NIT poll: Readers think it was political payback when Branstad was named Band Fest Grand Marshall

NIT – Seemingly right in line with the dirty politics at play in Mason City, most NIT readers believe that Iowa Governor Terry Branstad was named Band Fest Grand Marshall as a political payback for a favor he did for Mayor Eric Bookmeyer.

Corrupt politics and dirty tricks by elected officials are nothing new in Mason City – especially over the past 4 years under the Eric Bookmeyer mayorship – and NIT readers seem to recognize this fact – although many do not seem to care, as evidenced by voting results in answer to the following question:

“Was Terry Branstad named Band Fest Grand Marshall as a payback from Eric Bookmeyer after he was named to the Vision Iowa Board?”

The majority of voters – 55 – said “yes”. (Each visitor is allowed just one vote in the poll.) Of those 55 votes, 28 say that Bookmeyer and Branstad are crooked and the scandals are out there to prove it. The rest of the 55 votes – 27 – are resigned to the sad state of affairs, agreeing “that is how politics work”.

Nearly as many – 45 – voted “who cares”, very much in line with the poor voter turnout that Mason City routinely experiences in local elections. Many people say that most Mason City citizens know they are getting bamboozled and run over by Bookmeyer and City Hall, but they refuse to stand up to it and find even a few minutes to go to their polling place.

Just 22 voters stood up for Bookmeyer and Branstad, claiming that naming Branstad as Band Fest Grand Marshall in an election year was just an innocent coincidence.

Mason City was in an uproar when the Chamber of Commerce – an ally of Eric Bookmeyer with hardly a shred of care for the common worker – named incumbent Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the Band Fest parade’s Grand Marshall, a move practically unheard of over the decades that the parade has been held. Rarely are candidates for public office named as Grand Marshall. Just prior to Branstad being named Grand Marshall, he announced that he had named Eric Bookmeyer to the Vision Iowa Board, which rates applications for economic assistance for projects from communities, and makes recommendations on how project terms should be negotiated and decides on funding.  Branstad named Bookmeyer to the board, despite hardly any new jobs or industry of note coming to town, while the city continues to shrink and lose population even as taxes and fees to the remaining taxpayers skyrocket.