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Des Moines Dem wants campaign finance reform
News · April 14, 2006
Fallon is first ’06 gubernatorial candidate to visit W. Branch
Rob Poggenklass
The candidate and his most fervent supporters have been saying it for months. Last Friday night, when the man who’s running for governor made a stop in West Branch, the TV pundits said it, too.
He’s an underdog, but don’t count Ed Fallon out just yet.
With less than two months before the June 6 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Fallon told a group of about 20 voters that he’s more in touch with Iowans’ priorities than his opponents, Mike Blouin and Chet Culver.
Before Fallon spelled out his positions on the issues, however, the group gathered around the TV set at the North Fifth Street home of Norbert and Katie Sarsfield to watch “Iowa Press,” the half-hour public television program that focuses on Iowa politics.
The group of TV, radio and print reporters questioned the political tactics of Culver and Blouin, who have received virtually all of big labor’s endorsements in recent months. The Iowa Press group said the two candidates have been attacking each other and the Republican candidate, Jim Nussle. With many Democratic primary voters still undecided, the reporters agreed that the one who stands to benefit most is Fallon.
Two-term Governor Tom Vilsack, D-Mount Pleasant, will not seek reelection this fall.
Fallon, a seven-term state representative from Des Moines, spoke about his first and foremost priority, an issue that he believes will go a long way to solving many of Iowa’s problems: campaign finance reform.
“I’m convinced that most legislators are with me. This is no longer a partisan issue,” said Fallon, who does not accept money from Political Action Committees and only takes individual contributions of less than $2,400. “You won’t hear Blouin or Culver talking about it. They’ve gotten their positions because of this system.”
Fallon would like to see Iowa enact a Clean Elections Law, such as the ones passed in Maine and Arizona. He said that Iowa’s state government is bending to the will of lobbyists and special interest groups, and it won’t stop without campaign finance reform.
“It has become so clear to me,” Fallon said. “Policy is driven by money.”
On this issue, Fallon received the immediate support of Bennett Kenyon Brown, of Cedar Bluff, who said he would certainly vote for Fallon on June 6.
“If you want money out of politics, you’ve got to support this guy,” Kenyon Brown said. “I really believe that you can be governor and I believe, to be honest, that you can be president.”
Still focused on the governor’s race, Fallon addressed the issue of funding for higher education. He expressed his dismay at the report that graduates of Iowa State University are leaving the school with an average debt of $29,000. In a state that prides itself on good education, Fallon said that won’t do.
“Our quarter says ‘Foundation in Education,’” he said. “We’re knocking the bricks out of education.”
His solution to the problem involves scaling back the Iowa Values Fund, of which Fallon has been the most outspoken critic. The program has been supported by Gov. Vilsack and Blouin, a former director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. Fallon said we can see the results in companies like Maytag, which he said got $16 million in state funds, only to move its operations out of Iowa.
“You wonder why we can’t fund education,” Fallon said. “We’re giving it all away to corporate interests. I’m about fixing that. I think I’m the only guy running who will.”
Fallon also addressed the issues of health care and the environment. He said the United States is the only industrialized democracy that requires businesses to be the primary provider of health insurance, rather than the government.
“I will not stop fighting until we have a health-care system that works for everybody,” he said.
The issue of Iowa’s water quality must also be addressed, Fallon said, rather than paying it only lip service. “As governor, I could push (these issues) a lot more powerfully,” he said.
A candidate who has been dismissed by many as too liberal, Fallon said he’s more mainstream than many people give him credit for. He said he’s encountered a number of Republicans who have said they’d rather vote for him than Nussle, the chair of the U.S. House Budget Committee. Fallon said it’s because of his positions on issues like fiscal responsibility and eminent domain. Fallon hopes new eminent domain legislation will place tighter controls on how much land government can take. On this issue, he said he’s in agreement with Jeff Kaufmann, the Republican who represents West Branch in the Iowa House.
“We’re not the fringe — we’re not out there,” Fallon said. “These are the things Iowans believe in.”
Fallon criticized his Democratic opponents, Culver and Blouin. Some at the Friday night gathering suggested that Culver, Iowa’s Secretary of State, may not have the intellect to be governor. Fallon didn’t go that far, but he didn’t dispel the notion, either.
“I don’t think Culver has a grasp of the issues,” he said.
Fallon also indicated that if Blouin won the Democratic primary, the Republican opponent would take him to task for his work on the Iowa Values Fund, saying that Nussle is “going to eat Blouin alive on that issue.”
To win the June 6 Democratic primary, one of the three candidates must receive at least 35 percent of the vote. If no one does, a candidate will be picked at the party’s state convention. Four years ago, Republican Doug Gross won a three-way race for his party’s nomination with 35.7 percent of the vote.
A member of the audience Friday night asked Fallon if, in the case that he doesn’t win the Democratic primary, would he run as an independent? On Monday, Fallon’s campaign released a statement saying he would not run as an independent. Last Friday night, Fallon said he believes that the issues he’s fighting for are too important to be ignored by Blouin or Culver, should one of them win in June.
In a race between either of those Democrats and Nussle, Fallon made it clear who he’d support.
“Nobody wants to see Governor Nussle, that’s for sure.”
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