“The campaign now on hhs.gov is not purely informational because it expressly has visitors ‘affirm’ their commitment to work with congressional leaders to enact legislation this year,” Grassley said, and added that this “looks like the type of violation the law was written to prohibit.”

An online initiative by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services has come under fire by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who believes the effort is state-funded propaganda.

At Grassley’s request, a legal opinion on the subject was issued by the American Law Division at the Congressional Research Office this week, and those officials also agree with Grassley that the HHS initiative is an inappropriate use of funds and that it may violate at least three areas that govern use of appropriated funds.

“If the expenditure for the letter writing campaign to the President, supporting the President’s position with regard to health care reform proposals, is not deemed sufficiently ‘informational’ or educational, that is, that it is not a communication with the public ‘regarding its functions, policies, and activities,’ then it may be argued that it may be in violation of the general appropriations rider in Section 720, Division D, of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 as a ‘publicity or propaganda’ campaign involving a grassroots lobbying effort directed at the President.”

According to the opinion, HHS may also be in violation of another section for the Omnibus Act that prohibits publicity or propaganda “designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress.”

Finally, the legal opinion points to a possible violation of the U.S. criminal code that denies use of federal appropriations for state campaigns that are designed to influence government officials.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius contends that the initiative allows individuals to share personal stories and ideas regarding reform.

“The ‘State Your Support’ link allows individuals to express their support for health insurance reform,” she wrote in a letter this week to Grassley. “Individual who state their support and provide contact information are then notified of updates to information on the HealthReform.gov website and are occasionally invited to health reform-related events in their area.

“…[T]he Department has been careful to comply with all legal requirements with respect to this link and its other communications with the public.”

If the sword-clattering from both sides sound familiar, its because these type of disagreements — whether or not a federal agency is engaging in propaganda or pure information distribution — aren’t unusual. The players on either side vary depending on who is in control of the agencies, and the specific topic.

For instance, four years ago House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called use of taxpayer funds for government propaganda campaigns “underhanded tactics” while chiding the Bush administration.

Grassley also returned to two debunked rumors about the health care bill, that it will provide money for abortion and that it will provide health insurance for illegal immigrants, as reasons why he cannot support the legislation in its current form.

“I’m disappointed because it looks like we’re being pushed aside by the Democratic leadership so the Senate can move forward on a bill that, up to this point, does not meet the shared goals for affordable, accessible health coverage that we set forth when this process began,” Grassley said. “In addition to concerns about costs to taxpayers and affordability for individuals, there are still some serious outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved like preventing taxpayer funding of abortion services and the enforcement against subsidies for illegal aliens.”

Grassley said he would like to “keep working until we get it right,” and pressed for Democrats to allow negotiations to continue.

Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who has led the efforts to develop bipartisan health care legislation with Grassley, released a detailed outline of health care legislation on Wednesday and promised to convene the committee next week to vote on it. Many health care reform advocates have been pushing Democrats to move forward with or without Republicans for several weeks, fearing their efforts at bipartisanship were simply attempts to stall and eventually kill any reform legislation.

Despite months of negotiations and a bill that offers many concessions to conservative lawmakers, no Republicans have agreed to support the framework, which calls for health insurance co-ops and does not include a public option.

Is that fair to someone of my status who makes — let’s face it, I make $172,000 a year. Is it fair that I should get $4,500 to go out and buy a new car? I just don’t think that is fair. I don’t think it is right. But I think it would be right for someone making less than $50,000 a year because they are the ones who need the help.

His message was clear: Congressional lawmakers earn enough already, and therefore don’t need the taxpayers subsidizing their vehicles. Unmentioned was the fact that, at least in the House, the taxpayers already pay for lawmakers’ vehicles — and at costs well above $4,500.

The New York Times wrote the regional piece last year, revealing that 13 House lawmakers in New York and New Jersey take advantage of a chamber rule allowing them to bill taxpayers for leased vehicles as part of their office costs.

“The use of a car — gas included — is one of the benefits of being a member of the House of Representatives,” the Times noted dryly, adding that Senate rules don’t allow upper-chamber lawmakers the same benefits. “There are few restrictions on what kind of car the members can choose, and there is no limit on how much they can spend. … Not only does the federal government pick up the cost of the lease and the gas, but also general maintenance, insurance, registration fees and excess mileage charges.”

Topping the expense list (at least as of May 2008) was Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who was billing taxpayers $998 a month for his Lexus LS 460. So on top of the roughly $170,000 in salary Meeks was pulling in, he also got almost $12,000 to drive a luxury sedan.

Some lawmakers defended the perk, saying that their large districts require a lot of travel to meet with constituents. But Meeks, who represents a section of Queens, declined to comment for the Times story. “These are never lighthearted stories,” he said.

Mike Lillis covers congress for the Washington Independent, a Center for Independent Media site.

“Republicans will acknowledge all day long that the model that proved this to work was the [Barack] Obama campaign,” Tim Palmer said in an interview with the Iowa Independent. “You know, when that campaign first began using these tools and reaching out in that fashion, people were skeptical. Even when Howard Dean, for example, said that he was going to have a 50-state strategy, he got vegetables thrown at him from within [the Democratic] Party. But, look what happened.”

Palmer, who is a Cedar Rapids business owner, husband, father to nine children and a blogger, was elected to serve as county chairman earlier this month. Before his election, he put together a slate of leaders who have been publicly described as “young professionals” — people Palmer hopes provide a good representation of Republican voters in his county.

“We are reaching out to all Republicans,” he said. “This is not a faction or a group of conservative, religious people. I mean, I am a conservative. That’s for sure. I’m also religious and I attend church. But, to characterize our county or our committee by my own personal affiliation isn’t fair.

“I intentionally went out of my way to recruit a moderate Republican — Mark Hudson — to serve as my co-chairman. I thought that was the best way to embody where we, as a party, need to go.”

Hudson, an attorney in Cedar Rapids, has already initiated conversations with other moderate Republicans in Linn County — individuals Palmer described as always being “somewhat skeptical” about the party.

“We are making it very clear to them that they are invited to participate and that we want them,” he said. “It’s key for us, because we have to be a larger party than what we’ve been. We need to start a dialog that can diminish some of the confrontations that we’ve had. There has been too much party in-fighting.”

Party in-fighting, however, continues to be a factor impacting Republican effectiveness. Former county chairman Jim Conklin, former county treasurer Laurie Hamilton and a handful of other Republicans formed a Facebook group for Linn County Whigs, seemingly in an attempt to protest perceived religious influence from the newly elected GOP executive board.

“I want to remind Republicans that we have far more to gain by working together than by sitting in our own respective camps and never really having any success on the issues that we care about,” said Palmer.

In addition to Hudson, Palmer recruited Dawn Brown, a relative party newcomer and local real estate broker, to serve as secretary. Brent Schulte, a former Rockwell Collins project manager turned pastor who is married to Iowa Rep. Renee Schulte, was elected as the group’s treasurer.

As a testament to the executive board’s commitment to extended outreach, the entire group can be friended on Facebook or followed on Twitter.

“Twitter, Facebook and the other social media options are definitely a direction that as a party we need to go,” Palmer said, noting his belief that such tools are effective even on the precinct-organizing level. “We do have a four-part plan on how we re-organize Linn County, and Part 4 of that plan is embracing new technology.”

The Linn County plan, which echoes Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn’s views on new media, perhaps had its first tangible reward the night the new officers were elected.

“As we took comments and questions from the floor, we had a young man in his early 20s stand up and tell us that he didn’t feel welcome as a part of the committee, and that he didn’t feel that the county party was reaching out to him,” Palmer said. “I told him that the county party has not been speaking his language. When he acknowledged that he was using Facebook and Twitter, I could then assure him that we were going to start.

“To contrast that, I want to say that there are several good Republicans in Linn County who aren’t going to be on Facebook and who do not Twitter. So, we can’t abandon them either. We have to combine both strategies to effectively reach out to voters.”

Palmer, who was prompted to seek his new position after organizing the 2008 caucuses in Linn County, said he was drawn to and supported Strawn not necessarily because of the state stance on utilizing technology, but because of Strawn’s belief that organizing begins and succeeds at the precinct level.

“What happens at the precincts are the fundamentals of grassroots politics,” Palmer said. “All politics are local. As a county organization, we’ve simply not done what we’ve needed to do in the 86 precincts that comprise Linn County. That’s where we have to put our attention, and that must be our focus.”

Linn County politics 10 or 20 years ago was nearly dominated by the Republican Party. Since that time, however, Republican influence has vastly diminished. At the county level, there is currently only one Republican elected official, Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, who was elected last fall.

“I don’t consider [the election of an entirely new Linn County GOP executive board] a drastic change, but it is going in a different direction and applying some fundamentals that I think we’ve not done a very good job of doing in the past,” Palmer said. “I’m not saying this to accuse or disparage any one person, but I think the means that we’ve used in the county have not been as productive as we would like them to be.”

Palmer added that although he knows Linn County has a responsibility and role to play in statewide and 2nd District races, his attention is going to be on county organizing.

“I’m not focused on Des Moines or other places,” he said. “I agree that we are all part of the 2nd District, but for right now our focus has to be on Linn County. That’s where we have to put our attention.”

Contrary to popular dictates, however, the Republican Party isn’t alone in its challenges. Many of the areas in Cedar Rapids that were hardest hit by 2008 flood damage were Democratic strongholds. While some of those voters have returned to their neighborhoods, others remain displaced to residences both inside and outside of the county. Many maintained their flood-impacted residences for voting purposes in 2008, but most are likely to register in and vote from their new homesteads in 2010.

In the wake of the floods, there is also a growing sentiment of displeasure in overall government. Since Democrats hold majorities at nearly every level that affects flood victims, the party appears to be taking the brunt of dissatisfaction.

One of the biggest and most recent county controversies dealt with wages paid to the Linn County Board of Supervisors, a topic that continues to incite outrage in residents who believe they were misled by supervisors prior to the 2008 ballot. Further, two Democratic county officials — County Attorney Harold Denton and County Treasurer Michael Stevenson — have announced plans to retire. An additional difficulty for local Democrats is the perceived, if not actual, disdain some county officials have for others within their same party.

Control of the county, which will be decided on the November 2010 ballot, will boil down to which party has a more motivated base and has organized the best ground game. If neither of the major parties is able to overcome its challenges, then the county might see its abundant bloc of independent voters play a significant role for the very first time.

Those fees work out to a much higher annualized interest rate than payday loans, the industry argues, and they face significantly less government regulation.

From a press release sent January 6:

Payday advances are highly regulated

• State laws heavily regulate all aspects of payday lending, including limiting the number of loan transactions, placing caps on loan transaction amounts and the fees that can be charged.  Payday loans are also subject to a number of federal laws that protect consumer credit borrowers, including full disclosure of the fees expressed both as a dollar amount and an annual percentage rate.
• Bank and credit union overdraft transactions have no such regulations.

Payday advances can be a less costly alternative to overdrawing a bank account

• Payday lenders typically charge a flat fee of $15 per $100 borrowed, or 391% if quoted as an annual percentage rate.
• FDIC reports that the average bank customer pays $27 (median overdraft fee) to cover a transaction of $36 (median transaction size), with annual percentage rates ranging from 1067% to 3520%.

A report (pdf) on banking practices prepared by the consulting firm Bretton Woods for the payday lending industry was released Friday, indicating that Iowans pay over $321 million annually in overdraft fees.  That works out to more than $300 per household in the Hawkeye state, which seems high, but it is below the national average.  The Bretton Woods report also claims that banks and credit unions employ strategies to maximize the overdraft fees they charge their customers by reordering debits and withdrawals.

Some quick research indicated that state governments probably don’t have the power to regulate bank overdraft fees — at least not those assessed by big, national banks — in the same ways that they can regulate payday loans, which further complicates things for the state legislature.

“I don’t think the party has seen the bottom,” he said. “We are waiting for others to fail so that we can succeed. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but that’s the way it’s working right now.”

Krishna told the Iowa Independent that in spite of rumors to the contrary he is not and has never been a candidate for chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. This despite the fact that several members of the party’s State Central Committee view him as the favorite to win the position when the group meets on Saturday.

“I am not a candidate. I have never been a candidate,” he said.  “Talk to State Central Committee members. They cannot show a single e-mail or letter from me saying that I wanted their support or that I am a candidate. It’s just not true.”

Krishna said that while the position of chair is an important one, the way in which the State Central Committee is going about picking a chair is a disaster.

“The Central Committee has to have the spine to elect the best person they can,” he said. “They don’t.”

The race has deteriorated into a popularity contest, Krishna said.

“If we wanted to elect a chair on a popularity basis, we should elect the chair at the state convention,” he said. “The problem has been how the Central Committee thinks they have to pick from whoever wants to run. It should be the opposite. It is the responsibility of the Central Committee to go out and recruit the best person they can. It’s just like the board of directors of a corporation picking a new CEO. They go and get the best CEO they think can address the needs of the organization.”

Krishna also called into question the commitment of several Central Committee members, saying the seven members elected in April rarely ever come to meetings.

“How can they realize what needs to be done when they don’t even come to meetings? That makes a mockery of all the people who have been there before,” he said.

The Central Committee’s “lack of maturity” is one of the main reasons he is not running for chair, Krishna said.

Krishna also pointed the finger at Iowa’s conservative bloggers. He said they do little except “spew hatred” and spread lies. Krishna has been the target of attack from several conservative bloggers saying his time serving in RPI leadership during the 90s caused too much turmoil, a factor they believe disqualified him from taking the reins of the party again.

“How many good people are not running for office anymore because of the character assassination? Why would anyone who wants to do good subject themselves to all this harassment?” he said.

Ultimately, Krishna said he feels like he’s watching the party he’s worked to build since 1990, when he was first elected to the State Central Committee, being destroyed from within.

“You invest a lot of time and energy in something and you see it’s getting destroyed, you get mad,” he said. “A lot of people feel the way I do but are afraid to speak up. I’m not afraid. I will say what needs to be said.”

The Republican Party State Central Committee is expected to pick a new leader Jan. 10.

Several members of the party’s Central Committee said Gopal Krishna, who served as the party’s co-chairman in the late ‘90s and currently serves as its treasurer, and Danny Carroll, the former speaker pro tempore of the Iowa House, are both close to garnering the number of votes needed to win the seat when the committee convenes Jan. 10.

But enough of the 17 committee members remain undecided that the door is still open for another candidate.

“I’m not sure there is a clear front-runner right now,” said Jason Hutchinson, a member of the party’s State Central Committee.

“I know there are some members who see a couple front-runners right now, but I honestly don’t. I think it is still too early to be determined. There are still several candidates who can get there.”

The names that come up most often as other potential chair candidates are Matt Strawn, co-owner of the Iowa Barnstormers arena football team, and Paul Pate, former Iowa Secretary of State and mayor of Cedar Rapids.

Several committee members said the voting process could be long and drawn out, with no candidate easily getting the majority needed to win the position.

Committee member Isaiah McGee, who also serves as a councilman in Waukee, said he is pleased with all the candidates but hasn’t heard enough from any one of them to make a decision. Additionally, he said if no one emerges who fits the qualifications the party needs, the process should start over.

“If at the end of the day, no candidate meets all the qualifications that we need as a party chairman then I think we should go back to the drawing board and keep looking,” McGee said.

Every candidate has pluses and minuses, McGee said, and if the vote goes to multiple ballots, it could be anyone’s race.

Hutchinson agrees, saying the committee members he has spoken with are open to any candidate, even if they say they already have a preference.

“A lot can change before we finally vote,” he said. “Once we see everyone’s plan for the party’s future, that could change everything. I personally remain completely undecided, and I think a majority of members feel the same way.”

Central Committee will host a forum from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 27 at GOP headquarters for the public to meet the candidates for chairman and co-chairman. But McGee said many members won’t be able to attend due to the meeting being scheduled so close to the holidays.

Party seeks unity

Several common themes emerged in conversations with committee members about what they are looking for in the next chair, the first and foremost being an ability to unify a fractured party.

Moderates within the party are arguing that the RPI’s drift to the right has hurt party in recent elections. Social conservatives counter that a party thrives when it sticks to its core principles, and in Iowa the GOP has been defeated of late because it has forsaken those values.

Each of the declared candidates seems likely to appeal to the social conservative wing of the party, but each has also expressed a desire to make the party more inclusive.

Hutchinson said the ability of the next chair to bring everyone under the same tent would determine the party’s success for years to come.

“This has become a fractionalized party,” Hutchinson said. “The last two cycles haven’t been particularly kind to Republicans, and when that happens, frustration develops. It tends to make us bicker back and forth. I’m looking for someone who will be able to unite us in a common mission and push forward. I don’t think the divide is as big as it has been made out to be.”

Krishna, the consummate party insider, has become a lightning rod for criticism from the conservative blogosphere, with most critics pointing to his tenure as co-chair, when his fellow Republicans accused him of trying to undermine the party’s leadership. Krishna is dismissive of the bloggers, saying they are trying to create a rift in the party.

But every candidate has his downside, McGee said. The question is what can they bring to the party, and that is what has to be measured, he said.

The party has fallen behind its rival in use of technology, Hutchinson said, which is another thing a party chair must address.

“But technology goes beyond simply having a Facebook page,” McGee said. “You should be able to answer why having a Facebook page is important. How can things like Twitter help us advance our party?”

Fundraising ability will also be key, Hutchinson said.

“Labor injected a lot of money into this last election cycle, so we have got to fund-raise heavily to make up for that advantage the Democrats have,” he said.

With a gubernatorial contest just around the corner, Hutchinson said it is important for a strong leader to be in place in order to ensure the GOP has a viable shot at taking back Terrace Hill.

“Right now our activists, our donors, even our leaders within the party are kind of waiting and looking for leadership to emerge,” he said. “I’m sensing there is a lot of energy out there to move the party forward, but everyone is waiting for a leader to move us forward.”

Ideology aside, the next chair has to be someone who can win elections, McGee said.

“That might be the most important thing,” he said. “You can be against abortion all you want, but you have to be in a position to do something about it.  You can be against the tax policy all you want, but you actually have to be in a position to change the policy. Winning is important, and it’s critical to find someone who understands how to win in the future.”

An additional four employees volunteered for a severance package.

“Those employees who are leaving us in the coming days have made important and hard-working contributions to the Des Moines Register, many for a number of years,” Register Publisher Laura Hollingsworth said today. “We are grateful to them for all their service and we thank them for their impact to this company and to our communities.”

The total makes up nearly 7 percent of the paper’s 801 employees.

The Indianola Record-Herald and the Altoona Herald, also owned by The Register’s parent company, Gannett Co., will let 14 employees go.

The Iowa Independent reported earlier today that longtime editorial cartoonist Brian Duffy is among those losing his job.

The job cuts are part of a plan announced by Gannett in October to cut 10 percent of its payroll by the end of the year at its 85 daily newspapers.

Below is the memo Hollingsworth sent out today:

To: All Des Moines Register and Affiliate Employees

From: Laura Hollingsworth, President and Publisher

December 3, 2008

This week we notified 41 Des Moines Register employees that they were being laid off in response to the worsening economic situation. Another 15 open positions will not be filled, and we had four employees who volunteered for a severance package.

In our weeklies division including the Des Moines metro-area weekly newspapers and our Marengo operations, there are an additional 14 employees being impacted.

This total employee impact translates to 6.9% of our 801 member workforce.

All laid off employees will receive severance packages and benefits for up to 26 weeks.

Those employees who are leaving us in the coming days have made important and hard-working contributions to the Des Moines Register, many for a number of years. We are grateful to them for all their service and we thank them for their impact to this company and to our communities.

The layoffs here and those going on throughout Gannett are difficult but necessary steps. The challenges the current economy poses are well known. Though it may be well into 2009 before we see some relief, the actions we are taking now will position us to take full advantage of the turnaround. With your help and through it all, The Des Moines Register will continue to remain strong.

I thank you for your hard work as we move forward. You are a very talented and committed group of employees. Together, we will get through this. LH

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are both counting on Iowa to help deliver them to the White House.

Both campaigns have invested heavily in Iowa, and the top operatives for each side agree the outcome is still very much up in the air. While the state seems to be trending Democratic, recent polls show McCain making up ground as Election Day draws near.

“If we didn’t think Iowa was important, if it wasn’t a key battleground for us, we wouldn’t be putting a huge investment in TV, radio and people on the ground,” said Gentry Collins, Midwest regional director for the McCain campaign. “Campaigns have a finite amount of resources, both in terms of finances and in terms of time. I think you’ll find that major national campaigns don’t waste a lot of time on states they don’t believe are key to their electoral fortunes. And in Iowa, we’re making a very large investment.”

Obama’s lead in the state is shrinking, from 9 percentage points last month to 5 this month, according to a recent Rasmussen poll. A Pollster.com survey showed the Illinois senator with a 48-42 lead.

But the number of registered Democrats has increased 16 percent since mid-2004, when President Bush carried Iowa by only 10,000 votes. Trailing Republicans by roughly 8,000 in the summer before the 2004 election, registered Democrats now outnumber them by more than 90,000, according to statistics from the Iowa secretary of state, which also show that Democrats are within reach of overtaking the number of registered independents.

There is also a growing disparity in the number of people on the ground for both campaigns. Obama has 30 field offices located around the state, in urban settings like Des Moines and Cedar Rapids and in more rural places like Independence and Fairfield. A recent Iowa Independent story found a tight race in the fastest growing area of the state, Dallas County, west of Des Moines.

“One of the philosophies we’ve always had in our campaign is that we need to include everybody, not just larger urban areas where there will be big turnout,” said Jackie Norris, state director for Obama’s Iowa campaign. “This is going to be a campaign that’s won with all 99 counties participating. That’s why you see offices opening up in places like Ottumwa or Muscatine and other less urban areas around the state.”

The McCain campaign has only seven field offices in Iowa , each located in an urban center. But Dave Roederer, McCain’s state chairman, said the campaign benefits from being the headquarters for the Midwest regional headquarters.

Located in Urbandale, the regional office oversees operations in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Roederer said this allows decisions made in Washington, D.C., to get to the ground more quickly and for input to make its way from the ground to Washington more efficiently.

“I think this is a great organization, and I think it makes the entire campaign more effective,” he said.

The number of feet on the ground will be boosted by the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Iowa, Collins said, but so far that hasn’t been the case. The Iowa Independent reported in July that documents filed with the Federal Election Commission showed the Republican Party of Iowa had only seven salaried employees on staff, compared to 28 for the state Democrats. That difference has ballooned since then, with documents filed in August showing Democrats with more than 100 paid staff in the field while the GOP still has only seven.

Documents filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board shows the RPI has no paid staff focusing exclusively on state races while the state Democratic Party has 34.

Neither campaign has been willing to share the number of staff on their payroll working in Iowa.

State Republican strategists have said previously that the GOP relies more on volunteers at the county levels than on paid staff.

Norris said the Obama campaign is working to ensure Democrats up and down the ticket are successful and to boost turnout in traditionally Republican precincts. After the Democratic convention is complete and delegates return home, Norris said field organizers for the Obama campaign around the state will hit the streets with literature for Democratic candidates at all levels, from national offices to state legislative races.

“They will be talking about the ticket and the need to get all of our candidates elected,” she said.

Roederer said he’s still confident in McCain’s chances in Iowa, as he believes experience is the one issue that will carry the day.

“With experience comes a comfort level of knowing that the next president is going to be inheriting a difficult world,” he said. “John McCain has been tested. He has laid out very specific plans about all the major issues. That is the kind of thing that will be on people’s minds when they go to vote.”

Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal says the delay by Congress makes planning “kind of messy.”

Gov. Chet Culver has said he’ll likely call a special session after a commission studying flood damage issues a report in early September. But G[r]onstal says planning will be tough because the bulk of recovery money will come from the federal government and their decisions will be delayed.

Meanwhile, Gronstal’s fellow Democrats seeking federal office are busy defending themselves against this charge.