In the Spin Cycle with Bobby Kaufmann

Johnson County is not quite solid blue. The greater metro Solon area is in a red House district held by Bobby "Buttercup" Kaufmann, last seen making noise about challenging Dave Loebsack next year. (Bring. It. On.)

That means a chunk of Johnson County Democrats get the Bobby Kaufmann newsletter. This week, he repeats GOP spin on a false analogy that quite a few Republicans repeated in testimony and House debate on the voter ID integrity (sic) bill:

I want to make one point very clear.  Showing your ID in the voting process is NOT new to Iowa.  When Democrats controlled the Governorship and Legislature (2007-2010), they enacted a Photo Identification law that is still on the books.  Democrats enacted same-day registration in Iowa and REQUIRED an ID be shown. That bill was supported by the ALCU (sic) and the League of Women Voters.   In the 10 years since Photo ID was enacted by Democrats, not one complaint has been levied that its caused suppression of a single person’s ability to register to vote.  I want to repeat that because it is very important.  Democrats enacted Photo ID law for same-day registrants and in the last 10 years there has been ZERO evidence of voter suppression.

The bill we passed last week extends the law Democrats passed to cover everyone that votes.

"In the 10 years since Photo ID was enacted by Democrats"?!?


Kaufmann and the Republicans are deliberately confusing the issue here.

It is true that the election day registration law passed in 2007 does include an ID requirement, though people who have an attestor who lives in the same precinct (for example, couples or roommates) do NOT need an ID. That was done as a way to EXPAND voting rights. Before 2008, if you weren't registered in the county 10 days before an election, you were just out of luck and could not vote.
The voter ID integrity (sic) bill is designed instead to LIMIT voting by putting up artificial barriers in an effort to solve a "problem," in person voter impersonation, that simply does not exist.  Comparing new voting restrictions to a voter expansion effort that over 5200 voters in Johnson County used last fall is worse than cynical.

The worst part is, if it weren't for a nasty split inside the Democratic Party in 2012, Bobby Kaufmann would not have made it to the legislature in the first place.