False Impressions
Last week, the mayor of Iowa City issued a mask mandate for anyone in public in his city. He concedes there’s no punishment attached, so it’s pretty much unenforceable. And since a state law passed this year specifically prohibits cities from issuing such mandates, it’s pretty much illegal, as well.
The effort really lost steam when both the University of Iowa and the Iowa City school district indicated it would ignore the mayor’s order, in favor of following state law.
The formerly-mainstream media coverage of this, however, has been interesting. The AP, with others following, termed it a showdown between the Iowa City mayor and the governor, a challenge to her personally.
Yes, the governor has the right to issue an executive order overriding that new state law in times of emergency. But the factual reporting is that the legislature passed a law, and Iowa City is violating it. That has nothing to do with the governor…granted both chambers of the legislature are overwhelmingly Republican, and the governor is Republican, but voters made those choices.
The idea that it’s a ‘showdown’ with the governor is hype without factual basis. You can call on the governor to issue the executive order, as some have done…that’s also a form of grandstanding, but that’s different from flat-out disobeying a state law…and different from trying to make it personal.
Not surprising given that 2022 is an election year, and Democrats are facing an incumbent governor with solid job approval numbers, and without a strong candidate on their side to oppose her. Chalk this all up to early efforts to soften the governor’s support in advance of an election…but it needs to be called out for what it is.
