Thursday, August 03, 2006

 

Cash gift to Culver by CIETC boss

Do you ever wonder what those CIETC executives did with their excessive salaries and bonuses? According to State 29 (and the Institute on Money in State Politics) a chunk of Ramona Cunningham's $360,000 went to Chet Culver's campaign.

Jim Nussle's call for an honest and transparent payscale for government employees couldn't come at a better time. While Tom Vilsack is doling out $59,000 "retention" bonuses to his failed pick for governor, Mike Blouin, and Chet Culver is cashing checks from the leader of the CIETC scandal, Jim Nussle is providing leadership and new ideas for Iowa.

One shouldn't be suprised to find Polk Co. Democrat Machine boss Micheal Mauro on the receiving end of what looks to be a donation from Charles Brooks, CIETC employee and brother of, you guessed it, Archie Brooks. Tom Vlassis, one of Archie Brooks' DM city council colleagues who has admitted he was "Rubber Stamp" on the CIETC board of directors, donated to Mauro's campaign. Mauro also appears to have received money from Vic Scaglione, one of his former employees in the Polk Co. Courthouse and a recent CIETC alumnus. Funny how that works out, eh?

Also, Chet had this to say to the Charles City Press:

β€˜β€˜One of the things we learned with CIETC is there were many conflicts of interest, there were cases of nepotism,’’ Culver said.

Does anyone else have trouble stifling themselves after reading that statement? As one whose DC-based father has raised most of his campaign money via out of state lobbyists and one who has accepted money tainted by the biggest corruption scandal ever to hit Iowa, Culver has no room to speak of nepotism or conflicts of interest. Shame on him.