Culver’s office is calling the e-mails “draft documents,” which it says aren’t required to be disclosed under Iowa law. The Register doesn’t agree with that assessment.

Iowa’s open-records law does not include an exemption for draft documents. However, the Iowa attorney general’s office has said that it believes the Legislature never intended to make preliminary documents, such as drafts of speeches, open to the public.

This isn’t the first instance of the state’s largest newspaper and the governor disagreeing on what constitutes a public document. In August, Culver’s staff refused this week to release a draft report that outlines Iowa’s housing recommendations after the floods.

In early December, Culver’s staff refused to release a list of recommended budget cuts given to the governor from state departments.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said Tuesday he would work to better enforce open-records and open-meetings laws.

Wednesday, several close aides to Vilsack told [KCCI] the rumors are not true. One said that Vilsack is in Washington, D.C., interviewing candidates for future staff positions.

The New York Daily News first reported the story Monday, saying Vilsack could be tapped to replace New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson after he withdrew his name from consideration for commerce secretary.

After weeks of taking shots from the blogosphere, Krishna decided enough was enough, saying not only do they “spew hatred” and spread lies, but Iowa’s anonymous bloggers also discourage good people from getting involved in politics.

The response from anonymous blogger Krusty Konservative was more laid back than one might expect, but every bit as unforgiving.

Gopal, I have not lied about your past; I have simply made sure people knew about it. Sorry you if you cannot accept the truth. You might be glad to know that I held back at times, because I wanted to keep the debate about your “candidacy” for chairman about the facts.

Another anonymous blogger at “In Flyover Country” took a more direct approach, saying the bloggers are more loyal to the state party than someone who would criticize it publicly.

Yes, we’re the ones going out and blasting the entire central committee.  We’re the ones name-calling in public of those people who would NEVER vote for us, and we’re bitter about it.  We’re the ones who got kicked off the SCC in 2000.  How could we be so blind.  You’re right, almighty Gopal.  We’re the big, bad BLOGGER PEOPLE!!!  Ooooooh….we’re so scary.

“In Flyover Country” also told it’s readers that Krishna announcing he was not a candidate is proof that…

… there is a God, er…holy cow, Buddha, or whatever…

Yikes.

Not surprisingly, those bloggers who put their names next to their words took a more measured approach to the news that Krishna was not a candidate for chair.

At his blog “HawkeyeGOP,” Republican State Central Committee member David Chung called the race for RPI chair “silly season,” saying he’ll be glad when it’s all over with.

And the call for Krishna’s ouster as party treasurer is hitting a fever pitch in each of the blogs’ comment sections, with most hoping he will get thrown off the State Central Committee altogether.

All this should make for an interesting meeting on Saturday. Unfortunately, the vote for chair and other leadership positions is not open to the public or the media. The party plans to unveil its new leader shortly after the meeting concludes at 12:30 p.m. in the RPI Headquarters, 621 E 9th St., Des Moines.

It’s a good field of candidates for the chairperson position, but I think there’s a clear choice here. I believe the person who can best lead the party rebuilding and unification that needs to happen across Iowa; who can lead the way in candidate identification and development; who can be the most effective fundraiser; who can articulate Republican philosophy in a broad compelling way, and the person who can get the Iowa GOP back to winning ways again, is Ames businessman Matt Randall.

Randall, 33, is the youngest person in the race. But instead of being a disadvantage for him, Offenburger said his age merely allows him to be his own man.

Randall said he thinks his not having been allied with any particular candidate or group in the party could be an asset in his efforts to unify Republicans. Or, as he put it rather bluntly, “I haven’t been anybody’s boy, and I don’t come with an any hidden agenda.”

Offenburger said he knows his party needs a “wholesale rebuilding” after two straight election defeats, and his hope is that leadership will see Randall for what he is — “a key player in the future of not only the Republican Party but also the state of Iowa.”

“I’ve been in the legislature for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a bigger challenge,” Gronstal said of the state’s budget situation. “We will be saying no to just about everything this session.”

Last month the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference projected a bigger downturn in the money the state is taking in than previously thought. In response, Gov. Chet Culver announced a number of cost cutting measures, including a 1.5 percent across-the-board cut the the state’s budget.

House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, said the 2009 budget is currently balanced thanks to Culver’s actions.

“We think the governor took the appropriate steps to address budget concerns,” Murphy said. “So we will be focused on 2010, which is going to be much more challenging.”

The state’s net income for the 2010 fiscal year is expected to be $132.6 million less than projected in October.

Murphy said legislative leaders are hopeful that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will alleviate some of the issues the state is facing. He said Obama’s plan to put people back to work repairing the nation’s infrastructure, as well as federal assistance to states to shoulder some of the expenses assiciated with Medicaid, will make the decisions legislators will make a little easier.

But first and foremost will be recovery efforts from this summer’s flooding and tornados.

“We have to address the needs of those individuals and communities affected by the flooding,” Murphy said.

Gronstal said the plan is to finish the session in 100 days instead of 110, a move he said could save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We intend this to be a quick session,” he said.

Because of the abreviated session, and because of the need to focus on the budget and recovery efforts, Gronstal said most other issues will be pushed aside.

A well-placed source says one option under consideration in filling the now vacant commerce secretary’s slot is to tap ex-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack for the job. Vilsack already has been named to serve as Barack Obama’s agriculture secretary, and easily could move into the commerce position.

The story doesn’t elaborate any further, and the liklihood of moving a former agriculture state governor away from the Ag department seems remote (I don’t recall any talk of Vilsack as Commerce Secretary before), but not completely out of the question. The theory goes that the Democrats have a deeper bench on the agriculture side. Not so much on commerce. So while it would be hard to find another person qualified to serve in commerce, there are plenty of Dems lined up to run the USDA.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said Tuesday that Vilsack’s confirmation hearing has already been set for next week.

The Iowa Progress Project, a politically conservative non-profit based in Des Moines, commissioned Duffy to draw a cartoon critical of Gov. Chet Culver’s ties to labor unions, specifically the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. The group believes non-union state employees will be asked to sacrifice more than their union counterparts during the upcoming budget discussions.

Iowa Progress Project (IPP) was formerly known as Iowa Future Fund and shares an organization history with American Future Fund, a conservative non-profit based in Des Moines that operates on the national level. Since changing names, IPP has run several radio ads critical of Culver and Democrats in the legislture.

“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.”

As of Jan. 2, there are 710,437 registered Democrats and 599,163 registered Republicans. Independents still outnumber both parties with 731,977.

In December 2007, there were 27,000 more registered Democrats. By August, that gap had grown to a little more than 91,000. In fact, the gap between the two parties has grown wider every month since summer.

Iowa, long considered a battleground state, went overwhelmingly for Democrat Barack Obama for president this year and expanded the Democratic margins in the legislature.

In the race to become the next chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, each candidate has stressed the need to close that registration gap as a priority.

The Des Moines Register building at 7th and Locust in Downtown Des Moines.

Since August, Gannett Co. Inc., which owns The Des Moines Register, has eliminated 82 jobs at the paper. Names that had become familiar to Iowans, like Ken Fuson and Brian Duffy, and years of tradition were lost in the shadow of a national recession that exacerbated the woes of a newspaper industry already hurting from years of decline.

Overseeing the cuts locally was Laura Hollingsworth, who became president and publisher of the Register in September 2007. In June 2008, she was named group president of Gannett’s West Group, putting her in charge of 16 markets in the western region of the United States including Des Moines and Iowa City.

In an exclusive interview with the Iowa Independent, Hollingsworth discussed the recent layoffs, the Register’s future and the possibility of more painful choices in 2009.

Iowa Independent: Now that we’re a couple weeks away from the last round of layoffs, can you give me an idea of how you perceive the mood to be at the paper?

Laura Hollingsworth: Of course, like anywhere else right now, it’s really yucky. Everyone you talk to is nervous, is scared, is trying to figure out what’s going to happen next, and unfortunately a lot of the economic news we’re getting isn’t very promising. I would say like anywhere, people are just wondering what’s going to happen next and worrying about themselves, and I say that in a good way. The mood in our newsroom is no different than it is anywhere.

President and Publisher of The Des Moines Register Laura Hollingsworth.

II: What’s your take on the immediate future of the newspaper industry as a whole?

LH: I’m not putting on my PR hat when I tell you that I’m very optimistic. That’s because one thing speaks to me very loudly, and that is the great need for credible local information, that local watchdog journalism. I know that to be the basis of yesterday and I know for a fact it will be a basis for tomorrow. There is not an audience issue. A lot of people think there is this tremendous fall in subscription levels, which is not so, particularly at The Des Moines Register. You can compare us to network television or magazines and see the whole media industry is changing and the consumption of news is changing. The fact that some of our major advertisers, real estate and automotive, are really feeling the hard economic times, then we are faced with a national recession, it’s hit newspapers particularly hard, no doubt about it. So the need for us is to manage very well and make tough decisions for the short and long term right now.

For me, a lot of this isn’t very pleasant some days and there have been a lot of tough decisions that I’ve hated that I had to make, but at the same time I’m very confident about our opportunity in the future.

II: In the recent layoffs, the big name that stuck out to most, understandably, was editorial cartoonist Brian Duffy. Can you tell me how the decision was made to end a century-long tradition at the Register of a front-page editorial cartoon?

LH: First of all, I’m glad you’re asking the question that way because a lot of people have made it about Brian Duffy, and certainly he was not the issue. Brian did a tremendous job here for 25 years. But that said, we’re facing huge economic obstacles like any other company, and when you sit down with those, you sit down with choices. Whenever you’re in a situation where you have to make decisions as opposed to wanting to, that’s already not a great place to start, but that’s where we begin at in a time like this.

This is where you have to have a vision for the future laying next to the tradition of the past and you have to say, “What is it we do at our very heart and soul that we have to protect?” I can just tell you that the editorial cartoon along with 40 other things that were part of our tradition, we had to make a lot of decisions that encompassed thinking through all of those things. I guess what I would say about it is the decision was made not easily but in the arena of looking to the future and figuring out what we know to be true about us and what we have to deliver. I’ve said to some people that being in the newspaper business I’ve learned that our readers don’t like us to change. They just don’t. There are pockets of readers that no matter what the change, whether it’s to comics or stock listings or the editorial cartoon, that was the reason for them to pick up the paper. But overall, readers don’t like us to change very much. But at the same time, it’s our readers who are changing so dramatically.

II: So what would you say is the “heart and soul” of the Register as it stands today?

LH: Broadly, it would be the dynamic of local information. But I would layer that with the credibility, sophistication and excellence of local journalism. I would put foremost to that effort not just the day-to-day stuff, but the storytelling of our lives, the watchdog investigative work that we do. It is to reflect and connect with our audiences and connect them to life all around us.

II: Isn’t there a fear, though, that the paper won’t be able to do that as well with a smaller staff?

LH: Certainly. I think it’s all about making choices at this point because my choice is not to just ignore the economic circumstances and deliver the same kind of thing. And even if we weren’t in the current economic circumstances, my audience as a newspaper company is already deciding what formats they want, where they want us to invest, how often they want to read, how they want to read. The audience is determining all those things already.

I think we’re responding and trying to be proactive more than people give us credit for, really, because the audience is already making those changes. We try to adjust for need and desire. Obviously, we’re trying to make those decisions to meet those demands, which leads to choices, and the economics of it leads to choices, but if we ever make the decision not to provide a high level of journalism, that would be a bad choice. I hope to not ever have to face making those choices. I would like to think we’re moving forward more than people realize.

II: So do you think the paper that prints today is as good as the one that printed before the layoffs or even many years ago?

LH: I do. In the end, perception is up to the reader. I try to manage what we put out there and the product we deliver, but I do think we do a good job. We’re still doing the stories that no one else is going to do. I mean, the high quality storytelling of Reid Forgrave, the high quality investigative work of Clark Kauffman, the wonderful columnists like John Carlson and Rehka Basu. There is a lot of PR at work about the state of the media and people are hearing things like papers are getting thinner. We just looked back at the post Clinton election [in 1992] and our paper is no thinner than it was then.

We have got to be dynamic in our coverage, we have to be responsive, we have to be relevant and we have to make good decisions every day to be the best product that we can. That’s what we’re trying to do.

II: The big news in the industry, besides recent layoffs, is the move by the two daily papers in Detroit [one of which is owned by Gannett] to limit home delivery of the paper to three days a week and focus more on the digital product. Is that a model you see becoming more widespread, and what are the chances of something like that happening in Iowa?

LH: That’s hard to say. I will say that efficiency will always prevail. I think the audience will drive that first. How efficient is it to deliver a newspaper to the far corners of the state when we can just turn on a computer? I think it’s a fascinating model. You can do some pretty cool things. Now they are able to do that because they exist in a totally different marketing condition — two newspapers in a joint operating agreement, a much more stark economy. So they have all kinds of conditions that Des Moines doesn’t face today and certainly [limiting delivery] is not something we’re talking about today in Iowa. But it’s possible we could.

II: Do you see a day when the printed Register doesn’t exist?

LH: I don’t think so at all. I would say that there is going to be a much more broad portfolio of choices of whether you want to subscribe to the traditional paper, electronically, on you mobile phone, what have you.

I always think it’s very interesting when you look at our youth publication, which is a tabloid printed here in Des Moines called Juice. It’s very successful and has very high brand awareness and loyalty. Although generally speaking, people over 40 seem to prefer their print product and just couldn’t dream of not having the newspaper in the morning with their cup of coffee, when you get to 25 they begin to say they are fine with the Web and getting information on their phone. But for Juice, they want the print edition. There is a demand for it. It’s about being relevant, so it’s not that young people won’t read a print product; it just may not be in the format or design people are accustomed to. The one thing we’re certain about is that there isn’t one model for everyone anymore.

II: The Register has invested a lot of time and resources of late on stories like the education series, where a writer was sent to Finland and Canada, and an immigration piece where a writer and photographer were sent to Guatemala, among others. In light of the recent layoffs, though, people look at that and wonder if not sending staff oversees might have saved someone’s job. What is your response to that?

LH: I understand how people think of a lot of the choices we’ve made, and believe me I think about every one of them myself. But I think if we’re true to our vision and understand what we’re going to do or achieve or bring to Iowa, whether it’s our study of global education or what have you, we’re not going to give that up because we believe in the work. I can assure you that the travel money spent on these projects was nowhere near a job. Let’s just dispel that.

On the flip side, I’m an acting group president with Gannett and am doing as much as I can by conference call and won’t be traveling a lot of places because it’s prudent. We’re going to limit wherever we can to save jobs, but the quality of our journalism is something we will continue to commit ourselves to.

II: Were you personally surprised when word came down from Gannett about the layoffs?

LH: I wouldn’t say I was surprised, but I think the surprise for everybody was how fast everything fell. I don’t think anybody saw the fall happening so fast. As far as the level of changes we’ve made in the last few months, they’ve certainly been more than any of us wanted, but the economy continues to get worse. So, I wouldn’t call it a surprise, it certainly was faster and harder than anyone expected.

II: So what about 2009? Will we see more layoffs?

LH: I don’t see much relief in the first half of 2009. The second half of the year may be better. We’re all going to be in a position to tightly manage every resource for the first half of ’09. It looks like status quo right now, at least in the near term, with things not really getting much better.

II: But in the near term, do you see any more job losses at the Register?

LH: I don’t know the answer to that. I just don’t.

II: Whenever people talk about the newspaper industry’s decline they always point to the Web. Are newspapers actually losing advertising dollars to the Internet? Where is the money going?

LH: There clearly is no question that a portion of revenue that used to be exclusively for traditional media, that is moving to the Web. I’ve seen indicators that show that is anywhere from 5 to 15 percent of revenue, and that has moved away permanently to places like craigslist. The rest of it, which is what’s interesting, when you look at real estate, automotive and employment, for example, right now, the competitor is people’s pocket. The money isn’t there anymore. Businesses close. You’re not seeing market share loss to other media; it’s just gone away. So, the question is how much comes back after the recession is over? Nothing comes back like it used to be. But this idea that it’s all about the Web is just factually inaccurate.

II: Lastly, to all the readers of the Register who are hearing so much about the demise of the newspaper and read about the recent layoffs, what message would you like to pass along to them?

LH: We will be here and are working very hard to be as good as we have been and hopefully better in the future. We’re managing through a period, just like every other business, and we have to make hard choices. That said, we’re also looking at our loyal reader and watching them move and change, which makes us change going forward and get ahead of that. To be relevant tomorrow, sometimes traditions are broken. In the end, The Des Moines Register is all about the credibility and the quality and the excellence of our journalism.