Credit

Mike Tramontina co-authored an opinion piece that ran in the Ragister.

Iowa View: It's time to help Iowa's hardworking families with the EITC

The EITC is the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Tramontina has been described as a lifelong bureaucrat, having served in the administrations of The Pickle and the Big Lug Nut.

Under Culver, ouch, Tramontina was head of the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) when the film office fiasco developed.

Which means Tramontina continues to be very generous with taxpayer dollars and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Tramontina defended Iowa's then tax credit policies, even after the film scandal broke and caused his exit from state government.

Meet & Greet

I ventured down to the capitol city of Warren County, Indianola, for a visit from Republican Lt. Governor candidate Kim Reynolds.

Right away I noticed the Big Lug Nut's "spy" was seated at a table.

The beret was the giveaway, who does he think he is -- John Deeth?

I went over and struck up a conversation, letting him know I'd seen the Jason Clayworth blog post that outed him.

Noting an over abundance of chairs stacked in the back of the room, I told him I doubted he'd have to worry about giving his up his seat this time.

I found out he was originally from Cedar Rapids and I then mentioned my radio stop at The HAWK (KHAK) in 1980.

He let me know that was before he was born -- OUCH!

All in all, he was a very nice, polite young man with a good sense of humor.

I let his boss, Ali Glisson, know (via e-mail) he represents the campaign well.

The event was to begin at 11 a.m. and the small gathering didn't have to wait long as Mrs. Reynolds walked in at 11:01 -- not bad.

She walked around the room and introduced herself to each attendee and then began her talk which was comprised mainly of her personal and professional background.

She opened it up to Questions, so I asked how the Branstad-Reynolds administration would handle department heads who didn't comply with state law (like at DNR), misspent taxpayer money (such as at IABD) or the IDED film office fiasco?

She said she had talked with Governor Branstad and the key was getting good people to run the departments because that reflects back on you.

I asked what would be the first thing the Branstad-Reynolds administration looked to accomplish the day they take office, but before I could finish my question she knew exactly were I was going and mentioned Vilsack's (The Pickle) executive order that restored voting rights to felons.

I told her it was like she read my mind.

After the Q&A was complete, she again greeted people individually and I thanked her for coming.

I found Kim Reynolds to be energetic, enthusiastic, with a passion for Iowa.

She will make an excellent Lt. Governor and the scientific community is united in that fact.

House candidate (District 73) Julian Garret was in attendance and he stopped to talk, mentioning he reads the Liter. Thank you for that and your check is in the mail.

I will say I was disappointed in the attendance size, but the schedule wasn't released until Friday and Warren County went for Vander Putz.

Not On My Watch

Sounding more like a threat than a promise, the Big Lug Nut said he would take a more hands-on approach in a second term.

Talk about scaring my unborn children!

I shudder at the thought of how bad things could get with four more years and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Some in the press were giving Culver kudos for admitting mistakes in his term as governor.

That's not new, he did that when he began his re-election campaign...

“You know, I’ve not always gotten it right, but I’ve always given it 100 percent effort".

Looking surprisingly less sweaty, Chetty said --

"...I take full responsibility for those things that have happened in various state agencies, that happened on my watch.”

Now that's a first, because he previously blamed Attorney General Tom Miller for not allowing him to fire Lynn Walding at the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Divison.

A year later, Culver has still never fully come clean over his role in the film office fiasco involving the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED).

There are still problems lingering from his second term as Secretary of State, that may cost the state $576,000, and he wants another term as Governor?

Serious?

Like pigs to the slaughter, some Iowa Dummycrats are wanting Staci Appel-sauce for brains to run for Congress against Tom Latham.

Proving my apple sauce for brains theory, and the scientific community is united in that fact, Staci said...

“I’m still very seriously considering it”.

Ed Skinner, described as a party godfather, believes Appel is the person who can beat Latham.

Dummycrat strategist Jeff Link said, “It will take a candidate of Appel’s caliber to make this a competitive race”.

Color these Dummycrats delusional as it will be about as competitive as their three previous high quality female candidates; Becky Greenwald (who lost to Latham by 21 points in 2008), Rozanne, err Taxanne Conlin (who lost to Chuck Grassley by 31 points in 2010) and Christie Vilsack (who lost to Steve King by 8 points in 2012).

Appel thinks her Iowa Senate accomplishments(?) of extension of health care coverage to Iowa children, the 4-year-old preschool program, a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, and an increase in the minimum wage.

Don't forget Staci, you wanted an end to Federal Deductibility, your scheme to award Iowa's Electoral College votes to whichever candidate receives the most popular votes nationwide, regardless of who carries the state, the debt you saddled taxpayers with because of the borrowing scam known as I-JOBS and your sponsorship of the bill (SF193) that helped create the IDED tax credit film office fiasco.

The Ragister's Jennifer Jacobs filed this story and her original report (preserved by me) said "Appel took out a 10-year Republican incumbent, Julian Garrett, an Indianola attorney and farmer who had represented the district for nearly a decade".

Someone later cleaned up the report-errs as it was an open seat (incumbent Doug Shull had sought election as State Representative against Mark Davitt) which Garrett had not previously represented.

Sweat Popa Chubby

I'm trying to figure out if the look on Sweaty Chetty's face is one of dazed because of dehydration, or if there's a beer sign up ahead and he's dreaming of double fisting.

The Big Lug Nut is trying to scare us out of a "past we can't repeat" with Terry Branstad, but it is painfully obvious that Chet Culver is a future we can't afford.

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

From his $875 million (plus interest) I-JOBS borrowing scam, to the IDED film office fiasco and the IABD (Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Divison) bender that makes the RIO $19,000 carpet look like a wet spot.

How is it that the Governor can help three top level state employees find the exit sign over IDED, but can't get Attorney General Tom Miller to agree that one of Miller's former assistant Attorneys General, Lynn Walding, needs to be canned after improperly spending tens of thousands of dollars?

If all of this hasn't taxed your patience, there's also the more than $133 million increase in property taxes.

Chet Culver -- A Future We Can't Afford!

Running

The husband of the Publisher of the Old Weird Harold and Record Tribune is seeking a return to the Iowa Legislature, this time in the Senate for the seat vacated by Kent Sorenson.

Dummycrat former State Representative Mark Davitt, pictured, is running against current Republican State Representative Julian Garrett.

I can't wait until the November 19 special election to vote against Davitt, so the absentee ballot will be in the mail and the scientific community is united in that fact.

In his previous terms, Davitt introduced legislation three times to raise the minimum wage (House File 29, House File 2032 and House File 1).

Davitt also introduced legislation to raise state sales and use taxes.

In addition, and even more egregious, Davitt spearheaded the legislation that brought us the IDED film office fiasco. (The bill was managed during floor debate by Governor wannabe Tyler Olson).

As an aside, we almost had the need for another special election as Dummycrat State Representative Scott Ourth didn't look where he was walking and stepped in front of my vehicle, the other day, while he was having a conversation.

Dummycrats it's not smart to put your life in my foot's hands.