Cedar Rapids bash to raise money for Culver portrait

CEDAR RAPIDS - Friends of former Gov. Chet Culver are hosting a holiday gathering next month in Cedar Rapids.

'It's been 10 years since we won” the 2006 election for governor, Culver said Monday. 'It will be fun to get friends and supporters together back in Cedar Rapids.”

Typical of political events - even those featuring former politicians - the Dec. 10 celebration at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library is a fundraiser. Culver is not planning another campaign but wants to retire about $24,000 in debt from his unsuccessful 2010 re-election campaign.

He also wants to raise money for his official portrait to hang at the State Historical Building.

'I really want to get that done in terms of checking it off the list of unfinished business,” said Culver, 50.

Rather than use tax dollars for his portrait, money from the holiday gathering - suggested donations are $250 per couple and $150 per individual - is to be used to commission the artwork, said Ann Poe, a Cedar Rapids City Council member who worked in the Culver administration's Rebuild Iowa Office after the 2008 flood.

Nothing appears to legally bar the use of tax dollars to commission portraits, but Leo Landis, curator of the State Historical Society of Iowa and State Historical Museum, said raising money privately has been the practice.

For example, Gov. Terry Branstad's 1998 portrait - after he left the governor's office the first time, was completed through the Iowa Utilities Association.

'My understanding is that (the Historical Department) has never had a formal process and thus never budgeted from general appropriations or as a special appropriation,” Landis said. 'No one has been wanted to be known as the first governor to request tax dollars to cover the cost of his portrait.”

Poe, one of several event hosts, wouldn't say how much a portrait of Culver may cost. A 3-by-4-foot oil portrait of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack by Rose Frantzen of Maquoketa, who Culver would like to commission to paint his portrait, cost the USDA $22,500.

Raising funds for his portrait is something he would have done had he served a second term, Culver said.

'We didn't plan on losing, so it wasn't something we did while we were there,” he said. 'But it's OK. People have been very generous and I'm looking forward to a fun night, to look back on some good times and celebrate the recovery in Cedar Rapids.”

The event was planned with the former Democratic governor's ties to Cedar Rapids in mind, Poe said.

Although a Washington, D.C., native, Culver's grandfather owned Culver Motors in Cedar Rapids and his maternal grandparents were public school teachers in Cedar Rapids. His father, John Culver, represented Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa in the U.S. House from 1965 to 1975 and served in the Senate from 1975 to 1981.

In the two years after the 2008 flood, Culver made more than 100 visits to Cedar Rapids, which benefited from several recovery projects paid for through the state's $830 million I-JOBS infrastructure program.

Culver's wife, the former Mari Thinnes, is from Marion.

The holiday bash is to include a roast of the former Iowa Secretary of State, who became president of the YMCA of Greater Des Moines earlier this year after working as a consultant since his 2010 defeat.

'I'm enjoying getting back to service,” he said. 'It's a nice way to re-engage in important public policy discussion.”

Donations to the Chet Culver Committee may be mailed to 2560 Country Club Parkway SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com