IDP Chairman Michael Kiernan, left, and former Gov. Terry Branstad

“He’s a hypocrite. Period.” Kiernan said. “He’s looking at his own record with rose-colored glasses making calculated, political decisions that will, in his mind, distance himself from his own record and help him win the [Republican gubernatorial] primary.”

Branstad has been highly critical of the $830 million I-JOBS bonding plan, a proposal Democratic Gov. Chet Culver called the centerpiece of his 2009 legislative agenda. At a recent Republican Party of Iowa event, Branstad said “too much debt is bad and those that create it should be thrown out of office.”

The Democrats point out that Branstad used public bonding to fund more than $613 million in projects between 1989 and 1994. Those projects included a state prison at Clarinda ($22.6 million); the Iowa Communications Network ($115 million) and the Underground Storage Tank cleanup program ($141 million). Adjusted for inflation, Branstad’s bonding totals nearly $1 billion.

“Here’s the general rule of thumb for Taxin’ Terry:  He was for it before he was against it, and now no one knows what, if anything, he stands for,” Kiernan said. “Branstad criticizing Governor Culver for using bonding to fund I-Jobs after bonding out nearly a billion dollars in state projects himself is hypocritical.”

Branstad has also been critical of a plan announced by Culver to pay state troopers out of the Road Use Tax Fund, which is designated to pay for road construction and maintenance projects. Branstad said the idea was “a bad budget practice that was used in the past, and as governor I put an end to it.”

But one of Branstad’s Republican rivals, state Rep. Chris Rants, said it wasn’t the governor who ended the practice, but the legislature.

“Terry Branstad must have forgotten that in 1985 Gov. Branstad started the practice of funding the Iowa State Patrol from the Road Use Tax Fund. Gov. Branstad used this bad budget practice for 11 years as governor,” Rants said, adding: “The practice didn’t come to an end until my first term in the legislature when people like myself made the tough decisions needed to get Iowa’s fiscal house in order.”

The Sioux City Journal reports Tuesday that Branstad attempted to explain his past use of the Road Use Fund during a campaign stop Monday, saying it was done during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s and was corrected during his administration.

Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht could not be immediately reached for comment.

Congressional campaigns had to turn in their quarterly fundraising reports this week, documenting money raised and spent between July 1 and Sept. 30. Information about other elected officials and challengers is below.

Fourth District Rep. Tom Latham, R-Ames, is next on the list, raising $153,507 during the quarter. His campaign has nearly $420,000 cash on hand.

Third District Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Des Moines, raised $104,132, bringing his cash-on-hand total to $343,215.

Second District Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Mt. Vernon, raised $101,200 and has $278,404 cash on hand.

Fifth District Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, raised $70,570 and has $173,833 cash on hand.

Several challengers also filed reports. Republican Dave Funk, who is running against Boswell, raised $16,477and ended the quarter with $6,226 cash on hand. Democrat Mike Denklau, who is running against King, raised $13,615 but has more than $10,000 in campaign debt.

When asked to picture farm life, many people invision idyllic settings like the ones painted by reknown Iowa artist Grant Wood. The true realities of farm life, however, are often isolation, depression and hopelessness.

The Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, authorized (but not funded) by the 2008 farm bill, would create a national crisis hotline for rural workers and also mandates additional behavioral health services in geographically rural regions. While some states have hotlines and some capacity to provide behavioral health services designed for agricultural workers, others have nothing in place.

Statistics show that the presence of such services can reduce rural violence and suicides, which are currently on the rise.

“How many deaths will it take?” asked Mike Rosmann, executive director of AgriWellness, an Iowa-based nonprofit that promotes accessible behavioral health services for underserved rural populations. “[This] leaves farm people with fewer options to deal with mounting stress. It is especially true for livestock and dairy producers, although the picture is much bigger than just those industries because grain prices are declining and costs of production are rising above the value of products in the marketplace.”

U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa pushed for the creation of the stress assistance network as a part of the farm bill. Harkin, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Agricultural Committee, had requested $5 million be provided to the program during appropriations debate. Grassley, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota also argued for “appropriating the maximum amount possible” in a letter sent to the agriculture appropriations subcommittee in May.

“Farming is one of the most stressful and dangerous occupations in the United States,” Grassley said in December 2007, while urging members of his own political party to stop their attempts to block inclusion of the network in the farm bill. “There are environmental, cultural and economic factors that put farmers and ranchers at a higher risk for mental health problems. Stress is agriculture contributes to rates of depression and suicide that are double the national average. This is true even in good times for farmers.”

Indeed, as senators who opposed creation of the network were quick to point out, the agriculture community at the time of the farm bill debate was flourishing. That is unfortunately not the case today as farmers brace against overall economic decline, suffer massive product price reductions and battle against misinformation about disease. Under these circumstances, and without a safety net, health care professionals are worried that the nation will once again witness breakdowns within agricultural communities similar to those seen during the 1980s farm crisis.

“The consequence of all of this is that there will be mounting frustration,” Rosmann said. “There is also a greater likelihood that more and more people will be frustrated to the point that they are going to do something because they feel like government isn’t listening. We have to have parity of behavioral health care for rural and urban people.”

The appropriations bills will now be taken into a conference committee where the differences between them will be reconciled. During the appropriations conference process, according to a spokeswoman in Grassley’s office, congressional rules do not permit funding for an item that was not previously contained in either the House or Senate versions of the bill. If the conference committee did attempt to include the funding, any member could object — and, given the debate during this item’s authorization in the farm bill, some lawmaker probably would.

“I worked very hard to put the Farm Stress Assistance Network in the farm bill,” Harkin said during a conference call Thursday morning with reporters. “It was attacked … during the farm bill debate, but we persisted and got it in. I just haven’t been able to get funding for it yet. The Republicans would not sign off on my efforts on this.”

There is also some speculation that funding could be included in overall health care reform, but such inclusion would likely be left to a newly created health care committee through recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In that type of scenario, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would have much less influence in terms of ensuring urban-rural parity. Further, if health care reform does not include a public option and/or if preventive behavioral health services like the stress assistance network aren’t considered essential services, already cash-strapped rural families would be more likely to have to pay additional premiums to access insurance coverage for such services.

“I’m disappointed that the agriculture appropriations committee failed to see the positive benefits of this program,” Grassley said in a statement to The Iowa Independent. “Farmers continue to see drastic market swings and difficult weather patterns. The assistance of the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network would be a tremendous help to many feeling the impact of problems out of their control.”

The fiscal 2010 Agriculture, Rural Development and FDA Appropriations approved by the Senate includes nearly $101 billion in mandatory spending, an increase of roughly $13 billion from what was enacted in 2009, and just over $24 billion in discretionary spending, an increase of roughly $2.5 billion from 2009. The House bill calls for nearly $23 billion in spending, an increase of roughly $2.3 billion from 2009. The appropriations bill funds nutritional programs, food and drug safety initiatives, international food aid, USDA research and rural development programs.

The 2008 winner of the GOP Iowa Caucuses raised $304,673 during the first six months of 2009 for his PAC and disbursed $336,589, donating only $17,500 to candidates across the country. On the last day of the filing period, Huck PAC gave $2,500 to Team Vander Plaats. (The PAC paid out $131,000 in payroll and benefits for its employees, and it spent $72,100 for fundraising-related expenses.)

Huckabee endorsed Vander Plaats’ candidacy in June, keynoting a fundraiser for the Sioux City businessman that the campaign said brought in around $80,000 (gubernatorial candidates won’t file financial disclosure with the state until January). Vander Plaats was Huckabee’s Iowa campaign director during the 2007-2008 presidential caucus season.

Free and Strong America PAC, the political action committee of Huckabee’s caucus rival, Mitt Romney, contributed no money to Iowa campaigns so far this year.

The newspaper received an e-mail from “a friend under the Golden Dome” detailing a testy exchange between Culver and U.S Sen. Tom Harkin. Apparently Culver was upset at Harkin’s comments at last week’s hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wondering how state inspectors had allowed the Atalissa situation “to go on year after year after year.” The two Democrats had some less than cordial words, and eventually Culver apologized, several sources said.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Cityview –

The e-mail goes on: “Culver’s blow-up with Harkin is one in a series of recent eruptions that have some of us in the Statehouse wondering if he’ll make it through November of 2010, or self-destruct. While his overly defensive shouting at [Register columnist David] Yepsen when he released his budget in January is one public example, what is going on behind closed doors, over the phone and via e-mail is said to be worse. He’s desperately looking for a pound of flesh over Atalissa….Morale in his own office seems to be at an all-time low because…there is no collegiality between him and his staff, just the barking of orders and threats. And while he has some good veterans around him, he all but ignores people who might have advice based on experience for people who simply respond ‘how much?’ when he yells “shit.’”

In February, Culver issued an executive order creating the Dependent Adult Task Force. Its mission is to investigate Henry’s Turkey Service, a company that for the 34 years brought dozens of men with mental retardation from Texas to work for West Liberty Foods. The company acted as landlord, caregiver and employer, with the men living in a “bunkhouse” with no heating system and boarded-up windows, and paid them as little as 44 cents an hour. State and federal officials are investigating for possible labor law violations.

Senate File 293, sponsored by Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, would create the Medical Marijuana Act, which would allow the possession and use of marijuana for therapeutic purposes, create compassion centers and provide for criminal and civil penalties for misuse.

A qualifying patient would be issued a registry identification card to allow them to possess and use marijuana without prosecution or arrest. Those who would be eligible would include people diagnosed by a medical doctor with a “debilitating medical condition” like cancer, hepatitis C, Crohn’s Disease, AIDS or a chronic medical condition that causes severe pain, nausea, seizures or certain muscle spasms.

If passed, Iowa would become the 14th state to allow residents with serious debilitating conditions to use marijuana for relief. Several other states, like Illinois, New Hampshire and New Jersey, are currently studying similar legislation.

In 1999, The Institute of Medicine studied the potential therapeutic value of marijuana and found that the drug did help with symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and appetite stimulation.

In this week’s issue of the Des Moines alternative newsweekly Cityview, Duffy was given a full page to publish a cartoon of his choice, according to the paper’s editor and publisher Shane Goodman.

“The Register lost an Iowa icon by dropping Duffy from their staff, and they are quickly finding that out… the hard way,” Goodman said in his note to readers.

The piece shows Duffy walking towards the horizon and away from the paper he worked at for a quarter century uttering the phrase “Sunset? No, a new sunrise.”

Duffy was one of 56 Register employees who lost their jobs last week. In subsequent interviews with Des Moines television stations he made it clear he did not appreciate the way in which his dismissal was handled.

While still syndicated in 400 newspapers around the country, Duffy said he has cancelled his Register subscription and will not allow his former employer to use his work ever again.

Reed appears to be holing the Republican base vote, despite dissent in GOP ranks and a lack of support from the state party, simply by being Not Tom Harkin. He performed nearly as well as Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who had 44 percent in the same survey to Barack Obama’s 52 percent.

The poll was conducted Thursday, the same day Reed called Harkin the “Tokyo Rose of al Qaeda and Middle East terrorism” in a debate. Rasmussen’s previous poll, a month earlier, showed a similar margin, with Harkin leading Reed 54 persent to 40.

In other findings, Rasmussen found Governor Chet Culver, not on the ballot until 2010, with good or excellent marks from 45 percent of Iowa voters, while 22 percent rate the governor’s performance as poor.

Thus it is in politics. Both parties, in cold political Darwinism, leave the weak to die. It happened to me in my own legislative race 12 years ago. But at the moment, the grumbling appears louder on the Republican side.

Iowa’s conservative blogosphere is grumbling that Christopher Reed, the long-shot challenger to Senator Tom Harkin, is being triaged out. The latest controversy centers around Reed’s charges on Steve Deace’s WHO radio show that that Caleb Hunter, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI), is “actively telling Iowa voters not to support my candidacy because I have no chance to win.” Reed also said Hunter was telling donors their efforts were better spent on trying to win back the Iowa House, where Democrats now hold a 53-47 edge.

“The only groups that I have seen attempting to support Reed at all are the Iowa Right to Life and Iowa Christian Alliance,” writes the Iowa Defense Alliance blog, saying that the treatment of Reed reflects on the Republican State Convention’s battle over National Committee seats. “These are the same people that claimed that (Iowa Right to Life head) Kim Lehman couldn’t be a national chairwoman because she wouldn’t support all Republicans. Now the shoe is on the other foot. These same people are now doing what they claimed that Lehman would do,” Iowa Defense Alliance writes, calling RPI leadership “the Romney Party of Iowa.”

“Reed’s information is second or third hand,” writes Republican state central committee member David Chung at the Hawkeye GOP blog. “I do not know exactly what was said or where but it sounds as if it lost something in the translation.”

“(Former state Rep. George) Eichhorn was definitely the ‘insider’ candidate with more ties to party leadership, and I’m sure they weren’t too happy when their buddy got beat,” writes Nathan Greene at Battleground Iowa. “I don’t think Hunter was telling people not to vote for Reed, but he was certainly telling people he doesn’t think Reed has a chance, so people should send their money and their volunteer hours over to (House minority leader Christopher) Rants.”

“It’s one thing if the party doesn’t have the money to financially support Reed,” writes Greene. It is another thing altogether to actively attempt to sabotage his volunteer and fundraising efforts.”

The multiple posts on the party’s support, or lack thereof, have led to comment wars on the blogs. “You, Christopher, have raised less than $20,000 for your campaign for US SENATE – you need to just curl up and hide your pitiful, pitiful self — you are an embarrassment,” writes an anonymous ‘Steve’ on Battleground Iowa. “Go buy yourself another suit or haircut with your campaign funds,” he adds, repeating an often-noted criticism of Reed.

Clayton County Republican Chairwoman Gwen Eilers has gone so far as to send out a mass email urging Republicans to write in third-place primary candidate Steve Rathje instead of voting for Reed.

“It is no secret that RPI has limited funds this election cycle,” writes Chung. “I supported the decision to target these funds to those races where they are likely to be affect the outcome. These chosen few are not chosen for their ideological purity. If it were so, Reed would be at the top of the list. But a dispassionate view, looking to target key races, the U.S. Senate race is not one of them.”

Despite his near-invisibility, Reed is reaching as high as 40 percent in some polls, simply by being Not Tom Harkin. Yet, with Republican presidential nominee John McCain in the state Saturday, Reed’s name was not mentioned from the podium in Davenport, and no Reed signs were visible in the hall.

Instead, underscoring the Republican Party’s apparent priority, state Rep. Steve Olson said, “I believe we can take over the Iowa House.” Also speaking were state Rep. Jamie Van Fossen and two legislative challengers: Ross Paustian, House 84 challenger against first-term Democrat Elesha Gayman, and state senate challenger Shawn Hamerlink, opposing Sen. Frank Wood.

And with the presidential candidate of his party in his home county, sitting state senator and 1st Congressional District challenger Dave Hartsuch did not speak. National handicappers all rank the 1st District as safe for freshman Democrat Bruce Braley.

As she asks the press and public for distance and decency in the wake of revelations about her husband’s infidelity, I recall Elizabeth Edwards’s response from five years ago to a question about allegations that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mistreated women.

Elizabeth Edwards

There is, of course, a canyon of a difference between groping unwilling women on movie sets — as Schwarzenegger was alleged to have done in a swirl of sensational stories before his election in 2003 — and cheating on one’s wife with a willing partner as John Edwards admits to doing. But in an interview with me in 2003, Elizabeth Edwards had strong words about how women should be treated by men that seem strikingly applicable to her husband today.

I asked Mrs. Edwards about her reaction to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election as a Republican governor of California in the wake of news reports about the action movie star’s mistreatment of women. The L.A. Times has published stories with allegations that Schwarzenegger “groped” and “humiliated” women on movie sets and in other locations over three decades.

The allegations didn’t factor heavily into voting as Schwarzenegger cruised to victory.

“It concerns me greatly,” Mrs. Edwards said. “I think what we look for in leaders are a number of things, but I think that a basic prerequisite is somebody who has respect for women, for the various races that make up our nation. That lack of respect is something that people ought to take into consideration.”

Mrs. Edwards said Schwarzenegger’s dismissive attitude about the serious claims amounted to “further denigration” of the women.

“The Schwarzenegger campaign, one of the things that bothered me tremendously is his saying, ‘Well, we’ll talk about this after the election,’ instead of saying, ‘This is something that I understand,’” Mrs. Edwards said. “If he truly understood it was important, if he truly respected women’s rights, he would have said this is an important claim, and I feel that it is fair to address them.”