A top legislator says Governor Chet Culver was “active” behind the scenes in trying to get a union-backed bill passed in the Iowa House this weekend. 

“He did give 100 percent on this one,” House Speaker Pat Murphy of Dubuque said of fellow Democrat Chet Culver.

Murphy said Culver visited some of the bill’s supporters before votes were cast, and then Culver talked with some of the five Democrats who made the crucial “no” votes that helped kill a bill that would have required workers on taxpayer-funded construction projects be paid the “prevailing wage” in the country. ”He worked with legislators on this bill. He was willing to work on compromises to see if we could get the bill passed,” Murphy said Monday afternoon. “His role was very active, much more active than it was a year ago.”

Last year, Culver drew the ire of unions when he vetoed a bill which would have expanded the topics government workers who are union members may bring up during contract negotiations. Murphy spoke with reporters earlier this afternoon, moments after he declared the “prevailing wage” bill had failed to pass the House by a 49-to-49 vote. House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines switched his vote from yes to no, a parliamentary move that gives McCarthy the ability to bring the bill back up for debate if one of the legislators who voted “no” changes their mind.

Murphy was philosophical about the situation. “You’d better get used to winning and losing in politics,” Murphy said. “That’s part of the process here.”

But Murphy did admit his decision to keep the House voting machine open all weekend — just in case someone changed their mind — was a snap decision. ”I really just had my Irish temper up and I wanted to pass the bill, so I decided I’d sit here all weekend,” Murphy said. “I’m not saying I’d do it again, but I don’t have any regrets about it.”

Murphy told reporters the bill’s defeat does not derail the bill permanently, nor does it mean Democrats will table three other labor-related bills that unions hope pass the legislature in 2009.

The speaker of the Iowa House says he has not talked with five fellow Democrats who voted "no" on a union-backed bill on Friday.

House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque, kept the voting machine open all weekend so it was frozen in time with 50 "yes" votes, one short of what’s needed to pass a bill. "We were letting those groups that want the bill to lobby people to see if they could pick up that one extra vote," Murphy says.

The bill that’s in limbo would require a county’s "prevailing wage" be paid to those who work on construction projects that are financed by tax dollars — on the state, county, city and school district levels. "When you’re talking about raising people’s wages, especially during tough economic hard times, I don’t see what the problem with that is," Murphy says.

Murphy plans to shut the voting machine down at one o’clock this afternoon and then House committees will be able to start meeting. "I thought it was important to give this bill as long of a possible hearing as I could," Murphy says.

On Friday evening, Murphy asked the bill’s floor manager to stick around Des Moines so he could pass off the duty of sitting in the chair when he needed to sleep or take care of other business. But about half of the Democrats in the House stuck around the statehouse this weekend to take a turn sitting in the speaker’s chair. As a result, Murphy looks well-rested on Monday morning. "I’ve been here most of the weekend, but two of the three nights I’ve been able to sleep in my legislative bed — not my home bed (in Dubuque); my home bed’s the best — but where I stay here in Des Moines, I’ve been able to sleep the last two nights there," Murphy says.

While Murphy will announce the bill has failed early this afternoon, he plans to employ a parliamentary move which means the bill can easily be brought up again for House debate — just in case one of the five Democrats who voted no changes their mind. "I’m still keeping my fingers crossed," Murphy says, "but we’ll see what happens."