By Douglas Burns
Is smoking ban obsolete?; Questions for Reynolds, I-Jobs
Has the Iowa smoking ban had its intended effect?
In other words, is the law obsolete? Did it provide the needed cover two years ago to bars and gathering places frightened to make the smoke-free move?
Could it be lifted simply based on the fact that many places wouldn’t go back, and those that do would feed a niche market of sorts?
Bar workers and waiters who don’t want to be around smoke (and these were the people the ban was intended to protect) now have no issues finding jobs in venues without billows of blue smoke blasting into their nostrils.
So why is our government where it is not needed? The law served as a catalyst. Now yank it, State of Iowa, and do something else with your time.
I put the question (or theory) to Attorney General Tom Miller on the campaign trail a few days ago. Do we still need the ban?
“I think we still do,” he said.
At some point, can it be pulled?
“Oh, maybe,” Miller said. “But we’re still a ways away from that.”
When could this happen?
“I think it’s pretty far in the future when smoking has declined even more than it has already,” Miller said.
“I think when the whole culture changes,” Miller added. “It’s in the process of changing. It has in a lot of ways.”
At the end of the day, Miller said, the law remains necessary.
“The problem is that in those places where there would be smoking, second-hand-smoke still causes cancer, causes heart disease and the ones that are most susceptible to it are the people that work there,” he said. “And we’ve got a rich tradition of worker safety, and I think we should continue that.”
*****
Perhaps Kim Reynolds is our lieutenant governor. Perhaps she is a state senator. The reliable Ann Selzer and her Iowa Poll told us the former was most likely.
Reynolds was conspicuously absent in the campaign at any venue where she could be challenged — like a debate or serious media inquiries.
This doesn’t mean there aren’t things to like about Reynolds. We have to admire her struggle to overcome alcohol. That said, it is still fair to ask a few questions about that, and those two OWI arrests.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving reports that a person arrested for the first time for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated has done this an average of 87 times before getting caught. Is that about the right number for you, Mrs. Reynolds? And should we double it?
As Clarke County treasurer did you ever come to work drunk or hungover or otherwise suffering the ill effects of consumption of spirits? And as a self-described protector of the public dime, did you reimburse taxpayers for any diminished performance stemming from the boozin’?
Just asking.
One other thought on Reynolds: If Gov.-elect Terry Branstad is indeed Gov.-elect Terry Branstad today — and not a 2010 version of 1998 Jim Ross Lightfoot — is he responsible enough to see that he made a mistake with the selection of Reynolds, and will he find a clever way to usher her out and slide in a credible lieutenant, like Rod Roberts, his primary rival and a loyal, classy Republican.
*****
Gov. Chet Culver’s communications director Jim Flansburg joined the team late into the administration. One of his first moves (and an exceptionally wise one) was to reach out with better branding of a signature Culver initiative, I-Jobs, the $875 million employment and infrastructure program that led to more than 2,000 projects in all of Iowa’s counties.
Branding was a major issue with this centerpiece of the Culver administration.
Most Iowans couldn’t get their arms around what, exactly, I-Jobs was. It sounds like an app for the iphone that would make storm sewer projects magically appear in small towns.
Flood recovery and the revitalization of the University of Iowa were major elements. Fair enough. We get that.
A brilliant approach would have been to use I-Jobs to four-lane the full U.S. 30 — adding another commercial artery to Iowa at a time of slow economic blood flow, connecting flood-ravaged Cedar Rapids, Iowa’s second-largest city, with its ninth-largest, Ames, and Iowa State University, the nexus of agriculture and science in the state.
That would have boosted Culver in the significant 30 corridor, and been an easily identifiable project for Iowans to quickly associate with I-Jobs.
Full disclosure: I am sitting 20 yards from U.S. 30. CV
Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa newspaperman who writes for The Carroll Daily Times Herald and offers columns for Cityview.
