Yesterday The Des Moines Register ran feature on “The trials and triumphs of Gov. Culver.” What triumphs exactly is Thomas Beaumont, the author of this article, talking about?
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The Boy Scout camp that was hit by a tornado last summer, Governor Culver was on the scene providing comfort.
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70% of Iowans, they say, approve of his management of crisis like the 2008 floods.
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Got spending passed through.
Beaumont goes on…
A review of Culver’s first term reveals a politician who quickly delivered on most of his key campaign pledges. He’s been more content championing a few big projects than pursuing a long list of incremental changes. And he’s more at ease outside the Capitol, talking with everyday Iowans, than under the golden dome, talking to lawmakers.
Poor communication with legislative leaders in his own party has led to some stumbles. So did his initial reluctance to reach for expertise beyond a tight inner circle of advisers who were instrumental in his campaign, observers say.
Let me interpret this for you.
I’m glad he responded well to what happened at the Boy Scout camp. I’ll give him that. If that is all a Governor had to do, he would be a wonderful success, but shucks that isn’t his sole responsibility.
Crisis management… really? Ask people in Cedar Rapids who still haven’t received flood recovery help. Why did he not release emergency fund money for flood recovery, instead used it to balance the budget this year instead. His rhetoric has been nice, but his administration was slow to act. Why didn’t he call an emergency session to deal with this?
“Quickly delivered on most of Key campaign pledges” – He vowed to increase minimum wage, and they did. Wonder how that is working out during a recession for employers? I wonder how many jobs were lost as a result? Then they increased teacher’s pay – as if paying poor (as in competency, not socio-economic status) teachers more money is going to make them better? Or throwing more money at a system that already spends more money per student was going to help them to perform. It was hardly an accomplishment with a Democratic General Assembly who is chomping at the bit to spend and pay back the teachers’ union and Big Labor.
“More content championing a few big projects than pursing a long list of incremental changes.” Read – he likes spending money, like putting Iowa in debt, $830 million for the I-Jobs program. Governor Culver, where is that money being spent? Is it being targeted toward fewer projects that will actually create jobs or is it being spread around so much that it will not have any impact whatsoever? Our unemployment rate has still increased despite I-Jobs and the ARRA money you were so willing to lap up.
“Than pursing a long list of incremental changes.” – Read: he lacks executive and administrative skills. He’s been a fiscal nightmare with being unable to balance the budget without taking the emergency fund. The film tax credit program having issues. He’s been seemingly oblivious to what is going on with the Iowa Board of Nursing Home Administrators. Forget policy, he just doesn’t know how to govern. He actually makes me miss Governor (now Secretary) Vilsack. I didn’t agree with him the majority of the time, but at least he seemed to know what he was doing.
“More at ease outside the capitol” – read… heck, I don’t know now how to interpret this. It is obvious that Beaumont hasn’t seen him outside the capitol. Maybe he meant, “less socially awkward,” because having run into Governor Culver outside the Capitol and speaking with him “more at ease” wasn’t how I would describe him.
“Poor communication with leaders within his own party” – read: Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstol and Speaker Pat Murphy were the ones driving the agenda, not Culver. Also read, he doesn’t know how to lead and isn’t respected within his own party.
Anyway, read more nonsense here about how Governor Culver has triumphed. In the eyes of most Iowans, he’s been an abject failure. Which is why he trails both former Governor Branstad and Bob Vander Plaats in the latest Rasmussen poll. Which is likely why the Register didn’t ask the head to head question in their latest poll.
Governor Chet Culver will likely go down as the worst Governor in Iowa history, and the first one-term governor we’ve had in my lifetime.
