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No one seems to have noticed, but...
Liz Buck, who once ran Iowa Workforce Development
and who is now a senior vice president of United
Way, and Mary Sellers, who almost single-handedly
built the Science Center, are the two finalists
to take over from Shannon Cofield as head of
United Way. The job pays well: Cofield earned
a bit more than $200,000 in the 12 months ended
June 30, 2010, according to tax records.
Buck joined United Way a year ago. Before heading
Iowa Workforce Development, she was deputy chief
of staff for governors Tom Vilsack and Chet
Culver.
Sellers took over the Science Center in 1999
when it was a small operation in Greenwood Park
and — sometimes against heavy odds — oversaw
the fundraising, construction and opening of
the new Science Center downtown. She left in
2008, for family reasons, to head the South
Florida Science Museum and now is head of the
Children’s Museum of the Upstate in Greenville,
S.C.
United Way is a huge operation in Des Moines.
It employs more than 50 people, has an annual
payroll of more than $3.5 million and last year
raised a record of about $25.1 million. Ruan’s
Steve Chapman is the current chair, and Principal’s
Dan Houston is the chairman-elect. ...
No one seems to have noticed, but...
A couple of weeks ago Secretary of State Matt
Schultz approved the redistricting plan for
the Polk County Board of Supervisors. The plan,
drawn by five citizens appointed by the supervisors,
was sharply criticized by some of Schultz’ fellow
Republicans since it puts the two incumbent
GOP supervisors — who live close to one another
— into the same district. Former U.S. Attorney
Matt Whitaker twice filed ethics complaints
with the state because of that, but they were
dismissed. Schultz managed to come under fire
from both Democrats and Republicans for the
way his office handled the issue.
After months of headlines, the approval came
without fanfare or notice. Neither the Secretary
of State nor the county issued a press release,
and Schultz’ letter of approval, dated Jan.
13, was short and to the point: “Dear Chairman
Mauro. The Polk County most recently submitted
redistricting and reprecincting plans are hereby
approved for use. A file stamped copy of the
reprecincting ordinance is included with this
correspondence. If you have any questions, please
let me know. Sincerely, Matt Schultz, Secretary
of State.”
One reason it was approved: After meeting all
the technical requirements of the law, and additional
requirements as interpreted by Schultz, it was
impossible to draw a map that didn’t put GOP
supervisors Bob Brownell and E.J. Giovannetti
in the same district. The new map puts West
Des Moines in the district of newly elected
Board Chair Angela Connolly, and changes — but
not significantly — the districts of outgoing
Chair John Mauro and Tom Hockensmith. Connolly,
Mauro and Hockensmith are Democrats whose terms
expire in 2014. As Skinny reported last week,
Giovannetti is likely to step aside when his
term ends at the end of this year. No incumbent
lives in a newly drawn district that includes
Ankeny, but popular Ankeny mayor Steve Van Oort
will seek that seat, apparently along with Dave
Funk of Runnells, a retired airline pilot and
co-chair of the Polk County Republican Party
who lost to Hockensmith two years ago. The new
district leans Republican, and Van Oort is seen
as a likely winner in a primary as well as the
general election in November. He’s been mayor
of Ankeny for seven years and was a councilman
for four years before his mayoral stint. Ankeny
makes up more than half of the population of
the new district. ...
No one seems to have noticed, but...
Neither Iowa State provost Betsy Hoffman nor
former University of Iowa vice president Meredith
Hay got the job as president of New Mexico University.
They were among the five finalists. The job
went to Robert Frank, the provost at Kent State
and a New Mexico alum with three degrees from
the school.
(According to the New Mexico web site, the “media
contact” for news is Cinnamon Blair, which Skinny
thinks is the neatest name he has come across
since becoming enamored with Honeysuckle Weeks
in “Foley’s War” on public television. Honeysuckle
Weeks has a brother named Rollo, her bio says,
which is the first time Skinny has seen that
name since the comic-strip Nancy, whose friend
Rollo was the town’s rich kid. Do not confuse
Rollo with Nancy’s best friend. That was Sluggo
Smith, who was regularly beaten up by that bully
Spike.) ...
No one seems to have noticed, but...
Republicans are still hoping they can find a
strong candidate to run against Senate Majority
Leader Mike Gronstal in Council Bluffs. That,
at least, is what one guy tells Skinny, and
finance reports lend some credence to that.
Republicans desperately want to unseat Gronstal,
who eloquently and single-handedly has stopped
legislative efforts seeking to undo Iowa’s gay-marriage
ruling, and they have said they’ll raise $1
million or more to get rid of him. But they
aren’t supporting their only announced candidate,
retired Army Colonel and lawyer Al Ringgenberg.
When the first campaign reports were filed last
week he reported raising just $5,745 and having
just $498.94 on hand.
Gronstal reported that he had raised $349,762.18
last year and had cash on hand of $434,274.57.
He had some big contributors: Fred Eychaner
of Chicago, a media investor and brother of
Des Moines’ Rich Eychaner, gave $25,000, and
the Iowa Health Pac tossed in $15,000. Michael
Medved gave $10,000. (That’s the West Des Moines
Michael Medved, not the conservative columnist
Michael Medved.) Laura Ricketts, one of the
owners of the Chicago Cubs and a gay-rights
activist, gave $5,000. Labor chipped in big-time,
and labor leaders say there’s more to come.
But business leaders and business PACs also
were big givers to the well-liked (except by
the Senate Republicans) leader.
Gronstal is an indefatigable campaigner in his
district and will be hard to beat. He will be
even harder to beat by an opponent with only
$498.94. CV
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