Not much for the big media to swipe this week
Just some leftovers and little stuff this week — nothing important enough for The Des Moines Register or the TV stations to run off with.
But did you notice: It was way back in November when Skinny reported that Perry resident Jim Gibbons had rented an apartment on Douglas Avenue so he could be a district resident as he sought the Republican nomination for Leonard Boswell’s Congressional seat; that seems to be a big story in the newspapers now. It was in late January when Skinny reported that Prairie Meadows board member and horse-owner Butch Bain was in hot water with the Racing and Gaming Commission, that the DCI was looking into his activities and that fellow horse-owners wanted him off the board; the Register caught up with the story last week when the board ousted him. And it was just last week when Skinny reported that Republican Attorney General hopeful Brenna Findley wasn’t actively licensed to practice law in Iowa; KCCI jumped on that story in a few hours.
You’re welcome.
Incidentally, Findley, who is working hard to get out your vote, hasn’t voted in a school election since at least 2002, according to the statewide voter registration system. She did, though, vote in the 2007 special election to replace Dallas County Sheriff Brian Gilbert, a fellow Republican who stole money from the department.
For that matter, Dave Leach, the far-right anti-abortion zealot who wants you to vote for him for the Legislature, has missed the past few Des Moines city elections, including the hotly contested 2009 City Council race. ...
Our Cedar Rapids source reports: If John Frew thought working for Chet Culver in the governor’s office was like working at a madhouse, wait until he starts working for Ron Corbett and the Cedar Rapids city council. Then he’ll know what chaos really is, this correspondent reports. Cedar Rapidians — if that’s the word for them — are already plenty pissed that Corbett and his allies gave a $3.8 million project-management contract to Frew’s company without benefit of competitive bidding and apparently without checking the performance record of the company. At any rate, going to work for Republican Corbett effectively ends the career of Frew in Iowa Democratic politics, Democrats say, but after his year-or-so in the Governor’s office that’s probably a relief for Frew. And the $3.8 million is a nice salve for any wounds.
Meantime, rumors persist that tactician and consultant Teresa Vilmain is going to bail on the Culver campaign any week now. But folks have been saying “any week now” for months. ...
The Democrats’ coordinated campaign took a hit over the weekend. Big contributors — Chet Culver, Roxanne Conlin and organized labor — all pulled back on the amount they said they’d give to the effort, which helps identify potential Democratic votes, especially for absentee ballots. The total pullback is about $1 million, nearly a third of the planned budget; Culver’s campaign, which had planned to give $1 million, now is in for just $600,000, Skinny is told. Culver’s folks said they’re going to divert the money into TV and radio advertising.
Politicians on Capitol Hill don’t put much credence in Dave Jacoby’s complaint to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board that labor lobbyist Marcia Nichols implied there could be $100,000 of labor money for his campaign if he’d support labor’s “fair share” bill. The politicians say, first, Marcia Nichols is not dumb, and only a dumb person would say something like that. Second, Nichols’ union — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — doesn’t have $100,000 to hand out. Third, if it had $100,000, Jacoby would be the last Democrat in town to get any of it. Jacoby’s just irked because the union is backing an opponent of his in the legislative primary, these folks say. ...
Now, down to business: If some big company buys Principal Financial and chief executive Larry Zimpleman then is fired or quits “for good reason,” Zimpleman gets a termination payment of $22,517,058, according to the latest Principal proxy. But that’s not as good as you think. It’s “before taxes,” the proxy notes. James McCaughan gets about $13.5 million. The proxy also says that as of March 1 former chief executive Barry Griswell owned 1,425,988 shares of Principal stock. The stock has been trading lately around $30 a share. You figure it out.
Finally, last week Skinny reported on the record $2,030,000 sale of what is generally known as the Hubbell home at 1401 Casady Drive, noting that the sale price topped the previous record of $1,900,000 for what is generally known as the Brenton home at 10 35th Street. Now, that Brenton home has been put on the market by Dan Stanbrough, the guy who paid the $1.9 million. Asking price for the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 9,000-square-foot home: $2,250,000. The taxes are $39,358. A year. CV
