IOWA INSIDER

DES MOINES — U.S. Rep. Steve King, who announced Thursday he would not run for governor, said any successful GOP candidate will have to support amending Iowa’s Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“Iowans want to know where their governor is going to stand on that issue,” King said.

The four-term Republican from Kiron ended speculation Thursday that he would join the gubernatorial race, saying he wanted to concentrate on his work in Congress.

Weighing on his decision not to run for governor, King said, were cap-and-trade and health care reform legislation pending in Congress, both of which he opposes and said will be irreversible policies.

“I just have an obligation to do my job as well as I can now, and the bottom line is, we’ve got to get it right in Washington or it won’t matter if we get it right in Iowa,” King said.

But King, a conservative from Iowa’s 5th Congressional District in western Iowa, is stressing the importance of the marriage issue in next year’s race against Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.

“There is no logical argument to handing this decision over to the courts,” King said.

The Iowa Supreme Court paved the way for same-sex marriages in the Iowa with a unanimous decision this spring that found Iowa’s ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional.

Opponents of same-sex marriage want to change Iowa’s Constitution, but Democratic leaders in the Legislature have so far thwarted efforts to put it on the ballot before Iowa voters.

King said he doesn’t expect he will endorse a candidate in the GOP gubernatorial primary but wouldn’t rule it out. He called the GOP contenders “competent” and “capable,” and said he wants to see plans from them on how they would put the state’s budget back on track.

The GOP candidates so far include Rep. Christopher Rants and businessman Bob Vander Plaats, both of Sioux City; Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong; Iowa Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton; Rep. Rod Roberts of Carroll and Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone. Former Gov. Terry Branstad has said he is considering running.

“All the candidates that have stepped forward have a solid set of values, and they’re all far more fiscally responsible than we see in Terrace Hill right now,” King said.

He noted that if Branstad decides to get in the race, it would mean a pay cut for Branstad, who serves as president of medical school Des Moines University.

“I think it would be a completely altruistic move on the part of Terry Branstad if he would step forward and run for governor, and I think it would cause some of the other candidates to take a close look at whether they would be able to have a chance to win the nomination,” King said.

Colleague Rod Boshart of the Cedar Rapids Gazette covered AFL-CIO President John Sweeney at the Iowa Federation of Labor convention today. This is his account —

Democrats who control Congress and the White House have to pass meaningful health care reform this year or face a long wait before the opportunity comes again, a national labor leader said Thursday.

John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, told Iowa union members he is confident that quality, affordable health care legislation will get passed but, if it stalls, labor’s working family agenda will be jeopardized and Democrats would face “devastating losses” in next year’s election.

“We have a Democratic president in the White House, we have leadership of both houses of Congress — shame on us if we can’t reach an agreement on national health care reform,” Sweeney said in an interview following his speech to the Iowa Federation of Labor convention.

“I think we’re going to get national health care reform,” said Sweeney, 75, who plans to retire in October after 14 years at the AFL-CIO national helm.

“If we don’t get national health care reform, the whole agenda is threatened,” he added. “This is a historic opportunity and if we don’t get it now, it would be years before we would be able to bring it back. So we’re firmly committed to doing our damndest to get these major pieces of legislation.”

The approaching end of the congressional August recess will mark the “end game” for determining who wins the health-care battle — working families or the insurance companies that he contended “call all the shots now,” he said.

“The bottom line is that people have to realize that it’s us against the giant insurance companies,” Sweeney told his Iowa audience. “We have to insist that Congress put patients and our doctors in charge of health care and bring the insurance industry under control.”

A defeat of health-care reform likely will mean that unions won’t be able to pass their Employee Free Choice Act legislation, he said. Without that, he said, it will be difficult for President Obama to turn around the economy and make it work for everyone.

“And, if we don’t turn around the economy, we can’t turn around our country,” Sweeney said. “The entire Obama agenda will be in shreds and we will suffer devastating losses in the 2010 elections.”

Sweeney said it appeared momentum for health-care reform had stalled in the early stages of the August recess, but he credited the labor movement with getting things back on track by providing “the backbone for our health care crusade” by “taking on and taking down the right wing-nuts” that were turning town meetings into shouting matches.

RIVERSIDE – Iowa communities and developers hoping to open a new casino will have more time to complete their applications for a new gaming license after members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission agreed today to extend the deadline.

Commissioners originally had set a deadline of Oct. 1, but pushed it back to Nov. 9.

Commission Chairman Greg Seyfer said potential applicants indicated it would be difficult to have applications prepared by Oct 1.

One of the issues in the delay was financing details of the casino proposals.

Seyfer said banks and financial firms are now requiring 50 percent equity, far more than five years ago when the commission last took applications for gaming licenses.

“From what we’re reading, what we’re hearing from outside sources, financing right now is very difficult,” Seyfer said.

The commission will try to establish guidelines in the coming weeks describing the financing information they will be seeking from applicants, Seyfer said.

Five counties have passed referenda allowing gambling and are expected to file applications for a casino license. They include Lyon, Franklin, Tama, Wapello and Webster counties.

The commission today also laid out a possible timeline for considering new licenses.

In March, applicants will have a chance to give 45-minute presentations selling their casino projects to the commission during a meeting open to the public.

In April, commissioners will have a chance to visit the proposed casino sites. A public hearing also will be held in April or May to allow comment before commissioners make a decision on granting new licenses. Specific dates could be finalized at the commission’s November 12 meeting in Johnston.

Before the commission makes a decision on new licenses, they will receive background investigation reports from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which will occur in a closed meeting.

Once applications are submitted, no changes to them will be allowed except for those requested by the commission. Applicants and their representatives are prohibited from contacting commission members before a decision is made.

“That just leads, I think, to a more fair, open transparent process and … I think it develops some level of trust in the process as well,” said commission Administrator Jack Ketterer.

Commissioners already have said they will be considering the findings of two studies of Iowa’s gaming market and the revenue potential of each proposal. Some commissioners have expressed concerns about whether new casinos will take revenues away from the 17-state licensed casinos already operating in Iowa.

Total revenues for those casinos were down slightly last year, dropping $2.56 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Total revenues were $1.412 billion.

In other action today, the commission sought to quash the idea that it might support a second casino in Polk County, a plan that has been abandoned by local leaders.

Commissioner Kate Cutler said the commission believes no precedent exists that would allow for it.

“It looks like that issue should be put to rest,” Cutler said.