Kim Reynolds clearly has earned her wings

Those of us waiting to watch Gov. Kim Reynolds ride into the sunset when her term expires next may need to look toward the wild blue yonder.

Will she see us waving from 15,000 feet? Probably not.

In case you forgot, our governor loves to fly. She just likes to be up there, where the air is rarefied, her destinations rarely clarified. She soars above all the little people.

But sometimes, airborne adventures lead to bad headlines.

This past week, the Des Moines Register reported that Reynolds has been using an Iowa State Patrol airplane to get around. The paper notes that her predecessor and mentor, Terry Branstad, believed such executive air travel was a waste of taxpayer dollars.

But Branstad didn’t have COVID relief dollars to spread around. That’s what the Department of Public Safety used to buy its 14-seat Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, the Register reported. The department made two payments to an Oregon outfit that sold the plane — $2.3 million in December 2024 and another $2.3 million in September 2024.

How many planes did the state buy? It’s unclear, according to the Register.

The state justified the purchase by insisting the plane would be used to cover the “demands of conducting aerial searches for missing people, locating fugitives, providing surveillance during criminal investigations and documenting crime scenes,” the Register reported. It would also help catch speeders.

There was a spike in speeding tickets during the pandemic, don’t you know?

According to the paper, the list of uses later grew to include “Executive transport.”

If the plane needs a name, like a B-17 bomber back in the day, it could be called “The Ribbon Cutter.”

The Register cross-checked flight records with the governor’s schedule. It appears she flew to Waterloo and Bettendorf for ribbon-cuttings. She visited the University of Northern Iowa for a tour and a basketball game.

Reynolds took a trip to Sioux City in January, where she took a gander at student-built homes. But there was still plenty of time for endorsing U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson at an event at the Orpheum Theatre.

Sure, sometimes a governor must fly, especially when time is of the essence, such as after a natural disaster. Did the governor break any laws? Nope.

But using COVID relief funds to buy a plane looks shady. Was that the best purpose for millions of dollars meant to help Iowans and their communities recover from a public health emergency?

And it’s not the first time Reynolds’ administration has been called out for how it spent COVID funds from the federal government.

In December 2020, Reynolds had to pay back $21 million in COVID funds that her administration misspent on a new computer system.

In December 2021, State Auditor Rob Sand urged Reynolds to return $450,000 from COVID funds she used to pay 21 members of her staff.

In 2023, Republicans who run the Golden Dome of Wisdom, now redder than a flush of embarrassment, thanked Sand by passing a bill curtailing the auditor’s authority to investigate state agencies. Reynolds signed it into law.

Republicans accused Sand, who is running for governor, of playing politics. Whatever his motivation, at least Sand was trying to provide some semblance of executive-branch oversight.

Legislative oversight has vanished during the past decade. Nobody is asking any questions that might make the governor look bad. Even if they need to be asked.

No majority Republican lawmakers asked the governor to appear before the House or Senate Government Oversight Committee to explain misspent COVID funds. No lawmakers, it seems, had any questions about how Reynolds used broad executive authority to steer Iowa’s response to the pandemic.

In 2023, legislative leaders refused a Democratic request to hold even one Government Oversight hearing on life-threatening issues plaguing Iowa nursing homes. Not even grandma or grandpa could break through the red shield protecting Reynolds.

So, lawmakers who are supposed to be working for us have, instead, been running interference for Reynolds. Nothing to see here. Move along.

And Reynolds has risen above it all. But these are not the first gubernatorial flights that raised questions.

In June 2017, Reynolds defended her use of a jet owned by Gary Kirke, a casino developer who had a license application before the Racing and Gaming Commission. The governor appoints the commission.

Also in 2017, Reynolds flew with her family to watch Iowa State play in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on a plane owned by Sedgwick. That’s a Memphis-based company that handled worker’s compensation claims by Iowa state employees.

Reynolds said she got approval for the flight from a state ethics watchdog. And the Cyclones won the game 21-20. Does it get any better?

Candidate Reynolds loves to fly even more than Gov. Reynolds.

According to campaign finance filings, Between 2017 and 2025, Reynolds’ political benefactors, let’s call them Friends of Kim, FOK, provided more than $500,000 in flight costs as in-kind contributions to her campaign.

The list of generous travel agents is a who’s who of top FOKs.

There’s David Barker, who Reynolds appointed to the Board of Regents, leading him to a job in Trump’s Ministry of Campus Indoctrination. Not the official name. His total in-kind flight donations between 2017 and 2022 topped $90.000.

Bruce Rastetter, of carbon pipeline fame, is on the list. So are hog barons Jeff and Deb Hansen. Christopher Risewick, founder of Seneca Companies, a petroleum equipment manufacturer, and Shari Horner, whose late husband Robert Horner owned Des Moines Asphalt and Paving, were very generous.

There’s nothing quite like quality face time with the governor while airborne. That’s the sort of access you give a FOK.

Again, all perfectly legal. But the flight donor list tells you a lot about who Reynolds has listened to and who benefits from her policies. Captains of industry, Kings of corn, water polluters, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion bashers and income tax cut enthusiasts.

And without proper oversight, the governor has the freedom to do what she wants and doesn’t have to worry about facing tough questions. She’s learned well from emperor Trump, whose power flows from the cowardice of Republican politicians who won’t stand up to him. Attack your critics and stack your administration with loyalists and sycophants who will defend every action.

In January, Reynolds will leave office and take a trip to someplace, hopefully far from the levers of state power.

But if she’s no longer governor, how can she get a plane?

Don’t worry, the FOKs are on it.

(319) 398-8255; todd.dorman@thegazette.com