La Macchina

These two small men are the Mauro brothers, John and Mike.

John is a Polk County Supervisor and is seeking re-election. He served on the CIETC board that allowed taxpayers money to be used for extravagant salaries and bonuses.

Mike is the Polk County Auditor and in that capacity he oversees county elections. Mike Mauro is also seeking to be the next Iowa Secretary of State, in that capacity he would oversee state elections. (See Sunday 8/20 post, Consider the Source).

They and their South Side ilk have been a machine like fixture in politics for years. The South Side also gave us CIETC Board Chair Archie Brooks.

The Mauro's have a love/hate relationship with the term "Machine".

Michael says, "There is no political machine. If that were the case, we'd win every election."

John was featured in a US News & World Report article about how he delivered "La Macchina's" support to John Kerry in the 2004 Iowa Caucus. The article also mentions the absentee ballot support they've ginned up for CommieTommie Harkin and "The Pickle" (Tom Vilsack).

People think John recently denied the machine.

However, he only denied the term, La Macchina, and said he didn't write the US News article.

WHO TV/13 recently aired a report from John Mauro's 2002 campaign win over Gene Phillips and John said to his supporters, on camera, the machine isn't dead.

While not totally accurate this quote from Billy Martin suffices, "One's a born liar, the other's convicted".

Billy was talking about Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner, but it's CLOSE!