Radio Iowa

Whitaker driving speed limit

Matt Whitaker, the US Attorney for the southern district of Iowa, was in Iowa City today to tout a renewed effort to catch on-line sex predators.  A couple of hours after Whitaker's news conference, I called the cell phone number of Whitaker's assistant, Al Overbaugh.  Overbaugh answered, I could tell he was in a car, and I asked if he was driving or in the passenger seat.  He revealed that he was the passenger, Whitaker was the driver and after a very brief consultation it was determined that Whitaker could talk and drive.

Whitaker was handed the phone, and he immediately assured me he was going the speed limit and obeying all traffic laws. (This would be in contrast to the much-talked-about incident involving a Nussle campaign aide who was pulled over for speeding as she was chatting on her cell phone with a Register editor.)  As Whitaker started to answer my first question, I clearly heard Al Overbaugh jokingly say "We're going to crash."  His prediction did not come true -- at least during our brief phone conversation.

I related this story to my Radio Iowa colleagues, and Dar Danielson jokingly worried that Whitaker was used to crashing into things.  Whitaker was a tight end for the Iowa Hawkeyes during Hayden Fry's heyday.  Whitaker played in the 1991 Rose Bowl.  He was also an academic All-American who got an MBA and a law degree from the U-of-I, too.  In 2002, Whitaker was the Republican candidate against State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald.  He may have lost that election because his TV ad featured a clip of him in the Hawkeye uniform, catching a pass for a touchdown -- in a game against Iowa State.  Might have swayed some Cyclone votes is all I'm saying.  President Bush named him US Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa in 2004. 

Fallon ad and voter turn-out

There are a couple of television ad campaigns I really like.  First, I love the series of commercials featuring people who have been the victim of identity theft. One features a bulky fellow sitting there mouthing the words of a Valley Girl who stole his credit card.  Second, I like the series of commercials for that cell phone company where the actors on camera start talking, then there's silence as he or she contues to talk, gesture and then scream about how frustrating it is when you are talking on your cell phone and it cuts out.

The Fallon campaign has mimicked that cell phone commercial in Fallon's latest commercial where you see Ed Fallon talking but there's no sound because -- are you sitting down -- corporate interests have stolen the voice of ordinary Iowans (or some rhetoric to that effect).  Another interesting tidbit about this commercial is when and where it was placed. It aired during the six o'clock newscast on WHO-TV, which means Fallon is spending more per ad than he has been on the cable TV placement that has been his preferred means of distribution for commercials. 

As the last days of this campaign wind down, the campaigns are all focused on turn-out.  It's unclear what that turn-out will be.  I've been struck by how extraordinarily unmotivated most Democratic voters I come across seem to be.  I drove around rural Warren County on Mother's Day and saw very few yard signs in a county with a pretty strong Democratic voting base.  There were a few Fallon signs, one or two Blouin signs and I didn't spy a Culver sign at all.  I'm not suggesting yard signs are an accurate measurement of a candidates' strength, but I do think the lack of yard signs shows the party faithful aren't terribly motivated for the primary.

A little bit about a lot of things

Governor Tom Vilsack signed a package of bills today aimed at boosting use of alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel as well as boosting generation of energy from the wind and the sun.  The event was scheduled at 9am, outdoors on what the Vilsack's press advisory described as the "West Mall."  That means outdoors on the west side of the statehouse.  Seems a little grand to call it the "West Mall" -- that is unless you're hankering to get a job close to the National Mall in Washington.  The event had to be moved inside, into the capitol's first floor rotunda.  It started 15 minutes late, perhaps partly due to the last-minute dash to find electricity for the mult-box set up for television cameras and radio recorders to get sound from the microphone at the lectern.      

There was a large crowd of folks from commodity groups, the ethanol industry and even from the petroleum industry at the bill signing.  One petro lobbyist made a point of stressing to me the industry's victory on the "mandate" issue. The bill does not require that all fuel pumped in Iowa be an ethanol blend, a move advocated by GOP Republican candidate Jim Nussle and some (but obviously not enough) legislators.

Speaking of the National Mall, Vilsack communications director Rodell Mollineau spent the Memorial Day weekend in Washington, D.C., catching up with former colleagues who work on Capitol hill or in the party.

Ed Fallon's campaign manager quit last Monday. Ben Zachrich left for "personal reasons" according to a news release Fallon camp sent out today.  It included this line: "Fallon said his campaign all along has used a team management model which relies upon the perspective and talent of everyone on staff."  Zachrich was named campaign manager back in November -- after working 18 months on the campaign as a volunteer.  That means Zachrich spent the last two years working for Fallon, and left about two weeks before the primary.

The ad war between Mike Blouin and Chet Culver continues.  Producers of the latest Culver attack ad apparently watched a lot of Bush commercials in 2004, especially one in particular.  Remember the one that had Kerry wind-surfing, flipping back and forth on the screen to symbolize his "flip-flopping" on the issues?  Well, the Culver camp now has an ad with an image of Blouin flipping back and forth.  Blouin's standing, dressed in a suit and tie (thankfully) and not standing on a board wearing a wet suit.

King builds fence in Arizona

Congressman Steve King rang into the Radio Iowa newsroom this afternoon to chat about his recent trip to Arizona. It was King's second trip to Arizona in May, part of his push to be a player in the immigration reform debate. (He chatted with CNN's Lou Dobbs one night last week, I think it was the night the Senate was voting on the bill.)

King spent part of Friday hanging with border patrol agents, then on Saturday he was with The Minuteman -- the militia group that's been patroling the border and which is now building a barbed wire fence along a 10-mile stretch of Arizona border. The founder of The Minutemen was in Iowa last August to attend a forum King had organized in Des Moines. (Congressman J.D. Hayworth -- another immigration reform player -- was there, too, and I saw Hayworth recently on television and noticed he's lost a load of weight.)

Anyway, I was intrigued with King's barbed wire fence building because it's tough, dangerous work. I grew up on a farm and know what a wire stretcher is -- and what happens when you go too far.

King told me he has built a good deal of barbed wire fence in his lifetime. King told a story about his father who had asked a young King why he wore leather gloves when building fence. "Your hands will heal" after a wire snaps, King says his father told him. "But you'll ruin a pair of gloves." King said his father was a person who didn't like to part with his money.

I forgot to ask if King will return to Arizona to help pour concrete if his wish comes true and the U.S. builds a concrete wall along the border. King, by the way, was in the earth-moving business before he entered politics.

Tom Vilsack on national TV

Iowa's out-going governor has been out making appearances on nationally-distributed programs.  This past week he was on The Charlie Rose Show, which is seen on 200 PBS stations around the country.  You can watch 30 seconds of Vilsack's appearance in the promotional video on the show's website or pay to get the whole thing.  I slept through the show when it aired in Iowa.  IPTV schedules the Rose show weeknights at 11:30 p.m.

Vilsack also appeared on The Tavis Smiley Show in late April. (You can read a transcript of the interview at HeartlandPAC.org). Smiley asked questions about Iowa and whether a Vilsack presidential run would damage the 2008 Iowa Caucuses.  Smiley also criticized Iowa for being 94 percent white and not a very representative state to serve as the start of a presidential campaign.  You can read Vilsack's reply for yourself, but I'll give you a hint:  he mentions age diversity.

 

Explaining the Iowa Values Fund

Chet Culver has now joined with Ed Fallon in an all-out assault on Mike Blouin's stewardship of the Iowa Values Fund. You can watch IPTV's Iowa Press tonight at eight to see & hear some of the rhetoric. (I'm sure you read the story I wrote this afternoon already.) After each candidate appeared on IPTV set, they walked down to meet with reporters who were in the building watcing the show as it was taped.

Culver cited numbers on the Values Fund businesses that were included in a story on WHO-TV last night. Blouin cited general numbers on the Values Fund businesses while he was on the show, but during the Q&A he told reporters didn't know the specific job-creation data because he hasn't worked at the IDED for 10 months.

The main issue here is the claim Blouin and Governor Tom Vilsack make about the number of jobs "created or retained" by the businesses which receive Values Fund grants. The two have been pegging that total at 25,000 jobs, but Fallon has been hammering away at that for months and now Culver, too, is ridiculing the 25,000 number. Both Fallon & Blouin say a fraction of Iowa Values Fund "created or retained" jobs are on-line today.

"These are not rewards for having done something," Blouin told reporters as he was asked about the Values Fund record. "These are incentives to affect behavior."

The Culver camp says Blouin continues to misrepresent job-creation claim in a campaign ad and on his website.

As I was thinking about this, it reminded me of the kid who promises to clean his room. Upon parental inspection a few hours later, it is discovered the room is partially clean -- perhaps the bed has been made and some toys have put away but the closet remains a dump and the aquarium hasn't been cleaned as directed. Does that mean the room is clean? Does it mean the kid will eventually clean the room?

That's sort of what's at work here. The businesses which got the grants promise to create jobs but have either failed to do so the moment Fallon & Culver come in to check, or they're created some jobs but not all of the jobs. And the business may ultimately fail to create all the jobs it promised, just like that kid who promied to clean his room may get side-tracked.

Blouin suggested that "instead of drop-kicking the program" Culver should focus on making the program work.

On another note, I just listened again to Blouin's Q&A with reporters to count how many times Blouin used a phrase to suggest "Chet doesn't understand" or "He clearly doesn't understand what's he's talking about." Tom Vilsack frequently suggests those who oppose his ideas "don't understand" what he's proposed, which statehouse reporters consider code for Vilsack suggesting his opponents are too stupid to know better or they haven't done the homeowrk Vilsack's done on the issue. Blouin, by the way, accused Culver of not understanding something six times in a seven-and-a-half minute streth. And of course there's the chetnotstupid website, which everyone suspects was created by Blouin's camp.

If you hear Culver's comments on one of our Radio Iowa affiliates, you may notice that he had a cough drop in his mouth when he talked with reporters. Upon questioning, Culver revealed he has a cold.

Pataki's back; doesn't plan to get burrito again

New York Governor George Pataki is back in Iowa, helping some GOP candidates for the statehouse raise a little cash and speaking at a couple of Memorial Weekend ceremonies. He'll be delivering the commencement address for Des Moines University on Saturday morning, but he'll begin his Saturday at the Des Moines Farmers Market.

Pataki first visited the event last summer, during the National Governors Association meeting in Des Moines and he just revealed to me in a telephone interview that yes, he stood in line to get a breakfast burrito. For those who frequent the Farmers Market along Court Avenue in Des Moines, you will be familiar with the popular food item. I shy away from endorsements, but I, too, have stood in line to get a breakfast burrito a few times and endorse this product.

When I asked Pataki if he would be repeating the breakfast burrito experience this weekend, Pataki said he'd be trying something new. "I've got to try something different," Pataki said.

Then, since it occured to me that Pataki has a good stretch of Canadian border, I asked Pataki his take on the immigration issue. Just like governors in southern states, Pataki, too, is spending state resources to patrol/guard the border. He also pointed out that folks often forget four of the hijackers on 9/11 got into the US by coming in illegally over that Canadian border.

The Meatpacking Industry

While Mike Blouin and Governor Tom Vilsack have repeatedly said Vilsack did not press Blouin to run, nor has Vilsack endorsed his former economic development director in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Blouin has adopted a key campaign strategy Vilsack employed in 1998.

At the time, Vilsack was a not-very-widely-known state senator running against Mark McCormick, a Des Moines lawyer and former Iowa Supreme Court Justice. Vilsack let loose with a furious attack on McCormick for doing legal work for, you guessed it, IBP. It is one of the issues that helped propel Vilsack past McCormick in the primary.

For the past few weeks Blouin's paid media has pounded away at Culver for being a paid lobbyist for IBP. I was first introduced to Chet Culver when he was 22 years old and standing in the statehouse rotunda along the railing, a common lobbyist hand-out. Ed Campbell made the introduction. Culver shook my hand, uttered some pleasantry that has escaped my mind, and walked away. I stood for a while longer to chat with Campbell, the former Iowa Democratic Party chairman who had run for governor himself (and whose wife, Bonnie Campbell, would run for governor herself a few years later).

Culver was working as one of Campbell's associates, and IBP was one of Campbell's clients, and that's why there is paperwork which shows he was a paid lobbyist for IBP. Culver has called it was his first job out of college, and denies the idea he was a statehouse powerbroker leaning on legislators for IBP.

Campbell issued a written statement last week about the dust-up:

Former Iowa Democratic Party chair Ed Campbell released the following statement regarding Mike Blouin airing the first attack ad of the Democratic gubernatorial primary:

“There is a clear line between respectful debates over issues and ridiculous personal attacks by desperate candidates. Unfortunately, Mike Blouin has crossed that line.

Blouin is attempting to smear Chet Culver based on a job he held in his early 20’s. The problem is that Blouin has his story wrong. I should know, because Culver worked for me then.

In the early 1990’s, Culver worked for me as an administrative assistant and was required to fill out various registration forms as a condition of employment. Make no mistake: Culver never lobbied on behalf of IBP, who was a client of mine at that time. For Blouin to willfully argue that Culver is anything other than 100% committed to supporting family farms, protecting workers, and defending our environment is dishonest and irresponsible.

Blouin knows better, and it’s a shame he has dragged his campaign to this negative point. Let’s keep this campaign focused on Iowa instead of cheap attacks on fellow Democrats.”

We recall in the Radio Iowa newsroom an instance in which Campbell defended his wife much more vigorously when she was running against then-Governor Terry Branstad. Branstad was hammering Campbell nearly every day on the death penalty after a young girl from Grinnell had been kidnapped and murdered. Anyway, one day as I sought reaction from Campbell's camp to another Branstad attack, it was Ed Campbell who called back. "People who live in glass houses should look in the mirror," was part of Ed Campbell's response.

Anyway, back to this year and today in particular, Culver's camp has dug up some dirt on Blouin, enlisting State Senator Dick Dearden of Des Moines as a character witness. Dearden swears on a stack of mourning doves that Blouin was a leading advocate for luring an Excel plant to the east side of Des Moines a few years back. (Don't get the mourning dove reference? Dearden has repeatedly tried to change state law so hunters can legally shoot doves.) Blouin's camp responds that Blouin only attended meetings about the proposal (he was with the Greater Des Moines Partnership/Chamber of Commerce at the time) because former Des Moines Mayor Arthur Davis asked him to. Davis, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman who headed the state's largest law firm, died a few years ago, so he can't confirm that story. The Blouin camp produces two state legislators -- Senator Matt McCoy and Representative Jeri Huser -- as their character witnesses. Both say they were in on the meetings and back Blouin's side of the story. Dearden, meanwhile, says Blouin's got it wrong because Preston Daniels was Des Moines mayor at the time, not Davis, and Dearden appeared on a telephone conference call organized by the Culver campaign and told reporters his story, then endorsed Culver. Just for your scorecard at home: McCoy and Huser have endorsed Blouin. And Blouin has the backing of 21 of the 25 Democrats in the Iowa Senate as well as 40 of the 49 Democrats in the Iowa House. Culver now has the backing of one state legislator (Dearden). None of the 48 House Democrats are backing #49 -- Ed Fallon, who's been a member of the Iowa House for 14 years. Blouin's website has an "endorsements" tab linking to lists of prominent Democrats backing his campaign. Culver's website does not list any endorsements.

Fallon today won the endorsement of the Iowa Sierra Club at an event over the noonhour in Marion. According to a news release, the Sierra Club has about six-thousand members, which is about the size of Centerville (population 5924) but not as big as Fairfield (population 9602). Fallon's campagin website has a position paper posted on "clean water."

Back to the topic of meatpackers, it is fascinating that yet another Iowa gubernatorial campaign is focusing on IBP. Democratic gubernatorial candidates like Lowell Junkins in 1988 took former Governor Terry Branstad to task for allowing his Department of Economic Development give state grants to IBP. And now IBP doesn't even exist. At one time IBP was the world's largest butcher, but it was swallowed up by Tyson in 2001. At its zenith, IBP slaughted 26 percent of the beef in the US and 12 percent of the pork. See the Wikipedia reference for IBP.

Democrats routinely villify IPB for "union-busting" charging that IBP refused to pay the wages in the United Food and Commercial Workers' Union contract. You can go on-line and read all sort of NLRB rulings, for example, a 1980 case in which IBP fired a hand full of union workers who went on strike. There's also IBP's connection to big oil, since Occidental Petroleum acquired the company in 1981. And IBP was found guilty of colluding with a big New York supermarket chain to fix the price of beef. That lawsuit started in 1977 and IBP lost the case in 1981, just before the Occidental merger.

Other than the occasional mention of IBP in 1998's gubernatorial campaign and again in this year's contest, there are few public references to the now defunct company swallowed up by Tyson and I'd bet few younger Iowans have much of an opinion about IBP. But remember, it's the older voters Blouin & Culver are cultivating because older Iowans vote in greater numbers and those folks have memories of IBP.

The meatpacking industry in general has been lumped in the illegal immigration debate lately, which is perhaps why the Culver camp has retaliated by bringing current operator Excel into the mix.

Scorecard for 2008 Iowa Caucuses

The early competition in Iowa for the 2008 presidential campaign is not for votes but for people as the candidates try to sign-on party insiders to help guide them through Iowa’s Caucuses. Former Iowa Republican Party chairman Chuck Larson, Junior announced last month that he’s in Arizona Senator John McCain’s campaign. Diane Crookham-Johnson, a long-time GOP activist from Oskaloosa (she works at Musco), has been helping New York Senator George Pataki since last year. Today, Doug Gross – the former aide to former Republican Governor Terry Branstad – announced he’s in Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s camp.

While folks in the beltway identify McCain and Virginia Senator George Allen as front-runners, when you talk with party regulars (other than the three named above) they are more apt to name governors, like Romney, or Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, as leading up their "short lists" of viable candidates. Allen is barely known here, and McCain will face the same fence-building task that former Vice President Al Gore painstakingly went through when he ran in 2000 – trying to soothe the hurt feelings of Democrats who remembered his castigation of the Caucuses in 1988.

If you’re keeping a score card at home of the list of potential candidates on each side, let’s compare notes. Here’s the list of potential candidates I’ve compiled for our newsroom:

• U. S. Senators (R): George Allen of Virginia; Sam Brownback of Kansas; Bill Frist of Tennessee; Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; John McCain of Arizona; Rich Santorum of Pennsylvania.
• U. S. Senators (D): Evan Bayh of Indiana; Joe Biden of Delaware; Hillary Clinton of New York; Russ Feingold of Wisconsin; John Kerry of Massachusetts.
• Governors (R): Haley Barbour of Mississippi; Mike Huckabee of Arkansas; George Pataki of New York; Mitt Romney of Massachusetts


• Governors (D): Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania; Bill Richardson of New Mexico; Tom Vilsack of Iowa
• Congress: Republican Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
• Others (R): ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia; ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Guilliani


• Others (D): retired General Wesley Clark; ex-Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, ex-Governor Mark Warner of Virginia

As I read through that list, I find the majority of those potential candidates have been in Iowa at least once in the past 12 months (NOT counting attendance at the National Governor’s Association meeting in Des Moines last July). There are only seven who have not been here. Santorum’s got a tough re-election campaign in Pennsylvania to occupy his time. Clinton doesn’t want to visit Iowa and raise even more speculation about her White House aspirations as she’s running for re-lection. Biden has been to Iowa since the 2004 election, just not in the past 12 months. Barbour’s got a state to rebuild. Rendell is on the list because some of my DC reporter friends say he’s on their list; he didn’t show for the NGA. Richardson did come to the NGA meeting. Warner has been back since that NGA meeting.

The test for that long list of candidates now is to start making announcements like McCain and Romney have, showing they’re lining up the Iowa foot soldiers. 2006 local and legislative candidates in Iowa should thank their lucky stars they can get the star power of one of these party people to headline an event. I doubt the people running for the state legislatures in most other states have a clue how much the Iowa Caucuses mean to candidates down the ballot in Iowa.

Fallon: The Thinker?

I went to church yesterday and hung out a little bit before the service. People were talking about the debate, about the gubernatorial race (one of the things about being a political reporter is people want to talk politics with you in every venue you enter).  I ran into just a couple of people who had watched the debate.  Most had seen a story about it on TV or read about it in the newspaper.  The group I chatted with who intend to vote in the Democratic primary seem generally flummoxed about what to do.  The Republicans are giddy that they do not have a primary, and have a candidate who can raise the kind of money it takes to wage a statewide campaign.

One person talked about the favorable impression they had of Ed Fallon based just on seeing him on TV.  It reminded me of a candidate forum hosted in March by the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.  Afterwards I chatted with the business types in the audience and with the ABI staff.  The general consensus was they liked Fallon the best (although they wouldn’t be voting for him) because he actually answered the questions posed.  Fallon doesn’t have the paid consultants telling him what to say.  Fallon listens to the question and then more often than not answers it.  As the ABI folks said, you may not agree with the answer but you like the fact Fallon directly answers your question.

The Register debate this past Saturday was a bit more genteel that past "joint appearances" but Fallon drew the most laughs.  Fallon has one TV ad that is a bit humorous, but while he had the potential he hasn’t reached the humor of Wellstone & Ventura campaigns in Minnesota.  Maybe that’s for the best.  Is Iowa ready for Fallon as Rodin’s "The Thinker"?  I would hope his campaign would photo-shop his head on the statue rather than have Fallon in a painted birthday suit, winking at the camera.