Back to Partisanship
The Iowa General Assembly gavels back into session after nearly three months off due to the pandemic next week. The main thing they have to accomplish is getting a budget approved before the fiscal year begins July 1st.
Republicans have the majority in both the Iowa House and Senate and hold the governor’s chair. The session is scheduled to start on Wednesday, the day after the Iowa primary election. The idea was that politics can get taken care of at the ballot box and then the work of governing can begin.
Not so fast, as two Democrat house members yesterday called for an investigation into the Test Iowa program. It’s one thing to ask that a hearing be held, which is protocol, it is quite another to release the letter containing that request to the media so that the weekend heading into the primary, heading into the resumption of the session, you can have this rhetorical shot across the bow being fired.
Obviously I don’t expect the Democrats as the minority party to simply be silent about things and acquiesce to the will of the majority, just as I would not expect Republicans to be mute if the situation were reversed.
I do find it far more than a coincidence that the piling-on about this testing program took place when it did. Pretty strategically timed, and obviously I’m talking about it, which was their goal. Except I don’t think the tactic is appropriate given our overall situation at present.
I suppose in this time of uncertainty and change it is in some way comforting to know that partisanship has not left the golden dome in Des Moines. At least that’s the same.
