GOP asserts control over state's lawmaking agenda

By Rod Boshart and James Lynch, Gazette Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES — Monday was all about regime change at the Statehouse.

Republicans, who took control of the Iowa Senate and maintained sway in the Iowa House during the 2016 elections, realized the fruits of those labors with the swearing-in of new legislators and the start of a two-year run they pledged would bring major conservative changes to Iowans.

In an opening day marked by ceremony and speeches, Ankeny Republican Jack Whitver took the oath of office from Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady and accepted the gavel from Dubuque Democrat Pam Jochum to officially start the GOP takeover of the Statehouse and begin work with Gov. Terry Branstad to fashion a new budget plan and tackle an aggressive agenda.

'The first day of session is always my favorite day of the session because everyone is full of optimism. They have big plans and big dreams and big goals of what we can all accomplish in this upcoming session,' the new leader told a Senate now made up of 29 Republicans, 20 Democrats and one independent.

Whitver called on colleagues from both sides of the aisle to approach the session's scheduled 110 days by 'thinking big and acting bold.'

'When this session ends, let them say about 2017 that this was the year that changed everything in Iowa, that 2017 was the year that the economic revival started in Iowa,' Whitver said.

Across the rotunda, it was more business as usual as Clear Lake Republican Linda Upmeyer retained her speakership and Windsor Heights Republican Chris Hagenow maintained his role as floor leader of a 59-member GOP majority. Democrats hold 40 seats, with an open seat in Davenport to be contested later this month.

Upmeyer opened the session on a lighthearted note, drawing parallels with the start of a new year at school where everyone shows up in the best clothes full of hope, excitement and anticipation to greet old friends and to meet new ones.

'Things have changed here 'bigly,'' Upmeyer told a GOP breakfast fundraising event, drawing laughs for using a Donald Trump-ism for the term 'big league.'

Upmeyer's swearing-in ceremony as speaker was interrupted by a test of the state Department of Homeland Security's emergency public address system.

The same test interrupted Senate Minority Leader Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, during his opening remarks that called for bipartisan work to ban texting while driving and increasing the state's minimum wage without decreasing pay for workers in counties that already have taken action.

Hogg took the opportunity to blast what he considered shortcomings of Iowa's privatized Medicaid 'mess' and to warn against spending legislative time dealing with 'fake problems' like collective bargaining changes, defunding Planned Parenthood or 'fake people casting votes' in Iowa elections.

Hogg marked the start of the session by leading the Senate in a moment of silence to remember the passing of former Sen. Joe Seng, D-Davenport, who died last year and was replaced in a special election by Jim Lykam, who moved from the House to the Senate on Monday. Sen. Wally Horn, D-Cedar Rapids, marked the start of his 45th session by treating his colleagues to cookies.

In his opening day remarks, House Minority Leader Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown, referred to a passage from the Book of Isaiah: 'He gives power to those who have no might.'

'As the minority party in this chamber, the might that we bring to this body in this time and place is our voices, our ideas and our commitment to a better Iowa,' Smith said.

Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock also made a religious reference, telling fellow Republicans at their breakfast fundraiser the upcoming session is 'going to be fun, it's going to be challenging and we're going to need your prayers as well, because there are going to be some difficult times and difficult moments.'

Dix said solutions for problems that confront the state are 'growth, growth and growth.'

Branstad acknowledged he couldn't guarantee he'd still be governor by the time the final gavel falls, depending on the timing of his U.S. Senate confirmation of his nomination as U.S. ambassador to China.

'I'm excited that with the new leadership in D.C. and with what you're going to do here, that Iowa's going to come roaring back and good times are on their way,' Branstad told more than 150 attendees at the GOP session kickoff breakfast.

Bob Vander Plaats, who guides the Family Leader organization, sent an email to the group's members saying 'the next few months may be the best chance we have had to advance family values in Iowa since the 1800s.'

'Right now in Des Moines, a new Iowa Legislature is convening that is more united and open to making meaningful change than any we have seen in over a century,' he noted.

' ... On life, marriage, religious liberty, parents and schools, health care, finances, and more — the decisions made in the next few months will have a profound effect on you, your children, and your grandchildren.'

l Comments: (515) 243-7220; rod.boshart@thegazette.com