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Bleeding Heartland
It's what plants crave.
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state government 
Tue May 21, 2013 at 07:15:00 AM CDT
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Governor Terry Branstad announced yesterday that he has appointed retired Col. Robert King to run the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs. A press release with background on King is after the jump. He should have no trouble being confirmed by the Iowa Senate.
King replaces former State Representative and retired Brig. Gen. Jodi Tymeson. Earlier this month, the governor appointed Tymeson to a newly-created management position at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown.
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Mon May 13, 2013 at 13:15:00 PM CDT
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State Senator Tom Courtney has asked newly appointed Iowa State Auditor Mary Mosiman to conduct "a special audit of the use of HAVA (Help America Vote Act) funds by Secretary of State Matt Schultz." Courtney has been a leading critic of Schultz's policies to combat alleged voter fraud. He previously asked State Auditor David Vaudt and the federal Office of Inspector General to look into Schultz's use of HAVA funds to pay for criminal investigations. Courtney points out that federal funding is intended for "educating voters concerning voting procedures, voting rights and voting technology."
An Iowa Senate press release containing background on Courtney's request is after the jump, along with the full text of Courtney's letter to Mosiman. She would presumably have to assign a different staff member of the Auditor's office to conduct any inquiry, since she's worked for Schultz for more than two years, running the Secretary of State's Office elections division. Mosiman has publicly defended Schultz's policies on alleged voter fraud, including photo ID requirements that most Iowa county auditors oppose.
The criminal investigations have so far uncovered a few allegedly improper voter registrations by ex-felons and a few instances of non-citizens allegedly registering to vote or casting ballots in local or state elections. To my knowledge, those charges have not led to any convictions yet. Three cases of alleged wrongful voting by non-citizens were dropped in March because the investigating DCI agent was called up for active military duty.
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Mon May 13, 2013 at 09:35:00 AM CDT
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Governor Terry Branstad announced this morning that Mary Mosiman will be Iowa's new state auditor. She replaces David Vaudt, who resigned last month to become chairman of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.
Mosiman served as Story County Auditor for ten years before Matt Schultz hired her to run the elections division of the Iowa Secretary of State's office. She is a certified public accountant, which Branstad said was a "major requirement" as he searched for Vaudt's successor.
After the jump I've posted the governor's press release, containing more background on Mosiman. She will serve as auditor until after next year's elections. I assume she will become the Republican nominee for state auditor in 2014 as well. I have not heard yet about any Democrat planning to run for that office. Iowa Democrats did not field a candidate against Vaudt in 2006. Jon Murphy launched his 2010 campaign less than five months before the general election.
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Tue May 07, 2013 at 17:10:00 PM CDT
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Governor Terry Branstad has created a new position at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown for retired Brig. Gen. Jodi Tymeson, a former state legislator who currently directs the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs.
Strangely, the governor and his staff deny having any concerns about the leadership of Iowa Veterans Home Commandant David Worley.
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Mon May 06, 2013 at 07:25:00 AM CDT
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In a decision announced on Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for the Iowa Department of Public Health to refuse to list a non-birthing lesbian spouse on a child's birth certificate. Details on this nearly unanimous ruling are after the jump. I was intrigued by how Governor Terry Branstad's three appointees from 2011 handled this case.
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Thu Apr 11, 2013 at 11:25:00 AM CDT
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Catching up on the week's news at the statehouse, the Iowa Senate rejected two of Governor Terry Branstad's nominees for the Board of Regents on Monday, and the governor withdrew two other nominees who were headed for trouble in the upper chamber. Details on the votes and thoughts about the implications are after the jump.
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Wed Apr 10, 2013 at 06:50:00 AM CDT
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Governor Terry Branstad has invested a lot of political capital in education reform. His staff organized a large conference on the topic in 2011, featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other nationally-recognized speakers. Later that year, the governor rolled out an ambitious blueprint for education reform, which was a focus of his "Condition of the State" speeches to state lawmakers in 2012 and 2013. Branstad wants something bigger and better than the narrowly-focused education reform deal approved last spring. To encourage legislators to work harder on this issue, the governor has even held up K-12 school funding decisions that should have been made a year ago under Iowa law.
Iowa House and Senate members are now negotiating over education reform bills approved in each chamber on party lines. But Branstad's past use of his line-item power is standing in the way of broad legislation.
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Tue Apr 02, 2013 at 07:15:00 AM CDT
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In an ideal world, evidence that more than half of Midwest rivers and streams can't support aquatic life would inspire policy-makers to clean up our waterways. Rivers that are suitable for swimming, fishing, and other recreation can be a huge economic engine for Iowa communities.
We live in Iowa, where most of our lawmakers take the Patty Judge view: "Iowa is an agricultural state and anyone who doesn't like it can leave in any of four directions."
Yesterday the Iowa House approved a bill to relax manure storage regulations for large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). All of the House Republicans and two-thirds of the Democrats supported this bad legislation. Details on the bill and the House vote are below.
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Sat Mar 30, 2013 at 00:31:57 AM CDT
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(The full statement from the ACLU of Iowa and Iowa League of United Latin American Citizens is here. Schultz confirmed earlier this year that he planned to enact the new rules, but did not call attention to the issue this week. - promoted by desmoinesdem)
March 29, 2013 The ACLU of Iowa and Iowa LULAC today restarted their lawsuit to stop the Secretary of State from an unreliable process to remove registered voters if they cannot prove their U.S. citizenship within a limited time. The ACLU of Iowa and the Iowa League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) filed papers in Polk County District court today, renewing their lawsuit against two rules filed by the Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz that the groups say wrongly restrict voting by qualified Iowans. One rule would have allowed unverified challenges to another voter’s qualifications. The Secretary of State eventually voluntarily withdrew that rule. The other rule, which took effect yesterday, allows the Secretary of State to run Iowa’s registered voters through numerous federal databases to attempt to generate a list of non-citizens. The ACLU and LULAC say that the Secretary of State was never authorized by the Iowa legislature to put his Voter Removal Rule forward, and that it will erroneously deprive qualified citizens in Iowa of their right to vote. The ACLU and LULAC cite problems with running the registered voter lists through the federal SAVE system, as well as a lack of procedural checks to protect voters once they are identified. http://www.aclu-ia.org/2013/03/29/aclu-of-iowa-restarts-its-voter-suppression-lawsuit-against-the-iowa-secretary-of-state/ <!--EndFragment-->
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Fri Mar 29, 2013 at 16:35:00 PM CDT
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Bob Krause, a veterans advocate and former state representative, confirmed by e-mail today that he has filed papers creating a committee to explore a run for Iowa governor in 2014. He plans a formal announcement in the coming weeks.
Krause was the first declared Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate the last time Senator Chuck Grassley was on the ballot. He finished a distant second to Roxanne Conlin in the 2010 primary, receiving just under 13 percent of the vote. Earlier this year, Krause ruled out running for Senator Tom Harkin's seat but said he was considering a campaign for governor or for Congress next year.
Krause knows Governor Terry Branstad well, because for six years during the 1970s, the two men represented neighboring Iowa House districts (two halves of the same Iowa Senate district).
Also today, Krause called for the resignation of Iowa Veterans Affairs Commission member Dan Gannon, a Branstad appointee who represents the Vietnam Veterans of America on that commission. I've posted a press release from Krause after the jump, which explains the background. In an e-mail to Veterans Affairs Commission members and staff, Gannon said that he doesn't trust Krause or the 501(c)3 charity Krause leads, the Veterans National Recovery Center. That organization advocates for services to assist veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
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Tue Mar 26, 2013 at 20:40:00 PM CDT
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After testing waterways at about 2,000 sites during 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that 55 percent of rivers and streams in the country are "in poor condition for aquatic life." One of the biggest problems was nutrient pollution from excessive levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. Reduced vegetation cover near streams also contributed to poor water quality. Only 21 percent of U.S. river and stream length was judged to be in "good" condition, with another 23 percent in "fair" condition.
Compared to an EPA survey conducted in 2004, the latest data show a smaller percentage of rivers and streams in good condition and a higher percentage in poor condition.
An EPA summary of the key findings is after the jump. You can find more data on the National Aquatic Resource Surveys here, including this two-page fact sheet (pdf) and the full draft report (pdf). Iowa is part of the "temperate plains" region, discussed on pages 78 through 80 of that report. I've posted an excerpt below. Only 15 percent of rivers and streams in the temperate plains region were judged to be in good condition; 55 percent were in poor condition.
Iowa should reject the all-voluntary nutrient reduction strategy favored by agricultural interest groups. Given the awful state of our rivers and streams, we need some mandatory steps to reduce nutrient pollution, including numeric standards for nitrogen and phosphorus. Both EPA staff and environmental advocates in Iowa have called for strengthening the nutrient reduction strategy. Unfortunately, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey has a firmly closed mind.
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Tue Mar 26, 2013 at 12:55:00 PM CDT
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Last night the Iowa Senate approved Senate File 296, a bill to expand Medicaid, on a strictly party-line vote of 26 to 23. You can listen to the entire Senate debate (approximately 90 minutes) at Radio Iowa. I've posted highlights from the debate after the jump, along with the full list of 52 organizations that have registered their support for Senate File 296. Some corporations and organizations have have registered their lobbyists as undecided on Senate File 296, but at this writing, not a single organization is registered against the Medicaid expansion.
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Mon Mar 25, 2013 at 06:50:00 AM CDT
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School districts across Iowa are flying blind with less than a month left to certify their budgets for the coming fiscal year. Although Iowa's state revenues are rising and expected to grow more next year, administrators have no idea whether K-12 district budgets may increase, and if so, by how much.
Students and teachers will pay the price for the decision by Iowa House Republicans and Governor Terry Branstad to hold school funding hostage to education reform.
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Sun Mar 24, 2013 at 11:20:00 AM CDT
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What's on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers? This is an open thread.
Governor Terry Branstad didn't draw the right lessons from Indiana's experience when he proposed his Healthy Iowa Plan as an alternative to expanding Medicaid. Below I've posted excerpts from Laura Hermer's recent commentary on the Healthy Indiana Plan.
Iowa's top economic development official, Debi Durham, still can't answer basic questions about why the state offered more than $100 million in tax incentives to a company that was going to build a fertilizer plant in Iowa anyway. Follow me after the jump for Durham's non-responsive response on the Orascom deal during this week's "Iowa Press" program.
Speaking of which, the Branstad administration is stonewalling Iowa Watchdog reporter Sheena Dooley's efforts to obtain more information about the Orascom deal.
UPDATE: For the hundredth time, family budgets are not comparable to the federal budget. Plus, Michael Tomasky summarizes three basic principles of fiscal policy that should be conventional wisdom already: "Modest deficits are perfectly sustainable. Budget cutting, far from being 'responsible,' hurts the economy. And balanced budgets don't create jobs-it's the other way around."
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Tue Mar 12, 2013 at 09:35:00 AM CDT
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Yesterday the Iowa Senate unanimously confirmed eleven of Governor Terry Branstad's appointees. You can find the full list of confirmations in the Senate Journal (pdf). The department or agency heads confirmed were:
Chuck Gipp, who has been serving as director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources since last May, shortly after his predecessor resigned;
Steve Lukan, whom Branstad hired to run the governor's Office of Drug Control Policy last June;
Nick Gerhart, who replaced Susan Voss as state insurance commissioner at the end of 2012;
Robert von Wolffradt, whom Branstad appointed as Iowa's chief information officer last May.
Seven of the nominees senators confirmed yesterday will serve on state boards, councils, or commissions, including Joanne Stockdale, a former chair of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry who is one of Branstad's appointees to the Environmental Protection Commission.
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Mon Mar 04, 2013 at 11:57:00 AM CST
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Governor Terry Branstad announced his administration's alternative to Medicaid expansion this morning at his regular weekly press conference. The "Healthy Iowa Plan" would cover approximately 89,000 Iowans with income below the federal poverty level. In contrast, Medicaid expansion would cover up to 150,000 Iowans with income below 133 percent of the poverty level.
Details on the new plan are after the jump. Early reaction from Senate President Pam Jochum suggests that the Iowa Senate will not be inclined to approve this proposal. I also question whether the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will grant a waiver for Branstad's plan. Federal officials have already denied requests from Branstad and other governors to allow a smaller Medicaid expansion than what the 2010 health care reform law provides.
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