Bill Dix resigns from Iowa Senate after video with lobbyist is posted

Sen. Bill Dix, the leader of the Iowa Senate's Republican majority, resigned Monday, just hours after video was posted online showing him apparently kissing a lobbyist at a Des Moines tavern earlier this month.

Dix met briefly with his Republican colleagues behind closed doors at 1 p.m.  Minutes later,  a Senate aide provided reporters with a copy of a letter Dix had written to Iowa Senate President Jack Whitver and House Speaker Linda Upmeyer.

The letter read, "I resign my position as Iowa State Senator and Majority Leader effective at 2 p.m. today, March 12, 2018."

The Senate leader's stunning resignation came only a few hours after the Iowa Starting Line political website posted a 52-second video in which Dix and a female lobbyist are shown sitting next to each other on barstools, reportedly at the Waveland Tap at 4704 University Ave. in Des Moines. In the final seconds of the video, the woman leans over and she and Dix kiss.

Whitver issued a statement Monday afternoon regarding Dix's departure. "I believe he made the right decision for himself and for his district, but most importantly, I believe he made the decision in the best interest of his family," the Senate president said. Earlier in the day, Whitver said he was "absolutely” unaware of any relationship between Dix and another woman and that he had no knowledge about the video that appeared online.

Whitver said Senate Republicans will continue to move the policies Iowans elected them to pursue. He said a new Senate majority leader will be elected on Wednesday.

Upmeyer said legislators need to be aware that they are in positions of power and should know to avoid romantic relationships with people who could be seeking to influence their decision-making.

More:Man who took video of Bill Dix says 'he was on the hunt'

“That’s not the position we want to be in, and it’s not a position we should be in,” she said. “We know better.”

However, Secretary of the Senate Charles Smithson said there had been no complaints of misconduct filed against Dix prior to his resignation. Smithson said he will consult with the Legislature’s new human resources director to determine if there is still any need to investigate any matters involving the Legislature’s policies that govern sexual harassment.

As a lobbyist, the woman’s professional responsibilities would include attempting to influence Dix on matters of public policy. As the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Dix controls what legislation comes up for debate. He is an 18-year veteran of the Legislature and is married with three children, according to his legislative biography.

Several lawmakers and other elected officials had said earlier Monday that the behavior depicted in the video was inappropriate. 

Asked about the situation at her regular weekly news conference, Gov. Kim Reynolds had said she expected to meet with Dix later on Monday to hear the facts directly from him. Until then, she said, she would not comment. 

"Iowans hold their elected officials to a high standard. They expect us to lead, and I expect to lead," Reynolds said. "But I want to know the facts. I’m extremely disappointed with what I’m hearing, but until I have an opportunity to hear his story I’m not going to comment."

Sexual harassment has been a major issue in the Legislature and particularly in the Iowa Senate as a result of a $1.75 million settlement reached last year in a case involving former Senate Republican Caucus Communications Director Kirsten Anderson.

Dix faced calls for his resignation over the Senate's handling of that case, which resulted in the hiring last year of the human resources manager for the Iowa Legislature who could investigate allegations of sexual harassment and provide training to prevent it.

Dix, 55, a farmer, represented Senate District 25, which covers Butler, Grundy, Hardin, and Story counties. He served 10 years in the Iowa House before leaving for an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2006. He was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2010.

Dix had been the Senate Republican Caucus leader since the 2013 session. At the time he was elected to the post, he was the Senate GOP’s sixth caucus leader in seven years and he led a minority of Republicans. But he said he hoped to stay a while and he wanted to see Republicans win a majority in the Senate.

His goal was achieved in the 2016 elections when Republicans gained control with 29 of  50 Senate seats. He helped to lead a tidal wave of conservative legislation in the 2017 session that included dramatically limiting the state’s collective bargaining laws for public employees, restricting abortions, expanding the rights of gun owners, and pro-business policy measures that nullified minimum-wage increases for workers in five Iowa counties, limited medical malpractice lawsuits; limited nuisance lawsuits against livestock operators; and cut workers' compensation benefits.

Dix returned in the 2018 session with a promise to write “Chapter 2” of the Republican agenda. That agenda has included passage of a Senate bill that would require steep cuts  in state taxes that would total $1.2 billion annually when fully enacted. The bill has been sent to the Republican-led Iowa House, which is writing its own tax reform legislation.

Dix grew up in northeast Iowa, graduating from Janesville High School in 1981. He received a bachelor's degree in agribusiness at Iowa State University four years later. He then sold feed in central Iowa and was a regional sales manager for Cargill, Inc. in southern Minnesota and northeast Iowa before coming home in 1991 to return to farming.

He and his wife, Gerri, farm about 500 acres in Bremer County, and they earn most of their annual net profit from raising melons, squash and pumpkins. They market the produce to retailers in Iowa and Minnesota.

Dix recalled in 2012 interview being raised in a family where it was impressed on him that it was important to support good people for public office, and his dad was a township trustee for years. So when he returned home, he agreed to become Butler County Republican chairman, and four years later, he was elected to the Iowa House.

Just as former Gov. Terry Branstad has said he felt compelled to return to office in 2010, Dix said he also felt an obligation to come back and help fix the state's financial troubles, which had suffered as the nation faced the worst recession since the 1930s.

"No question about it. I had been appropriations chairman in the Iowa House, and I couldn't believe the degree to which we had made a mess of our state finances. I knew it didn't have to be that way. That was my primary interest in running — to fix that mess," Dix said in a 2012 interview.