By

State Representative Dawn

Pettengill

Have you ever heard the phrase “A man is only as good as the woman behind him.”? That holds true for the men behind the women, the staff behind the politicians and in this case, the staff behind our Governor.. Every politician works with their aides to craft media messages (except me, I write my own just blame me). But what is behind those well-crafted messages? Do you recall after the flood last year, our Governor saying to all he was considering a special session? The legislators who had constituencies with severe losses lobbied the Governor, tried to get the public and local leaders on board to get with the Governor and even went the route of the press to help. All of us worked around the clock to help each other, hoping the legislators would be strong leaders. Leaders who would go back and make some swift decisions to help the people affected. I met with family after family and kept track of all the gaps people were falling through, believing that Iowans were going to come first.

I am a member of the Rebuild Iowa Committee and we have been uncovering lots of things. For instance, 6 Rebuild Iowa employees who have an annual salary and benefits of over $100,000 and $19,000 worth of carpet going into the Rebuild Iowa offices. As a member of the committee, last week I was confronted with several internal emails that told a completely different story from the one you and I had heard. Either the Governor was being bamboozled by his staff or he was double-talking us. I do not know the answer. But you can bet, I am not going to rest until I know.

The first email is ONE WEEK after the flood. James Larew of the Governor’s office sent on an email from a citizen to Charlie Krogmeier (Assistant to the Governor), on tax planning ideas relating to the rebuilding process. Good idea, right? You can see the email below:

From: Krogmeier, Charles [IDOM] Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:55 PM To: Larew, James [IGOV] Subject: RE: Note from David Osterberg

All the more reason to avoid a special session.

From: Larew, James [IGOV] Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:43 PM To: Dillon, Patrick [IGOV]; Krogmeier, Charles [IDOM]; Oshlo, Richard [IDOM] Subject: FW: Note from David Osterberg

FYI: Tax planning ideas with respect to rebuilding and recovery process.

Avoid a special session, one week after the flood???The second email I received was between a staffer in the Governor’s office, Kate Walton, and the Chief of Staff for the Rebuild Iowa Office, Emily Hajek. Now wouldn’t you think Emily would want to go back into session to get something done? But no, she is a little relieved there will be no immediate relief for flooded out families. That email is below:

_____Original Message_____

From: Hajek, Emily [IGOV_RIO]

Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 10:59 AM

To: Walton, Kate [IGOV]

Subject: Re:

A little. It will be a firestorm for a bit though

_____ Original Message _____

From: Walton, Kate [IGOV]

To: Hajek, Emily [IGOV_RIO]

Sent: Fri Sep 12 10:57:45 2008

Are you relieved?

Sent: Fri Sep 12 10:47:38 2008

You assume correctly.

Sent: Fri Sep 12 10:47:04 2008

Subject:

I assume no special session?

The final email to come my way is from Jamie Cashman, the Governor’s legislative liaison, to Lt. Governor Patty Judge about the Iowa House Majority Leader who is INFURIATED that Representative Tyler Olson, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, stood up for his district with the Republican legislators and demanded a special session. He was going to get the good talking to again. That email is below:

From: Cashman, Jamie [IGOV] Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 2:38 PM To: patty.judge@mchsi.com; Dillon, Patrick [IGOV]; Unger, Matt [IGOV-RIO]; Hajek, Emily [IGOV-RIO]; Price, Troy [IGOV]

Subject: Rants and CR Press Conference

Kevin McCarthy just called to gives heads up that Leader Rants decided to show up at the press conference today calling for a special session in CR. Kevin isn’t happy about this at all and expressed his displeasure even about having a press conference with Tyler Olson last night. This even further infuriates Kevin and he will be talking again to Tyler about this. I will find out what all took place at the presser and report back.

Jamie Cashman

Legislative Liaison-Iowa House Office of Governor Chet Culver and Lt. Governor Patty Judge 1007 E. Grand Avenue Des Moines, Iowa 50319 Direct: 515/281-0130 Main: 515/281-5211 Fax: 515/281-6611 E-mail: jamie.cashman@iowa.gov Website: www.governor.iowa.gov

One Iowa, One Unlimited Future

This is not my normal column. This is a column written by a furious legislator. A legislator who still has people not living in their homes and some people who don’t even have their basic needs met. Either I am disgusted with the Governor for double-talking all of the people who have been waiting for the legislature to do something. Or I am calling for the immediate dismissal of the people in his office for putting him out front, while they undermined and now embarrassed him.

Which is it? You be the judge.