Krause criticizes Findley
KRAUSE CRITICIZES FINDLEY AS “POSTER CHILD FOR ANTI-GAY DISCRIMINATION”
Bob Krause today charged that Branstad’s appointment yesterday of Brenna Findley as his interim Chief of Staff “places the poster child of his campaign of discrimination against gays at the center of his administration.”
Krause said that as legal counsel for Branstad, Findley threatened Chris Godfrey, Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner, with a huge pay cut if he did not immediately resign. Then, he continued, she arranged to carry it out when he refused to resign. Godfrey is the only known gay appointed official in Iowa state government.
“With this appointment, Branstad says that gays are yet another group to which a cold shoulder should be turned in Iowa. Governor Branstad has shown a remarkable lack of sympathy to those that are discriminated against because of patterns they have little or no control of. The poor have often seen a short shrift, witness his veto of food bank funding. Immigrants get short shrift, witness his advocacy of racial profiling at traffic stops. And now, the gay community receives this very significant slap in the face! Governor Branstad, when are you going to stop this mean-spirited behavior,” said Krause.
Krause stated that in her role as staff legal counsel for Governor Branstad, Findley was chief enforcer against Workers' Compensation Commissioner Godfrey in a campaign to discredit and remove the only gay department head in Iowa state government.
“Godfrey was appointed to a six year term by Governor Culver in 2009; He had had no need to resign. He is the only gay executive in the Branstad Administration. A pending lawsuit alleges discrimination, and also alleges discrimination, sexual harassment and breach of contract against the governor and Findley. Legal costs to the state as of June were $460,000 and climbing. Although trashed by Branstad as ineffective, Godfrey has won high marks for the agency with a national Work Loss Data Institute, which named the Workers' Compensation Department under Godfrey as in the top 5 in the country. This fact alone proves that Branstad was actually after Godfrey for something other than incompetence,” concluded Krause.
Krause has an exploratory committee to seek the Democratic nomination for Governor. He intends to formally announce later in September.
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This is from an email I received. I have gotten to know Bob Krause over his last couple campaigns.
Bob is a true Democrat, a gentleman and does have some really good ideas. I doubt he is viable. He is often on top of issues like no other. Bob Krause will force others to answer on issues.
We could do much worse than Bob. I wish him well and I thank him for bringing up this issue.
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