Sylvia Piper had an open letter published in the Des Moines Register and other Iowa papers recently. She submitted it as head of Disability Rights Iowa, a privately run, federally funded advocacy agency. Among other things, she wrote because of Governor Branstad’s “political choices, people are suffering and dying on a regular basis in Iowa’s nursing homes.”
Hers were harsh words, to say the least, and they upset a few people. Branstad’s chief of staff, Jeff Boeyink was among them. Boeyink was so upset he began a self-described “fact-finding” mission the very morning the letter appeared.
If you are hoping Boeyink wanted to get to the bottom of Piper’s accusations – to find out whether her statements were rooted in reality or political fiction – you are going to be sadly mistaken. A guy in Boeyink’s position in 2011 wastes little time wading into the muck of public policy. Job one is to protect yourself by silencing the critic. Even if the claims are flimsy, responding will likely take investigation and that might occasionally reveal actual problems. Such things are much easier handled without loudmouth detractors looking over your shoulder. Boeyink did what political operatives do; he went after Disability Rights Iowa’s federal funding.
Lost in nursing home politics, nursing home residents
Boeyink did not succeed (yet) in pulling the group’s funding, but Piper has been fired and the group has disavowed her comments out of fear of backlash from the Governor. Boeyink earned his pay. That is if one holds a vastly different view of government service than do I, but I digress.
The morning Piper’s letter ran, Boeyink ripped off an Email to his counterpart in Congressman Tom Latham’s office, James Cartensen. He sought a phone conference between Cartensen, Branstad’s general counsel and himself to discuss Piper’s group. Cartensen agreed, but Boeyink’s use of his private email account to contact Cartensen caused Cartensen to suggest they use one number if the call was official and another if it was non-official. Boeyink said since the topic was the group’s federal funding, he assumed it would be considered official. That was a good decision by Boeyink. (I plan to revisit his use of a private Gmail account in a later column. In the meantime, the entire exchange can be found here.)
Boeyink, Cartensen and one of Cartensen’s colleagues continued to correspond through Boeyink’s Gmail address for two weeks. They discussed Disability Rights Iowa’s nearly $400,000 annual federal funding, or ‘a good chunk of change’ in Cartensen’s words, and what options Branstad had ‘to move this function elsewhere.’ OK, Branstad should know his options, especially if he considers the advocacy group is not discharging its duties.
The problem? In the weeks which have followed, in all of the news stories reporting comments made by Branstad’s staff about this, never once has a staffer suggested Disability Rights Iowa was not discharging its duties. In fact, the Administration has hardly mentioned nursing home care at all during the fracas.
In the first Register news story about Piper’s letter, Governor Branstad’s spokesperson was quoted saying, “Gov. Branstad is proud of the work Rod Roberts (head of the department) has done to correct the mismanagement of the previous director at the Department of Inspections and Appeals.” He went on to say budget problems had been rectified and inspections were ahead of schedule. He bashed the previous administration, but said nothing about nursing home conditions.
Unsurprisingly, Democratic operatives took the reigns of the partisan bandwagonyesterday accusing Branstad of decreasing protections for Iowa’s seniors. Branstad’s spokesman was undeterred. He called the charges “a typical, baseless political attack from an opposing political party that ignores facts to instead lob up sophomoric and untrue allegations.” Again saying nothing about what Branstad is doing to protect seniors.
Sylvia Piper lost because she allowed emotion to overshadow what might have been a reasoned argument about what the Governor of Iowa could do to protect Iowa’s nursing home population.
Governor Branstad lost when his staff decided to engage Piper on her turf. Branstad is covered in the rancid mud of politics. Had he ignored the incendiary aspects of Piper’s letter and focused on the few specific and quantifiable charges she leveled, Piper’s credibility would have been largely diminished. Instead, Branstad’s staff ignored the message and went after the messenger. They look petty. Worse, the Branstad response gives credence to Piper’s charge the governor’s political agenda is more important to his team than protecting some of Iowa’s must vulnerable citizens.
Iowans lost the most in this sad exchange.
The best way for a governor to to silence his naysayers is to do the job he was elected to do, let his work and decisions define his ability to lead and leave the political mudslinging to those incapable or disinterested in making Iowa the great place candidates talk about on the campaign trail. Doing otherwise will cause one to look as ‘sophomoric’ as those who let emotion cloud the issue in the first place.
Governor Branstad would be wise to take a good long look at how his administration communicates with the people they serve. Before doing so, they may want to examine their priorities.
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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.
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