The Conservative Reader: Iowa

From the Iowa GOP web site:

Des Moines - The latest Survey USA poll indicates that more than half of all Iowans disapprove of Governor Chet Culver’s job performance. Jeff Boeyink, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Iowa, said today, “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. More than half of Iowa voters now disapprove of the Governor’s job performance.”

In the June 2009 poll conducted by Survey USA, only 42% of Iowans approve of the Governor’s job performance, with more than half expressing disapproval. Independent voters are especially critical of Governor Culver, with 56% of those respondents saying they disapprove of his performance and only 35% expressing support for his work.

Boeyink continued, “Governor Culver and majority Democrats ignored the best interest of Iowans during the last legislative session [...]

The following are Iowa Senate Republican Leader Paul McKinley’s (R-Chariton) final remarks delivered Sunday morning:

Thank you, Mr. President. Friends and Colleagues:

I know we are about to drop the gavel for the final time on this year’s legislative session and I know we are all a little tired but before we go home to the people in our districts, I think it might be necessary to look back at the last 104 days and provide the people of Iowa with some needed perspective. After all, it is the people of Iowa who are our employers and it is the people of Iowa who make our communities unique and our state something we can all be proud of.

These three million people elected us to act as their voice and their vote. They sent us to represent them. They are the hardworking people who truly make this state work. Yet, many Iowans have been left wondering whether their opinion really matters and if legislators are really listening to them.

It would be a mistake for us to forget what our very own Constitution says in Article 1, Section 2. The first sentence simply states: “All political power is inherent in the people.” Government is supposed to be of the people and for the people but sometimes this session I was left wondering at times if this was government versus the people.
We have witnessed the frustrations of so many Iowans who just want their government to live within its means. This Legislature has now spent more money than any Legislature in the 163 year history of the state of Iowa. There has been too much spending and too much borrowing and as a result, Iowans have become discouraged. As a result, we witnessed several thousand Iowans gather not only here at the capitol – but across Iowa and this country on April 15 to protest the spending and taxation policies of their government. They feel like their government is not listening to them.

When hundreds of Iowans packed the gallery of the House of Representatives to show their disappointment with [...]

House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen provided these remarks at 4:15 Sunday morning:

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentleman of the House,

First I would like to thank my caucus. It is indeed a great honor to stand for you and represent you. We are 43 strong and we made a difference – be proud of your efforts and successes. Next year we will stand with 44 members as we welcome our friend Rep. Royd Chambers back from serving our country in the Middle East. We look forward to serving with him in this chamber again. Thank you to my leadership team: Rod, Jodi, Jeff, and Steve for your input and efforts. And a special thank you to the Republican Whip, Linda Upmeyer for your inexhaustible energy and focus.

I would also like to thank each of you who take the time away from your families and your lives at home to come to Des Moines and serve the people of the great state of Iowa. Our task is often difficult and grueling, so I think each one of you deserves thanks for giving so much of your time and energy.

The staff of this building who work hard to keep bills moving, get amendments drafted, and make sure things are up and running each day. Thank you. Specifically, I would like to thank my staff. Thank you Jeff, Josie, Noreen, Lew, Lon, Brad, Ann, Kelly, Jason, Matt and Tony. We like to say, and it continues to be true, that we have the most informed staff in the building.

Mr. Speaker – Mr. Majority Leader, I also want to thank you. Obviously we have some profound differences on policy, but that did not prevent us from working together when possible for the betterment of Iowans. You committed [...]

Update: House File 376 (the bonding bill debated Friday evening into Saturday morning) passed the House at about 1:50 AM. - Ed.

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The Iowa House is currently debating the bonding measure and making my head spin! $750 million has turned into $650 million, and then other additional principle expenses, plus the interest costs put the cost for Iowans at over $1.4 billion (yes, with a “b”) (some put it at $1.2 billion). $70 million per year for the next 20 years.Listening to the floor debate, it sounds like the bill sponsors can’t really answer any questions very effectively, and are just throwing money at, what? As we discussed earlier, we just don’t need this money, these spending plans that aren’t really plans at all, just a lot of ideas to pick from right now.

Just reported that Republicans all signed and filed a letter of dissent for violating the Iowa State Constitution. From what I’ve heard listening to this, the Democrats have come up with some approach that perhaps keeps them technically in line with the letter of the Constitution, but not the spirit.

Another bill Iowans are not going to like: Earlier today, Senate File 483 was [...]

At a cost, it seems. Democratic leaders got together yesterday after several days of stalemating between the Governor and Legislative Leaders (all Dems). As you may know, Culver wants to borrow $750 million for infrastructure projects, and both House and Senate leaders have been resistant to this approach (probably recognizing that most Iowans do not want to see the State borrowing this kind of money). So, while the good news is that legislators will probably get their work done in the next few days, the public may lose if this bond measure is passed (dubbed “I-JOBS“).

Only $150 million of the money would go to roads and bridges, and the rest to repairs from the disasters of 2008, renewable energy and other miscellaneous items.

I’m guessing this will include the $3 million needed from the State to get the $30 million in stimulus money from the Fed for the high-speed rail between Des Moines and Davenport which was talked up yesterday as part of Obama’s visit to Newton.

I don’t know a lot about the infrastructure needs in northwest Iowa, but evidently improvements are needed. Mentioned in this story, Culver wants to see highway 20 (an east-west state highway running between Sioux City and Dubuque, running through Fort Dodge, Cedar Falls, and Waterloo) upgraded to four-lanes across the entire state.

Problem 1: Culver wants to use gambling revenues to cover the payments. The gaming industry is [...]

I attended the event this evening and while George did not make any comments that sounded like “Hey, I want to be your next President”, this was definitely seemed like a pre-exploratory event. He had some great comments about the current state of affairs, and took questions which I also think he answered well. Some in New York (see comments on this post) have speculated about him running for other posts in that state, others have suggested he could be a possible contender for President in 2012. Even if he does not run for anything, he certainly provides a strong sense of some of the things the GOP needs to do to take back the People’s Government.

There were about 90 people at the event tonight, including a number of Republican/Conservative activists that I’ve gotten to know, former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Joseph Heuertz (and other leaders) of the Drake College Republicans, John Bloom, Polk County Republican Chair (along with probably a dozen members of the Polk County Republican Central Committee, one of the sponsors of the event), Steve Rathje, David Van Ahn, Kim Schmett, Ed Failor Jr. (Iowans for Tax Relief), Craig Robinson (The Iowa Republican) and [...]

This coming Wednesday evening April 22, at 7:00, George Pataki will be speaking at Drake University in the first of a lecture series being provided by The American Future Fund. The Polk County Republicans are a sponsor of the event. The lecture is titled: “Yes We Still Can: Why Washington Failed and How We Can Reclaim America’s Future”.
Event details:

Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 7 p.m.
Cartright Hall, Room 213
Drake University Law School
2621 Carpenter Avenue
Des Moines, IA

For more information and to RSVP, click here.

Chuck Grassley will be conducting a townhall type of event this afternoon (3:30 - 4:30 PM Central Time) using Twitter.

I don’t have any idea how this is going to work. Evidently, Chuck is way ahead of me.

I’m not saying I lack the technical savey to engage in this event… I just need some clarification on how to properly engage in this. I have twitter. I actually use it to follow a number of twitter sources, and I provide updates occasionally as well with the tool. I even have tweetdeck running on my computer at home. And I think I’ve done the “@” function at least once (to send a direct message to someone).

At any rate, the event is being provided by impromptu studio and the #dmtweetup group. The video [...]

Today’s Tea Party was a great event and very successful! There were between 2,000 and 3,000 people there, great speakers, great weather. The crowd was very enthusiastic.

The good news is that, if the other events across the country were like Des Moines, we are definitely beginning something that can make a difference.

I appreciated the fact that the organizers were intent on ensuring the event was non-partisan. Even when Republican lawmakers came out to the event, they were asked to step aside… they were not allowed to be the center of attention.

I got a bunch of crowd, sign and speaker photos. I’m trying out Flickr. I haven’t had time to make it all perfect, but want to see how well this is received. Let me know.

One big highlight was a large sign in [...]