Exposing the Corruption of the "Family Values" Party
Tim Kapucian was an Iowa state senator who served three terms until 2021. According to the successful sexual harassment/discrimination lawsuit, Kapucian was present during and laughing along with the “boys will be boys” talk about women, including malicious gossip about a Democratic woman senator sleeping with an entire sports team. Multiple male staffers said he made inappropriate jokes.
Bill Anderson was included among the men making it a bad place for women to work by saying inappropriate things about women, but only when male staffers were presence. In his own deposition, Anderson said he walked away when people told inappropriate jokes.
When he was interviewed by the Des Moines Register, he said he didn’t recall anything inappropriate. “I guess I never experienced anything that would be described as toxic or inappropriate,” Anderson said. He resigned, not in disgrace, but to become the executive director of the Cherokee Area Economic Development Corp.
Rick Bertrand was a Republican Iowas state senator. When a woman won a $2.2 million lawsuit (She settled for $1.75 million) against the Republican caucus and the State of Iowa for the culture of sexual harassment that the Caucus allowed to fester for years and her retaliatory firing just seven hours after filing a memo detailing that culture, Bertrand called for the resignation of the Caucus Leader Bill Dix. Good for him.
But then, there are details of the complaint. There is Bertrand making inappropriate comments and suggesting the wife of Ed Failor Jr might want to join him in bath time. Bad for him.
Failor was included in the sexual harassment lawsuit that entangled so many Iowa Republicans. He was the person she tried to report working conditions to but she believed he was unreceptive. He began criticizing her work after she made her earlier reports of on-the-job harassment. Another personal also reported problems and he did nothing about it.
After Anderson won the lawsuit, there was an internal investigation that was secret, though they claimed the investigation showed “no provable harassment.” It was a cover job.
Merlin E. Bartz was an Iowa state senator until defeated in 2012. In 2015, he was elected to the Worth County Board of Supervisors. He was named in the $2.2 million suit against the Iowa GOP caucus and the State of Iowa for retaliating when Kirsten Anderson filed a memo detailing sexual harassment of the women who worked for the caucus by staffers and senators. She was fired seven hours after submitting her memo. She alleged Bartz commented on what women wore, their hair, clothing, and shoes.
Shawn Hamerlinck was an Iowa state senator for one term. He lost his seat in 2012, a year before Kristen Anderson was fired for complaining about sexual harassment. Nonetheless, he was named in her suit for his inappropriate behavior while in office. He liked to talk about women’s breast, commenting on their size and the hemlines of their skirts. Kristen Anderson was a Republican Caucus communications director who from 2010 to 2013 filed three complaints about rampant sexual harassment of Republican Caucus women employees. When she submitted her third memo, in 2013, she was fired seven hours later. She sued for retaliation and sexual harassment. She won $2.2 million.
Jim Friedrich was an analyst working for Iowa Senate Republicans on oversight issues until he resigned in 2017 after his sexual harassment cost taxpayers $2.2 million. In 2013, Kirsten Anderson, at the time a Republican Caucus communications director, submitted a memo about how sexual harassment created a hostile workplace. She was fired seven hours after she submitted the memo.
Matthew Joseph Elliott was supposedly destined for a great future in Republican politics. Some people thought he would be governor of Iowa one day. He was elected governor at Boys State and later the head of the Iowa College Republicans. He worked on Romney’s campaign, as a legislative aide, and then as ED of the…
Pastor Mike Hintz signed on to a Nebraska anti-pornography campaign petition which is what one might expect from a religious leader. He was also singled out in a speech by then-President George W. Bush talking about how much Hintz and his wife benefited from his tax plan. Meanwhile, he was arrested for having sex with…