Announcer this is the steele report. Ron this week on the steele report, our topic as we talk with the executive director of the leftleaning Progress Iowa questioning begins right now. Captioning provided by caption associates, llc www. Captionassociates. Com announcer now from kwwl, this is the steele report. Ron and welcome to this weeks edition of the steele report. Very interesting topic today. Eye like on id like to introduce my guest right now, matt sinovic, hes the executive director of Progress Iowa and also the organization known as why courts matter. The Iowa Coalition, they go together. Matt is going to explain that. They caused a little bit of controversy this week when they attended some of senator Charles Grassleys town Hall Meetings talking about the judicial process and thats what were going to talk about extensively here on the program today. First of all, before we go any further, matt, i want to get some background on now and kind of understand, get a perspective about why you think the way you do. You told me earlier, you grew up in the kansas city area, so tell me a little bit about your background. Matt i grew up in kansas, moved to iowa about four years ago. Ron youre not in kansas anymore. And have been the executive director of Progress Iowa since it started in spring of 2012, and what we do is we work to advocate for progressive issues all across the board, whether thats in the state legislature, whether thats in congress, but really our focus is on pushing for Progressive Solutions to Public Policy problems and getting iowans involved in the process. So a lot of what we deuce taking is helping people take action, signing online petitions which then send an email or contact their local elected official or in this case, this official. We really want to get people process. Ron now, one article described Progress Iowa that i read as being powered by a community of more than 30,000 progressives, focused on research, education, and advocacy and i think that article came out of an appearance that you made just the day before the caucuses on program on xm 25 right before the caucus. And that described iowa why courts matter as a coalition of iowa organizations dedicated to ending the judiciary vacancy crisis, which is quite a crisis as far as open vacancies out there, sloorg that the federal judiciary reflects americas diverse population. Are those quotes accurate . Matt absolutely. For Progress Iowa, we have a Large Network of membership across the state. I think its beyond 30,000 now, but thats definitely accurate and as far as why courts matter Iowa Coalition, its a group of about 20 or so organizations that work to do exactly what you said, which is try and encourage, educate and encourage people to contact in iowa its senator grassley, but across the country, trying to advocate for filling these judicial nominations that have the potential judges, the nominees have been waiting years and years, and they get nominated by the president and then they get held up in the u. S. Senate for a variety of reasons. But we think that those nominees should take their place on the bench, whether its the Supreme Court or the federal courts, the Appellate Courts below the Supreme Court. Ron Bruce Bradley mentioned the fact during the last race that a republican, Charles Grassley, would become the chair of the Senate Judiciary committee and thats essential one of the most powerful now. You attended some of at least i think you were there for a story we did earlier this week and some other members of your organization who asked him about the nomination with Justice Scalias death and will that be held up, do you believe, by Charles Grassley or others . You want to move this forward as quickly as possible and why is that . Matt i certainly hope not. I hope that senator grassley and consider whoever president obama nominates in a timely fashion. Thats their constitutional responsibility. But a week ago, Justice Scalia passed away and there were, you know, offers of condolences as is very appropriate when a Supreme Court justice dies, and but unfortunately, less than 24 hours had gone by after the death of Justice Scalia, less than 24 hours had gone by before senator grassley put out a Public Statement stating that the president shouldnt nominate anyone and this should wait until after the president ial election. Basically saying that the president shouldnt fulfill his constitutional duties to fill a seat on the Supreme Court. In less than a day, senator grassley injected politics into the Supreme Court nominating process, less than a day after Justice Scalia passed away, and we think that that is completely irresponsible on his part. Consent to the nomination of the president. Thats directly from article ii of the constitution. So we hope that senator grassley does his job and considers the nomination that the president makes and moves it forward in an appropriate fashion. Ron so the Senate Judiciary committee, of course, will have the final say. The nomination process, i will suspect that president obama will come up with a nominee fairly quickly, but then its unlikely, i will think, as a casual observer, that the Judiciary Committee would approve that nomination before the election. Whats your viewpoint on that . Matt i mean, if the current Political Climate is any indication, thats definitely a worst case scenario. We hope that that the nominee moves forward. Historically, Supreme Court nominations, they have not incredibly controversial historically. The president has a little over 300 days left in his term. The last 12 nominees to the time they were nominated until the time they were confirm, took less than 100 days, so there should be no i mean, there should be no delay, there should be no holdup. Thats the recent historical timeline of Supreme Court nominees, so theres really no reason that they cant move this forward. Ron and i dont have the exact figures, but a lot of those nominees actually came during a president ial election year, too. Matt sure, several of them did. Ron when you look ahead about whats going to happen, would you describe your organization as leftleaning and matt sure, were liberal and progressive. Ron i noticed on your website, Progress Iowa, the first three stories bash governor branstad pretty good. Where does your philosophic birth, so to speak, in kansas, the way you think and the way you do, ike asking you to be as honest as you can about who you matt sure, im progressive. We believe we ought to take care of one another. Thats the fundamental principle that we believe should be supporord by the government. Thats why we want better access to healthcare, access to the ballot, able to vote. We think our tax system should not penenize workers and that the wealthy should pay their fair share, so we think that our society, community, government as a whole should take care of everyone, especially the most vulnerable, instead of stacking the deck toward the wealthiest and the most powerful. Ron now, your group, you support senator sanders in this campaign or i know you on your sirius xm radio report, the day before the caucuses, you were talking about how his growth had been phenomenal as far as g gning support in iowa. Matt no, no, our organization doesnt what i also said in that interview, thth Hillary Clinton had a tremendous amount of support, which she did. She ended up winning the iowa caucus, by a very narrow margin, but winning the caucus. I said they both had support, so we d dont endorse candidates. Our organization is geared toward making sure people get involved in their local, state, federal government and we want to give them i think as you putit, well provide research, information, and opportunities to take action. So in this case, in the Supreme Court nomination case, we will provide Historical Data just like i said that the last 12 nominees have lasted less than 100 days. In fact and this would be a historical obstruction. I mean, if we actually wait fofo the Supreme Court nomination the Supreme Court vacancy couldlast over two Supreme Court terms. The term were in and the term next fall. There has never been a vacancy last over two terms in history. This would b a historic obstruction by senator grassley and the rest of the u. S. Senate. We arm the we inform and arm folks with the best information we have and encourage them to take action on it. Ron so describe for me your ideal Supreme Court nominee, given ven your philosophical i guess we can call it a bias. I have a bias, yououave a bias, everyone has one. Give me me your ideal candidate for the next Supreme Court nominee. This court has been somewhat conservative with Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia, but also has been liberal as well as an article in the New York Times pointed out. In fact, lets see, in 2005, i believe it said, the New York Times found that this has been one of theheost liberal courts since 1969. Kind of surprised me given the makeup of the current court, but now one of the conservatives is gone, so the Roberts Court will have a totally different look. What is your ideal nominee . Matt well, im not an attorney, not a legal expert of any kind, b bt i would ron but youre an american. Matt i am. I trust the president will nominate someone whos highly qualified. Usually what you see is theyre legal scholars or someone already on the federal bench. Sometimes u. S. Senators have been considered or nominated. I think it will be someone whos highly qualified, whoever the president nominates will be highly qualified. What i found interesting when i was at senator grassleys town Hall Meetings earlier this week, i asked hill directly whether because hes been hedging a move the nomomation forward. I asked hip if the president nominated someone who he himself had voted for in the past, would that person . Or would he support that nominee . That could be any number of federal judges or past attorney general, theres plenty of folks that senator grassley has supported in the past. He wouldnt even commit to that. So thats the level of unfortunately are seeing from senator grassley and we hope that he doesnt obstruct this nomimition and instead just does his jojo according to the constitution. Ron you know, senator grassley, one of the most popular senators in the history of iowa, someone who actually i believe has been one who called for a quick nomination inin the past. Matt he has. Ron if i remember correctly and weve had him on the show many times, too, by the way. I believe the words he says is something ill take it one step at a time. Is that what you were getting . Matt thats part of what we were getting, but he also said, truly in the same sentence at this town hall meeting, he said i want t t wait until after the should take it one step at a time. I mean, to me, thats about as clear as mud. So it was hard to tell, exactly, and i think well i hope we have more clarity coming from senator grassley as this develops and i assume we will. I hope we will, but that was a made. Ron i remember on the news story, i believe hee did use clear as mud. We have to take a break right now and before you send me your nasty emails and things like that, such a onesided program. Remember, we always even things out throughout the course of the year. Conservatives, republicans, liberal democrats, everything in between, so you can wait on that one. I think its pretty clear where matt is on this one already. Were going to come back here in will be online as always on more clearly, sinovic, sinovic. Third, take three on this. My fault. Welcome backckhis weeks editionon of the steele report. Sinovic, the executive director of Progress Iowa and were also talking about an Iowa Coalition called why courts matter. Explain the difference. Theyre not the same organization by any means. You were telling me during the break how its broken up a little bit. Matt sure, Progress Iowa is its own organization as you mentioned with more t tn 30,000 progressive activists around the state and were part of a coalition of groups that make up why courts matter iowa. That coalition works, as we said earlier, to encourage the in a timely fashion and fill some of the longstanding vacancies to the federal court or the federal bench. So theres a number of ganizations involved in why courts matter iowa. Among the leadership are americans for democratic action, which is actually an organization here in waterloo and one iowa and iowa citizen action network, and theres a variety of others as well. Ron so your group went across iowa, has been going across iowa and i assume youre still in the election pcess here even though theaucuses are over, and youre been asking president ial candidates, i believe this question, but as president what would you do to alleviate the federal judicial emergency crisis . So thats one of one area. What were the candidates was this even on their radar as an issue or not . Matt for some of them it was. Some of them, it wasnt. We were a little bit surprised that some of the candidates thought that president obama these vacancies at all and i think youre seeing that now even more so with the Supreme Court, with the recent Supreme Court vacancy. Woo so we wanted to make so we wanted to make sure that as many president ial candidates that we could talk to knew tt is was a crisis. I mean, you have, as of earlier this week, 81 vacancies across the country. I mean, those are courts where people are trying to have access to justice and you have a lawsuit, if you have a case, if you have anything pending before a court and theres no judge to hear the case, then your access to justice is delayed, delayed, delayed, and the old famous quote is that justice delay is justice denied. Ron absolutely. Matt thats why we think this is such a critical issue and why we w wted to get it in front of as many president ial candidates as we could. Ron theres no question that nominations at judicial levels is certainly one of the most politically motivated types of things y y can imagine and maybe there are so many vacancies, but the problem is, Supreme Court hears very few cases. Most of the activity judicially in the country happenst the lower levels at the state and local levels. Matt thats exactly right and thats why weve been focusing on those Appellate Courts as lower court nominations. Its something that isnt really were seeing a lot o o interest in the public because of the Supreme Court nomination that is hopefully about to take place, but its really it is extremely important that these lower courts have judges to hear these cases, because thats where the bulk of the activity takes place. Ron you know, i have friends who are pretty liberal and i have some that are pretty conservative, and in talking with a lot of people, my friends and people who are viewers and things like that, the consensus or kind of a compilation of what they feel about perhaps an orgagazation thats as leftleaning as yours is would be Something Like this. Yours want a society which is dependent upon, beholding to, and controlled by government. And so how do you answer Something Like that . Because that is kind of a view that a lot of people have, particularly on the immigration issue. All those most of those immigrants are going to be democrats. Matt well, potentially. I mean, theres i think thats their powers of prediction are probably greater than mine in that case, but i would say that progressives view the government as t place where people should be able to come together and the place where all americans, regardless of whether you were born with not a dollar, you know, your family doesnt have a dollar to their name, to make sure that you have fair shot to its vest this things like Public Education invest in things like Public Education, Higher Education regardless of income, regardless of where your zip code , that you have a chance thatswhere, when i mean, its interesting the way that that was phrased because where the government is relied on for everything, and right now, we have a country where corporate interests and where really antiworker interest is dominant, and so we think that the government exists as the one place where peoe cananome together andnd we can standndp for the folks that need it the most and make sure that everybody has a fair shot. Ron in talking with senator sanderses, he was on this program here before the caucuses, but we talked about thth socialism issue that is with his campaign and he did point out things like Public Libraries and Police Departments and Fire Departments are socialistic entities if you think about it because theyre taxpayerfunded. But one person wrote, i read an article and one of the comments was interesting. None of these Young Sanders carter administration. They have no idea what a 20 inflation rate or 1 or 20 mortgage is about. Theres no doubt that Young College students live in a utopian view right now. They havent been beaten down by life, so to speak. Is there truth to this . Matt i d dt know that College Students live in a utopian world. We have a historic level of college debt right now. Ron ideologically, i mean. Matt i think what you see necessarily mean youre guarantee add jo so theres a lot of economic concern out there. It doesnt necessarily mean you have a job and you probably have a lot of debt. Iowa rates the sixth worst state in the country for students graduating with college debt. I mean,n, that is an incredible burden that we place on our students and its and its in part because there are folks in to invest in Higher Education, they want to invest in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest among us instead, and so when you dont invest in your Public Schools and your Higher Education, you have student taking out loans to do what theyre supposed to do and theyre saddled with this incredible amount of debt and so you have so i would disagree that they live in this sort of utopiann society or mindset. Students have some real economic concerns facin them when they graduate in college. I mean, im 34 and i just bought my first house last year and i think that timeline, whether its a first home purchase or a first car purchase, that timeline has shifted back because of stutunt debt that people get into. So ron so youre just learning now you can deduct your mortgage interest deduction. I say deduction, some people matt i think thats a deduction that apply for anyone who owns a home, regardlessow much you mme. Ronon sure. Matt what id be more concerned about is corporations like General Electric and things like that where theyre paying no tax, theyre paying zero tax, and we think that corporations ron but they do employ tens of thousands of workers, right . Matt of course they do. Ron just trying to play devils advocate here. Thats my row, you know. Ron were taking one morreport. Ron welcome back to our final segment this week on the steele report. Matt sinovic of Progress Iowa, executive director here, talking about that organization, a nonprorot, and also why couous matter, the Iowa Coalition. So what whether you be doing the caucuses are over and you interviewed and had a chance to ask questiwns of a lot of candidates, whether they liked thats whats great about iowas little grassroots politics and the caucuses. What youre going to do now between now and november, what will your organizations be up to as far as greetetg candidating, pinning them down, asking them tough questions . Matt in the immediate future, were focused on making sure senator grassley does his job as on you in the constitution and moves this outlined in the constitution and moves this Supreme Court nomination forward in a timely fashion. Earlier this week after he made his aouncement that he was not going to move that he wanted to w wit unntil after the president ial election to move the nomination forward, we started an online petition to our membership and other groups around the state and in less than 24 houru, we had more than 3500 people signing and saying to send a letter to senator grassley saying that he should do his job. So well be delivering those signatures to his offices around the state. Were also be, for every petition signature that we ha, welle delivering a copy of the constitution to remind him case hes forgotten, and then well be looking for other opportunities to speak out on this issue and really make sure that there is not any obstruction with this nominating process. Ron im going back i said i saw your website and obviously its three of the four stories were against governor branstad, but you also had an interesting one about bob vander plot and i think the word was irrelevant. Youre not antifamily or anything, are you . Matt no, no. Ron he is head of family leader and his organization did not support anyone, but he personally supported ted cruz. Matt theyre an extremely conservative organization. They actually are the state affiliate for a National Group that is designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an antigay hate group, so this is so they affiliate with a National Organization that is an antigay hate group. We do a lot of work to provide