Larry McKibben

Governor Terry Branstad has named the owner of a Waterloo construction company and a former legislator to serve on the board that governs the three state-supported universities.

Former State Senator Larry McKibben of Marshalltown and Milt Dakovich – the president of Aspro, Incorporated, an asphalt paving company — begin their terms today and will be at tomorrow’s Board of Regents meeting in Iowa City as voting members.

McKibben attended all three universities, getting an undergraduate degree from the University of Northern Iowa, serving as a graduate assistant at Iowa State and earning his law degree from the University of Iowa.

“I’m very interested in the cost of education for young people today,” McKibben told Radio Iowa this morning. “I suspect because of my background of growing up on a farm and working my way through college, going seven-and-a-half years to school and coming out without debt, it’s kind of painful to see what’s going on with young people and the stresses that they’re having.”

Dakovich earned degrees in civil and construction engineering from Iowa State University and is a past president of the Associated General Contractors of Iowa.

Milt Dakovich

“The Regents are going to be doing a billion dollars worth of construction in the next five years,” Dakovich said this morning during an interview with Radio Iowa. “That’s one area where I feel like I can be of some value to the Regents at this time.”

McKibben will be one of four lawyers on the board.

“Obviously the Regents have their own legal counsel, as do the universities, but I think it does give me the experience to communicate with them and understand the language of the contracts,” McKibben said. “I certainly think that will be helpful.”

The children of both men have attend the universities and back when Dakovich was a college student in the 1970s, he served as the iconic, symbolic figure for the university.

“I was Cy. I was the mascot when I was at Iowa State,” Dakovich said. “I had a lot of fun at that.”

Dakovich and McKibben fill terms Branstad originally planned for two other men to serve, but the two nominations fell short of the two-thirds majority needed in the state senate to win confirmation to the board. Dakovich and McKibben must win confirmation from the state senate next year to continue on the board. McKibben, who served in the senate from 1997 to 2008, said he respects those decisions and has no qualms about facing a senate confirmation hearing next year.

“You be honest and you be straightforward and you be open and, in my estimation, things will work out,” McKibben said this morning.

Dakovich has a similar view.

“I don’t have any concerns about that at all,” Dakovich told Radio Iowa. “I’ll bring to the table what I am and what I’m about and that’s all I can do.”

If the two men win senate confirmation in 2014, their terms will end on April 30, 2019.

Bob Vander Plaats

A leading Iowa Christian conservative is calling for senators to vote again on the nomination of a man Governor Branstad had asked to serve on the Board of Regents.

Robert Cramer, president of the Iowa Family Leader’s board of directors, lost his confirmation vote in the senate Monday.

Bob Vander Plaats, The Family Leader’s chief executive, held a news conference today to call for a re-vote.

“It is more than disturbing to see the senate, controlled by the Democrats, to deem him unfit to serve on the Board of Regents,” Vander Plaats said. “…They deemed him unfit because he holds to some core standards, some core values, one of them being that he believes marriage is the union of a man and a woman.”

AUDIO  Vander Plaats news conference 12:00.

Vander Plaats said Democrats have imposed an unfair “litmus test.”

“I think all Iowans should be concerned,” Vander Plaats said, “that there should be a cautionary flag raised about what is going on here.”

According to Senate Rules, a re-vote could have been scheduled if a senator who voted against Cramer on Monday had filed some paperwork by Tuesday night calling for another vote, but that didn’t happen. Vander Plaats is not convinced.

“I do believe, as a matter of fact if you read the statutes that surround this, I think there’s plenty of gray area, where (Senate Democratic Leader Mike) Gronstal and Branstad could find a remedy,” Vander Plaats said. “It might be as easy as Branstad saying, ‘I’m going to reappoint (Cramer) and you guys reconsider him.”

According to the governor, that’s not an option.

“You know the rules and I know the rules,” Branstad told reporters early this afternoon. “…I don’t think that’s possible.”

Branstad beat Vander Plaats in the 2010 Iowa Republican Party Primary for governor. Cramer backed Vander Plaats in that race, yet Branstad asked Cramer to serve on the Board of Regents. The governor also asked Board president Craig Lang to serve another six-year term. Both Lang and Cramer lost confirmation votes in the state senate Monday.

“I was very disappointed with the shabby way that both Craig Lang and Robert Cramer were treated,” Branstad said. “We, you know, made a valiant effort.”

Branstad notes both men got “yes” votes from a majority of the 50 senators, but the people Iowa’s governor nominates to state boards and commissions have to win a two-thirds majority of 34 senators. Lang fell four votes short. Cramer was seven votes short. Branstad said Cramer’s background as a construction company executive would have been helpful as the state universities embark on major building projects.

“I don’t think a religious litmus test ought to be imposed on people,” Branstad said. “And I think people ought to be judged on their experience and their ability and I think that Robert Cramer was very well-qualified to serve.”

According to a key senator involved in the debate over Cramer’s nomination, even if a re-vote were taken, the outcome would be the same.