Surprised theyve taken control of your senate. Jeff im not surprised they im surprised at the margin, they are to be commended. They ran a good campaign. They have a supermajority which weve been in that position, myself, ive been tied, majority, supermajorities and now in the minority, the dynamics are different but the issues are the same. Iowa usually has approach how to solve them. Ron this election cycle was the most bizarre, you ran a positive commercial, not going after your opponent at all, like we saw in some local races. Why did you take that approach rather than following the consultant model which is attack ad, attack ad. Jeff i believe in a positive vision and thats the first statement of we have to do Better Running our campaigns and communicating with our voters. This consultantdriven campaign framework, i dont think is positive in the long run. Ron were you shocked and i guess a lot of people were shocked at the defeat of a gentleman who many people thought kind of ran with an iron fist and i assume that was the case. What did you feel about that other democrats around the state . Jeff well, wed better learn to communicate to the voters that are there. Not the ones we wish were there. And nobody is safe. You better continue that conversation and in an or fannic grassroots way or youll lose them and this is organic grassroots way or youll lose them. Mike was a capable leadership. He didnt rule with an airplane fist, and he understood people and he was effective at that. But thats different inside of the capitol and going back to the district and communicating with voters. You know as well as i do a lot of stuff gets done behind the scenes. Ive learned a few things along the years and remember, in 08, we ended up surviving a 22vote race. Ron that was the one your postpone won. Walt rogers won and you ended up winning. Jeff 2012. I will say that im incredibly surprised and thankful for the support weve gotten in this race. I had no idea there was a victory margin like we achieved begin ever given the history in my district. But it speaks to im one of the few that managed my own race. Communicate directly to my voters in a way i knew, because i grew up here and i think we need to get back to that style of campaigning. Ron walt rogers is scheduled to be on the program next week. He also won reelection and well have him on our next program. As you look ahead to the Democratic Party we saw what happened on the National Scene where a lot of people thought it was going to be a democratic president but turned out not to be the case. Thinking about the way it moves forward on the National Level and here in iowa. Jeff i hope theres soul searching and i hope as a navy guy theres Lessons Learned that the democrats apply to the current cycle. Its almost as if the campaigns are run completely differently and we did not adjust and we have to. It always must go back to the fact that the voters want us to be their representatives and we in the campaign better. Think about what their concerned about and speak to it in a meaningful way instead of the cookie cut ads ann. Ron in january, it will be different for you, youre in the minority so you understand things a little bit different. But whats your top priority as we look ahead a couple months when the legislative session gets underway again. Lesson. The campaign, working families want support for schools and for childcare and quality opportunities in a community and a job they can raise a family on. Republicans and democrat, remember, in iowa, the number one registration is independent. No party. Theyre not enamored with either one. We have to understand inside of the capitol. Im proud of my work across the the issue of being less partisan. Even during the campaign i spoke about it when everybody is saying how parties are a beginning, not an end and i think the voters spoke loud and clear on that. Think about this, ron, two parties had major candidates who are not even Traditional Party members. Bernie on one side as a independent and donald trump, that should say that voters want us to focus on them, not the party. Ron we did an interview this week for the news program and said you would not seek leadership position in the Democratic Party. I thought that was strange for you to say that, why did you tell us that and what is behind that right now. Jeff i will not seek for accept a leadership position party. Thats how its done, everybody has the leadership elections in part because im not sure what ive tried to communicate has actually been listened to. In part because i think the cedar valley needs to be my sole focus, the wellbeing of my voter, good jobs and schools and affordability and healthcare and kind of watch and see what happens. Some learnes dont and i want to make sure that my district is taken care of. Ron are you concerned that will hurt you at all in the Iowa Legislature or has it been that way before . Jeff not concerned at all. Really. Only, what happens honestly what happens in the capitol is interesting but every senator and representative ought to be paying attention to what is capitol. Ron can we learn jeff so its manufactured, the most of it, the conflict we share, its interesting but its our common goal and so no matter which party you show up at the capitol as or leadership position or fancy titles, it does not matter unless youre trying to solve realworld problems for voters. Ron there seems to be a feelin t goes into this with im going to win no matter what. And the constituents back home, wait, thats not what is best for us and the state. Its a win at all costs and you seem to go against that. Jeff im happy to do that. Im proud of the work with no labels that we can be republicans and democrats and we need more of it. Its not all roses for the they have supermajorities from local government all the way to the white house. Chuck right. Jeff they have to constrain their own desires to do things they may not even campaigned on. I have a test. Does it work, can you prove it and is it what the people wanted you to work on. Did you talk about it in your campaign. Not a bunch of other stuff, that youre trying to settle old scores and party politics. Chuck tell our viewers over 750 million, and another account 95 million. Boy, that sounds like a lot of money but you said you were looking at a tight, tough budget this year. Jeff yeah, there we need to be realistic, theres a lot of changes within our healthcare program. Medicaid and our line items for healthcare costs have always been increasing, regardless of the program. Were in a place where we have a less margin for error in what we estimate and make as priorities. For example, we have about 700 million in rainy day funds our ending balance is now less than 100 million. In previous years we worked with 300 million, 400 million, depending on where it was at. Theres less margin for error so it will be a challenge the republicans to balance the priorities and still have the ron what do you think the ideal number this year would be for school budget. Jeff first, we ought to do a twoyear window for them. No matter the number, at least give them a twoyear window to plan in. I think its realistic to do a couple percent, i dont think its realistic to go do much more. And we need to be frank because of the budget situation and also find a way that there may be things they can do locally that past, free up regulations and things that would make them more efficient and maybe not be to fancy with the new and special programs, maybe focus on the allowable growth formula and think about the early Reader Program and the Teacher Quality Program that were expensive but then take away from your base level resources. We may have to get back to the basics and focus on that investment and then have a conversation about the the other things we would want to ron iowa could get help from donald trump because we have the worst bridges in the country and, hopefully, hell pursue that and get the infrastructure going but theres another issue, Water Quality. A lot of chemicals that go into our streams and whichever e rivers and thats something that will come to the forefront. I believe that the Water Quality is the sleeper issue, if you like fantasy sports. In a good way. The stakeholders who fought themselves at the table, finger pointing and blame placing, have recognized we need a long Term Solution and theyre starting to support things together. In the past, theyve opposed them and i think we have a real chance to say to iowans, we have one of the most valuable precious Natural Resources in the country. Obviously, soil is the first one. Protect that Natural Resource into the future and i think youre seeing a window of opportunity in politics in iowa today where that can be a possibility in 2178. Ron the bakken pipeline, a lot of controversy and protests. Jeff i dont believe it should have had Eminent Domain v authority. I believe we need a divorce and guess what security means . A diverse source of all of your energy and i think we need to consider all of thousand resources and if we can be a exporter, we ought to think about that too. In iowa, solar can potentially be an exporter of energy for the rest of country. I think iowans think about that differently than in the past. Ron youre against the pipeline . J of energy of the interesting thing about that, there was a lot of focus on the wind line, right, the powerline that would get the wind, and people tended to support one or the other based on the source of the energy and i think we need to stop that, we need to think about a diverse mix and if its in our interest to have a Energy Source thats cheap safe and secure. Ron i would say, its always a pleasure to have you on the show. Ron weve thank changed into a more festive look, i have my christmas tie on so, obviously, talking about holiday hoopla coming up and carol lilly is here, the executive director of the main street cedar falls. Day after thanksgiving. Carol friday, november 26th in downtown cedar falls, at 6 00 in the evening and well have a great series of musicians and great activities going on. Ron its a great annual event and capped off by the secret arrival of santa claus and ive not been told how this is going to unfold, but youll probably not reveal it here today. Carol that would be breaking news, but that today. Ron wonder if there will be any breaking news that night. Carol i dont know. Ron youll have several thousand people in the heart of downtown cedar falls. And thats what main street is about. Carol to see what the community has to offer and holiday hoopla and bringing santa to the community is one way. Ron i was reading that main volunteerdriven, Nonprofit Organization to foster Economic Vitality and promote and preserve the downtown. What a downtown you have. My wife often says, wow what an amazing downtown. Carol because of Community Support and volunteers, weve been decorating for the holidays and in the last few days, 45 people helping with that. Ron friday night, black friday at night, what time would arriving and where would they park . Carol after 5 00, is when the streets are closed. Park near at over at gateway park is a good way because after stan santa arrives, he does a magical marv march down main and gateway park. Ron its quite a scene, people owe it to themselves 20 come down conference the kickoff is just what it, a series of event, thursday and friday, we have special things going on so join us often. Ron carol lilly, executive director of main street cedar falls. You have a Great Organization organization, wish you the best and have a Great Holiday hoopla this friday night conference thyo chuck welcome back. Keeping our festive look with christmas and the holidays coming on and were hebe here to talk about a great event, with jason weinberger. Jason, the well known ceo and conduct didder and artistic director of the waterloocedar falls symphony. 15 years. And joins us as the executive director of the Boys Girls Club. And chuck, tell us about it, cedar valley christmas. Chuck its a lot of fun, the mentality of it is to try to forget about the Holiday Shopping and the craziness of having your family over for after thanksgiving so people can come in and forget about that stuff and just have an old time family you know christmas singalong where they come into the gallagher and hear tons of talent and get to sing. Ron you have local choirs and individuals singing and the waterloocedar falls symphony is involved again this year. And jason jason its something that chuck approached me about two, three years ago and started small and grown every year. Were bringing our whole brass section in. Weve had string players involved and ive been able to get on stage with you and emcee, wonderful holiday music from across the ages. And that opposite the concert and sets the stage, so the atmosphere should be really festive from the minute people get into the concert hall and sing along. Ron tickets. Jason on our website. Ron the waterloocedar falls 7 30. Jason the brass players start at 6 30 and playing carols and baroque music and then the brass players will join us to do sp audience. Chuck make sure you get for the 6 30 concert as well as. Ron be there at least 5 00, 6 30, plenty of parking. You will have some recent concerts and tell us more about that, what do you have coming on. How many concerts a year. Nine or 10. Jason yeah, nine or 10 and all of the stuff in the schools and whats neat about this program weve been discussing, have warmed up here on the 19th, were goings to do brass pieces and stuff with organs together. To kick off the holidays and bring them over to the gallagher for cedar valley christmas. Ron you and your wife have two boys and chuck, you and your wife have twins, youve been here 15 years and going back a way. When joe was here. I remember talking to him a he said that some of these orchestras would challenge him and see if he knew his stuff. Do you find the same thing. Chuck no question, the folks here, the musicians are so kind and very accommodating, when youre on the road, you have to be on top of your game. Its challenging and exciting, its a great experience to work here and be part of the community and have opportunity here to other orchestras, kind of emulating joe in that regard. Ron hes had a great run in des moines. Your current board president of the symphony, she kind of suggested we have a show like this at some point. Talking about the stateoftheart here in the cedar valley. How would you describe the state of the orchestra right now . Well get into the other some time, but how do you thi thriving. Jason i think weve got a Fabulous Group of musician, weve got a wonderful board and those who devote time and energy to the orchestra. Were trying to get out the message that this is a symphony for everyone. Were joining with the Boys Girls Club and for us, its a make people understand this isnt a exclusive thing only for a now folks. Its for everyone and thats the message we want to focus on and closer to our 100th anniversary, about 12, 13 years away. Ron between your two organizations, both are critical to the success of the cedar valley as far as quality of life. Chuck the neat thing about this we have two totally different nonprofits who found a way to intersect and i know they focus on the symphony and we, the kids, teach kids how to play music and learn about the importance of music in their lives and the money raised from this, actually goes toward the Youth Programs that both of us do. For instance, we have music lessons, 30, 40 kids that we give music lesson, every semester, we do dance programs there. But then i know that jason has programming like the programs educated. Ron thats fantastic, if you get kids involved early, i think i started to play the trumpet or cornet, i misses that as much as sports, it was a huge part of my life. Chuck i actually brought a trumpet with me. Ron well, that were trying to attract people to the concert, not send them an important part, Youth Programs and a symphony to get them involved and understand music. Jason chuck and i feel the same way, these experience are transformative for young people. You said it yourself, you remember that experience when you were younger. We see it makes a difference in the kids we work with and our own kids and i feel fortunate a huge part of my work is to be able to bring this music to young people and change their encounters and we know that being involved in the arts is a great compliment to academics and other areas of kids lives and all of us feel extremely lucky to be to be able to do this in our community. Ron both organizations are fantastic. Monday, for 28th at the gallagher blue torn. Jason and fo lap children are free. Ron wow. The concert is only 5. Chuck only 5. Throughout the evening well have eight different choirs from the community, local high schools and local churches are all going to sing songs and well have songs that the entire group can sing join us with. Ron its a great event. A week from monday, the 28th. Announcer get ready for fun, easy fitness, because this is a paid presentation for country heat brought to you by beachbody. Are you struggling right now to lose weight . This is the most ive weighed in my life, except when i was pregnant with my kids. I havent liked my body since i i want to smile when i look in that mirror. Announcer and you feel like no matter how many times you try to exercise and diet, it never seems to work. The gym scares me, and ive tried a billion things, and nothing really sticks. 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