Mrs. Brown isn’t moving; Mr. Branstad might not be
Where do we start? Those swells in the Waterbury area of Des Moines are now so pissed about the noise coming from the venerable, nearby Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines — and what they call the lack of action by that city — that they are proposing to boycott West Des Moines businesses. In a “Dear Neighbors” letter, Patti Brown encourages her dear neighbors to join a “Knock off the Noise, Now!” boycott of service and retail businesses “as a way to bring some pressure on the Mayor and West Des Moines City Council to act immediately to end the loud, late night noise pollution from the Val Air Ballroom which disturbs residents after 10 p.m. on weeknights.”
One problem the Waterbury folks have: the music, with its thumping bass, doesn’t seem to be breaking any West Des Moines ordinances.
Cityview, always trying to be helpful, suggested a remedy a couple of months ago. “So to those who will continue to complain, we offer an effective and immediate one-word solution: move.” That didn’t go down well, apparently. Ms. Brown writes that “those of us who have been vigilant have been mocked by publications, such as City View (sic) in their (sic) editorial, “If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” And she tells her neighbors, “And despite suggestions (sic) by City View’s (sic) suggestion (sic) in its rude editorial, I am not planning on moving.” She also says that in the last few weeks “the noise has been louder and the bass deeper and more reverberating.” Skinny, not trying to be rude, wonders if perhaps that’s because the leaves have fallen from those hundreds of trees between Waterbury and the Val Air. On the other hand, maybe the leaves fell because they were so blown away by the noise.
Meantime, the Governor, with his tin ear for such things, has scheduled his holiday party for — the Val Air Ballroom. Democratic contributors got robo-calls last week from Mari Culver inviting them to attend the Dec. 5 function — for $35 (or $10 for students or $50 for the whole darn family). Music is by something called Faculty Lounge, which ought to be OK with the neighbors. With a name like that, they probably have a lot of time off. Attendance from the Waterbury area is expected to be skimpy. ...
This just in: former councilman Archie Brooks is due back in Des Moines this week after an extended vacation in Duluth, Minn. ...
Skinny is amused that people are amazed that Terry Branstad’s speech was at best pedestrian at that Republican thing the other day. He misread his audience and badly read his script. So what’s new? No one who lived through the 16 years of Branstad’s governorship was surprised. The guy — who can be charming and persuasive and passionate in person — has always been a lousy speaker. His message is sometimes muddled, his delivery is often halting, and his speeches are always dull. He has all of the words but none of the music. So why was he elected four times? Because he never stopped campaigning in those 16 years. He was everywhere, and wherever he was he was genuinely enjoying it. And it showed.
But Branstad has more problems than being dull. On the surface, The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll this weekend looked great for him. But it isn’t. The main finding of the poll is that Iowans want anyone but Chet Culver in Terrace Hill, but it also shows that Branstad isn’t necessarily that “anyone.” While the poll has Branstad swamping incumbent Culver by 24 points — 57 percent to 33 percent — it also has Bob Vander Plaats beating Culver by eight points — which is outside the poll’s margin of error. The most startling thing about that is that nearly two-thirds of Iowans don’t even know who the hell Vander Plaats is — yet nearly half of likely voters who were polled are willing to vote for him over Culver. (If you’re one of those two-thirds, here’s who he is: conservative ideologue from northwest Iowa, losing candidate for lieutenant governor three years ago, manager of Mike Huckabee’s winning Iowa caucus efforts last year, and standard bearer for the anti-abortion and anti-gay-marriage crowd.)
Two months ago, when the Rasmussen Reports came out with a poll showing Vander Plaats could beat Culver by four points, most Iowans — especially Democrats and Branstad supporters — pooh-poohed it, saying Vander Plaats was just another of those can’t-win purists favored by the party subset that values purity over electability. (Skinny himself — often wrong but never in doubt — might have said that.) And some politicians don’t put a lot of stock in those Rasmussen polls. But now the Iowa Poll — run by Ann Selzer, perhaps the best and most accurate pollster in America — confirms Vander Plaats’s strength. Maybe we need to delete the “sub” from subset. What does it all mean? Because the true believers on the right are the ones who vote in Republican primaries and because they now have proof that their man is a viable candidate — at least he was on the days the poll was taken this month — they’ll go all out to get the nomination for Vander Plaats. So Branstad — who a month or so ago was all but awarded his party’s nomination by those who write checks but skip meetings — faces a terrific fight to get that nomination. Indeed, it now appears it could be harder for him to beat Vander Plaats in June than it would be to beat Culver in November. Perhaps the board of Des Moines University should keep Branstad’s old job open for a few months.
The usual caveat: It’s a long time till June 8.
But Culver is the main loser in the latest poll. Other polls have shown his popularity plummeting all this year, but, again, the Selzer seal adds credibility to those findings. And the governor himself, who seemed to be everywhere when the floods were swallowing up the state, seems to be nowhere these days. He’s often a no-show at meetings and events, and folks who have business at Terrace Hill say he often seems to be just hanging around there at home. He gets high marks for the no-layoff, budget-helping furlough deal he made with AFSCME’s Danny Homan, but it’s anybody’s guess whether Homan’s rank-and-file will vote to take five days off without pay. And the economy isn’t getting any better. So all next spring — spring of an election year — all you’ll be reading is stuff about the governor and the legislature trying to solve a $1 billion budget problem for fiscal 2011. Budgets will be cut; workers will be laid off; some taxes will be raised. Those aren’t parts of a winning political strategy. ...
Finally, Skinny is happy to report that Polk County records show that Associated Press political writer Mike Glover voted in the Windsor Heights city-council election earlier this month. Skinny is happy to report that because Glover’s wife, Betty, missed being elected to the council by just two votes — on election night, it was thought the miss was a single vote — and life might have been uncomfortable for Mike Glover had he not voted. As it stands, Betty Glover and three others will be in a runoff on Dec. 1 for two council seats. CV
