Dems: Branstad to blame for flood damage
Democratic lawmakers said Monday Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad is to blame for the devastating flood damage in much of eastern Iowa — including on the University of Iowa campus — two years ago.
State Sens. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, and Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, spoke in Iowa City on Monday. They praised Gov. Chet Culver's flood-prevention efforts and aggressively blasted Branstad — Iowa's governor during record flooding in 1993 — for not doing enough to protect the state from extreme weather events.
"If there's one person more responsible for the flood damage in Iowa that we've suffered in the last decade than any other person, it's Terry Branstad," Hogg said. "He was the governor for 16 years, he had the recommendations on what to do to prevent future flood damage. He had his chance, and he failed."
The Branstad campaign dismissed the allegations.
"As Chet Culver and his cronies desperately try to change the subject from his failed jobs programs and decades-high unemployment, Iowans understand that we need a leader with the proven ability to create jobs and a real plan to do it," Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said this week.
Hogg carried with him on Monday a poster board-sized list of recommendations made to Branstad following the 1993 disasters. The three Democrats said Branstad ignored the proposals. By contrast, they said, Culver and Democratic legislators have successfully pushed for flood-protection infrastructure.
"These are ideas that were brought way back in 1993 but the state had no leadership to do anything with that," Dvorsky said. "And now finally with the I-JOBS program that was spearheaded by Gov. Culver and Lt. Gov. Judge and the Legislature, we're moving forward with [flood projects], and we're actually going to take care of it."
Indeed, flood prevention has been perhaps the most discernible priority of Culver's first term in office. His I-JOBS and Jump-Start programs have funneled millions of state dollars to projects for flood relief, cleanup, and prevention — including more than $15 million in Iowa City and almost $30 million in Coralville.
But those programs have also been one of the most fiercely contested items of the gubernatorial race.
The Branstad campaign has repeatedly knocked the Culver administration, saying I-JOBS in particular has racked up too much debt and done too little to soothe the state's unemployment pangs. Culver's office says the project will employ more than 23,000 Iowans this year and next, but Branstad says the $875 million program hasn't created any new jobs.
Branstad leads Culver in the polls by 16 points in the latest report from Rasmussen.
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