Democrats and liberals can claim some significant victories in Ohio, Mississippi and elsewhere after the Nov. 8 elections, political watchers say, but the message overall was a mixed one as Republicans saw some victories as well.

Iowa State University politics professor Steffen Schmidt, referencing the defeat of an Ohio ballot measure that would have limited labor unions, said, “Democrats scored and unions and liberals maybe scored some pretty significant victories over conservative policies.”

Steffen Schmidt

“In Ohio, rejection of the law restraining collective bargaining was a big blow … and put other Republicans back on their heels in terms of going that route in the future,” Schmidt said.

Another conservative-backed ballot measure in Mississippi, which would have banned all abortions and some forms of birth control, was also defeated.

“Mississippi’s refusing to basically ban all abortions was fairly remarkable because Mississippi is one of the most, and perhaps the most conservative state in the country,” Schmidt said. “And if they don’t want to go that far on some of these social issues like that then that tells you there is a limit to how far voters are willing to go on some of these issues, even when they generally agree on the question of abortion.”

But Republicans had some victories as well, Schmidt said, and that means it wasn’t a clear-cut message from voters. Voters in Ohio rejected the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and another measure pushed by conservatives in Mississippi that requires identification to vote was accepted.

Tim Hagle

“I think the message was more that they don’t want Republicans and especially conservatives kind of ramming things down the throat of voters,” Schmidt said.

University of Iowa politics professor Tim Hagle agreed that both parties can find some positives to take away from the Nov. 8 elections. Hagle said the rejection of those two incongruous measures in Ohio could be read as voters rejecting extreme issues, especially the collective bargaining measure which he said was “an example of Republicans overreaching a little bit.”

“You had people turn out in Ohio to reject the collective bargaining measure, these were folks that were union folks, that were liberals, and yet a lot of these same people also rejected Obamacare,” Hagle said.

Dennis Goldford

But Hagle said it’s hard to say how much people were paying attention to elections in an off year, which also makes it difficult to reach too many conclusions on which way the political winds are blowing.

“Basically the bottom line is this is a mixed bag and nobody can really say it’s a great trend one way or another,” Hagle said.

Drake University politics professor Dennis Goldford said the election shows Democrats are organizing better as of late than they did in 2010.

“If they work hard and get their base turned out they can win an election,” he said. “They just don’t always do a good job of getting that turnout.”

National Institute on Money in State Politics released a report this week that shows that the National Organization for Marriage was one of the top political spenders in the 2010 election cycle in Iowa. NOM’s spending targeted three Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled in 2009 that Iowa’s legislative ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

National Organization for Marriage made $721,708 in independent expenditures which was 31 percent of all independent expenditures in Iowa in 2010. NOM was the 2nd highest single spender in the 2010 election cycle in Iowa, spending almost double that of Fair Courts for Us, a campaign that supported retaining the judges. That group spent $423,767.

NOM was joined by American Family Association Action which chipped in $171,225. The AFA is listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Family Research Council Action also pitched in $55,997 and is also listed as a hate group by the SPLC. Religious right figurehead Gary Bauer contributed to the campaign as well through his Campaign for Working Families which gave $100,000 to the cause. Iowa Family Policy Center Action gave $10,178. That PAC is affiliated with the Family Leader and Bob Vander Plaats.

These groups are back in Iowa in 2011 and have begun spending in support of Republican Cindy Golding who opposes civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. Golding is facing of with Democrat Liz Mathis in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Swati Dandekar who was appointed to the Iowa Utilities Board. The Democrats’ 26-24 majority in the Senate hinges on the election, and anti-gay groups are targeting the seat in hopes that an evenly split legislature will pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage potentially ending marriage equality in the state.

Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley (R-Chariton) is stepping down as the Republican leader and won’t seek re-election to a fourth term. Senate Republicans will elect new leadership at a Nov. 10 meeting in Des Moines.

Paul McKinley

“Since I will not be seeking another term, I believe the Senate Republicans should have a new leader in place now to continue building on the momentum that is being generated as we head toward picking up the majority in November of 2012,” McKinley said.

The Des Moines Register reported last month that State Sen. Bill Dix (R-Shell Rock) had called for a leadership election, which was later canceled.

But McKinley said the decision was made after speaking with his family, and it’s time to move on to a new chapter of life. He was first elected in 2000, and his current term expires in January of 2013.

“Serving my fellow citizens has truly been the honor of a lifetime,” McKinley said.

Republicans picked up six seats in the Iowa Senate in 2010, bringing the balance to 26-24 in favor of Democrats. A pending special election in Senate District 18 following the resignation of State Sen. Swati Dandekar (R-Marion) could result in a split chamber.

Gov. Terry Branstad’s appointees to two state economic development boards – and their companies’ political committees – contributed more than $216,000 to his 2010 campaign. But Branstad’s spokesman says contributing to the governor’s campaign shouldn’t be a consideration for appointments.

“Donating to a campaign should not disqualify an individual from serving in this important capacity,” Tim Albrecht said.

Branstad on Monday announced 11 appointees to the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress board and seven to the Iowa Innovation Corporation board. The boards are part of the state’s new economic development efforts, a public-private partnership approved by legislators earlier this year.

The appointments are not subject to approval from the Iowa Senate, and include top executives at MidAmerican Energy, Principal Financial Group, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Rockwell Collins, among others.

Jeff Danielson

State Sen. Jeff Danielson (D-Cedar Falls) said “unfortunately it’s par for the course” for Branstad to appoint major contributors to state positions.

For instance, Brent and Bruce Rastetter contributed a combined $181,000 to the governor’s campaign. Branstad appointed Bruce to the state board of regents and Brent to the state Environmental Protection Commission.

“Knowing that it would be difficult to make it against the law, I don’t think we can get that passed, then I believe the next step is full disclosure and transparency,” said Danielson, chairman of the Senate State Government Committee. “And as these two boards make decisions on how to spend taxpayers’ money there ought to be close scrutiny of any of the business relationships.”

Danielson said there’s no question the appointees have valuable experience as business leaders in the state. But he would have liked the opportunity for the Iowa Senate to confirm the appointments and question the nominees.

“Putting them in charge of the public money that would then be used to attract other businesses could create the potential for conflict of interests,” Danielson said. “We’ll have to judge their behavior as it unfolds.”

Sam Roecker, a spokesman for the Iowa Democratic Party, said he’s hopeful the boards will approach all ideas with an open mind. He noted Branstad has opposed economic development proposals from President Obama and Senate Democrats, such as tax cuts for small businesses.

“Democrats fought to ensure that the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress will be held accountable to taxpayers in the state,” Roecker said. “The board members are Governor Branstad’s choice, but he will need to put partisanship aside if he wants to create jobs.”

The appointee that gave the most to Branstad is Toby Shine, the president of Shine Brothers Corporation, who shelled out $60,000 to the campaign. Close behind is John Smith, chairman of the board at CRST International, Inc., who gave $50,000.

Mary Andringa, president and CEO of Vermeer Corporation, gave $40,000. She was also the chairwoman of the governor’s campaign. And Roger Underwood, co-founder of Becker-Underwood, gave $25,000.

The MidAmerican Energy Company Effective Government Committee gave $20,000; the Master Builders of Iowa PAC gave $20,000; and the Wells Fargo and Company Employee PAC gave $15,000.

Bill Fehrman, president and CEO of MidAmerican, is on the IPEP board; Scott Norvell, President and CEO of Master Builders of Iowa, is on the IIC board; and Cara Heiden, formerly of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, is on the IIC board as well.

Branstad raised about $10 million from 20,000 donors during his campaign, or roughly $500 per donor. The $216,000 from the 18 appointees and their companies works out to $12,000 per donor, or 24 times the average.

Here are the members of the IPEP board, and how much they gave to Branstad:

• Bill Fehrman, President and CEO, MidAmerican Energy Company: none

  The MidAmerican Energy Company Effective Government Committee: $20,000

• Paul Schickler III, President, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business: $100

  DuPont Good Government Fund: $1,500

• Larry Zimpleman, CEO, Principal Financial Group: none

  Principal Life Insurance Company PAC: $5,000

• John Smith, Chairman of the Board, CRST International Inc.: $50,000

   

• Toby Shine, President, Shine Brothers Corporation: $60,000

   

• Mary Andringa, President and CEO, Vermeer Corporation: $40,000

   

• Marti Rodamaker, Banker, First Citizens National Bank: $2,500

   

• Ken Lockard, Chairman, Lockard Companies: none

   

• Tom Aller, President, Interstate Power and Light, Alliant Energy: $4,500

   

• Roger Underwood, Co-founder, Becker-Underwood: $25,000

   

• Clay Jones, Chairman, President and CEO, Rockwell Collins: none

Here are the members of the Iowa Innovation Corporation board, and how much they gave:

• Robert Riley, Jr., President and CEO, Feed Energy Co.: none

   

• Jamie Zanios, Vice President, North Iowa Area Community College: none

   

• Peter Hempken, retired, DuPont: none

   

• Scott Norvell, President and CEO, Master Builders of Iowa: none

  Master Builders of Iowa PAC: $20,000

• Cara Heiden, retired, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

  Wells Fargo and Company Employee PAC: $15,000

• Sarah Haskin, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, AY McDonald Manufacturing Company: none

   

• Chris Nelson, President and CEO, Kemin Industries Inc.: $7,500

A coordinated effort is underway to dismantle judicial merit selection processes across the country, the head of the Iowa ACLU says, threatening the independence of the judicial branch in the Hawkeye State and beyond.

Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said that would leave people accused of crimes “in a horrid position.”

“They want people that are terrified of public opinion, because they know they can manipulate public opinion to get what they want,” Stone said.

Social conservative groups including the Iowa Family Policy Center (now known as The Family Leader), the National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association and Iowa for Freedom launched a major campaign last year to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices that participated in a unanimous decision that found the state’s legislative ban on same-sex marriage to be a violation of the Iowa Constitution’s equal protection clause.

They were successful in doing so, and expectations are the remaining four justices that supported the unanimous decision in Varnum v. Brien will also face difficult retention votes in 2012 and 2016.

Meredith Palmer of Lambda Legal said that’s a serious threat to minority rights. Lambda Legal is the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization working for the rights of lesbians, gay men and people with HIV/AIDS. The group filed the Varnum lawsuit.

“As history has proven, it’s been the courts that have really upheld constitutional protections before the majority thought that was what America is all about,” Palmer said.

Connie Ryan Terrell, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, said the courts don’t make decisions based on popular will. Groups working against Iowa’s judicial system know that, she said, but they turn that around with a message that judges are ignoring the will of the people.

“They don’t fight fair. They don’t fight by our rules,” Terrell said. “They don’t fight by constitutional or legal rules. Churches that are of the religious right ilk, they do promote candidates in their churches. But it does no good to call them on it.”

And Stone noted the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision granting new political spending rights for some groups allows “the ability to secretly channel money into places and really manipulate with deception what people learn, what people hear.”

“There’s this long-running effort to make it possible for … cynical efforts of powerful people to manipulate less informed groups, less informed people, to override the rights of minorities, the rights of people that are dissenters, privacy rights,” Stone said.

Palmer said those new political spending laws make it difficult for Lambda Legal. Because of the group’s status as a non-profit, it can’t endorse candidates or tell people how to vote. Lambda Legal will instead focus on education and outreach as 2012 approaches, and Justice David Wiggins comes up for retention.

Palmer said it can also be difficult for those looking to protect the state’s judicial branch and merit selection process to counter the opposition’s seemingly simple and clear message.

“When judges are punished for ruling on issues with these misguided messages … the message is so easy,” Palmer said. “It seems so American. If you don’t like what the judges say, vote them out.”

Despite the difficulties, Terrell said those defending the justices and the judicial system overall “need to take this as a personal mission,” and make it clear there are people across the faith spectrum that don’t agree with the efforts to throw out the justices and the merit selection system.

“It is incumbent upon us to fight harder,” Terrell said. “I’m not going to tell you to fight their way, because I’m not going to do that. We have to fight by our own sense of integrity and follow the laws. But we do have to fight harder.”

Iowa is often praised for its merit selection process in appointing judges, a system put in place in the 1960′s. Under that system, a 15-member judicial nominating commission composed of lawyers and non-lawyers recommend appointees to the governor based on quality, integrity and professional ability – rather than on political ability or connections.

Allan Vestal, dean of Drake Law School, noted the justices were penalized for simply upholding the state’s equal protection statute. That makes clear the need to defend Iowa’s courts, he said.

“It seems quite remarkable that we should even have this as a matter of debate, but here we are,” Vestal said.

The comments were made at a series of panels held as part of an event called Defending Iowa’s Courts, which took place last week in Des Moines. About a dozen groups sponsored the event, including Lambda Legal, Justice not Politics, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, One Iowa and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

The panelists discussed legislative attacks against Iowa’s courts following the Varnum v. Brien decision; how those attacks threaten judges’ ability to rule fairly and impartially; and how to engage communities to defend the state’s current court system.

Legislators and social conservative activists misused the state’s judicial retention elections in order to attack judges that upheld the rights of same-sex couples, several people familiar with the process say, and are now misusing the another process by pushing to impeach other judges from the bench.

Social conservative groups including the Iowa Family Policy Center (now known as The Family Leader), the National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association and Iowa for Freedom launched a major campaign in Iowa last year to remove through a retention vote three Iowa Supreme Court justices that took part in a unanimous finding that a legislative ban on same-sex marriage was a violation of the Iowa Constitution’s equal protection clause.

They were successful in doing so, and expectations are the remaining four justices that supported the unanimous decision will also face difficult retention votes in 2012 and 2016.

Rachel Paine Caufield

Rachel Paine Caufield, a Drake University politics professor, said retention elections were designed to guarantee against malfeasance: a public official doing something illegal or that is a violation of the public trust. But the way that system was used in 2010 was very different, and she expects Iowa and other states to see similar situations involving retention to arise again.

“It’s meant to serve a very similar check as impeachment,” she said of retention elections. “It was not originally intended to be used for ideological or partisan purposes.”

Iowa is often praised for its merit selection process in appointing judges, a system put in place in the 1960′s. Under that system, a 15-member judicial nominating commission composed of lawyers and non-lawyers recommend appointees to the governor based on quality, integrity and professional ability – rather than on political ability or connections.

Jeff Angelo

But former state Sen. Jeff Angelo (R-Creston) said recently elected legislators were emboldened by the retention election and the conservative swing the state saw in 2010, which led to some filing motions to impeach those four remaining Iowa Supreme Court justices.

“The problem is that is a misuse of the procedure and that terminology,” Angelo said. “But in politics if you want that concept to take hold you just keep putting that in the public’s mind.”

Five Republican lawmakers filed resolutions to impeach those justices: Reps. Dwayne Alons (R-Hull), Betty De Boef (R-What Cheer), Glen Massie (R-Des Moines), Kim Pearson (R-Pleasant Hill), Tom Shaw (R-Laurens).

Those five, along with Reps. Royd Chambers (R-Sheldon) and Mark Lofgren (R-Muscatine) also filed a resolution to remove the judicial nomination process from the Iowa Constitution and instead allowing the governor to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court through appointment and Iowa Senate confirmation.

And state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola) filed a resolution amending the Iowa Constitution so that Iowa Supreme Court justices are elected in statewide races, not appointed by a commission.

Matt McCoy

State Sen. Matt McCoy (D-Des Moines), a veteran legislator, said he’s seen a shift in the way the Iowa Legislature operates in the last few years. He noted an effort in the Iowa House to allow businesses to refuse to provide services to individuals who are gay.

“I remember thinking to myself this is not the Legislature and this is not the state I want to be from,” McCoy said.

McCoy said he was “so proud” when the Varnum decision came down but was “embarrassed” when voters turned away those three Iowa Supreme Court justices in 2010. But despite the ups and downs, he doesn’t think any impeachment process will move forward.

“But if it were…I would certainly be there reminding them that the eyes of the nation are upon Iowa,” he said.

Michael Gartner, a longtime newsman in Des Moines, said the reaction of social conservative groups to the court’s decision was more an act of vengeance than democracy.

“The situation the way I look at it was after the Varnum decision…the ultimate outcome was three terrific people lost their jobs,” Gartner said “But nobody really lost their rights. in fact, the rights of all of us were expanded.”

The comments were made at a series of panels held as part of an event called Defending Iowa’s Courts, held last week in Des Moines. About a dozen groups sponsored the event, including Lambda Legal, Justice not Politics, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, One Iowa and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

The panelists discussed legislative attacks against Iowa’s courts following the Varnum v. Brien decision; how those attacks threaten judges’ ability to rule fairly and impartially; and how to engage communities to defend the state’s current court system.

Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hanson says he’s “elected to kick the door in” on the controversy surrounding his and the Iowa Supreme Court’s decisions to uphold marriage rights for same-sex couples in Iowa and the ensuing successful campaign to oust three of the state’s Supreme Court justices.

“I’m going to blast my way through it. There is no turning back for me,” Hanson said.

Social conservative groups including the Iowa Family Policy Center (now known as The Family Leader), the National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association and Iowa for Freedom launched a major campaign in Iowa last year to remove through a retention vote three Iowa Supreme Court justices that participated in an unanimous decision finding a legislative ban on same-sex marriage to be a violation of the Iowa Constitution’s equal protection clause.

They were successful in doing so, and expectations are the remaining four justices that supported the unanimous decision in Varnum v. Brien will also face difficult retention votes in 2012 and 2016.

Robert Hanson

“I’m disappointed myself that a lot more of us don’t go out and talk to the public, introduce ourselves, explain who we are, make ourselves out to be human beings to those people that are going to stand in judgment of us at retention time,” Hanson said. “That’s what we can do.”

Iowa is often praised for its merit selection process in appointing judges, a system put in place in the 1960′s. Under that system, a 15-member judicial nominating commission composed of lawyers and non-lawyers recommend appointees to the governor based on quality, integrity and professional ability – rather than on political ability or connections.

The justices’ ouster marked the first time in the nearly 50-year history of the process that judges weren’t retained.

Hanson said that process showed “what happens when we take the high road” and “what staying quiet gets you as a judge: it gets you a ticket right off the bench.”

“People assume the worst about us right now,” Hanson said. “I don’t like that any better than anybody else does but that’s the truth. They accept this characterization of us as out of control, as arrogant people that are trying to hold society in the way that we think it ought to be and not giving them any say in it.”

Hanson suggested changing the way judges are retained from requiring a simple majority to a 60 percent or two-thirds vote in order to be removed, calling the current system “a crapshoot.” But he doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon.

“We are not politicians. We didn’t run for our positions. We don’t know how to defend ourselves in a political arena,” Hanson said. “And so we’ve got to learn how to do that. But part of it isn’t hard. Part of it is just going out and putting a face to the name.”

Hanson also said there’s an inclination to think attacks on the courts began with the Varnum decision. He said that was a catalyst, but noted the courts have been under attack for a long time. For example, he said in 2006 the Iowa Supreme Court issued an order director judges to do public outreach efforts.

“They weren’t under fire so much from the standpoint of attempts at retention elections to oust judges as it was characterized by efforts to gut the court system by robbing it of all of its financing,” Hanson said.

He also noted a recent bond to expand court space in Des Moines was soundly defeated, despite major overcrowding at current facilities. GOP presidential candidates have also gone after so-called activist judges that “violate the constitution,” Hanson said.

He believes the key to keeping the state’s system of fair and impartial courts in place is to get everything out in the open.

“The more we discuss it, the more we defuse the issue,” Hanson said. “The more people realize the fallacy, the folly of all this talk about reining in these judges and things of that nature.”

The comments were made at a series of panels held as part of an event called Defending Iowa’s Courts, held last week in Des Moines. About a dozen groups sponsored the event, including Lambda Legal, Justice not Politics, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, One Iowa and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

The panelists discussed legislative attacks against Iowa’s courts following the Varnum v. Brien decision; how those attacks threaten judges’ ability to rule fairly and impartially; and how to engage communities to defend the state’s current court system.

Communication and education will likely be key to defending Iowa’s merit selection judicial nominating process and avoiding judges being voted out of office for political reasons in the future, several people familiar with the issue say.

Social conservative groups including Iowa Family Policy Center (now known as The Family Leader), the National Organization for Marriage, Iowa for Freedom and the American Family Association launched a major campaign in Iowa last year to remove through a retention vote three Iowa Supreme Court justices that took part in a unanimous ruling that found a legislative ban on same-sex marriage to be a violation of the Iowa Constitution’s equal protection clause.

They groups were successful in ousting the justices, and expectations are the remaining four justices that supported the unanimous decision in Varnum v. Brien will also face difficult retention votes in 2012 and 2016.

Rox Laird, editorial writer for The Des Moines Register, said it will be up to the courts more and more to tell their story, especially with the contraction of the news industry. He suggested allowing more cameras into courtrooms be a part of that effort, and working to make the court system more accessible and understandable for the public.

“One thing I would say is I would challenge anybody in this room to boil down a 30-page opinion to five words that is meaningful,” Laird said. “We are in the business of getting people to actually buy a product, and if you have headlines to say in 42 words that the court dealt with the issue of equal protection, it’s just not going to happen.”

Laird said the outcome of the retention vote may have been different if the news business had done a better job “of explaining to people what the courts are really about.”

“We were criticized for publishing anything by [Bob] Vander Plaats at all and I have to confess I winced at some of the things we did publish, but we do have an obligation to tell both sides of the story,” Laird said.

Vander Plaats is now the head of The Family Leader, and spear-headed a statewide campaign to oust the justices.

Iowa is often praised for its merit selection process in appointing judges, a system put in place in the 1960′s. Under that system, a 15-member judicial nominating commission composed of lawyers and non-lawyers recommend appointees to the governor based on quality, integrity and professional ability – rather than on political ability or connections.

Matt McCoy

State Sen. Matt McCoy (D-Des Moines) said the public should have some background on judges available on retention election ballots. The Iowa Bar Association does every year release a plebiscite, or rating of all the state’s judges, but it’s not widely read and not printed on the ballot.

“I will say that as a citizen one of the things that has always puzzled me is the way we put retention votes on the ballot with no information about the judges,” McCoy said.

Former state Sen. Jeff Angelo (R-Creston) said changing fellow legislators’ minds can be as simple as talking one on one, hashing things out in caucus meetings or even talking through the media, even though that can be tough.

“Republicans like me have to talk with other Republicans about why we have to defend the independence of the courts, and we have to use the language that we use,” Angelo said.

The public is moving toward acceptance of same-sex marriage faster than expected, McCoy said, and many Republicans are also uneasy with some legislators’ attempts to dismantle the state’s current system for appointing judges.

“Ultimately I think in a situation where you have a Rep. Kim Pearson, you hear comments coming from my friends who are Republicans … and they definitely say the same things,” McCoy said.

Jeff Angelo

Angelo agreed with that assessment, also invoking Pearson‘s name. The freshman Republican legislator from Indianola has stepped out of line with her party on multiple issues, and has become the face in the Iowa House in a push to impeach the four remaining Iowa Supreme Court justices that voted unanimously for the Varnum decision.

“If I could be purely political, sometimes legislators love to look at poll numbers,” he said. “Sometimes you sit down with another legislator and you say ‘you’re killing us here, Rep. Pearson. You’re killing us.’ Sometimes that happens, I’m going to be very realistic about it.”

The comments were made at a series of panels held as part of an event called Defending Iowa’s Courts, held last week in Des Moines. About a dozen groups sponsored the event, including Lambda Legal, Justice not Politics, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, One Iowa and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

The panelists discussed legislative attacks against Iowa’s courts following the Varnum v. Brien decision; how those attacks threaten judges’ ability to rule fairly and impartially; and how to engage communities to defend the state’s current court system.

Gov. Terry Branstad’s appointees to two state economic development boards – and their companies’ political committees – contributed more than $216,000 to his 2010 campaign.

Branstad on Monday announced 11 appointees to the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress board and seven to the Iowa Innovation Corporation board. The boards are part of the state’s new economic development efforts, a public-private partnership approved by legislators earlier this year.

Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will co-chair the IPEP board. Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, will also sit on the board. The appointments are not subject to approval from the Iowa Senate.

The appointments include top executives at MidAmerican Energy, Principal Financial Group, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Rockwell Collins, among others.

The appointee that gave the most to Branstad is Toby Shine, the president of Shine Brothers Corporation, who shelled out $60,000 to the campaign. Close behind is John Smith, chairman of the board at CRST International, Inc., who gave $50,000.

Mary Andringa, president and CEO of Vermeer Corporation, gave $40,000. She was also the chairwoman of the governor’s campaign. And Roger Underwood, co-founder of Becker-Underwood, gave $25,000.

The MidAmerican Energy Company Effective Government Committee gave $20,000; the Master Builders of Iowa PAC gave $20,000; and the Wells Fargo and Company Employee PAC gave $15,000.

Bill Fehrman, president and CEO of MidAmerican, is on the IPEP board; Scott Norvell, President and CEO of Master Builders of Iowa, is on the IIC board; and Cara Heiden, formerly of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, is on the IIC board as well.

Here are the members of the IPEP board, and how much they gave:

* Bill Fehrmann, President and CEO, MidAmerican Energy Company: none
The MidAmerican Energy Company Effective Government Committee: $20,000

* Paul Schickler III, President, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business: $100
DuPont Good Government Fund: $1,500

* Larry Zimpleman, CEO, Principal Financial Group: none
Principal Life Insurance Company PAC: $5,000

* John Smith, Chairman of the Board, CRST International Inc.: $50,000

* Toby Shine, President, Shine Brothers Corporation: $60,000

* Mary Andringa, President and CEO, Vermeer Corporation: $40,000

* Marti Rodamaker, Banker, First Citizens National Bank: $2,500

* Ken Lockard, Chairman, Lockard Companies: none

* Tom Aller, President, Interstate Power and Light, Alliant Energy: $4,500

* Roger Underwood, Co-founder, Becker-Underwood: $25,000

* Clay Jones, Chairman, President and CEO, Rockwell Collins: none

Here are the members of the Iowa Innovation Corporation board, and how much they gave:

* Robert Riley, Jr., President and CEO, Feed Energy Co.: none

* Jamie Zanios, Vice President, North Iowa Area Community College: none

* Peter Hempken, retired, DuPont: none

* Scott Norvell, President and CEO, Master Builders of Iowa: none
Master Builders of Iowa PAC: $20,000

* Cara Heiden, retired, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Wells Fargo and Company Employee PAC: $15,000.

* Sarah Haskin, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, AY McDonald Manufacturing Company: none

* Chris Nelson, President and CEO, Kemin Industries Inc.: $7,500

Crossroads GPS, a conservative policy and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., is targeting Iowa voters with TV ads in the state’s largest media market.

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which has ties to former White House deputy chief Karl Rove, has spent $85,125 so far at KCCI, the local CBS affiliate in Des Moines and the state’s largest network TV station. The group has run ads since late June, and recently spent $13,472 for ads running between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3. At least a portion of the ads being run in Iowa target Democratic U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell.

According to OpenSecrets.org, the 501(c)(4) “outside spending” group spent $15.1 million against Democrats in the 2009-10 cycle and $479,619 for Republicans. It spent another $1.1 million on electioneering communications. The group doesn’t disclose its donors.

American Crossroads, a related “super PAC,” raised $26.5 million in 2010 and spent $21.5 million. It raised and spent the most out of any independent expenditure-only committees in 2010.

The super PAC, which must disclose its donors, has raised $6.6 million so far this cycle.

Crossroads GPS focuses on seven issues, according to its website: lower taxes, less government spending, building the private sector, reducing government worker pay, shutting down the borders, reworking health care reform, pushing for American energy development.

The group’s latest offering against Boswell was uploaded to YouTube Monday and is embedded below.