VOICES&COMMENTARYThe Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com | Metro Edition Thursday, May 12, 2016 | Page 17A

Patty Judge’s interviewwith the Des MoinesRegister on Tuesdayhelped clarify a fewthings — not so muchabout her positions onissues but on the lineof attack Republicans

will take against her.Tweets from GOP operatives

during the one-hour editorial boardsession went something like this:

Robert Haus: @pattyforiowa needsto get her hands on a LOT of briefingmaterials, sorry to say. She is notprepared to be a US Senator #iasen

Tim Albrecht: DMR to Judge atthe edit board: Yeah, you’ve attacked(Chuck) Grassley but issues? Shelists topics but not solutions. Nopushback. #iasen

Robert Haus: @DMRegister Ed Bdpressing @pattyforiowa for specificson issues. Repeatedly, because she’sgot not much beyond talking points.#iasen

Jimmy Centers: “Hogs still smell”is about the only thing @pattyforio-wa has said confidently in this edboard meeting. #iasen

You see the theme here: Judgeisn’t prepared, she doesn’t under-stand federal issues, all she has istalking points. The criticism isn’tentirely fair — political attacks sel-dom are. But Judge has given heropponents ammunition for complain-ing that she’s light on details and shegave them more to complain aboutduring Tuesday’s interviews.

For example, asked why the Reg-ister editorial board should endorseher, Judge said: “I think I’ve been onthe statewide scene for a long time.This is the fifth time that I’ve beenon a state ballot and people are fa-miliar with me. They know what I’vedone throughout my political ca-

reer.” She men-tioned floodrecovery, pre-school expan-sion and civilrights issuesaddressed dur-ing her fouryears as lieuten-ant governorand concludedby saying shehas a “strongresume” and

looks forward to the “next step.”This was the first question and

the most predictable, but Judge gavea limp-noodle answer instead of agalvanizing argument of why sheshould be Iowa’s next senator.

Judge touted her electabilityagainst incumbent RepublicanChuck Grassley but was vague abouther strategy. She said her campaignplan would include “all kinds ofmedia.” Asked about the lack ofcontent on her campaign website,Judge said that’s coming soon, butshe’s only been in the race sinceMarch. “This whole social mediathing to me is very new,” she said.

Of all of the issues discussed

during the meeting, Judge perhapsoffered the most detail about makingcollege more affordable. She saidshe wants to increase Pell grants andallow graduates to refinance theirloans. “I would certainly look at aproposal for tuition-free communitycollege for two years if the studentskept a certain high grade-point aver-age,” she said. But she confessed shedoesn’t understand why student loanrates are so high and why politiciansare reluctant to deal with it.

Judge offered one idea for deal-ing with wage disparity: Raise theminimum wage to $15 per hour na-tionwide. She said $15 is the rightlevel because it’s “certainly not sky-high but it is a place that starts tomake a wage that people can talkabout living on.”

She would raise the $118,000 pay-roll tax cap for Social Security. Ide-ally, she said, the cap would be elim-inated, but she suggested she’d bewilling to settle for raising it to someunspecified level. She said the Af-fordable Care Act needs controls onthe cost of prescription drugs. Sheraised the need for stronger, commu-nity-based mental health and in-creasing access to providers but saidshe didn’t know what the state isdoing now.

She was fuzzy on how the EPA’sWaters of the United States rulewould fit into her vision for waterquality, yet walked into the Repub-licans’ line of fire on a hot-buttonissue for farmers. Asked whether

she agrees with EPA’s definition ofwaters of the U.S., she said, “I thinkthey’re probably on target, and Iknow a lot of my agricultural people,friends don’t agree with me on that,”she said. “But again, we are at apoint where we have to be seriousabout improving water quality.”

Republican operatives leaped onthat generally positive assessmentof WOTUS. Albrecht tweeted: “Andthere we have it. This gaffe is oneyou’re going to hear about a lot.”

My impression is that Judge istrying to convey that she’s capableof working across party lines forsolutions and she doesn’t want to beoverly prescriptive in her issue posi-tions. That’s a difficult balancing act,however, as she’s also trying to per-suade Democratic primary votersthat she’s the most experienced bothas a candidate and as a policymaker.

It’s especially tricky in a yearwhen many voters seem to preferbold pronouncements over pickydetails. Judge, however, lacks theshowy rhetorical finesse that canmake voters forget about the nitty-gritty.

Republicans are deploying thesame playbook against Judge thatthey used successfully againstChristie Vilsack’s congressional runin 2012, saying she’s in over herhead. Judge is well-grounded in arange of policy experience, but she’sgoing to have to make it clear sheknows exactly what to do in the U.S.Senate and how to do it.

GOP HITSPATTYJUDGE ON FUZZYPOLICY

KATHIEOBRADOVICHkobradov@dmreg.com

ON POLITICS

RODNEY WHITE/THE REGISTER

“This is the fifth time that I’ve been on a state ballotand people are familiar with me. They know what

I’ve done throughout my political career,” DemocraticU.S. Senate candidate Patty Judge told the Des

Moines Register editorial board Tuesday.

Democrat is making it easy for Republicans to attack her for vague policy positions and plans

‘Ageism is as odious asracism or sexism,”Florida Rep. Claude

Pepper, D-Fla., said in 1976before his legislation (support-ed by Aging Committee mem-ber and then-Rep. ChuckGrassley) passed to eliminateage-based mandatory retire-ment and end discrimination inhiring and advancement (theAge Discrimination and Em-ployment Act Amendments).While the nation is fond ofdebating improvements andchanges to Social Security,both likely presidential nomi-nees, Hillary Clinton and Don-ald Trump, promise to main-tain and protect it. However,equally important to seniorsare the economics and self-worth of their work. Beingfired or demoted for age isunacceptable.

Age-related complaintshave grown, not shrunk, inrecent years. The Equal Em-ployment Opportunity Com-mission reports that between1997 and 2007, there werearound 16,000 to 19,000 filingsfor age complaints. However,from 2008 though the present,complaints increased to 23,000to 25,000 a year. An AARPsurvey found that two-thirds ofworkers between 45 and 74have “seen or experienced age

discrimination on the job.”A Supreme Court decision

in 2009, Gross v. FBL. Finan-cial Services, Inc., put theADEA at greater risk, and therisk continues today. In 2003,

Jack Gross no-ticed a memo athis West DesMoines insur-ance job thatexplained staff-ing changes. “Igot this ahead oftime, and it justjumped off thepage. Every-

body that they’re naming hereis my age or older. Nobodyunder 50 was getting demoted.The only promotions werepeople who were basically ageneration younger than us.”

Gross was 54 at the time

and a vice president at FBLFinancial. He sued the compa-ny and achieved victory in thelower courts. But the U.S. Su-preme Court ruled on June 18,2009, by 5-4 that the plaintiffmost prove that age was thesole reason for discrimination.

As a result, hundreds ofcases relating to age discrimi-nation have been abandoned."Personally, that's one of thethings that I resent most,"Gross says. "That my name isbeing associated with so muchinjustice and unfairness."

Beforehand, if an employeewas fired or not promoted, theworker could raise age dis-crimination as an issue. Now,he or she must prove withabsolute certainty that age wasthe primary reason for termi-nation or failure to rise.

“Suing your employer forage discrimination is basicallyplaying Russian roulette withyour career future,” says PaulBernard, an executive coachfor Next Avenue, a public andnational media service forAmerica’s 50 and over pop-ulation. “You burn yourbridges and may never gethired again.”

Pearl Zuchlewski, a NewYork-based employment law-yer, adds how time consumingthe process is. “Most people

want to get another job andnot spend years in deposition.”

Arguably, the biggest ob-stacle is cost. Deposition costsare as much as $1,800 a day.For Gross, the fee was $11,000simply to print the documentsrelating to his case. You mightbe in a better off to negotiate adeal with your employer.

Dan Kohrman, a seniorattorney at the AARP Founda-tion, asserts: “These kind ofdecisions scare off workersand lawyers. It’s harder toprove an age case.”

A bright spot is that morevictories are being won instate courts, if not federalcourts. California, Michigan,New York, and Iowa are somestates that have better protec-tions for older workers. Deb-orah Campbell, 63, a commu-nity program monitor forIowa’s 3rd Judicial DistrictCorrectional Department, wasawarded $404,682 in 2014 by aWoodbury County districtjudge for age discrimination.In 2012, Dr. Zane Hurkin, 81,was awarded $340,000 by aPolk County jury for age dis-crimination at WoodwardCounty Resource Center inDes Moines. But Korhmanelaborates: “If you don’t live inthat kind of state, than it istough. It is really tough.”

Sen. Grassley and formerSen. Tom Harkin introducedbipartisan legislation to undothe Supreme Court decision ofFBL vs. Financial Services in2012, and last year Sens. BobCasey, D-Pa., and Mark Kirk,R-Ill., introduced similar legis-lation “to clean up after Su-preme Court decision thatexposed older workers todiscrimination,” according toThink Progress, a federal-action monitoring blog. Grass-ley commented, “The decisionin the Gross case has had amajor impact on employmentdiscrimination litigationacross the country. It’s timewe clarify the law to ensurethat other people like JackGross aren’t put in similarsituations. Older Americansdeserve the protections Con-gress originally intended.”

People 50 and older will be35 percent of the workforceby 2019, according to the Ur-ban Institute. With more casescoming in, there is pressurefor Congress to act againstdiscrimination and for theDepartment of Justice to putin place protections for sen-iors’ job security. Seniors votein the highest percentages ofany age, so this not onlymakes good sense, but goodpolitics.

ANOTHER VIEW

Iowa case shows age discrimination persists, despite lawROBERT WEINER isa former spokes-man for the ClintonWhite House andwas chief of staff ofthe U.S. HouseAging Committee.DANIEL KHAN issenior policy ana-lyst at RobertWeiner Associatesand Solutions forChange.

Jack Gross