|
An Iowa aristocrat
……In another country, he would be Sir Fred. He might be the Earl of Terrace Hill. Terrace Hill is the Iowa Governor’s Mansion. Formerly a Hubbell home, it was donated (not by Fred) to the state of Iowa to become a museum and the home for the Governor.
……Before the Civil War, the first Hubbell came west from Connecticut to Des Moines. He bought some land, worked it, flipped it, and returned home to Connecticut with a little money. His teenage son, Frederick M, who he had brought with him, stayed to start the Hubbell family fortune. Fortuitously, he had landed in the city that would become Iowa’s largest and its capitol.
……Frederick M Hubbell became a government land agent to learn what he needed. He bought and sold land. He bought and sold a railroad. He bought and sold a waterworks. He and his descendants continued to buy and sell land. Frederick M. bought out his colleagues. He created the Equitable insurance company, which became the largest family holding. He bought out his colleagues in the insurance business, too. Frederick M. was born in 1839 and died in 1930.……Family longevity, children able and willing to work in the business, and a substantial family trust preserved the family’s status.
Frederick M’s youngest son Grover became the chief figure in the family businesses. Grover was also a local philanthropist. He was chair of Drake University’s board of trustees. He supported and had roles in the Boy Scouts, Community Chest (now the United Way), Iowa Lutheran Hospital, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Grover was born in 1883 and died in 1956.
……In Iowa, aristocrats work. The children of aristocrats work. Fred Hubbell did. Not right away. He went away to college — the University of North Carolina. He returned home for his law degree — the University of Iowa. He married. He practiced law in New York. He traveled. He went to work in the family business in his thirties.
……On their last trip before returning to Iowa, Fred Hubbell and his wife ran into something unforgettable. The Pakistani airplane they were on was hijacked. The hijacking was part of the never ending dispute among powerful families in Pakistan. During the thirteen day ordeal, one Pakistani passenger was executed, women were separated from men before the plane continued on to another destination, and the freedom of several prisoners was extorted.
……The passengers were freed. Fred and Charlotte Hubbell returned to Iowa and went to work. Fred Hubbell worked for Equitable, leading strategic planning. He next became chairman of Younkers, a family owned department store chain. ……This was the eighties. Wikipedia has a whole section called Defunct Department Stores. Hubbell kept the business going, if not thriving. Republicans (free enterprise Republicans, remember) criticize Hubbell for closing three Younkers stores in Iowa in the eighties.
……Fred Hubbell returned to Equitable as President. He has been credited with reviving a business that was declining. He continued as President and then Chairman of company until Equitable was sold in the late 1990s — to the Dutch insurance company ING.
……Like Grover, Fred Hubbell was a central civic figure in Des Moines and philathropist. Some of Fred Hubbell‘s charities resemble Grover’s. He was chair of the regional United Way, chair of the Simpson College Board of Trustees, a member of the Board of Visitors for the University of Iowa School of Business, and Chair of the Des Moines Community Foundation. ……Some charities do not look at all like Grover’s. Fred Hubbell chaired the regional board of directors for Planned Parenthood. He became the Iowa chair of the United Negro College Foundation and served as chair of the area United Negro College Foundation. He was co-chair of the Des Moines NAACP Freedom Fund banquet.
……Fred Hubbell demonstrated his capacity for finding compromises. He served on the Mercy Hospital Medical Center Board of Trustees while he was also a member and then chair of the regional Planned Parenthood board.
Fred Hubbell got in a little public sector volunteerism. A Democratic governor appointed him Acting Director of the Department of Economic Development. He identified $160 million of ineffective tax credits and incentives and targeted them for elimination. He served as Board Chair of the Iowa Power Fund which was authorized to invest $100 million in wind and solar energy.
…In this land of ethanol production, wind now provides nearly 40% of Iowa’s electricity generation. Coal’s share has dropped from about 75% to 45%.
…What led this enormously wealthy Iowa businessman to become a supporter of progressive causes? Fred Hubbell is unclear about that.……
Fred Hubbell is clear about his political positions. He lists a few priorities for his campaign to be governor:
- Education: Support for public schools, stabilize tuition at public institutions, and develop job training and apprenticeship opportunities
- Increase income: Invest in infrastructure like high speed internet and in renewable energy. Create a tax system fair to individuals while eliminating useless business tax credits.
- Health Care: Support addiction and mental health services. Support the services that Planned Parenthood provides. Reverse the Iowa Republican experiment in privatizing Medicaid.
- Environment: Protect Iowa’s air and water quality.
- Workers Rights: Restore private sector collective bargaining rights that Republicans have stripped and treat teachers fairly so they stop leaving the state.
Fred Hubbell’s Republican opponent has a different kind of story. She worked as a waitress at Younkers. She took courses at three different community colleges without getting a degree. While serving as Lt. Governor, she took courses again and achieved a BA from Iowa State in 2016. She faced DUI charges twice and now has been sober for 17 years. ……Oddly, in her website, she does not list a set of priorities or issues she supports. She is, however, making a record signing bills during her year and a half as Governor after replacing the governor who left to be ambassador to China.
…Reynolds signed a bill into law prohibiting abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy — acknowledging that it will probably be rejected in the courts. She signed a bill requiring electronic monitoring of prescriptions filled by pharmacies — to go into effect in 2020. She signed a bill intended to equalize school funding in Iowa — reducing a $175 per pupil gap in education funding to zero over a ten year period.
……Reynolds has a good story and has had a year and a half to establish herself. She will not be a pushover in this evenly divided, but slightly Republican leaning state. Help Fred Hubbell win this election. Hubbell doesn’t need resources the way some candidates do. But self-funding is not a healthy situation. Consider giving him a little bit.
|
