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Culver Contacts:
Record of 2009 contacts between Culver and Fallon
BACKGROUND:
After the June 6, 2006 Democratic primary for governor, Chet Culver’s campaign staff arranged two meetings between him and me, plus two additional meetings between his staff, my staff and me. In those meetings, Culver asked for my active support in his campaign. I agreed to offer significant support, and for his part, Culver made three promises. If elected, he said he would:
1. Advocate for serious campaign finance reform, and though he wasn’t ready to sign-on to the proposed VOICE legislation, he wouldn’t rule it out.
2. Advocate for legislation to control urban sprawl.
3. Involve me in his work as Governor in a meaningful way.
Additionally, we discussed the need for local control over CAFOs, and while he wouldn’t commit to supporting it at the time, later that summer he publicly announced his support for local control.
After Culver’s victory in November, 2006 I made repeated efforts to establish substantive dialog with him and his staff. This culminated in one five-minute meeting with the Governor in February, 2007, a long string of mostly unreturned phone calls to staff, and zero follow-up on the three promises he made to me in June, 2006.
In December, 2008 I decided to try to reestablish contact with Culver’s office, specifically to discuss the promises he had made to me, how we might move them forward in the upcoming legislative session and how my wife, Lynn, and I might establish a more cooperative relationship with him and his office. His staff was prompt to get back with me and set up a meeting for late December, which I regretted to have to postpone because of a funeral. To his staff’s credit, they were prompt to reschedule that meeting for 10:30 a.m. on January 6.
Given these positive developments, I was hopeful that my rapport with Governor Culver might begin to improve. But I also decided it would be wise to keep a log of my contact with the Governor’s office. Here is that log:
01-06 10:30 a.m. Jamie Cashman visited with Lynn and me.
Governor Culver showed up at 11:15. We
talked for 5 – 10 minutes until a fire alarm
sounded. Fifteen minutes later, we resumed our
meeting for another 10 minutes, but we weren’t able
to adequately address any of the issues we planned
to discuss. The Governor offered that he might
mention VOICE in his Condition of the State
address, that we would meet again in February or
March, and that I should follow-up with Jamie
Cashman to continue the conversation.
01-07 I sent letter and e-mail to Cashman and Culver to follow-up our meeting yesterday (see below).
01-12 approx 03:00 p.m. Left message for Cashman.
01-16 approx 04:00 p.m. Left message for Cashman.
01-19 11:05 a.m. Left message for Cashman.
01-23 10:35 a.m. Left message for Cashman.
01-23 01:45 p.m. Cashman called back:
Re: VOICE, he hasn’t been able to follow-up with
the Governor or anyone else yet, but will do so next
week. (Note: The Governor did not talk about
campaign finance reform in his Condition of the
State address.)
Re: the planning bill, he said he’s very interested. First, they’ll work on the flood recovery legislation they’re pushing. They’ve talked before about doing “some land-use planning,” and will definitely keep it in mind for additional legislation. He’ll let me know when they are ready to move forward on it.
Re: my offer to work with the administration, he’s
certainly interested in thinking about my offer. He
will talk with Charlie Krogmeier soon and get back
to me.
Re: CCI, I shared info from our meeting with one of
their leaders.
Cashman said he’d give me a call next week.
02-05 09:44 a.m. Hadn’t heard from Cashman, so I left a message.
02-13 02:15 p.m. Still haven’t heard from him, so left message again.
02-23 10:05 a.m. Reached Cashman, but he’s off to another meeting
and said he will call me back later today.
02-27 10:35 a.m. He hasn’t called back, so I left another message.
03-03 09:11 a.m. He still hasn’t called back, so I left message again.
03-06 03:34 p.m. Left message.
03-11 10:33 a.m. Left message.
03-20 10:51 a.m. Cashman called back while I was on another call
and he left a message.
03-20 10:53 a.m. I called him back right away and left message, and
never heard back from him.
* * * * * * * * * *
January 7, 2009
Dear Governor Culver,
Thanks for taking the time to meet with Lynn and me yesterday. In the interest of being concise and well-organized, I have itemized the elements of this letter.
(1) Regarding VOICE (Voter-Owned Iowa Clean Elections), we are excited that you might mention it in your condition of the state address. Per your request for talking points, I have included (and attached) a Q and A sheet that Lynn and I prepared last session. We hope this contains the information you need.
(2) Regarding the related issues of land-use planning, mitigating future flood impacts and curbing urban sprawl, I have included a copy of HF 488 from the 2003 legislative session. That bill represents the cumulative, bipartisan efforts of seven years of work by a wide range of interested parties. Hopefully, it can serve as a starting point for efforts this session. Here’s the link to that bill: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/80GA/Legislation/HF/00400/HF00488/Current.html.
(3) Regarding the possibility of working with you and your administration in a paid capacity, here is what I wrote in a letter dated November 10, 2006: “I want to invite you to consider me for a position in your administration. I would like to work as a liaison between your administration and the general public to promote support for the two priorities in my own campaign that you told me you’d be willing to fight for: campaign finance reform and controlling urban sprawl. To do that work effectively would require a full-time assistant along with limited support staff in Des Moines to deal with phone calls, letters and paper work.”
I reiterate the offer, and would add that, beyond focusing on those two issues, Lynn and I are interested in helping with some of your other priorities. The bottle bill, combined reporting and flood relief come to mind.
(4) Lynn and I concur with your assessment of Iowa CCI’s event at Terrace Hill last year. We agreed to talk with their leaders and have already contacted them to set-up a meeting.
(5) Finally, per your suggestion, we look forward to meeting with you again in February or March. Thank you, and I will contact Jamie next week to follow-up this letter.
Sincerely,
Ed Fallon
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