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Iowa Sen. Tom Courtney, D-Burlington, wasn’t necessarily surprised when a letter critical of him appeared in the Burlington Hawkeye. The newspaper, as far as he knows, prints “pretty much every letter they receive” and criticism, he says, is just a part of political life. While he found the content of the letter questionable, it wasn’t until he read the name of the author that he began to realize there might be more at play than constituent disgruntlement.
The letter, which painted Courtney and a former local official as being anti-business, appeared Tuesday, Nov. 20, on the paper’s website. It was signed simply: “Brent Oleson, Marion.”
Oleson, an attorney by trade, does maintain a residence in Marion with his family. As he points out in the letter, he grew up in the community and is a graduate of Burlington High School. What the letter and his signature fail to disclose is that he is also the administrative assistant to the highest ranking Republican member of the Iowa Senate, Ron Wieck of Sioux City. Previously, he worked for Mary Lundby of Marion, the former Senate Minority Leader.
Four days earlier, a similar letter appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, also signed “Brent Oleson, Marion,” but this time critical of Rep. Swati Dandekar. That letter accused Dandekar, a Marion Democrat who has announced she will seek Lundby’s vacated Senate seat in the next election, of engaging in double talk.
While there is no rule that prevents legislative staff from writing letters to the editor, it is not a typical or general practice and has generally been frowned upon.
“At a minimum it is deceptive,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal in a phone interview Tuesday. “It is unfortunate for the Republican side that their new leader has indicated that he is all politics, all the time. The day he won the title of minority leader, he said, ‘Our sole goal has nothing to do with changing policy. It all has to do with getting a majority.’ His statement was that he was going to play politics all the time and that he wasn’t going to work on moving Iowa forward.”
Wieck, whose own website highlights his agenda to return Republicans to the majority, maintains he neither knew nor approved of the letters written by his assistant.
“Someone had mentioned to me about the first letter — I believe in the Cedar Rapids Gazette — that it was in there,” he said by phone Tuesday evening. “But I’m not sure why you are calling me. [Oleson] has a right to his personal opinion and his own time. He doesn’t ask me if it is okay if he writes to the editor and I’m not even sure what’s in the letters.”
Oleson returned a phone call, but chose not to make public comment.
Courtney said that when he read the letter, which claimed he yelled on the floor of the Iowa Senate that he was tired of protecting small business, he found it “appalling.”
“When I came into the Iowa Senate, I began working — almost daily — for an increase in the minimum wage,” he said.
When he first came into office, the Senate was Republican controlled. A few years later, Senate was evenly split — 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. Only in 2006 did Democrats win majority.
Courtney said he worked throughout his tenure to pass legislation that would raise the minimum wage in Iowa. During the time when the Republicans had a majority, he said, none of his proposed bills gained traction. When the Senate was split, he worked to hammer out a compromise, but Republicans still took offense with the proposed bill and refused to pass it. The statement in the letter referenced his remarks as floor manager of the minimum wage increase that passed during the 2007 session.
“Every day — during the time that we were evenly split — I would bring it up,” he said. “And every day they would say no. Knowing that an increase might be a strain on some small businesses for a short time, I proposed amendments that would protect those businesses. Still, the Republicans said no because they were not interested in doing anything with the minimum wage.
“When we won majority and I was floor managing the bill, they starting bringing amendments up — I don’t know how many exactly — but some of them offering the very things that I’d tried to compromise on before. These were the very same things that the Republicans had voted down previously when they had the numbers to do so.”
When then Senate Minority Leader Mary Lundby attacked Courtney for refusing to help small business, he said that he made the statement which led to the quote in Oleson’s letter.
I told Lundby that I’d been working this bill for four years and that I was sick and tired of hearing about small businesses,” he said. “I told her that she had never wanted to hear about small businesses before, when I had compromises, and that we were now going to run this bill as it was in our packet. That’s what I said. I wasn’t yelling and I wasn’t screaming.”
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