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Former State Rep. Ed Fallon (D-Des Moines) has released a statement through I’M For Iowa, his for-profit advocacy business, lashing out at Gov. Chet Culver for not listening to his concerns.
Culver defeated Fallon in the Democratic primary for governor in 2006. The I’M For Iowa press release alleges that Fallon and his group have contacted Culver’s office several times without responses, and that he has only gotten to meet with the governor once.
Fallon makes no mention of a possible primary challenge to Culver in 2010, and it is not clear what other means of leverage he might have on the governor. Still, he is probably the highest-profile Democrat to make his concerns about Culver public in such a direct way.
The text of the press release appears below:
Fallon: Culver inaccessible, unresponsive, reneges on promisesToday, Ed Fallon released a record of the past three-and-a-half months contact between himself and Governor Culver’s office. The record shows eleven unreturned phone calls to a Governor’s staff person, Jamie Cashman, one returned call from Cashman and one abbreviated meeting with the Governor. Fallon recently sought to establish a more positive working rapport with the Governor after efforts to do so in 2007 failed.
After Culver’s victory in November, 2006, Fallon made repeated efforts to establish substantive dialog with the Governor and his staff. This culminated in one five-minute meeting with Culver in February, 2007, a long string of mostly unreturned phone calls to staff, and zero follow-up on the three promises made by Culver to Fallon in June, 2006.
“In June, 2006 after our hard-fought but civil primary campaign, I agreed to do everything I could to support Culver in his race against Jim Nussle,” said Ed Fallon. “Culver promised me that, as governor, he would take seriously some of the issues important to me and my supporters. He specifically promised to advocate for serious campaign finance reform, to support legislation to control urban sprawl, and to involve me in his work in a meaningful way. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, that hasn’t happened, and it’s clear to me that the Governor has no intention of making it happen.”
“Many in the core of the Democratic Party are deeply disappointed with Culver’s lack of leadership on several key priorities,” said Lynn Fallon. “Beyond that, we constantly hear from Iowans who feel they have little or no access to either the Governor or his staff. We went so far as to offer to serve as liaisons between the Governor and Iowa citizens. We know how busy the Governor and his staff are, but it seems disingenuous to ask for help and support during a campaign and then turn one’s back on those same people once in office,” concluded Lynn Fallon.
The full record of Ed Fallon’s attempted communications with Culver and Cashman is included below.
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