Is Culver Enticing a Primary with Fallon?
- Monday, April 20, 2009, 8:00
- Krusty Konservative
- 731 views
- 15 comments
Last Friday, I had a little fun with Ed Fallon and Governor Culver’s public tiff. Today I want to give that situation a more serious look. There is something very serious going on between the Governor and his former primary foe. Many people, including the Governor’s staff, blew Ed off by saying the guy just wants a state job.
There is a good chance that could very well be the case, but is that any way to treat a guy who got almost 26% of the vote in a three-way primary with almost no money just a few short years ago? It’s not like Governor Culver is some tower of invincibility.
Culver is responsible for a huge budget mess, tax and fee increases that hurt small business, while at the same time, he has doled out millions of dollars to out-of-state corporations like IBM, Microsoft, and Google in hopes they will locate here. Yet, many of those jobs are now in question.
If I’m Chet Culver, and thank God I’m not, I would view Ed Fallon as a very dangerous man. If you are Culver or his advisors, you have to realize that Fallon is not afraid to primary an incumbent Democrat. Many thought Fallon’s primary challenge to Congressman Leonard Boswell would have been much closer that it actually was. But I don’t know if I would write off a guy who was able to raise $300,000 and received 38% of the vote. Fallon is never going to raise more money than Chet, but he has proven to be an adequate fundraiser, which means you can’t ignore him. You can’t laugh at him.
What I don’t understand is that, if Fallon did want a job, why didn’t they just try to accommodate him? Fallon is a long time state legislator and community organizer. I don’t think many people would have questioned Culver if he had found a place for him at the Rebuild Iowa Office. Heck, Fallon probably has a better understanding of what some of the people in Cedar Rapids have been going through than the former campaign fundraisers he has working there now. I’m not joking. I think that Fallon could have been an asset to Culver.
Yet, for some reason, Culver’s administration feels it is in a position to simple ignore Fallon. So when Ed Fallon sent out a scathing email last week, Culver and his staff should have been the adults in the room. They were not. Instead they acted like the immature, in-over-their-heads, playground bullies they really are. In doing so, they might have enticed a primary opponent that will cost Culver time and money, and force him to move to the left.
About the Author
Krusty Konservative has written 224 stories on this site.
Herschel Krustofski is the pseudonym for the anonymous author of Krusty Konservative, a blog which focuses on Iowa Politics. Created in February of 2006, Krusty Konservative is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Iowa blogosphere. Since its conception, Krusty Konservative has never shied from tackling controversial issues, and providing insight to the inner workings of Republican politics in Iowa.
15 Comments on “Is Culver Enticing a Primary with Fallon?”
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ed is dangerous to chet. there is growing disconent with chet all over the state and ed will expose it. he probably can’t beat him but he can sure bloody him up.
I don’t know how Ed will get along with Gov.,err Sen. Gronstal. I don’t think he will blindly do his bidding like the Big Lug.
lets all help ed get on the ballot
I agree. Ed Fallon has a big following in the Democratic party and while its true, Culvers incumbency probably helps him win a primary, does Ed capitulate and endorse Culver again? Im not sure. If Ed and his followers feel that Culver has sold them out, who is to say they dont run as an independent candidate against Culver and us. I’ve been saying it all along, Progressives are just like Social Conservatives, if their office holders mistreat them, they could very easily walk away.
anon 1102 is right. the extremes in both parties are generally what undue them when they get unhappy. here we go!
But its not just Fallon. I keep hearing that Chet’ got trouble with the Unions too. Vilsack kept telling them “Give me the legislature and I’ll give you the labor bills you want.” In 2006, they did that and what happened? Culver vetoed them. In 2008, the expanded their majority in both houses and what happened? Democrats again failed to deliver. The natives in the Democratic party faithfull are getting restless with Chet’s cowardice and being sold out by their own legislators. They have the majority, but dont be surprized to see a fair number or primaries on the Democrat side in 2010.
The Dems wouldn’t have the House majority if they hadn’t taken it by running ultra consevative (by Democrat standards) candidates against our guys.
What can they expect from conservative legislators? They recruited them knowing what their positions were/are. So why are they surprised they can’t get them to vote for the sleezy Union stuff?
Make no mistake..the union special interests are downright ticked at Chet, Gronstal and Murphy for not coming through for them…considering a lot of their money went into electing some of these conservative Democrats that have turned around and screwed them this session.
Why do you think the union types were all over people like Larry Marek for voting against prevailing wage? They sunk a lot of $$ his way in those last few weeks in 08 to get him over the top.
What will be interesting to see if people like Delores Mertz, Marek, and even McKinley Bailey get primaried in 2010 by union funded candidates….
I’d say Delores Mertz and Geri Huser already have a target on their backs from their leadership. When it came down to it, they at least listened to their constituents. Is it wise to put a lot of $$$ and energy on candidates for those seats or should conservatives target seats like Kurt Swaim, who said one thing and voted the party line anyway? Just thinking out loud……
Timmy,
I am in the district 8 where Delores is my Representative and she barely won by 35 votes over Dr. Steve Richards. Delores pretty much votes with Republican with the exception of some labor bills, some education bill and she votes to seat Murphy as Speaker of the House. Non one knows if she is going to run again, the county parties are trying to recruit a real conservative this time who could finish the job.
Huser and her family are too powerfull over here to be knocked out. The union stooges tried last time and failed. Even Republicans will cross over to protect her. But when she retires, which I doubt she’ll do until after redistricting our area will be ripe for a Republican pickup.
Altoona Guy..dont put it past the union folks to put up someone again….They’ll force the Dems not to give her any campaign $$ and any organizational support..
Here’s the question you all need to ask yourselves out in Altoona….would you rather have Huser or a solid conservative Republican in that seat?
Yeah … They really cant do that. She pretty much owns the organizational support in the district. Gronstal, Murphy and the unions dont have enough power over there to threaten her. And to answer your question, we would rather have a Republican but we also know from experience, we arent likely to get one of those until after Geri retires. Until then, we’re happy to leave her alone and let her keep voteing with us on stuff like Prevailing Wage, Marriage and Federal Deductibility.
Well said Altoona Guy!
I don’t have any insight to Ed’s future plans. But I do know this, Chet Culver is going to have one hell of a time getting any votes from labor in his next election, and that makes him very vulnerable from the left in a primary.