Dueling Democrats hope for more harmony in 2009 session

The 2008 session of the Iowa General Assembly did not go as smoothly as Democrats would have liked.

Gov. Chet Culver, right, greets Senate Majority Leader Mike Grontsal at the State Capitol.

Despite having control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion for the first time in 44 years, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate had public, and in some cases heated, disagreements with Gov. Chet Culver.

The differences came to a head when legislators passed a union-backed collective-bargaining bill despite a last-minute appeal from Culver that they allow more discussion.

At the time, Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, said that despite threats of a veto, Culver had to sign the bill.

“Because of his future,” Kibbie said. “He’s running on the Democratic ticket, I presume.”

As it turned out, Culver did veto the legislation.

Now, with the 2009 session a little more than a month away and Democratic majorities even bigger than before, the big question remains: Can Democrats unite behind an agenda or will differences once again cause rifts in the party?

“I think both sides are jockeying for position,” said Christopher Larimer, a professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa. “I think right now everyone is in a good mood because of the election, but once the legislative session begins you’re going to see both sides try to position themselves as the leader on the issues.”

The constituency of legislators varies greatly, from urban to rural, conservative to liberal and everywhere in between, said Gordon Fischer, a former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party. The governor, by contrast, has to look at issues with a statewide focus in mind. This inevitably leads to differences of opinion and helps explain much of the party’s past disagreements.

Others, however, say the rift between Culver and legislative leaders dates back to the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. That year, Sen. Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, and a large group of Democratic lawmakers backed former congressman Mike Blouin instead of Culver in the primary.

“After he was elected, I think the governor felt that he didn’t owe anybody anything and could govern as he saw fit without obligation to legislators and their agenda,” said Jeff Angelo, a former Republican state senator from Creston. “I don’t think Gov. Culver looks at 2010 and thinks ‘We’re all in this together.’ I think he has his own agenda and keeps his own counsel.”

Angelo said he sees the differences between the governor and legislative leaders as a mixture of political and personal.

“If you look at the collective-bargaining bill, I think the governor actually disagreed with legislators on policy,” he said. “But if you look at how it was passed, the Democrats pushed that through while the governor was on vacation. That was a personal slap to him. They passed it without his input, and that is personal.”

Fisher maintains that while there are areas of disagreement, they are few and far between.

“Look at what they’ve accomplished together,” he said. “They have agreed on many more issues than they’ve disagreed on.”

Democrats expanded their majorities this year in both houses of the Legislature, but the gains in the House failed to reach the 60-vote level needed to override a veto. Even though Culver campaigned vigorously in the closing weeks for House candidates across the state, Larimer called the Democrats’ failure to reach 60 seats a “blessing in disguise.”

“I think that it eliminates one potential problem down the road for him,” he said. “Expand the majority a little bit but not too much as to make him irrelevant.”

In the end, all agreed that neither the governor nor the Legislature is in the driver’s seat in the upcoming session.

“I think what’s going to drive the agenda is not a human being but the budget,” Angelo said. “Every decision will have to be made with a very tough budget year in mind. Democrats will have to figure out how to politically survive in a year that will be filled with hard decisions. I’ve been through tough budget years, and it’s not a pretty process.”

With Culver and most of the Legislature up for re-election in 2010, Fischer said there is no room for in-party fighting.

“I think a lot of the learning process is behind them and they realize they have a lot of work to do in 2009, and they have to work together,” he said.

Larimer agreed, saying Democrats will have no one to blame if the state’s economy does not improve, leaving the door open for Republicans to regain control.

“Democrats realize 2010 could be a tough year,” he said.