Iowa Sen. Nate Boulton (D-Des Moines) Speaks. Running for Governor?

Captions: 1. Iowa Senator Nate Boulton (D-Des Moines). 2. Iowa Senator Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City), assistant majority leader of the Iowa Senate.

Iowa Senator Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City) introduced Senator Nate Boulton (D-Des Moines) at the Sanctuary April 28, 2017, Friday evening. It was a rainy, cold evening but the event was well attended. We invited Britton, a 24-year-old, politically active and knowledgeable man from Henry County, to join us at our table since he looked lonesome at his table. He said he didn’t know anyone. We had a lively discussion about Iowa politics. It turned out that both he and I initially caucused for Martin O’Malley for president in 2016. I had to switch (to Bernie Sanders) because O’Malley didn’t achieve quorum at Mercer Park. We both know Ben Kramer, one of O’Malley’s campaign workers and a friend of O’Malley’s son.

Sen. Bolkcom was pleasant, respectful, and tolerant, qualities I find unusual in Johnson County Democrats, who tend to be ingrown and hostile to anyone who varies from the prevailing groupthink.

Joe introduced Sen. Nate Boulton, who is thinking about running for governor in Iowa.

Boulton has strong credentials in that he comes from a working class family with a union background. He has a law degree and is a workers’ rights attorney. He’s a disability attorney. He also represents clients seeking workman’s compensation, clients seeking redress for sexual harassment on the job, and he helps union organizers intimidated, harassed, and fired by employers.

He’s young and he obviously has a fire in his belly. Joe Bolkcom didn’t describe 2017 as “the worst legislative session ever” for nothing. Public employees were stripped of their collective bargaining rights in an unequal manner. Public safety employees kept more of their bargaining rights than public school teachers, but the Republicans' method of identifying who was a public safety employee and who wasn't was illogical and, in my opinion -- and not just in my opinion, unfair. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has filed a lawsuit over the separation of public employees in groups, some of which have more bargaining rights than others. The Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), the state's largest teachers' union, also filed suit since they lost almost all of their collective bargaining rights and they, too, feel the process of dividing public employees into groups is unfair and illegal.

“The Iowa Senate has been a dark place,” Boulton stated, “but we have spines of steel. We fought hour after hour. Public employees have been disrespected. Democrats fought all night long. The minimum wage was decreased in counties that had raised the minimum wage (beginning in Johnson County) back to $7.25 an hour. Worker’s compensation rights were diminished.

“A bill was signed to protect asbestos abusers.”

My sister, Kristin Houser of Seattle, is an attorney in an environmental law firm that sues companies that kill their employees by exposing them to asbestos. Often she takes depositions from former employees as they are dying from mesothelioma, a disease contracted by exposure to asbestos. Asbestos abusers are killers.

http://sgb-law.com/attorneys/k...

Boulton went on to say, “The abortion law was also mean-spirited. Resistance isn’t enough. Democrats need to have a vision. Iowa has the most educated, skilled workers in the world, yet we’re underfunding our educational system. We’ve devalued our education. There are no short-term gains but there are long-term costs.

Boulton disapproves of the privatization of Medicaid. He said that providers are going out of business because they aren’t getting paid, they aren’t being paid enough, or they aren’t being paid for 270 days. (Privatized Medicaid managers have denied so many claims to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics that UIHC administrators are alarmed. Smaller hospitals and providers are closing or have closed.)

At this point, Sen. Boulton opened the floor to questions. Jim Conzemius, my husband, asked about IPERS. He said he’s worked 27 years as a public employee and he’s worried about IPERS, his retirement pension.

Boulton replied that Iowa Republicans are looking at IPERS and that Jim should be worried.

“Iowa Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald says IPERS is solvent,” Boulton said. He seemed to imply that the Republicans are looking to break something that doesn’t need fixing.

In response to other questions from the crowd (standing room only), Boulton said that he’s working with AFSCME to figure out a plan to provide mental health care to the most severely mentally ill.

“We overpopulate our prisons when we defund mental health.”

As for global warming, “Iowa’s been a leader in alternative energy.”

I was sold. Boulton sounded like the real deal. And I trust Sen. Bolkcom’s judgment.

Sen. Nate Boulton isn’t taking donations yet. He’s still not officially running for governor, but I sure hope he does.