Fred Hubbell
The man who won the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor Tuesday is snapping back at Republican Governor Kim Reynolds assertion that he’s too wealthy to know what it’s like “to balance the family checkbook.”
Fred Hubbell spoke with reporters late this morning.
“How well has she balanced the state’s checkbook? What do you think about that?” Hubbell asked. “She had a $900 million surplus four or five years ago. Now she owes $144 million. That’s a pretty bad balancing job.”
Hubbell ran Younkers Department stores in the mid-1980s and is the former president of the Des Moines-based insurance company his great-great-grandfather founded.
“We’ve all balanced individual checkbooks,” Hubbell said. “I’ve balanced a lot of corporate checkbooks as well as individual checkbooks and I don’t think I’ve ever missed a budget anywhere close to what she’s been missing with the state budget.”
Reynolds told a group of cheering supporters last (Tuesday) night that Hubbell has no idea what it’s like not to be rich and she will make that an issue in the campaign.
“You don’t necessarily have to have been through all the same experiences to understand and to care about people. We all have different experiences…That doesn’t mean that we can’t related to each other, we can’t understand each other and have a committment to improve what needs to be improved. That’s the issue,” Hubbell said. “…Is she a governor who’s going to make the tough decisions to take money away from these short-sighted, wasteful corporate give-aways and, instead, invest money in the people of our state? And I’m going to do that.”
Hubbell contributed $3 million of his own money to his $7 million primary campaign effort, making it clear he’ll spend more if it’s required to be competitive in all 99 counties this fall. Reynolds suggested last night that Hubbell thinks the governor’s office is “for sale to the highest bidder.” Hubbell told reporters today he’s gearing up to focus on issue comparisons rather than personal checkbook comparisons with the governor.
“If she has nothing better to talk about, then she can talk about that, but we’re going to talk about her record. I would hope she would want to talk about her record, defend her record,” Hubbell said. “Tell Iowans what she’s gone for them because we’re going to talk about it and I think she’s probably afraid to talk about her record and that’s why she’s getting into the personality clashes right away.”
Hubbell told reporters he is narrowing his list of potential running mates, but gave no clues as to who is on it or if he will reveal his choice before the Democratic Party’s state convention June 16.