By Lynn Campbell | IowaPolitics.com
DES MOINES — The battle for control of the Iowa Senate got under way Monday, with two Republicans announcing their candidacy for a vacant Senate seat and a gay-rights group emphasizing the importance of the Nov. 8 special election.
“This is it. We are facing a special election, and marriage equality hangs in the balance,” Troy Price, executive director of One Iowa, the state’s largest gay-rights advocacy group, told supporters in an email. “If we lose the seat, we face a very real chance that a marriage ban will pass a vote in the Senate. In Iowa, marriage has never been threatened like this before.”
Swati Dandekar, D-Marion, resigned Friday from the Iowa Senate to take a $137,000-a-year job with the three-member Iowa Utilities Board, which regulates Iowa’s utilities. The move threatens Democrats’ majority in the Iowa Senate, now reduced to 25-24. A special election will be held Nov. 8.
The turn of events is key, because Democrats’ slim majority in the Iowa Senate prevented passage this year of Republican priorities ranging from a public vote on same-sex marriage to sweeping property-tax reform, to a bill that Democrats criticized as bringing an end to collective bargaining.
Dandekar: It was a tough decision
Dandekar became emotional Monday in an interview with IowaPolitics.com, as she explained that this past week hasn’t been easy. She said it hurts to hear people suggest that her move was intended to strike back at Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, for not taking up a nuclear power plant bill she advocated for this past session.
“Sen. Gronstal has been one of the best leaders I have worked for. He has been the best leader and best mentor I have had in politics,” said Dandekar, Iowa’s first India-born state legislator who served in the Iowa House since 2002 and the Iowa Senate since 2008.
Dandekar said it all happened so quickly, in the span of four days. She said she and her husband, Arvind, on Thursday night took the four-and-a-half-hour, 263-mile drive from her house in Marion to Gronstal’s in Council Bluffs to tell him about her decision and “look in his eyes.”
Gronstal told IowaPolitics.com that while his conversation with Dandekar on Thursday is private, “I’m saddened that she’s leaving. I don’t agree with her decision, but it wasn’t my decision to make.”
Dandekar, a scientist with a degree in chemistry, said the scientist in her thought it would be a great opportunity to serve Iowa in a different way. She said Iowa needs transmission lines, not just windmills.
She declined to speculate what will happen with same-sex marriage, state-funded preschool, tax cuts and collective bargaining should Democrats lose control of the Iowa Senate.
“I have taken a new position now, and I am going to focus on what is right for Iowans from a different point of view,” she said. “I am going to make sure we have affordable and safe and secure energy for Iowans.”
Rathje is first to announce candidacy
Mary Rathje, a Marion resident and member of the family who runs Rathje Construction Co., which specializes in trucking, hauling, grading, excavation and underground utilities, on Monday became the first to announce her candidacy for Senate District 18. She emphasized her business background.
“We need to complete the circle. Employers want to grow and hire employees, parents want stronger schools and jobs to pay their mortgages, and graduates want job opportunities in Iowa to begin their careers,” Rathje said. “Working daily in a family-owned business and raising kids in this community has provided me a strong perspective of the issues in the area.”
Cindy Golding of rural Cedar Rapids also announced her candidacy. Republicans will choose their nominee during a special nominating convention scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Longbranch Hotel in Cedar Rapids.
Democrats have not yet announced a candidate or scheduled a special nominating convention but have launched a website, keepthemajority.com, specifically for this race.
Gronstal on Monday downplayed the slight advantage that Republicans have in voter registration. As of Sept. 1, Republicans had 15,972 registered voters in that district, while Democrats had 15,759. Independents topped both parties with 19,873 voters, according to data from the Iowa secretary of state’s office.
“This is a highly competitive district,” Gronstal said. “We’re going to win this race. We’re not going to speculate about what might happen.”
Dandekar’s advocacy for nuclear power plant bill
Dandekar was the floor manager this year for Senate File 390 and House File 561, legislation that would have paved the way for MidAmerican Energy to build a second nuclear power plant in Iowa by allowing the utility to charge its customers up front for the potential construction of the plant. The Iowa House approved the bill 68-30, but Senate did not debate it.
The Iowa Utilities Board estimated the legislation would have increased customers’ rates by about $7 a month, or about 10 percent on an average bill of about $70.
Dandekar consistently has received campaign contributions from utilities, according to reports filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.
She received four checks totaling $1,150 between 2006 and 2010 from the Florida Power & Light, or FPL, Company Employees PAC. FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Fla.-based NextEra Energy Inc., which owns and operates five nuclear power plants, including the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo.
She also accepted seven checks totaling $2,850 between 2004 and 2010 from MidAmerican Energy Co.’s Effective Government Committee. And she received five checks totaling $2,150 between 2004 and 2008 from Alliant Energy’s Iowa Minnesota Governmental Action Committee.
But Dandekar said she can be fair, despite her advocacy for the nuclear power plant bill.
“I know that when you are looking at a given energy, you have to be fair and just. As a scientist, I can do that,” Dandekar said.
Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who served with Dandekar for two years in the Iowa Senate, said Gov. Terry Branstad appointed Dandekar to the Iowa Utilities Board because she’s the most qualified, not because the move could take away the Democratic majority in the Senate.
“Regardless of what the makeup of the Senate is, this administration is going to continue to do what we’ve done for the last year and a half, and that is to bring jobs to the state of Iowa, raise family incomes, put forth a reasonable regulatory environment,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the nuclear power plant issue must come through the Legislature before it goes to the Iowa Utilities Board. She said Dandekar understands Iowa must have reasonable electric costs for companies.
“I believe that Sen. Dandekar will have the best interests of consumers, as well as putting forth a low-cost energy policy,” she said.
Dandekar’s appointment is subject to confirmation by the Iowa Senate next year.
AARP Iowa was a vocal opponent of the nuclear power plant bill, because the group said it would increase customers’ rates up front to pay for pre-construction and construction of a potential nuclear plant, even if that plant isn’t built and costs increase. But the nonprofit, nonpartisan group that advocates for people 50 and older sidestepped any criticism of Dandekar.
Instead, AARP Iowa State Director Kent Sovern on Monday congratulated Dandekar on her nomination, said she’s served her constituents well. Sovern said said AARP looks forward to working with the three members of the Iowa Utilities Board “as they work to ensure that reasonably priced, reliable, environmentally responsible, and safe utility services are available to all Iowans.”
Gronstal on Monday appointed state Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, to replace Dandekar as chairman of the Iowa Senate Commerce Committee.
