Republicans Claim Victory on Prevailing Wage

Iowa Republicans weren't doing cartwheels in the house chamber today. But they're definitely starting to claim victory now that the statehouse sleepover is over. Democrats had said they'd end the weekend-long drama at 1pm Monday if no one had switched from "yes" to "no" on the bill. No one did. Perhaps, appropriately, as this has all turned out, nothing happened at 1pm.

House Speaker Pat Murphy called the house into order (he added, "I hope you all had a good night's sleep", which drew some chuckles from lawmakers) and closed the voting. He adjourned the session...until today (technically, it was still last Thursday in the house) and called it at "1:08"pm, although my phone said it was 1:10pm. But what are two minutes among friends?

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy switched his "yes" vote to "no". That allows them to bring them bill up again later, hoping the second time around will help them find that elusive 51st vote to pass it.

I wasn't in on the gaggle of reporters surrounded Murphy after the session adjourned. But Radio Iowa's Kay Henderson reports Murphy says his "Irish temper" may have gotten the best of him Friday after he found out he lacked the one vote he needed to pass prevailing wage. That's why he apparently staged the sleepover all weekend long, in the hopes of a vote change.

Republicans have their "message" set on what's happened.

Here's the release from House Republicans:

Taxpayers Victorious Over Prevailing Wage Bill

(DES MOINES)—67 hours after the Speaker of the House decided to leave the voting machine open, House File 333 has officially been defeated.

On Friday, lawmakers debated the bill for five hour debate. On the final vote, five Democrats joined Republicans in opposition to the bill. House Democrats’ took unprecedented measures to strong arm the organized labor bill through the Iowa House. When Democrats did not receive the number of votes they needed to pass the bill, they announced they would be leaving the voting machine open for the entire weekend.

Monday, the Speaker closed the machine and the bill failed with a final vote of 49 to 49.

“I’m pleased the will of Iowans triumphed and sank House File 333 which would have raised property taxes, hurt disaster victims, and put small town contractors out of business,” said House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen. “While Iowans were victorious today, it is my hope that we will not see any version of this bill in the future. Even amended, this bill will hurt Iowa’s economy and raise taxes. Republicans instead believe it’s now time we start focusing on how to put 80,000 Iowans back to work, how to energize our economy and how to cut government spending to balance our budgets.”

During the weekend, the voting machine shut down three times. House Republicans took turns maintaining a presence in the House, watching the voting machine.

Here's the one Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn sent out on Twitter:

Iowans, way to make your voices heard as prevailing wage fails. must stay vigilant on this and rest of jobs-killing agenda.

Prevailing Wage Debate Friday

Today is Friday. And apparently the Iowa legislature will work today. Friday. The controversial prevailing wage bill was supposed to get debated Thursday. But leaders say since it took so long to draft and ready amendments for the bill, they had to quit for the night without debate last night around 10:30. Even if you are the most casual follower of the Iowa statehouse, you know the legislature doesn't work at the statehouse on Fridays. Almost never, actually. Perhaps, one or two Fridays per session? And usually it occurs at the end of the legislative session as lawmakers try to finish up the budget or whatever issue needs final work.

Legislators are only about a third of the way through this legislative session. So why are Democrats pushing so hard to get this prevailing wage debate finished this week? Why can't it just wait until Monday afternoon, when lawmakers usually go back into session for the week? What's the rush? Republicans have maintained this whole debate is just a "thank you" for unions for helped Democrats win big in last November's election. Republicans say this thank you will cost you, the taxpayer, millions by jacking up construction costs of public projects. Democrats say this is a fairness issue. They say it will stop project builders from screwing over workers by classifying them as "independent contractors", which gets them out of paying benefits, decent wages, etc.

Critics would contend the Democrats may think they have the votes to get prevailing wage passed in the house today, so they're trying to get this thing passed a.s.a.p. That way they don't risk losing support when members go back home this weekend and get hounded by constituents' phone calls and complaints at the grocery store. Last I heard, Democrats were thinking they had 51 votes in the house. So a swing of one or two lawmakers would doom the vote. That's why critics say the Democrats don't want to wait until Monday for a vote.

If this prevailing wage bill really would make life better for Iowans (that is why lawmakers work for the taxpayers, right?) as Democrats contend, then don't Democrats owe it to Iowans to explain why this bill warrants the work today? Friday.

The man from Hope thinks President Barack Obama needs to give us all a little more hope. Former President Bill Clinton told ABC he thinks a little more happy talk will lift our spirits. What do you think? It worked for Ronald Reagan, right?