I've had it.
No more covering up for sexual predators: Zach Wahls needs to answer questions
Nate Boulton is running for elected office again. How is this possible? He shouldn’t be allowed to serve in any public body again. He needs to take his ass to an immigration asylum clinic and do some pro-bono lawyering and give up his political aspirations. Why? Because he assaulted three women - he issued a ‘I don’t remember it the same way’ - garbage that in my experience falls out of the mouths of sex pests.
But guess what? Zach Wahls - yes that one - gave this guy another chance. You bet he did. Bros before hos amiright? Someone needs to ask him why he covered up for Boulton - sorry - why he promoted Boulton - during his catastrophic and short lived leadership in the Iowa State Senate.
Walls gave a pass to Boulton’s abuses and assigned him a to prestigious committee - and - even worse - picked him for one of the five democratic minority leadership team spots in the Iowa Senate. And, he wouldn’t allow individual voting. Meaning he proposed a slate of five senators and took an up or down vote. Instead of allowing people to vote individually for each candidate. Meaning enough people in the chamber would vote against Boulton if able (MORE BELOW).
I wrote this in 2023 - 2023. Because we knew.
To win Iowa someone with moral clarity on sexual assault needs to face Ashley Hinson so they can look at her and without having to blink say “Rep. Hinson, you are covering up for a man adjudicated of rape. How can you live with yourself?”
But here we are. With Zach Wahls. Of course. Because who doesn’t want a soft handed millionaire who took $250K in crypto-funds, took a shit on all his colleagues and got canned from the leadership position he was in because he was terrible at it?
Don’t let his fresh off the Amazon rack Carhart fool you. He’s not “one of us” - I don’t use fundraising cash to fly first class to Cali and NYC and god knows where for over $2K in undisclosed Delta flight tickets.
Do you?
Oh, and I certainly don’t cover up for men who sexually assault women. In fact, most of my reporting career has been fighting for their voices to be heard.
Do I sound pissed? It’s because I am. This system needs a goddamn enema - Democrats and all. This one’s for you, Claire. xx
From 2023:
“The Iowa Legislature has taken a few steps towards addressing this issue, but much more needs to be done to protect workers.” Emma Davidson Tribbs told me via email last week.
“We believe that the Iowa Legislature has an opportunity to lead the way on workplace safety, and that changing the rules in legislative offices will spur change in laws and practices for the rest of society.”
Ms. Davidson Tribbs is the Director and Co-Founder of the National Women’s Defense League. The non-profit group describes itself as a coalition of advocates from across the political spectrum - former staffers, lobbyists, policymakers and survivors. They advocate for victims and pursue policy changes to prevent offenses.
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“The report finds that sexual harassment by sitting state lawmakers over the last decade is pervasive and ongoing in every statehouse.” she tells me. She saw first hand the gender based harassment, the abuse, going on in statehouses as a lobbyist over her career.
Using open source data, news stories and scouring public records, the report (which she told me is just a first go to put a stake in the ground) brings together enough anecdotal and hard data to show no state house is innocent.
But we know this, right?
It occurs to me now all my friends in Missouri - the women specifically - became my friends through criminal acts. Specifically, sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking. And every one of those women worked in the same place: The Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City.
Every single one. Two former lawmakers, several former interns, a lobbyist. All of them were assaulted or harassed by men in positions of political power.
I was speaking to my friend Jason, a colleague turned friend about the State of Misery (read his amazing expose “The Wolves of Jeff City” from his tenure at the KC Star).
He now runs the award winning Missouri Independent but we met when there was still an Iowa Independent - when the Family Leader was still The Iowa Family Policy Center and Bob Vander Plaats was just trotting out his “man on dog” love theory of homosexuality on the steps of the Iowa statehouse.
Jason was a sounding board for the torrent (and I mean that) of information spewing out of Jeff City about harassment, assault, predatory menfolk operating in the halls with no consequences. I said to him at one point years ago that Jefferson City was the epicenter of political predators. I remember saying Iowa was nothing like that cesspool. And at the time he agreed.
Oh, sweet, naive Andy.
Over the last year I have fielded reports from people who work in the Iowa Capitol about sexual assault and harassment that is ongoing - and worse - is an open secret. I’ve heard rumblings before of long standing offenders in both chambers, in both parties.
But those are just rumors right? Sure. Unfortunately, someone will eventually get a source to speak on the record. Maybe a victim will come forward despite how incredibly difficult and shaming it can be. Maybe - just maybe - someone in a position to do something about the alleged abuse will actually do something before they are thrust into the sunshine.
In the meantime victims go unbelieved and too often must work alongside the Wolves.
And no, for those of you in Iowa who know about Nate Boulton’s reprehensible past, his lack of remorse (not even a half-hearted political mea culpa). But let’s revisit that for a moment shall we?
From Page 4 of the national report:
When this news came out, then democratic senate minority leader Janet Peterson called for Boulton’s resignation, vowing an internal investigation to try and force him out by senate vote, and stripped him of his committee assignments.
But, consider Petersen’s successor (she resigned her position after absolutely nothing happened to Boulton despite her advocacy for accountability).
Zach Wahls (D-Coralville) gave a pass to Boulton’s abuses and assigned him a to prestigious committee - and - even worse - picked him for one of the five democratic minority leadership team spots in the Iowa Senate. And, he wouldn’t allow individual voting. Meaning he proposed a slate of five senators and took an up or down vote. Instead of allowing people to vote individually for each candidate. Meaning enough people in the chamber would vote against Boulton if able.
So what did he do exactly? According to the Des Moines Register (in part):
To which Boulton who apparently had no crisis PR team or conscience said:
In the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House there are ethics guidelines about sexual harassment and misconduct. Kinda.
Iowa Senate Ethics guidlines
55.2KB ∙ PDF file
Titled “Iowa Senate Harassment Prevention Policy”
Iowa House Harassment Policy
495KB ∙ PDF file
Sort of
For what it is worth? There was an ethics complaint filed against Boulton. Bleeding Heartland by Laura Belin posted a copy here in 2020.
Oh, and for goodness sake don’t forget the GOP sexual harassment lawsuit (Iowa Senate) that cost the state $1.75 million (which is documented in the Abuse of Power report). That’s the thing about videos. They have a way of coming out.
Iowa State Senator Bill Dix (R-Shell Rock), who was the one behind this travesty, wasn’t asked to resign by Kim Reynolds. It was only after a video surfaced in 2018 of an apparently consensual kiss at a bar betwixt Dix and a lobbyist.
More, from the report:
The true numbers and impact of sexual harassment in statehouses can not currently be measured because most state governments do not share information about the number of complaints they receive each year. Few statehouses have robust, comprehensive and publicly available reporting systems, so it is difficult to request information and numbers when they are not being collected in a cohesive and consistent fashion.
After looking at most publicly available data, it is clear that these incidents are not simply “one offs” or a single “bad apple” but rather indicative of structural failure. American state houses run on antiquated systems, with few requiring transparency on behaviors or workplace safety. If we fail to acknowledge the lack of policies and protections currently in place, the scourge of sexual harassment will continue, limiting the professional opportunities of workers. We believe that by acknowledging this systemic issue, we can begin to address the root causes, and provide the training, tools and systems to ensure that our leaders and their teams are working in environments free from harassment.
You can download and read the report on the website or:
