Iowa Republicans meet more opposition at Cedar Rapids event

CEDAR RAPIDS - Lawmakers here on Saturday were met with the same fiery opposition that Gov. Terry Branstad saw in Iowa City last week.

A handful of Republican legislators hosted an event in Cedar Rapids, hoping to glean suggestions from local business leaders. However, about half the community members speaking at the event criticized what they said were anti-labor and deregulation efforts by the GOP. The dissent was mostly non-disruptive, but at least one community member engaged in a shouting match with the lawmakers over who was allowed to speak at the event.

Organizers with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement said they were “providing a real alternative to the GOP's pro-corporate agenda.”

“We're flexing our statewide muscles at every one of these hearings to set the record straight,” Citizens for Community Improvement organizer Adam Mason said in a statement. “This isn't about the size of government. This is about corporate accountability and reining in corporate power. Everyday Iowans want a strong and effective government that works for us and puts our interests before the interests of Branstad's big-moneyed corporate donors.”

The group has crashed more than a handful of Republican events in the last few weeks and even confronted Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley at his office in the statehouse last month.

Protesters were also on hand to meet the governor during a trip to Iowa City on Thursday. Demonstrators wielded signs at the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce event and disrupted Branstad's remarks, criticizing Republican legislation that weakens public employees' collective bargaining rights.

One legislator at Saturday's event in Cedar Rapids said he's receptive to the complaints, but that this wasn't the best forum for them.

“My job is to listen to all my constituents and weigh the options of what the people in my district want,” said Sen. Tim Kapucian, R-Keystone. “I can understand their concerns with what's happening across the country, but our focus in this tour is not on labor issues. It's more about the small, nitpicking regulations.”