After Action on a Third Special Election in Iowa
by Paul Deaton
“The Johnson County special election may be a bellwether for what to expect in the 2010 general election campaign.”The Iowa Democratic Party noted Janelle Rettig’s election win on January 19 as follows, “Congrats to Johnson County Supervisor-elect Janelle Rettig! Democrats are 3 for 3 in special elections in Iowa!” Rettig deserved the victory in the special election for Johnson County Supervisor, as she had the best qualifications of the three candidates. The Democratic wins in House District 90 (Curt Hanson) and House District 33 (Kirsten Running-Marquardt) were also positive accomplishments for Democrats. We should not put a hash mark on our sleeve and move on just yet.
Johnson County has seen the rise of a Republican Party flush with resources and energy. The Johnson County special election may be a bellwether for what to expect in the 2010 general election campaign. In some ways, this election was about the return of a family from Florida: Thomas and Lori Cardella.
What does the return of the Cardellas from Florida to start their second contact center company, Thomas P. Cardella and Associates, in 2007 mean to political life on the Iowa prairie? It has meant a significant influx of money and resources for the Johnson County Republicans and their issues.
The Thomas P. Cardella and Associates press release on April 24, 2007 tells their recent story, “In 2000, Access Direct (founded by Cardella in 1995) was named as the 8th fastest growing privately held company in the United States by Inc. Magazine… That same year, Mr. Cardella sold Access Direct to IAC/InterActiveCorp (IAC). In January 2003, IAC asked Mr. Cardella to run a company based in Plantation, Florida, that employed 12,000 worldwide.” By many standards, Cardella has been a successful businessman. According to public records, the Cardellas own million dollar homes in Johnson County, Iowa and Broward County, Florida. They have been generous financial contributors to capital projects in the Solon, Iowa area and donors elsewhere. According to Lori Cardella, their new company currently employs about 800 people in Iowa and is growing.
Where the Cardellas intersect with progressive politics is in two notable political campaigns they have launched in Johnson County. One was in opposition to the $20 million Conservation Bond in 2008. The other was petitioning for the special election to fill the Johnson County Board of Supervisors seat vacated by the death of Supervisor Larry Meyers and then running Lori Cardella as the Republican candidate. Neither campaign proved to be viable. Both reflected the deep pockets of the Cardellas and their willingness to spend tens of thousands of dollars of their own and taxpayers’ money on their political initiatives. They were also evidence of a developing network of Republican activists in the area. One can expect to see more of the Cardellas in 2010 as Lori Cardella indicated that she would run for the Johnson County Board of Supervisors in the Republican primary and general election.
Because of the short cycle of the special election, Cardella as candidate was not fully vetted in public discourse. There was discussion of her Florida driver’s license and auto tags and disclosures that she voted in Florida while she and her husband lived there. From public records, the Cardellas claimed a homestead exemption on their residence in Florida. While no evidence was presented about their personal income taxes, if I were them, I would have established residency in Florida to take advantage of the fact that Florida does not tax personal income. If Cardella had made full disclosure of these things during the campaign, they may have been a less significant issue. Instead, she asserted repeatedly that she had been a 17 year resident of Johnson County, equating owning a home with residence. This issue beat the drum among Rettig supporters.
There was discussion of some videos in which Cardella appeared and were posted on YouTube and other internet sites (including this one). Like the residency issue, these would have been a non issue for her campaign if Cardella had owned up to them and embraced what she had done as a political activist. Instead, when questioned about them during the campaign, the videos were pulled from the original posting sites.
One believes, from the action of removing the videos, that Cardella felt the images of her opposition to the health care bill and satire regarding President Obama would have polarized the electorate. They may have revealed Cardella as more closely aligned to the Republican Tea Party movement than to the centrist Johnson County residents she needed to vote for her to win the election. In the end, it didn’t matter. Cardella garnered 3,762 votes or 47% of the number of petition signatures she submitted to hold the special election. These videos may have been a non-issue for Cardella if her campaign had merely ignored them, or if she had addressed them for what they were in her public statements.
Finally, if Republicans in the state use the messaging of Cardella’s campaign, that they are a minority party and a victim of the “Democratic machine,” then progressives will cake walk through the next election cycle. The avoidance of substantive issues by candidate Cardella is a key reason for her defeat in the special election. When we look at the other two special elections, this notion of “victim of the Democratic machine” seems peculiar to the Cardella campaign. Supporter Deborah Thornton was among those who expressed the importance of “minorities” in a letter to the editor published on December 17, 2009 in the Daily Iowan. While the notion that framing the Republican minority as victim may help progres
sives, in the end the Cardella supporters’ usage is a corruption of what it means to be a minority. Even if the characterization were accurate, like almost everything else the campaign did, it served no tangible purpose.
One is skeptical of the meaning of the Iowa Democratic Party’s exuberance in counting the Janelle Rettig victory among its 3 for 3 wins. The 2010 elections will be hard fought and extremely challenging for incumbents. What will remain true is that the Republican Party will continue to have members with lots of money to contribute to stirring up public debate and pursuing fringe issues.
As long as Republican candidates mistake the voices of their friends as the “will of the people,” as Lori Cardella did during the special election campaign, progressives in the state will have hope.
~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County. Checkout his blog, Big Grove Garden.
E-mail Paul Deaton
Blog For Iowa 