Category: Living in Society

Bobby Kaufmann is not a victim. He may be an aggrieved party from time to time, but victim? No.

His latest grievance was expressed in a letter to the editor of multiple House District 73 newspapers as follows:

“I had warned the organizers of all of the debates this cycle that my family was in a serious bind right now. My grandpa is now living in a memory unit and my uncle had emergency triple bypass surgery. This left me to fill a huge void in the family farming operation. Events would have to be missed.”

In the letter Kaufmann focused on the Monday, Sept. 10, Johnson County Task Force on Aging candidate forum. He chose to miss it.

Lyle Muller, executive director of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch.org moderated the forum. At the beginning he said the empty seats left for Kaufmann and one other candidate were not a statement of any kind. He hadn’t heard back from them after the invitation and hoped they were running late and would appear before the end of the forum. Neither did.

All Kaufmann had to do was give Muller the courtesy of a phone call or email to say he couldn’t make it to the forum because of family concerns. We all experience those things and I for one would understand. Most reasonable people would. Instead he blew off the forum like a speck of dust after working a field, failing to show common courtesy warranted for a public figure.

It’s not that Kaufmann would have had anything new to say. We know him well. Since Kim Reynolds assumed the governorship Kaufmann repeatedly expressed his support for her and parroted talking points about why there were revenue shortfalls during the 87th Iowa General Assembly. When it comes to the final vote on bills before the House, Kaufmann has been there for the Republican majority on most of them. Where was he as chairman of the government oversight committee when Medicaid began heading south soon after the decision to privatize was made? He was in the back pocket of the Republican governor.

It is hard to say whether Kaufmann will hold his seat in the legislature this cycle. Democrat Jodi Clemens has been doing the work of a campaign — putting in the planning, volunteer organizing, fundraising, and voter contact needed to win people over. There is a lot of excitement about her campaign in the district. Beating three-term representative Bobby Kaufmann has always been a steep hill to climb. Kaufmann got 12,388 votes (73 percent) of 16,889 cast in 2016 running unopposed. When he last had an opponent in 2014, Kaufmann got 8,448 (66 percent) of 12,825 cast. He has the incumbent’s advantage this cycle and midterm voter turnout is expected to be better than in 2014 but less than 2016. All of this is to say if readers care about flipping the house, get out there and help Jodi Clemens win.

In the end it’s the voters of House District 73 who have reason to be aggrieved about our politics. Republican votes on a host of issues, combined with malpractice on the privatization of Medicaid, created a partisan environment no one asked for. Instead of bucking up and taking the heat that comes with being a public figure Kaufmann withers into a whining persona full of righteous indignation that rings hollow in the homes of people hard hit by Republican policy. Kaufmann a victim? Suck it up buttercup.

~ Reprinted with permission from the Fall 2018 edition of The Prairie Progressive, Iowa’s oldest progressive newsletter. The Prairie Progressive is funded entirely by reader subscription, available only in hard copy for $12/yr. Send check to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244.

Voting is important because, as regular humans in a world of powerful interests, it’s all we’ve got.

Sure, we can band together with like-minded people and be stronger together. However, as Americans, a rugged individualism runs through us and some say has made us what we are. We cherish our individual freedoms as voters and seek a society with liberty and justice for all.

If voting is so danged important, why is it so many voters don’t vote?

Each of us has friends and relatives in the non-voter category. I celebrate the freedom to let other people decide policy and our laws, but am still engaged enough to work to influence society for the better. We can’t give up on that, although some people may like it better if I did.

Our general election is Nov. 6 and I hope readers will make it a point to vote.

The Republican Secretary of State took away straight Democratic, Republican or Libertarian ticket voting so we will have to vote each race individually. Voters will have to know a little about each candidate to vote the whole ballot.

Our civics teacher would like the idea of learning about all candidates and voting every race. That’s what I plan to do.

~ Published on Sept. 20, 2018 in the Solon Economist

A report arrived they set up two extra rows of seats in the back of the Area Task Force on Aging legislative candidate forum yesterday. That didn’t take away from the sparse turnout for the event.

Long-time community advocate Bob Welsh told me a story which was apropos.

A church community hired a well known architect to design their new church. Everyone in the congregation knew and trusted him. He had one condition: no one would inquire into the design while work was in process or interrupt him. After consideration, an agreement was reached and the work proceeded.

When the church was finished, as congregants entered the first service in the new facility, there was only one pew, all the way in the back. While taken aback, devotees took their seats. Once the pew filled, a set of invisible motors moved the pew from the back to the front of the church and a second pew appeared. Thus the church was filled from front to back.

It turns out the preacher went long as they are wont to do. At a certain point, without prompting or considering the point in the heavenly narrative, the pulpit began to sink into the floor until it was gone. It turned out the architect understood the nature of a church perfectly and executed his plan accordingly.

I’ve come to know and like Bob Welsh and it was disappointing there were so few people attending the forum. In years past there was standing room only. I remember my position along the stage right side of the room one year, waiting to hear what candidates had to say. No need to stand now.

A forum for four races is impossible. By the time all was said and done, the six of eight candidates in attendance got a minute closing time plus about 12 minutes to respond to questions in small chits of time. Two of three Republicans were no-shows, although the one who did and the Libertarian were most interesting as they broke up the uniform responses of the four Democrats.

State Senator Joe Bolkcom’s constant refrain was, “We’re broke.” It reminded us no new programs would be possible until the legislature found a way to pay for them. The path to doing that would be through regaining control of the executive branch of government and at least one chamber of the legislature.

The common denominator is Governor Branstad’s privatization of Iowa Medicaid. Democrats at the forum uniformly and properly said it was a disaster and needed to be reversed, something winning the governor’s race would make possible. There is a role for privatization of select functions within the Medicaid umbrella, but the state requires the low overhead of managing complicated cases themselves. Democrats made a rational case to the few dozen gathered and potential cable T.V. viewers.

Here’s one thing politicians didn’t mention: thousands of stories about the failure of the Branstad Reynolds privatization of Medicaid across the state. This is personal, private, and touches almost all Iowans. There are no success stories.

No one wants to talk about the trouble they had finding a nursing home that accepts Medicaid patients. We don’t hear of vendors who have taken seven figure loans to make payroll and fund cash flow while waiting for MCOs to pay their bills. We don’t hear the horror stories of how patients are treated except in bits and pieces from our closest family and friends. The question why aren’t there enough medical practitioners is tied irrevocably to the state’s rapid loss of young people and a flight from rural to urban centers. The Medicaid scandal is personal and most people don’t want to talk about it because they find it embarrassing they were caught up in it.

Johnson County is a Democratic County, one of a few in the state. There are organized political groups working hard to execute a strategy they think will win the election. What I’m seeing in evidence like the low turnout at the Task Force on Aging is this approach doesn’t work any more. What will decide the 2018 Iowa midterms isn’t the hard work of political organizers. It is convincing people aged 35 and younger to vote at all, getting voters who vote only in presidential elections to go to the polls this year and vote the entire ballot, and hoping the number of Iowans devastated by the shit storm that was the 87th Iowa General Assembly will be enough to turn the tide.

That’s a helluva political mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. I still like Bob Welsh and the forum he helped found and always will. Sadly it is more evidence our politics is broken as the rats continue to navigate the ship.

I’m working to turn out voters this cycle. Are you?

The last week of August signals the end of summer. As school begins and the season wraps into the Labor Day weekend, political campaigns retool for a push to close the deal with the electorate.

Maybe readers didn’t know negotiations were ongoing.

More than in any political year I’ve seen, Democrats have an agitated district of voters to deal with.

“I think there’s a lot going on out there in reaction to what the president has done on any number of issues,” former political science professor and second district congressman Dave Loebsack told James Q. Lynch of the Cedar Rapids Gazette in an Aug. 27 article.

For the most part this cycle, such agitation benefits Democratic candidates throughout the state. It seems possible Iowa voters will put the swing back into “Iowa is a swing state,” by electing more Democrats in November.

Based on what I’m hearing from multiple sources, this election will not be won with political door knockers organized by the state party or by third party interest groups like Let America Vote or NextGen America. It will be won by individual candidates with local operations largely independent of overall party strategy. It is individual campaigns coordinating with each other, with third party entities, and with Campaign for Iowa (this cycle’s version of the coordinated campaign), where the hard work of winning will be done. Some candidates do it better than others, and it is an open question whether any one of them will be effective. It can be effective for smart campaigners.

One race we hear little about in the news is the State Senator Kevin Kinney re-election campaign in District 39, which serves as an example of how campaigns are working this cycle. At a recent Johnson County central committee meeting Kinney explained one of his supporters decided to run against him as a Republican, so he has competition for re-election. It’s been all hands on deck ever since to get Kinney re-elected.

Half of Senate District 39 is located in liberal Johnson County and half in more conservative counties to the south. Kinney was in many ways the ideal candidate to represent this district. With long experience in law enforcement, and three terms on the local school board, he came to know district citizens over a period of years before he considered running for the senate. His legislative agenda and approach to campaigning fit the district. Here is an excerpt from his campaign Facebook page:

I’m running hard to continue representing you in the Iowa Senate. I want to continue my work protecting victims of sexual assault and human trafficking, helping Iowa farmers stay dynamic, and ensuring all Iowans’ access to affordable, comprehensive healthcare. But I can’t do it alone, I need your help to knock on doors, make phone calls, staff our office, take a yard sign, and more. We need you to spread the word about our campaign and our message one door, one call, and one sign at a time.

On Sept. 2 Senate District 37 candidate Zach Wahls will join Kinney in North Liberty for a voter canvass. Wahls seat is likely Democratic in the general election, enabling the political newcomer to organize canvassers to work for other candidates. There is significant help going out from the eight liberal counties in the state. Ultimately winning in November depends on what candidates like Kinney do in their districts.

“With September starting soon it’s campaign season, and that means we’re pushing to talk to as many voters as we can,” Kinney posted on Facebook. “Come join us to talk to your neighbors about electing Democrats to the State Senate in Johnson County!”

There may not be a blue wave coming, but candidates like Kevin Kinney are doing their part to retain and gain ground in the Republican Iowa statehouse.

Click here to learn more about Kinney’s campaign for re-election.

~ First posted on Blog for Iowa