GOP chairman says Democrats are twisting his words on collective bargaining

DES MOINES - A Republican whose support for Iowa's collective bargaining law frequently is cited by Democrats has called on them to stop misquoting him.

'Don't speak for me. I can speak for myself,” Jeff Kaufmann, a former state representative and now chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, said in an email read during House debate Wednesday by his son, Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton.

The younger Kaufmann read the comments from his father during the second day of debate in the House and Senate on House File 291 and Senate File 213, respectively. The identical bills would take away public employees' bargaining rights, according to opponents. Majority Republicans call the changes necessary to restore local control to local government officials.

Rep. Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines, and other Democrats have cited a comment Kaufmann made in a March 2008 newsletter to constituents in defense of Chapter 20, the public employee collective bargaining law.

Hunter, Kaufmann said, 'is deliberately misquoting me and he knows it.”

In 2008, the elder Kaufmann said the Iowa 'collective bargaining laws have always been a balance between employer and employee; management and labor. When legislation happens without any input from the minority political party or the affected citizens, bad things are bound to happen.”

That's the argument Democrats, now in the minority, are making today about House File 291, which they say would take away most public employee bargaining rights.

Democrats say the legislation was written without any input from them or representatives of public employee labor unions.

Those comments were about 'the egregious steps of the Democrats in 2008, including Hunter, when they dropped a shell bill before Easter and only presented the strike after amendment, which was the real bill the day of debate,” Kaufmann said

'I wished the Democrats would have this passion then,” Kaufmann said in his email.

'I am a public sector employee,” added Kaufmann, a professor at Muscatine Community College and a member of the Cedar County Board of Supervisors. 'I am in bargaining unit. I am a teacher for over 25 years.

'Listen carefully: This is a good bill and one that is good for Iowa and good for Iowa students,” Kaufmann said.

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