Sac County Republican Party at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Chautauqua Building in Sac City. Each candidate is scheduled to speak about 15 minutes.
“Right now, we’re one year from the primary. So from Sac County’s perspective, they get to have the kickoff breakfast. One year from now, Republicans will be making their gubernatorial nominee known,” Jeffries said. “From a county perspective, what a great way to get interest in your county party and to get your own activists engaged then by putting on an event where you have all of the prospective candidates that are going to be running statewide…It’s a win-win.”
Past fundraisers in the northwest Iowa county of 12,000 have drawn about 60 to 70 people – a much smaller crowd than those in larger counties that attract a few hundred.
Brian Krause, chairman of the Sac County Republican Central Committee, acknowledged that there’s still a lot of time before the June 2010 primary and that some people would prefer to spend their summertime Saturday morning at the lake.
“The hard-core Republican activists in our county are probably going to be at this event. The general public is not really aware if they’re not political junkies,” Krause said. “It’s an early event. It will raise public awareness and probably the hard-core activists are going to be there…You’ve got to be pretty serious to show up this early in the governor’s race.”
But Krause said events like these in Republican-rich western Iowa are key in working toward the goal of “running up the score.” He said Sac County Republicans are confident they’ll re-elect Republicans to their county and state legislative seats. “But our challenge is to run up the score on the governor’s race as high as we can,” he said.
That means having the Republican candidate for governor win the county in November 2010 by a large enough margin – such as capturing about 70 percent of the vote – to balance out the votes in the more Democratic-leaning eastern Iowa counties.
“The strength of the county organization is we have people that will get behind their individual candidates, and these are people that will knock on doors,” Krause said.
The four Republicans who accepted the invitation to Saturday’s fundraiser in Sac City are the same ones who accepted an invitation to a July 22 IowaPolitics.com forum at Drake University. About a dozen others are considering a run for governor, and Krause said the party made contacts with “all of the major ones on the list.”
But Doug Gross, a Des Moines attorney who was Republicans’ 2002 gubernatorial nominee, told IowaPolitics.com that he doesn’t believe next year’s nominee will be one of the four who will be there Saturday. “We would expect the eventual nominee to be someone other than those who have now announced,” he said.
Gross said an informal group of Republicans continue to work on identifying the person who could best win against Gov. Chet Culver in November 2010. He expects that person to be announced in late summer or early fall.
“We have a list that’s as long as my arm…15 different people,” Gross said, declining to name names. He said the process is systematic and involves testing people from a data standpoint and their relationships. It involves age, location and gender. Gross said the eventual person will not be chosen by accident or gut feel.
“The stakes are so high,” Gross said. “We’re concerned that we’ve been losing elections.”
Krause said organizers for Saturday’s fundraiser didn’t get a response from Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton, even though Krause believes McKinley will end up running for governor. “He is seriously considering this, but our event is just too early in his process,” Krause said. “Should he show up at our event, that puts him in another position.”
Late last month, McKinley told IowaPolitics.com that “If someone is going to get into this race, they’d probably want to get into it this summer or early fall.” He pointed to his own experience as a retired manufacturing executive in the private sector as one that could help the state to stabilize its economy by focusing on job creation and said: “I am keeping my options open at this point. My No. 1 responsibility is to get the Senate back in control of Republicans.”
Cost of Saturday’s breakfast is $10 per person. Krause had offered half the net proceeds of the fundraiser to any candidate who officially announces at the event that he is running for governor. But he downplayed expectations this week, saying: “I’d be surprised if someone took us up on it.”
Others asked to join Saturday’s forum were former Senate President Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny, who said he will be out of state on Saturday; and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, whose staff indicated that he plans on seeking re-election rather than for governor.
Gross said he doesn’t believe two other people who have been mentioned as possible gubernatorial candidates — ethanol executive Bruce Rastetter, the chief executive of Hawkeye Renewables and a key financer of Republican campaigns; and Mark Pearson, the farmer and former assistant agriculture secretary who’s host of “The Big Show” on WHO radio and “Market to Market” on public television — will choose to run.
ADVOCATES ON BOTH SIDES OF STATE SMOKING BAN WANT CASINO EXEMPTION REMOVED
In an unusual meeting of the minds, both supporters and opponents of Iowa’s nearly one-year-old state smoking ban say they’ll push next year to get lawmakers to remove an exemption that has allowed smoking on casino floors.
“The bars are going to bring it up again next year and try to get some exemptions passed,” said Iowa Restaurant Association Chairwoman Suzanne Summy. “This year they didn’t have a chance because the economy’s so bad that we have our hands full just dealing with budget deficits. But if the economy looks better by January, you can be sure that the bar owners are going to try this again.”
Summy, who has three restaurants, has taken issue with the law on several levels. For one Iowa’s law allows smoking on casino floors, an exemption she says was all about money and “has nothing to do with health.”
“For them to say they are passing this ordinance and it’s a health issue, it’s hypocritical for them to say that when they are smoking in a casino,” Summy said. “Are they not concerned with casinos employees’ health?”
Summy said as a non-smoker, she enjoys the improved air quality. But she still feels there are some basic competitiveness issues that the law should have taken into account.
“I’m glad for the casinos that they got exempted, but it put an unfair advantage to them against the bars, because people can go out there, gamble, smoke, and bars can’t let them do that in their place,” Summy said.
Kerry Wise with the American Lung Association Iowa said her organization is also interested in repealing the casino exemption in the law, but for very different reasons than Summy.
“At some point of course we’d love to see the law protect all workers, and that’s our priority and that’s our goal,” Wise said. “Currently, though, the priority is making sure the law is maintained, it’s certainly not weakened, that we do education with businesses so they know what the law says right now and just implement what has been passed. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Lynn Walding is administrator of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, which hands down fines, liquor license suspensions and revocations to those who violate the law. He said he feels Iowa has “turned a corner” and “the state is as far along as it hoped to be” a year into the law. He also said a legal challenge to the law, like the one dismissed in Polk County District Court in May, would have been tough to win.
“Since Iowa there have been many other states that have gone that direction,” Walding said. “There have been a number of states that have a SFAA, 38 states, and to my knowledge there hasn’t been one to declare it unconstitutional. If the court does find the casino exemption unconstitutional, the law is written in such a way so that the rest of it would remain intact.”
Since Iowa’s smoking ban took effect July 1, 2008, more than 3,000 complaints related to possible violations of the law have been filed with the Iowa Department of Public Health; 991 have been verified and 75 liquor licensees have been referred to the attorney general’s office for possible action.
“It takes a while to educate and get people to adjust to the change,” Walding said. “The struggle we had early on was, competitors tried to test the boundaries of the law. Some licensed establishments were left with the dilemma of, ‘do I comply with the law and risk losing business to a competitor, or do I comply with the law and risk being fined later on?”
Of those 75 liquor licensees referred to the attorney general, 25 had no complaint filed against them and received no penalty or suspension; 16 are awaiting a hearing or decision; 15 have settled without a hearing, resulting in a seven-day suspension and a $1,000 fine; and another nine are pending settlement.
Just nine liquor licensees have received harsher sanctions, with suspensions from 21 to 40 days. Two – Otis Campbell’s in West Burlington and Veterans of Foreign Wars in Ottumwa – have had their licenses revoked.
Brian Froehlich, owner of Fro’s in Wilton, was among the plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the state smoking ban. He talked about how difficult business has been for him in the past year.
“It’s hard. It really is,” Froehlich said. “There’s a lot of things that are in the way right now, but it’s hard. It’s not like it was when I bought this place 4 ½ years ago. It’s really disheartening.”
Froehlich says he doesn’t buy the idea that the law has gone over well. He says during his travels around the state he has heard a whole different story: Most are in favor of prohibiting smoking in restaurants, but not in bars. “I don’t know who they talked to, I guess all their liberal friends in Iowa City and Des Moines,” he said.
Another issue is whether smoking should be allowed in outdoor areas at bars and restaurants. Currently, any area where there is outdoor seating or service is smoke free.
Earlier this year, it looked like the Iowa House might move on that issue when 51 legislators signed on to a bill that would have allowed smoking in outdoor seating and serving areas of bars and restaurants. It also would have allowed smoking in theatrical performances. However, Democratic leaders were opposed to making changes in the law this year, and that bill was never taken up for debate in committee or on the floor.
“It’s possible that something like that might happen in the future, but I don’t think the law will necessarily get weakened when that happens,” said Bill Roach with the Iowa attorney general’s office. “I think anytime you do any kind of a law that affects so many people in some way or another and there are so many variations, that it’s just natural that there be some questions. But I think we’re working our way through those.”
Roach said there is always a possibility the Legislature will revisit this issue, but he thinks the changes will more likely result in closing loopholes in the law rather than opening new ones.
“I think it would be very hard to turn back the clock on this, and I think over time we will see an extension of the coverage to casinos and other places that were exempt,” Roach said.
Despite smoking being prohibited in bars and restaurants, Walding said alcohol sales in dollars went up 8 percent this year. And Jeremy Whitaker with Quitline Iowa said calls to that group are actually down this year. But Summy, Froehlich and others still insist the impact on bar and restaurant owners has been palpable.
“It’s all about rights and amenities,” Froelich said. “You can’t give one group rights and amenities over another group. And that’s what we’re fighting about, and what we’re arguing about. It’s about the constitution. It’s not about smoking, it’s about your rights.”
Summy said the economy and the state smoking ban have been “a double whammy” for bar owners, one that will be difficult to overcome as they now have fewer business options.
“Our contention always from the beginning is this is a business decision, whether or not a restaurant or bar offers smoking or nonsmoking,” Summy said. “Then customers can decide whether they are going to go the business or not go to the business. I feel what they did was take away a business owner’s prerogative all along. I’m not a smoker, and I’m not for smoking, and neither is the Iowa Restaurant Association. We just think business owners should have the ability to run their business the way they want to. That has been taken away from us.”
FORMER FIRST LADY TACKLES NEGLECTED ISSUES, DENIES POLITICAL AMBITIONS
A lifetime Democrat and now executive director of the Iowa Initiative to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies, former First Lady Christie Vilsack has always had her hand in politics but maintains that she doesn’t have any ambitions to pursue elected office.
Instead, Vilsack said she is happy with the work she has been able to do, both helping those on the campaign trail and working to educate the public on issues she feels have been neglected.
“I love my job and I think I can make a difference nationally and statewide,” Vilsack said in an interview with IowaPolitics.com. “Right now I can’t see a better use of my time. And as citizens we need to look to make our communities better.”
Vilsack’s work to improve the community is one of the reasons she will join her husband, former Gov. Tom Vilsack, and former Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson in being inducted Saturday into the Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame.
She first started volunteering for Democratic campaigns when she was in high school, a passion she said she still harbors today. After obtaining her masters in journalism and a law degree, Vilsack taught at the middle school, high school and college level while helping her husband build his political career.
When Tom Vilsack was elected governor of Iowa in 1998, Christie Vilsack became first lady. She started a statewide literacy initiative to put books in the hands of every child across the state.
She continued her social advocacy after leaving Terrace Hill by helping start the Iowa Initiative. Vilsack said the initiative is a pilot program designed to collect information about unintended pregnancies and distribute information about various contraceptive options. As executive director, Vilsack is setting up a network between the clinics helping with the study and presenting the initiative’s findings to officials in Washington, D.C.
“I’ve been a teacher all my life, so although this is a little different I’m still focused on educating people,” Vilsack said.
In December, Tom Vilsack was nominated by President Obama to be U.S. secretary of agriculture. He was quickly confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Christie Vilsack said she and her husband have made the transition to Washington, D.C. easily thanks to the familiar faces that come to visit and the locals they already knew. She said she spends almost 75 percent of her time in Washington.
“We’ve been doing politics for a long time, so we came here knowing quite a few people already,” Vilsack said.
Regardless of the location, Vilsack said there are a few things she could not resist bringing to Washington, such as the row of potted tomato plants that sits outside their D.C. apartment.
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE UNVEILS MORE THAN $1 TRILLION HEALTH CARE BILL; FINANCE COMMITTEE HOPES FOR LESS COSTLY, MORE BIPARTISAN ALTERNATIVE
Members of Congress are prepared to spend next week’s Fourth of July recess pushing their ideas for health care reform at home to a public that is hungry for the system to be overhauled but wary of how doing so will affect them.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, majority Democrats unveiled the outline of a bill and promised to pass legislation that includes a robust government-run insurance option — or public plan — to complete with private insurance companies. In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Cumming, is a key member, continued marking up its bill, and plans to finish sometime after July 4.
Harkin, heading into another mark up session of the HELP bill Thursday morning, said he remains pleased with the progress of health care reform in the Senate. But he acknowledged that there is a long way to go and was cautious about predicting a favorable outcome this early in the game. Still, the message he plans to deliver to Iowans next week when he is home for the July 4 recess is a positive one.
Harkin said his message to Iowans next week would be “that we’re moving; that things are falling into place. I am very happy about the prevention and wellness things that we got in [the HELP bill]. This is the heart of the bill, because we have got to change the medicine we’re doing in this country … We got it in this bill; this is big stuff.”
HELP Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) put Harkin in charge of managing the wellness and prevention components of the committee’s health care reform legislation.
Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee continued working this week toward a bipartisan compromise on health care reform. The process in the Senate calls for the Finance Committee’s bill to be merged with the HELP Committee’s bill. It remains unclear as to whether those negotiations will run smoothly.
Unlike the Senate HELP Committee, which has drafted a bill that prioritizes liberal reform goals, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) last week delayed the mark up of his bill so that he could continue working with the top Republican on the panel, Sen. Charles Grassley of New Hartford, toward legislation that could garner significant support from both political parties.
Preliminary cost estimates for the HELP bill came in at well over $1 trillion over 10 years, although the final cost of the legislation is unknown because key portions of it — including the part that is set to include language creating a government-run insurance option — has not yet been publicized. But Baucus and Grassley have been working together on the Finance Committee to draft a bill that costs under $1 trillion over 10 years.
Baucus announced Thursday that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has provided cost estimates on a range of policy options that would allow the Finance Committee to draft a health care bill that costs under $1 trillion and does not add to the federal deficit. Baucus did not release any details early Thursday afternoon, and Republican members said they would withhold comment pending a chance to review the policies and the information provided by the CBO.
On another big issue, whether to implement a government-run insurance option as a part of health care reform, Grassley — who unlike Harkin remains opposes such a measure — sounded more optimistic this week that the Finance Committee would be able to reach an agreement on a bipartisan bill. Grassley spent most of this week shuttling in and out of closed-door meetings with his Democratic and Republican colleagues on the committee as negotiations toward a bipartisan agreement progressed.
“We’re still on a path to get” a bipartisan agreement, Grassley said this week, although he cautioned that things can change at any moment.
Grassley indicated that bipartisan agreement might be possible thanks to a proposal put forth by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). Conrad has proposed the establishment of medical cooperatives to compete with private insurers in place of a government-run insurance option favored by many of his Democratic colleagues.
Grassley said it’s possible that a deal on the coop proposal could bridge the serious partisan divide that exists surrounding the public plan.
“If it’s a cooperative along the lines of, we’ve known [cooperatives] for 150 years, yes,” a deal is possible, Grassley said.
President Barack Obama, who this past week joined liberal and conservative activists in stepping up his public campaign for health care reform, has demanded that Congress pass a health care reform bill no later than Oct. 15. House and Senate Democratic leaders, in an attempt to comply, are hoping to clear legislation out of their respective chambers before the Congress adjourns for the August recess.
Members will be home next week for the July Fourth recess, but return Washington the following week to continue their work on health care reform and other matters.
NAMES IN THE NEWS
To be included in this new feature tracking recent job changes and other people in the news, please write campbell@iowapolitics.com
Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach ED THOMAS died Wednesday morning after being shot several times in the school weight room. Thomas was shot several times in the head during an optional weight training session around 8 a.m. Family members said he died shortly after being airlifted to a local hospital. Officials said about 30 students were there when the shooting happened, but none were injured. Former Aplington-Parkersburg High School student and football player MARK DARYL BECKER, 24, was charged with first-degree murder. Thomas was Aplington-Parkersburg’s football coach for 34 seasons and was named NFL’s high school coach of the year in 2003. His teams have won two state titles and four of his former players have played in the NFL.
Mississippi Gov. HALEY BARBOUR appeared on “Iowa Press” today, one day after being named the new chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Tonight, he is headlining the Republican Party of Iowa’s “Night of the Rising Stars” fundraiser at Hoyt Sherman Place. He also headlines a party fundraiser in New Hampshire later this month, raising speculation about whether he’ll run for president in 2012. Barbour was supposed to take over the RGA in 2010. But that move came early after South Carolina Gov. MARK SANFORD, who disappeared for seven days, admitted that he’d secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he’d been having an affair. Sanford apologized to his wife and four sons and resigned as head of the Republican Governors Association.
U.S. Energy Secretary STEVEN CHU was in Iowa to announce $16 million for Iowa for energy efficiency and renewable energy from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It’s the first installment of Iowa’s $40 million share of the money.
Former Iowa Gov. TOM VILSACK, former First Lady CHRISTIE VILSACK and former state party chairwoman and Lt. Gov. SALLY PEDERSON will be inducted into the Iowa Democratic Party’s hall of fame this Saturday night at Drake University. The “10th Anniversary Hall of Fame Ceremony” is one of the party’s two annual fundraisers. About 300 are expected to attend. Tickets range from $50 to $500 per person, with hosts contributing up to $5,000.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials REGINA MCCARTHY and MARGO OGE will be in Iowa on Sept. 3 upon the invitation of Grassley, to visit and see firsthand the impact their agency has on farmers and agriculture. The visit will likely be in the Des Moines area visiting a family farm, bio-refinery and a few other places.
NANCY POWELL, a 1970 graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, has been nominated by President Obama as director general of the foreign service for the U.S. Department of State. The appointment is subject to approval of the U.S. Senate, following Powell’s June 16 confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Powell has been the U.S. ambassador to Nepal since 2007. She was born in Cedar Falls and raised in LeMars, and taught high school social studies in Dayton, Iowa for 6 1/2 years before joining the Department of State in 1977.
Former House Speaker CHRISTOPHER RANTS, R-Sioux City, filed paperwork forming an exploratory committee for governor. SARA CRAIG has been listed as his media contact. She is listed on LinkedIn as Senate caucus director and interim executive director at the Republican Party of North Dakota, a past field director of Romney for President, and former southwest field director for the Republican Party of Iowa’s Legislative Majority Fund.
A brochure from Iowa Secretary of Agriculture BILL NORTHEY further confirmed what he told IowaPolitics.com at the beginning of this month: That he’s leaning towards seeking re-election, rather than running for governor. The brochure promotes a fundraiser Northey is having July 11 and says: “P.S. I have really enjoyed my experiences as your secretary of agriculture and really look forward to serving you for another term.”
NORTHEY announced he will be holding town meetings in Hardin, Grundy and Tama Counties on Thursday, July 2 as part of his effort to visit each of Iowa’s 99 counties again in 2009 to meet with Iowans and discuss agriculture and the issues facing farmers in the state.
The Des Moines City Council voted unanimously to remove the name of former Councilman ARCHIE BROOKS from a community center in the city’s southeast side, following his role in the CIETC scandal. Brooks was board chairman of the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium. He was sentenced in January to one year and one day in federal prison for his role in the scandal that used more than $2 million in federal job-training money to pay exorbitant salaries and bonuses to three executives from July 2003 to April 2006. The building will go back to its original name, the “Pioneer-Columbus Community Center.”
AGRIPROCESSORS Inc. in Postville would be sold to the newly formed SHF INDUSTRIES, LLC, under a motion filed Tuesday by bankruptcy trustee JOSEPH SARACHEK. The sale must still be approved by the bankruptcy court and federal prosecutors.
Lt. Gov. PATTY JUDGE is in Europe this week promoting Iowa commodities and working to create new opportunities for overseas trade. Judge is the guest of the Iowa Soybean Association, working on expanding the central European Union market to Iowa soy products. She is leading a multi-state delegation of commodity groups and agricultural officials that also includes South Dakota’s secretary of agriculture, the state of Minnesota and the Iowa Department of Economic Development. Judge was one of the keynote speakers at the Conference on Agricultural Solutions and Cooperation in Hungary, attended by agricultural producers, businesses and government officials from seven central European nations. She was joined by Hungarian Agriculture Minister JOZEF GRAF. On Friday, Judge will present at a similar conference in Istanbul, Turkey, where she will once again tout Iowa’s meats and grains.
U.S. Sen. TOM HARKIN attended PRESIDENT OBAMA’s signing of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which allows the FDA to regulate what tobacco companies put into their products for the first time. HARKIN later meet with U.S. Supreme Court nominee SONIA SOTOMAYOR.
A new automated telephone poll by the National Organization for Marriage features U.S. Rep. STEVE KING, R-Kiron, and questions Iowans about their views on same-sex marriage.
Lt. Gen. RON DARDIS, executive director of the Rebuild Iowa Office, discussed disaster recovery in Elkader and Cedar Falls this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the 2008 flooding.
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