Mauro for Iowa Secretary of State

IN THE NEWS...

Courtesy: Des Moines Register - June 20, 2006

Hansen: Look beyond attacks to evaluate Mauro

By Marc Hansen, Des Moines Register

Here in Iowa, two farmers are running for secretary of agriculture, which makes sense. Farmers know more about agriculture than the rest of us.

If a farmer were running against, say, a podiatrist, you'd be tempted to make a lame joke:

"No, I said the nominee should know about corn, not corns."

The farmer would stomp the foot doctor.

In the race for secretary of state, however, a foot doctor is one of the candidates. Chuck Allison is his name, and he seems to know what he's doing.

In the Republican primary, he beat a former assistant U.S. attorney, Robert Dopf. For six years, Dopf was responsible for monitoring elections and prosecuting election-law fraud.

If you were a headhunter looking to fill the secretary of state job, Dopf would have to be one of the finalists.

So would Michael Mauro, the Polk County auditor who won the Democratic nomination.

Secretary of state isn't a ceremonial position anymore. The voter registration system flows out of one office now.

Mauro isn't a ceremonial public servant. He's been running elections for 23 years.

In a normal year, the elections pro would stomp the foot doctor. Maybe he will anyway, but this isn't a normal year.

In 2006, Mauro isn't just running against Allison. He's also running against the CIETC scandal.

Michael is the younger brother of John Mauro, who was a member of the CIETC board that approved those outrageous salaries and bonuses. Investigators are still trying to sort it out.

Michael Mauro, meanwhile, is guilty of being John's little brother. As Allison likes to point out, he's also guilty of accepting a $300 campaign contribution from Ramona Cunningham.

He also has a son who works for CIETC. And something else. Cunningham's daughter has an entry-level job in the election office.

Mauro can explain it. Brother John wasn't on the CIETC board when Michael's son Steve was hired.

Cunningham seemed on the up-and-up when he cashed her check.

Three people applied for the job Cunningham's daughter took. One was a school teacher who found a teaching job. The other was the child of one of the employees.

Has Mauro surrounded himself with fellow south-siders? Looks that way. Enough to be politically incorrect. Some are even friends whose names end in vowels.

But is it fair to saddle him with CIETC? I called some people who know Mauro, who work with him on election night.

I could have talked to some of Mauro's Democratic Party cronies, but what are they going to say? The man is evil?

Instead, I talked to Republicans who know him, who've worked with him, who've seen him in action.

I started with Dawn Williams, deputy auditor in Marshall County.

"Michael is one of the few nationally certified election administrators in the state," she said. "He knows elections inside-out. He's passionately involved in the election process - not the politics. He totally understands how important it is for elections to be nonpartisan. Here I am from a different political party, but he'll call me or I'll call him to ask about certain laws."

Williams didn't want to touch CIETC, but Dale Blair didn't mind. Blair, a longtime Republican activist, served four terms on the state central committee.

He's a former Polk County party vice chairman. Steve King is one of his good friends. Politically, that places him about as far from Mauro as he can get.

Blair has been sitting back, enjoying the CIETC mess, eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

"I see more developing," he said. "But knowing Michael the way I do, I sincerely doubt any of it's going to involve him. You can't tar him with the same brush you're using on his brother."

You can try. But will it stick?

"I've been working with Michael on elections a long time," Blair said. "Michael has forgotten more about elections and election law than Chet Culver ever knew."

Leave it to an old pro to sneak in a shot at the real enemy. That's when Blair told me about the time Mauro gave him a list of registered Republicans on election night.

"Several years ago, the precinct leaders were trying to call the voters," Blair said. "We couldn't get a decent list from the secretary of state's office. We called Michael, and he said he'd take care of it for us. He was under no obligation to do that. His list was more up to date. His IT people are really good about keeping up with the technology."

Some of those people, as it happens, are south-siders whose names end in vowels.

"If he wins," Blair said, "I expect him to be a very good secretary of state."

Then he laughed.

"But that isn't an endorsement."

Oh, I don't know.

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