[Iowa] AG candidate Findley learned lessons from King

Sioux City Journal ^ | 06/10/2010 | Bret Hayworth

[iowamark]

Brenna Findley was unopposed in her quest to become the Republican candidate to run against longtime Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat. She officially moved ahead to the November ballot after the Tuesday GOP primary, and was energized when I spoke to her in The Journal offices. Findley was widely touted as a great attorney general candidate by Terry Branstad in the weeks before he won the gubernatorial candidate, and that sort of enthusiasm among Republicans seems broad.

One benchmark? She has nearly $150K in fundraising for a downticket position, which Findley said is a key metric to show her support.

Her use of the word “metric” made me think of her former boss, as it’s a word Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King often uses too. Findley worked for six years in both Iowa and Washington, D.C. as a staffer for King, who has easily won four terms in the U.S. House.

Said Findley, “I learned that it was really important for me to spend time in Iowa in different parts of the district, because every part of the district is different. Northwest Iowa, up north of Sioux City, is different from Sioux City and it is different from Council Bluffs and southern Iowa and Creston. Every area has different concerns.”

Findley said she’s both an economic and social conservative, which places her in the political vein as King.

Findley, 34, had a nice line for those who wonder if she’s too unseasoned — or, more directly, young — to become AG. She noted she’s the same age as Miller was when he was first elected as attorney general in 1978.

Findley said Iowa should opt out of the federal health care reform.

“It is a legal matter, and as attorney general I would join the 20-some states to try to block the government-run health care bill that forces people to buy a private product. That is not allowed under the Commerce Clause,” she said.

Findley also said she’s not frustrated at trying to nab attention in a so-called downticket race. Said Findley, “I thought it would be more difficult than it is. I can tell you — it works when I work hard. The one thing that people should know about me is that I worked my way through college. I paid for college myself at Drake (University). I waited tables, I cleaned houses, I worked in the Legislature and I managed campaigns. And I did all four of those things, sometimes, at the same time. I find that when I go out and work hard and talk to people, they are paying attention and they know that in Des Moines they need a legal watchdog to look out for them.”

Findley will return to Sioux City Monday with Branstad and other Republican statewide candidates as part of the Road to Victory Tour that began elsewhere today.

[iowamark]

[iowamark]

http://www.radioiowa.com/2010/06/11/attorney-general-candidate-promises-more-openess/
“”The Republican candidate for attorney general says she’d assign some of the attorneys in the Iowa Department of Justice to “openness” duty. Brenna Findley is challenging Democrat Tom Miller, the current attorney general, in the November election.

“I would dedicate a team of attorneys within the attorney general’s office to respond to phone calls and e-mails and visits from Iowans who have concerns about violations of the Open Meetings and Open Records Law,” Findley says. “I think that’s important to clean up state government.”

Findley says the current attorney general hasn’t done enough to help Iowans who’ve run into problems with government officials who deny them access to public documents or who violate the state’s Open Meetings Law. “He has a consumer protection division,” Findley says. “But if someone has a question about the Open Records, Open Meetings Law, I have heard from people as I’ve traveled the state that they haven’t gotten an answer out of the attorney general’s office.”

Attorney General Tom Miller says the State Ombudsman’s Office in the legislative branch of state government has taken the lead on Open Meetings, Open Records complaints. “We’ve stood ready now, for well over a year, whenever the Ombudsman’s Office found a need for any kind of litigation or enforcement in court to do that,” Miller says. Miller asked legislators to provide more money to hire a full-time attorney and a paralegal.

“But the legislature didn’t fund it,” Miller says. “But, you know, what happens now is the Ombudsman’s Office is sort of at the front of it and they do a good job. They get most of the complaints. We get some of them and if the Ombudsman’s Office feels there should be legal enforcement they refer it to us and we’re prepared to do that.” Miller has a deputy attorney general who handles those cases today.

Findley has taken a leave of absence from her job as chief of staff for Congressman Steve King and has been campaigning for attorney general for the past four months. “At this point, I have raised seven times more money than incumbent Tom Miller has in 2010,” Findley says. Findley raised $124,000 so far this year, compared to the $15,000 Miller raised for his reelection effort. Miller has a bit more cash-on-hand, though, with $105,000 in the bank from previous fundraising efforts.

Findley’s latest campaign finance report showed she had $95,000 on hand for the fall campaign.””

[iowamark]

Biggest GOP turnout since 1994, smallest Dem turnout since even longer.

http://okhenderson.com/2010/06/11/unofficial-turnout-numbers/
“Preliminary figures show that 299,409 voters participated in Tuesday’s primary. Of those votes, 227,347 were cast in the Republican primary and 72,062 in the Democratic primary.

Over the past 16 years, turnout from Iowa primary elections is as follows:

Year Democrat Republican Total
2010 72,062 * 227,347 * 299,409 *
2008 105,849 85,832 191,681
2006 152,148 85,579 237,727
2004 76,183 88,221 164,404
2002 97,079 206,138 303,217
2000 90,481 111,734 202,215
1998 122,640 167,329 289,969
1996 117,062 170,035 287,097
1994 137,015 312,475 449,490

*Denotes unofficial results”

[t-dude]

Thanks for the turnout stats...that gives me hope for this fall!