Search Results for ‘county auditor’
Jon Corzine has recently introduced a plan in New Jersey to force many of that state’s 566 municipalities to merge together. New Jersey has almost no county government and most local governmental functions are performed at the municipal level. However, over the half of the municipalities in New Jersey have a population of less than 10,000 and the resulting map looks like that of Germany in the Middle Ages, a landscape speckled throughout by innumerable miniature jurisdictions, each of which have their own police force, fire department and school system. The result is a massive wastage of taxpayer money as services are duplicated and triplicated within miles of each other.
Iowa has a similar problem. Iowa has 99 counties with a median population of about 16,000. In a state with a declining tax base and a shrinking rural population, this is totally inefficient. The result is that the State Legislature is forced to subsidize many county governments who can’t bear the costs of having their auditor, recorder, attorney, etc. The reason that there are so many counties in Iowa was so that no one would be more than one day’s wagon ride away from their courthouse. In the age of the automobile, when most rural Iowans drive 20 miles to go grocery shopping at Super Wal Mart, it is strange that there is still a pressing need to keep a County Recorder so close at hand.
Iowa has no need for 99 county courthouses or 99 county attorneys or replicating all the functions of county government 99 times throughout the state. That is why County Consolidation is so important. County consolidation is a good government that both liberals and conservatives can support. For conservatives, it means reducing taxes and the size of government. There are basic efficiencies of scale that can be achieved consolidating services which will save rural taxpayers money. In addition, it reduces the size of government. For liberals and progressives, it frees up government funds to be used on health care or education rather than maintaining a multiplicity of deputy auditors throughout rural Iowa.
Having 99 counties is wasteful and archaic. If Iowa can reduce the number of counties down to 50 or even 75, it would easily save tens of millions of dollars every year and help reduce taxes throughout the state. It is sensible, it is logical and it needs to happen.
March 23rd, 2008
Cedar Rapids businessman Steve Rathje (pronounced Rah-CHEE) filed papers to run for the Republican nomination for US Senate over a year ago, but yesterday he made it public. How serious a candidate is he? And how does he feel about higher-profile candidates getting into the race?
Still, he isn’t well-known to the broader public and there has been speculation that someone better known might mount a bid.
Much of that talk has centered on U.S. Rep. Steve King, a Republican from western Iowa. King is a favorite with conservatives but hasn’t shown any signs yet that he’s running.
Rathje dismissed the idea that another congressman could win. Three already have lost to Harkin.
“There is no doubt in my mind history will repeat itself if given the opportunity,” he said.
He added Republicans are taking his candidacy seriously, pointing to the attendance of Leon Mosley, co-chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, at his announcement.
I’m not sure if the fact that one person from the RPI appearing at an announcement event is a sign that the campaign is actually serious, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I wish I could tell you about his positions on issues, but that page on his web site is blank. But guessing from the information that we do have available, his campaign is going to be fun:
One member of his steering committee, Linda Smith of Cedar Rapids, is the former Linn County chair of Pat Robertson’s presidential campaign. Another member, Bonnie K. Bell, is an executive rent-a-cop at HyVee. Also on board are former chemical company executive Steve Weeber, who serves as Chair of the Simpson College Trustees, and J. David Nichols, whom BEEF Magazine selected as one of the 40 most important BEEF people over the past 40 years. In general, the list is pretty heavy on Johnson, Linn, and Hamilton Counties.
On Rathje’s contact page, he lists his campaign manager as Bill Wirth, and his committee address is Coralville. That leads me to deduce that Wirth is probably the same man who, in 1979, lost one of the closest city council elections in Coralville history (scroll to the bottom of this page for information). He is also a State Farm insurance salesman. This probably isn’t the mark of a serious campaign.
Unfortunately, that’s about all I have been able to find out about him. News reports don’t even mention him when they speculate on Harkin’s reelection campaign — and that may be for good reason.
March 7th, 2007
When the Republicans had the majority in the state legislature, they passed laws like this that made voting more difficult by instituting restrictive ID laws for new voters. When they were trying to hold their majority in the state legislature, they did dirty tricks like this to suppress voting. But now that they’re in the minority, they’re not stopping their crusade to impede voting. In the State Senate, Assistant Minority Leader David Johnson has recently introduced a bill that would require voting places to close two hours earlier. If his bill becomes law, it would significantly impede the ability for working Iowans to make it to the polls. As we have commented before, there are already too many impediments to voting. In the 2006 election, voter turnout in Iowa was less than 40%. While most people would be concerned about the fact that voter turnout for such an important election was so low, by introducing this bill, David Johnson and the rest of the Republican leadership seem to be concerned that voter turnout was so high. Johnson and his Republican cronies should be ashamed of themselves for trying to put yet another stumbling block before Iowa voters.
January 28th, 2007
You might have noticed that a few weeks ago I stopped posting to this site very often, and it might have reminded you of the time I stopped blogging for several months to work for the IDP during the general election. Well, I have been doing campaign work again, this time over in Dallas County, on Democrat Dan Brickner’s campaign for Sheriff.
Tomorrow is election day there, and Dallas County voters will have the opportunity to elect a replacement for former Sheriff Brian Gilbert, who was forced to resign after “allegedly” stealing $120,000 from a drug bust. We have also learned since then that there were a lot of other problems in the department, as indicated by this report by the state auditor (big PDF). The report is fun to read, unless you depend on the Dallas County Sheriff to protect you and your family. Then it’s pretty scary.
Dan has 28 years of law enforcement experience, and has spent 20 years as police chief in Albia and then in Perry. He has overseen a large budget, and he has managed a large staff. His opponent has never managed a department with more than one full-time employee, and has ties to the current Sheriff’s department. Dan has no personal connections to the department, so he’ll come in without any favors to pay back or friends to protect. In this race, it is black and white: Dan is the only candidate with the experience and the integrity to fix what needs to be fixed, and I knew it within five minutes of meeting him.
If you live in Dallas County (and that includes much of West Des Moines and Urbandale, among other more rural communities and small towns), please don’t forget to make it to the polls. The Brickner campaign has a significant lead in absentee ballots, but the cliche still holds true: every vote counts.
So tomorrow, get out and vote for Dan Brickner if you’re in Dallas County. Thanks.
January 22nd, 2007
You’ve probably noticed that our blogging has been pretty light in the past week or so, as we’ve been focused on preparing for on campus satellite voting. Well, yesterday was the big day, and I think it went very well.
Four hundred and nineteen people cast ballots in the Forum South Lounge, including 50 new voter registrations. In 2002, only 95 people participated in satellite voting, with only 200 students voting at all. We’ve already doubled turnout on campus, and we’ve still got a month to go. Our 25+ volunteers, some of whom even wore fake mustaches in solidarity with ‘stached campus favorite Eric Palmer, should be very proud of themselves.
We did experience some hurdles in the morning, as there was confusion amongst the county auditor’s volunteers about whether students needed to reregister to their dorms instead of using the post office as their address, as it has always been done. This would have meant reregistering the entire campus, including the hundreds of first-years who registered since August. By mid-morning the problem was cleared up, and the wait to vote got cut quite a bit, to our relief.
I think a lot of us were also frustrated by the reaction of some of our peers to our GOTV strategy. By definition, any successful GOTV effort looks a little harassing. Grinnell has a (loveable) tendency to be a bubble for liberal idealists, and so the idea that number of votes is the bottom line determining who governs our country is a little hard to swallow for many. A high-gear GOTV campaign is also pretty startling to our usually quiet campus. The truth is, it’s worth it to annoy five people to get to the one who doesn’t know there’s an election going on. I hope when the dust settles, our peers will be forgiving of our incessant door knocking, calling, flyering, and well, harassment. When we have a Democratic House giving Bush a run for his money, Chet advocating for education and women’s rights in the governor’s mansion, and Eric Palmer raising the minimum wage in the State House, it’ll all be worth it, I promise.
All told, a valiant effort. Thanks to everyone who put in hours and hours of volunteering, and to everyone who voted. We’ve made a great start, and now it’s time to gear up for the dash to the November finish line.
October 10th, 2006
First of all, lots of Dems are throwing around cutesy Nussle rhymes and it’s gross. Vilsack has coined the “Nussle hustle,” and Fallon kicked it up a notch by ending his convention speech with the chant “Out-muscle Jim Nussle, out-hustle Jim Nussle, let’s tussle with Nussle and win!”
According to Radio Iowa, the Iowa Department of Economic Development released a report today showing that the Values Fund has only actually created or retained 8,000 of the 25,000 jobs Vilsack was claiming. In other words, Ed Fallon was right all along. (In case you’re keeping score, that’s still 0 points for Vilsack.)
Yepsen flaps his mouth about why Culver decided to call for Archie Brooks’ resignation. After implying that CIETC is indicative of “the Democrats’ culture of cronyism in Polk County” and that Democrats need Brooks to deliver votes, he briefly bothers to mention that Culver is “among the majority of civic-minded Democrats who are profoundly outraged that people who call themselves Democrats would engage in the obscenity of milking a program designed to benefit the jobless.” So what you’re really saying then, Dave, is that corrupt politicians exist (gasp!) and that every now and then they happen to be Democrats. You would never, ever write a biased story that makes unnecesary jabs at Culver (just read it for yourself), right?
One happy bit though: another Register columnist goes over how Michael Mauro shouldn’t be tarnished by having relatives working at CIETC. It even includes quotes from Republicans saying what a great, professional, nonpartisan job he has done as Polk County auditor. Of course, one does manage to “sneak” a nonpartisan raspberry into print: “Michael has forgotten more about elections and election law than Chet Culver ever knew.” Sometimes I wonder if it’s wrong for me to even bother repeating their nonsense, but that one’s just funny.
p.s. Hotline has a story about the Culver campaign accidentally appropriating a Nussle quote on their website. WTF, mate?
June 20th, 2006
Last week Yepsen reported that Nussle has called for an independent, non-partisan, neutral, [other fantastical modifier] Office of Inspector General who can “probe allegations of wrongdoing.” Yepsen likes it:
It’s a good idea for two reasons. First, taxpayers need a neutral party to investigate things. Can a Democratic attorney general or a Democratic county attorney fairly probe the scandal in a Democratic administration? On the flip side, can a Republican auditor or U.S. Attorney fairly scrutinize Democrats?
…
The second reason is to clear someone’s name. Politics is full of accusations today. Sometimes, the charges are followed by official investigations.
However, even supposing that such an office could be created and successfully meet these high-minded standards, I’m pretty sure that Nussle’s campaign staff wouldn’t qualify for the position. The Skinny is reporting:
Jim Nussle’s gubernatorial research team is devoting significant resources on the CIETC scandal, trying to tie Mike Blouin and Chet Culver to the debacle. “Team Nussle is prepared to slaughter [the Democratic candidates], the Polk County Democrats and the South Side Machine,” a Nussle insider told us. “They are all busy shooting themselves in the foot, but Nussle will have a wealth of ammunition for a few kill shots.”
Nice. Gun metaphors.
And, lest you fear that Fallon would be left out of the mix, Civic Skinny this to say:
Next week could be the make-or-break moment for candidate Ed Fallon’s campaign, we’re told. Last week, it was his turn on the CIETC scandal. On TV, in front of all of Central Iowa, Fallon claimed he had known about this for years and had the documentation to prove it. “Now we’re going to call him on it,” said one lawmaker. “And if the Legislative Oversight Committee, which has been conducting the meetings, feels he in fact does have the information he claims to, he will be the next star witness for the committee. This will add to his underdog image - not as a person who couldn’t get things done as a result of not exposing them first - but as someone who is always beat down and swatted away like a fly, and now could be seen as somebody who just might actually know what the hell is going on.” However, if Fallon fails to produce on this, he can kiss his campaign goodbye, we’re told.
It will be interesting to see how this all turns out, although frankly it isn’t going to make a difference here: Grinnell has early satellite voting next Friday (and we don’t read the news).
April 21st, 2006
One week from today, Grinnell will host a satellite voting station for the primaries. Any Poweshiek county resident may come to the Forum South Lounge (between 9AM and 4PM) to vote, register, and change party affiliation, all in one place.
Here’s what’s going on between now and then:
- Ed Fallon will be on campus on Saturday for lunch (and, presumably, some talking) with students. The event will have free food from the Back Alley Deli. The Students for Fallon group has done a good job publicizing it, so I expect it’ll be well attended.
- Mike Blouin will be on campus Sunday evening at 7PM in Loose Lounge. We think Andy McGuire will also be there. He’ll be tailoring his speech to Grinnell students, so it should be more worthwhile than the average Iowa stump speech. He and Dr. McGuire will also take some questions.
- IowaProgress will feature interviews with staffers from the Fallon and Blouin campaigns about Iowa politics, the role of students and of the internet, and other subjects this week. Culver’s campaign never responded to our emails about the interview (or about anything at all, actually).
- Campus Democrats will meet at 7:30PM on Tuesday to discuss our “big push” for voters on Friday. We’ll be organizing publicity stuff and also poll-watching.
- Our new Podcast will debut with coverage of the events on campus this weekend and of other interesting political news. It’ll be the first progressive political podcast in the state’s history (as far as we know), so it should be exciting. We’re still lining up stories and guests for this week (and for future weeks), so if you have any ideas or if you think we should interview you or someone you work for, comment on this post or email us.
Man, Iowa politics are so hot right now.
And, if you’re wondering how we organized the satellite voting station (more than one person has emailed us to ask), it’s simple: contact your county auditor and ask them what to do. They may tell you that you need to get some signatures on a petition, or they may just tell you to find a location and they’ll be there.
Also, a guy on NPR just called corn “the plant that ate America.”
April 21st, 2006
