Christian Fong

Sustainability is a buzzword for the Gen X and Millennial generations.  Does it mean managing the risk of “non-sustainable” practices in energy use, environmental policy and the balance of urban and rural growth?  Sure, and states have stepped into those issues with various goals and mandates.  But at what cost?  Notably, Chet Culver created the goal of an energy-independent Iowa, and committed hundreds of millions of dollars, in grants, tax credits, mandates and regulations to get us there.  With that price tag, it is worth remembering that sustainability also applies to the cost of public finance.  By the middle of August 2010, public pension funds were facing a hole in their funding of $1 to 3 trillion 

That’s the gap between assets and the promises made to retirees.  (A hole?  More like a sinkhole swallowing up anything built on it!) It is irresponsible to not take care of the world around us.  It is similarly irresponsible to think that we can drive ourselves into bankruptcy in an attempt to do it.  Sustainability requires that we say, “How are we going to afford this in the long-term?

I just finished a splendid book called “The 1,000 Year Flood” by Stephen Lyons about the Cedar Valley’s Flood of 2008. (Link to it is in main blog post.) It describes in detail about the first year of flood recovery.  It is hard to recommend a book that describes events in which I played a role, but I do anyhow. The book stands out to me for its handling of two topics:

1) The human impact of the Flood of 2008.

2) The disconnect between the "official facts" and ground-level truth. ...

Bad law enforcement provokes behavioral changes. Take traffic cameras’ affect on a local economy.

I grew up a bit southwest of Underwood, a small Iowa town located just north of Council Bluffs.  Folks in that area often work in downtown Omaha, the jobs hub of that metro area. There are three choices to get downtown. 

1) The shortest way. Cut through Council Bluffs, directly down Broadway, and go over the I-480 Bridge into downtown Omaha. The direct, quickest route also was very handy for quick stops at the grocer, the gas station or the dry cleaner on the way home.  They lived and died by the commute traffic.

On May 14, the Generation Iowa Commission, on which I’ve served since its inception in 2007, presented an annual update on Brain Drain at the Iowa Department of Economic Development.  First, the bad news: Iowa lost 7% of its 25-44 year-old population between 2000 and 2008. The flight of our next generation is particularly pronounced in Iowa’s rural areas and smallest towns (down 16%) and our small cities (down 12%). But even our urban areas had a 2% loss. Outmigration is concentrated among our most educated, with the percentage of Iowans with advanced degrees plummeting to eighth worst in the nation. Simply put, our overall ability to attract and retain college graduates has flat-lined.

Brain Drain is a symptom of a broader economic development problem. ... There are glimmers of hope. Namely, the counties containing Des Moines, Iowa City and Ames have shown growth in the key 18-44 year old demographic. (Linn County is unchanged and all other urban counties have lost population.)  Community leaders can look at common strategies from these growing cities.  ...

Recent Republican poll numbers are a bit like being ahead by a touchdown in the first quarter of a football game.  It’s a great start, but there’s way too much time on the clock to get comfortable.  Winning in November is going to require perfecting a play that Republicans have not executed in decades: Winning the Next Generation vote.

Elections are determined by the success in turning out supporters through traditional get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts and in winning self-described independents.  Next generation voters are both the new frontier of GOTV and the bulk of truly undecided / independent voters.  In 2010, candidates who engage and win the next generation will guide us into the next decade....

I posted my 2009 campaign finances report yesterday, as required.  There's no pass for suspended campaigns, which meant some late nights of data entry.  Still, it is fun sport for 24 hours to "geek out" over who raised what money, from whom and from where.  Texts arrived teaching me a new shorthand, COH = cash on hand.  I have almost none, which should not be a surprise for a suspended campaign!  It is posted, and kudos goes to the first person who can figure out my campaign budget for coffee.  It had to be sizable, as it is the vice that I picked up on the campaign trail. 

Why the emphasis on campaign finance transparency?  We know the history of corrupt politicians and their friends using campaigns and governing as a way to obtain power and line their pockets.  The intent to stop that behavior is right, and transparency is the right thing.  Iowa needs to go further.  I reported contributions; government should detail revenue (keeping personal information hidden of course). I reported spending...

Just past Thanksgiving, and I am 56 counties into my tour of Iowa.

County GOP fundraisers are a great way to do well by doing good. Some competitors of mine skip these events. On one hand, it’s hard to blame them. It is much easier to sit down over a steak lunch in Des Moines and ask for a $5000 donation than to spend six hours on the road, speak 10 minutes, and roll quietly into the driveway past midnight. But that’s just not the way to meet the activists of the party, understand what Iowans are concerned about, sense the subtle regional differences and (for what it is worth), learn to really nail the laugh lines in a stump speech. The audiences are generally friendly, even the Democrat operative who consistently follows us around to videotape, hoping one of the candidates will make an embarrassing, sleep-deprived mistake. The venues are nearly always cramped, with organizers scrambling to find extra chairs, thus reminding me that politics is, in a way, Iowa’s state sport. The food? Not surprisingly, it is consistently pork

Ringgold County
I went to Ringgold County to see how small-town Iowa can thrive.  Iowa’s small towns are pillars in my economic development plan and my 2020 Vision plan for Iowa.  As Governor, I’d fight relentlessly for their future.

Redding, Iowa is barely four miles from Missouri, and might as well be a million miles from the power lunches and elite circles of the big city.   Common sense and homegrown Iowa values are the core of people’s character.  Last Wednesday, Tracee and Steve Knapp were gracious hosts for the evening house party, after being my tour guides through Mount Ayr in the afternoon.

This is first-name sort of country.  So to Russ, who heads up the school district, and to Gordon, the hospital administrator, and to Larry and Todd, who are building a wind-energy business that will soon employ 100-150 people, I say thank you.  Thank you for tours of facilities and for showing how small towns work best.  Thank you for collaborating together to create such a dynamic town. 

Mount Ayr, the county seat of Ringgold County, the second smallest population county in Iowa, will make it.  If state leadership in Des Moines will stop getting in the way, that is. 
In Mount Ayr, local businesspeople, having been turned down by Des Moines’ economic development bureaucrats said, “Who needs them?  We’re going to build a business anyhow.”  Kudos to Heartland Energy, which through determination and technical innovation, refused to believe they would lose.  This up-and-coming company will soon employ 100-150 people. 
The schools are wireless, accommodating the “1-to-1” plan where every middle schooler gets a laptop.  Superintendent Russ Reiter’s kids have closed the digital divide and are trained to win in the Internet age.  The elementary school is putting the finishing touches on a dedicated science lab, which will host kids from around the region, showing how great resources can be shared, rather than duplicated.  The best and brightest kids in the world are coming from Iowa due to these efforts.

Ringgold County
I went to Ringgold County to see how small-town Iowa can thrive.  Iowa’s small towns are pillars in my economic development plan and my 2020 Vision plan for Iowa.  As Governor, I’d fight relentlessly for their future.

Redding, Iowa is barely four miles from Missouri, and might as well be a million miles from the power lunches and elite circles of the big city.   Common sense and homegrown Iowa values are the core of people’s character.  Last Wednesday, Tracee and Steve Knapp were gracious hosts for the evening house party, after being my tour guides through Mount Ayr in the afternoon.

This is first-name sort of country.  So to Russ, who heads up the school district, and to Gordon, the hospital administrator, and to Larry and Todd, who are building a wind-energy business that will soon employ 100-150 people, I say thank you.  Thank you for tours of facilities and for showing how small towns work best.  Thank you for collaborating together to create such a dynamic town. 

Mount Ayr, the county seat of Ringgold County, the second smallest population county in Iowa, will make it.  If state leadership in Des Moines will stop getting in the way, that is. 
In Mount Ayr, local businesspeople, having been turned down by Des Moines’ economic development bureaucrats said, “Who needs them?  We’re going to build a business anyhow.”  Kudos to Heartland Energy, which through determination and technical innovation, refused to believe they would lose.  This up-and-coming company will soon employ 100-150 people. 
The schools are wireless, accommodating the “1-to-1” plan where every middle schooler gets a laptop.  Superintendent Russ Reiter’s kids have closed the digital divide and are trained to win in the Internet age.  The elementary school is putting the finishing touches on a dedicated science lab, which will host kids from around the region, showing how great resources can be shared, rather than duplicated.  The best and brightest kids in the world are coming from Iowa due to these efforts.

All of us celebrate the heritage of another land in some way. We called our grandfathers "Opa" or "Bestefar" or "A-yea". We drink coffee from Latin America, tea from Asia, wine from France or beer from Germany. The different ways we talk, dress, eat or worship tell us things about each other that help us better understand each other. Better communicate with each other. And because Iowans are committed to put others above ourselves, those things help us better serve each other. They make us better neighbors.

Immigration should not divide us.

We look different from each other. People judge by outward appearances, but it is the heart that matters. Whether you are from a multi-generational family on a Century Farm, or a new Iowan, at the heart of what makes an Iowan are the same core values of hard work, loyalty, neighborliness, faith and family.

On Oct. 16, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad resigned as president of Des Moines University and announced he was officially exploring a run for governor. Would his candidacy be good for the Iowa Republican Party? Two Opinions writers weigh in.

Tonight I reached the final day of my seventeen city tour.  Small groups, with the completely unpredictable questions that come from individuals, are a wonderful part of an active campaign.  It is grassroots at its best. Public sector leaders joined in - state legislators, past mayors, county supervisors, school district superintendents.  Community leaders came – county GOP central committee, TEA party members and pastors.  And hundreds of regular, hard-working Iowans, all concerned with the direction of Iowa and our state government.

To those that came: Thank you.  Thank you for caring enough to take a valuable hour to join a discussion about the future of Iowa, and to hear my vision of where we can go together.  Thank you for spreading the word about my candidacy.  I saw several emails that went from one person to another, forwarded on until they reached my campaign staff, who then passed them to me.  I’m excited about how many signed up to support the campaign in various ways, often with sacrificial gifts of time and money.

I’m from the small town of Underwood, Iowa.  Cradled into the Loess Hills, it is a typical small Iowa town, with regular, hard-working families.  It’s the Iowa I know.  But the Iowa that the state government knows apparently looks more like Hollywood than Underwood.  Tax credits for new luxury cars?  Last second deals funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to film producers?  Par for the course in Des Moines these days.  Here’s the story, as the Des Moines Register broke it:  http://tinyurl.com/mz3hap 

Truth be told, we all like to see Iowa portrayed in a positive light on the big screen.  We like seeing our local artists have opportunities.  It is why the Iowa Film Office exists.  But there’s a time and a place, and 2009 was not it.  We’re a state recovering from the second largest natural disaster in US history, and in a year with yawning structural deficits and plunging revenues plugged by $830 million of ill-advised, long-term bonds.   Hollywood tax credits are a very low priority.

It’s been reported that total film tax credits now total about $300 million, with $208 million just discovered spent in May and June 2009 alone.  Here’s the problem:

Today the nation is remembering the events of September 11, 2001.  The emotional scar is still tender, eight years later.  Most remember exactly where they were, how they found out, and what their initial thoughts were. 

That morning, I had come in early to work at AEGON, putting the finishing touches on a bond offering that we hoped to get to the printer so that the “red” version, an unofficial marketing document, could be distributed to most of the major financial firms in the nation.  The lawyer marking up the document worked in the World Trade Center’s south tower.  So when the Bloomberg, the main news service for financial professionals, flashed “Small plane hits WTC” on the wire, I groaned, thinking it would simply delay the lawyers.  It took only minutes for the truth to be known.  America was under attack.  I immediately contacted my wife, whose day as a teacher had not yet begun. 

Everyone has a similar story.  We all remember the horrific and the heroic events, and also the pain and pride of our response. 

Stamped in my memory is the power of strong leadership.  I remember looking out the office window and seeing a lone jet, streaking across the clear blue Iowa sky from the west.  There was only one plane of that sort in the air, and it is hard to overstate the comfort of knowing Air Force One was headed home.  President Bush and his team showed great courage to get on a plane, even when Washington D.C. was being targeted. 

Our reaction, as a nation, was similarly strong.  We were united in purpose.  We spoke with one voice, and supported our leaders in their difficult decisions, made without precedent and without adequate knowledge to do a full analysis.  We allowed our elected officials and military commanders to provide strong leadership.

We did not choose to be attacked.  We never do.  But we do choose our leaders, and in moments of peril, we count on them to exhibit courage and sound judgment. 

Eight years later, we must refuse the temptation to make self-interest and crass political calculation the bedrock of our leadership process.  Instead, we must remember that the higher priority is great leadership.   We still need strong leadership.  We need it at the national level, the state level and the local level.  We need it in our homes and our churches, as much today as on September 11, 2001. 

I salute the men and women, in all walks of life, and especially our armed services, who have continued to keep America safe and strong since then.