March 18, 2024

Top four reasons to vote for Branstad

Kathy Tipton

Newton

1. Tax payers must reimburse two DOT workers for their wrongful firings ($420,000). And another $150,000 if the state has to pay their legal expenses. These firings took place two years ago. Administrative Law Judge Wilson ruled that the supervisor had concocted a string of falsehood, half-truths and "egregious lies" to fire the two DOT workers. This supervisor is still employed, and Branstad won't say whether the supervisor was even disciplined. However, the two DOT workers said that before their cases went before Judge Wilson, the state tried to buy their silence. Offering them a cash settlement, payable only if the two agreed never to discuss their claims publicly Kim Reynolds was involved in this fiasco also.
I love being harassed in the workplace. It makes for a shorter workday — vote for Branstad and this is what you get.

2. Branstad is being sued by former Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey for discrimination. Godfrey was serving a six-year term and did not have to resign when Branstad came to office. Because Godfrey wouldn’t resign when Branstad asked him to, Branstad cut his salary by $40,000 and claimed Godfrey wasn’t performing his job duties. Because Branstad tried to bully an employee to resign from employment, taxpayers have spent more than $500,000 in tax dollars on a lawsuit.

I love fun and games in the workplace. Just the kind of place I want to work. Vote for Branstad and this is what you get. Remember Branstad wants to bring our youngest and brightest young people home to Iowa. What fun we can have bullying them.

3. Branstad ignored state law by closing the Iowa Juvenile Home after the Legislature appropriated money for it. This closure came after the disclosures of abusive practices there involving the isolation of girls. Everyone knows girls are more trouble than boys. Vote for Branstad and we don’t have to worry about these girls anymore.

4. The state’s Department of Natural Resources failed to adequately enforce environmental regulation on livestock farms to the point where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency threatened to take over protecting Iowa waterways. I love dirty water and the smell from confined feeding lots for animals. Vote for Branstad if you like polluted water and that lovely smell from the countryside.

Don’t you just love a governor that will stand up and violate the laws? Vote for Branstad and this is what you get. I can’t wait to vote.