Groups Plan Anti-King Rally Outside Shuttered IWD Center Tuesday

Representatives of labor unions and political actions groups plan to rally outside the shuttered Iowa Workforce Development office in Ames today to expose Iowa Congressman Steve King's “anti-middle class voting record,” organizers said.

The rally begins at 11 a.m.

King, R-Kiron, currently serves Iowa's 5^th District and is running for the newly drawn 4^th District which now includes Ames.

King didn't have anything to do with closing the workforce development office at 122 Kellogg Ave. in Ames, but organizers said that King's vote for the Ryan budget bill, is analogous to Gov. Terry Branstad's decision to close 36 Iowa Workforce Development offices when Iowa's unemployment rate is the highest it's been since the Great Depression, said David Patterson, a regional communication specialist for American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees. (AFSCME)

The Ryan budget bills have included proposals that cut social programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and provide tax cuts to American's most wealthy, critics have said.

“Why are some legislators trying to provide cuts for the wealthy when unemployed and underemployed need the help,” said Juli Probasco-Sowers, a communication specialist for American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees Council 61. (AFSCME)

The union is helping set up the rally but Probasco-Sowers doesn't plan to speak there.

“It's a rally about the choices our leaders are making on what to spend our tax dollars on and who to take those tax dollars from,” she said.

Should it be from the people who are just trying to get by or from the people who are making the most money, she said.

They want King to support the Buffett rule that President Barack Obama has proposed, which would ensure millionaires pay taxes at a 30 percent rate.

The Republican Party of Iowa sent out a message on the Buffett Rule Monday.

“There is one thing you need to know about President Obama’s Buffett Tax – it won’t help a single Iowa family find a job. The facts are simple, President Obama has once again chosen politics over fixing the economy,” said Iowa GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker in a prepared statement.

The U.S. Senate has already rejected the plan.

A message sent by King's campaign to Ames.Patch.Com in response to the rally said that King understands how to create jobs.

“Job creation is not a partisan issue. It's about getting the tax and regulatory burden out of the way of the entrepreneurs who put Iowans to work. Congressman King wants to close tax loopholes and simplify that tax code. As the founder of small business, he understands what is necessary to help create jobs,” the campaign wrote.

AFSCME's Danny Homan filed the lawsuit against Branstad for his veto that closed workforce development offices.

Though the State Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the governor still won't provide resources to reopen the offices, Patterson said.

A Des Moines Register editorial said that a most unemployment claims are filed outside of an office anyway and having several offices might not make sense but they also said that the kiosks used in their place need to be in working order. A few of them including some in weren't working as reported by Jason Clayworth in this story here.

About five people are expected to speak at the rally, including ISU Student Abhisek Vemuri. Another of the speakers is Daniel Noonan, who worked for the Ames office before it was closed. He now works in Des Moines and said in a prepared statement that he was upset to see his boss refuse a pay cut and upgrade a bathroom while field offices were being closed across the state.

Another is Kasey Friedrichsen of Denison, a workforce development employee who was laid off and is now running for the Iowa House District 18.