House Speaker Pat Grassley says it’s too soon to define the working relationship Republicans who’ll control the legislative branch of government will have with Democrat Rob Sand, who’ll take over as governor on January 15th.
Grassley, though, says Sand has made some hyper partisan statements, like promising to have veto ceremonies if Republican lawmakers enact bills on cultural issues. Republicans who were re-elected to the House met privately Friday at the Iowa Capitol and re-elected Grassley as their leader.
Democrats won 11 seats that have been held by Republicans for the past two years — but Republicans retained majority control of both the Iowa House and the Senate. After a Democrat was elected governor of Wisconsin, that state’s Republican-led legislature immediately took steps to limit the governor’s authority once the Democrat took office. Grassley told Iowa reporters Friday afternoon that the idea of a special legislative session to do something similar in Iowa is not on the table.
