Top Democrats are pissed — really pissed, really really pissed — at Swati Dandekar for putting Democratic control of the Iowa Senate in peril by resigning to take Republican Gov. Terry Branstad's offer of one of three seats on the Iowa Utilities Board. "Honest to God, what she's done is beyond anything...," says one leading Democrat. "It's terrible what she's done." The resignation proves "she's never been a real Democrat," says another. Indeed, Democrats have long been irked by her conservatism on economic issues, but she always has professed to support the party's agenda on education and civil rights — an agenda that is endangered by her resignation. ("Abandonment," not resignation, is the word one Democrat used over the weekend.)

But, Democrats concede, it was a deft political move by the governor. "He went after her, bought her, and got her," says a Democrat. "It was brilliant."

The Democrats hold a 26-24 edge in the Senate, and if they don't hold on to her seat in suburban Cedar Rapids the Senate will be split down the middle for the next session. Neither party will get anything done without peeling off an opponent here and there, and there are more conservative Democrats for the Republicans to woo on such issues as gay marriage and taxes than there are liberal Republicans to cross the line to vote for Democratic education and labor issues.

"She has put her issue — education — at risk," says a party colleague.

The district is almost evenly split between registered Democrats and registered Republicans, but there are more independent voters than voters aligned with either party. A liberal Republican, the late Mary Lundby, held the seat for 14 years before the conservative Democrat got 54 percent of the vote to beat Republican Joe Childers for the seat in 2008. Earlier, Dandekar had served six years in the Iowa House and two terms on the Linn-Mar School Board. She recently finished a term as chairwoman of the National Foundation for Women Legislators. She was born and educated in India, and she is the first woman from South Asia ever to be elected to public office in America.

Just a few days ago, there was every indication the 60-year-old Dandekar planned to run for re-election in 2012. She held a fundraiser on Sept. 8, and the attendees included Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal. "Amazing," says a guy who was there. Her resignation makes life infinitely more difficult for Gronstal, who has been a stalwart supporter of the Iowa Supreme Court's decision that gay marriage is constitutional in the state and who is the liberals' great hope in standing up against the Republican-controlled house and governor's office. Now, not only does he face the possibility of losing his fingernail-thin majority in the Senate, he also will see money he needs for his own-reelection next year drained off into the special vote. Republicans have made him their No. 1 target for 2012, and it's believed each side is prepared to spend a whopping — for Iowa — $1 million in that race. (But election of a Republican could endanger the Senate leadership of Paul McKinley, who this session has been feeling the hot breath of leader-wannabe Bill Dix. Election of a Dix supporter could put the Shell Rock Republican in the leader's chair.)

Sue Dvorsky, the Democratic state chairwoman, says the party will have a candidate chosen for Dandekar's seat in a few days, and while declining to speculate on how costly the race will be she did say that "we will have the resources and a superior field operation." Without directly saying Democrats are hugely pissed, Dvorsky said party leaders have "no choice except to channel their feelings into action." Matt Strawn, the Republican chair, says his party is "putting together the most sophisticated voter-education and get-out-the-vote program ever assembled by Iowa Republicans." The election will be Nov. 8. The winner will have to run again in 2012 in a slightly reconfigured — and slightly more Republican — district. As of this weekend, the Republicans hadn't picked a candidate. One person it won't be: Lundby's son, Daniel, who has switched parties and announced in July he'll run in House District 68 as a Democrat. Don't be surprised if the Democrats try to woo him — with his well-known name in Cedar Rapids — to run for the senate seat instead. Another name being mentioned: State Rep. Tyler Olson. ...

Dowling Catholic High School's ham-handed handling of the alumni award intended for Loretta Sieman won't go away. The Des Moines Register on Saturday ran a long opinion piece by Des Moines lawyer Mike Manno in which he defends the school's decision to in effect withdraw its offer of the award because of Sieman's connection to Planned Parenthood. He likens her role to that of a director of a company producing pornography, which is not exactly offering an olive branch to the 50 percent or so of Catholics who are pro-choice.

Ironically, while the controversy has split the Dowling community — noisily and nastily — it has helped Planned Parenthood. "We have received several calls and emails of support along with some donors offering a financial gift," Planned Parenthood's Jill June told Cityview on Friday. She called the Dowling decision "disheartening" and praised Sieman's dedication in supporting "a health-care provider that does so much for low-income women" in Iowa.

Jill June is not one of those low-income women. Skinny stumbled across the Planned Parenthood tax returns while looking up something else, and it turns out June's salary as head of the organization has gone up 45 percent in the past two years. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, Jill June earned $265,389. A year before, it was $217,774, and the year before that it was $182,356. She put down on the form that she works 80 hours a week. Her empire has expanded in the past couple of years as Planned Parenthood has merged or taken over several neighboring organizations. It has 297 employees, runs about 30 health centers and in fiscal 2010 had revenue of $23.5 million.

Penny Dickey, the second-highest paid employee, earned $137,030 in the latest year, up 5.1 percent from her two-years-earlier pay of $130,386. The tax form says Dickey, too, puts in 80 hours a week. ...

The "John Holmes Prick Parade" — those decorated, "life-size" plaster casts of the penis of the late porn star John Holmes — is appropriate "artistic expression" because it falls within the guidelines for what is deemed tasteful and appropriate for its art students to produce, a University of Iowa spokesman told the Register the other day. So Cityview asked the university what those guidelines are. Here are the School of Art & Art History Gallery Guidelines:

— No illegal acts are permitted.

— Use of a live nude model requires a signed agreement and permission of the Director before your exhibit.

— Use of equipment with sound should be kept at low and reasonable levels due to the proximity of offices, classrooms, and studios.

— Artwork, as well as props, wires and cords, should not interfere with the normal flow of traffic.

— Alcoholic beverages of any kind are not allowed on the University campus; therefore, they cannot be used as any part of your show.

— Blood, body fluids, or any other type of pathogens are prohibited.

— State Fire Safety laws prohibit the use of open flames of any kind.

— Firearms (i.e.: any usable weapon or usable weapon parts) and explosives are prohibited.

— Live animals or live insects are not permitted as part(s) of exhibitions.

The guidelines also "remind students to be cognizant of the university's policy not to discriminate against any individual or group based upon their race, religion, gender, national origin, disabilities, or sexual orientation."

But no mention of size. CV