Anderson: Women in Iowa SenateGOP office were 'teased,' 'ridiculed'

Despite reports of bad behavior, supervisors in the Iowa Senate Republican caucus office struggled to curb a "locker room" environment where jokes about sex and race were the norm, a former employee told Polk County jurors Tuesday morning. 

Kirsten Anderson, a former communications director for the caucus, was the first witness to testify a trial in her lawsuit against the state alleging that she was bullied and sexually harassed on the job and ultimately fired in May 2013 as retaliation for raising concerns. The state attorneys defending the case don't dispute all of Anderson's accounts of lewd behavior in the office, but contend she was fired after months of problems with the quality of her work.  

The team that Anderson worked on functions as the staff to Republican members of the Iowa Senate, helping with policy research, administrative work for different committees and aiding communications between senators and voters in their districts. There were just three female senators in the 18-member Republican Senate caucus when she was hired for the communications job in 2008, Anderson said. 

What emerged through testimony Tuesday was a picture of an unorganized, busy office and staff that Anderson, 39, described as a "dysfunctional family." There was a frenetic energy and late nights during annual legislative sessions, followed by plenty of "down time" over the summers when lawmakers left the Iowa Capitol, she said.     

"Conversation and jokes were always free-flowing," Anderson told jurors.

With that atmosphere came problems, particularly from Jim Friedrich, a senior analyst who worked on policy issues and remains on the Senate Republican staff, Anderson testified. Anderson said she was friends with Friedrich, but she and other women were bothered by taunts and teasing from him about their sex lives and other lewd and racially insensitive topics.  

"Sometimes we would even yell — I mean really yell — at him to stop," she told jurors. "It got to the point where we would even yell, 'How would you like it if we said these things to you?' And his reply was either laughter or, 'I don't care, you can say whatever you want to me.'" 

The former communications director recalled one incident in which Friedrich showed her a naked picture of reality TV star Kim Kardashian on his work computer and asked her what she thought. At other times, Friedrich would announce a "hot chick report" and summon staff in the office to look at women walking by outside his window, Anderson said.

The environment in the staff office noticeably "deteriorated" in 2010 during a time period when Friedrich was going through a divorce, according to Anderson and court papers. Friedrich began using the "C" word on a daily basis in reference to women, Anderson said. His jokes and conversation seemed more "angry."   

"He started calling women (expletives), especially his wife," Anderson told jurors. "The jokes increased. The anger toward ethnicities increased. It was very scary."

Anderson also told jurors that former Sen. Shawn Hamerlinck, a DeWitt Republican, regularly stopped by the staff office and would comment on the size of certain lobbyists' breasts. Hamerlinck, now the chairperson of the Clinton County Board of Supervisors, would make comments about the skirt lengths of Senate pages — juniors and seniors in high school who are hired to help legislators with daily tasks, she said.   

During questioning from her lead attorney, Mike Carroll, Anderson portrayed the personnel policies and procedures used by the Iowa Senate Republican caucus as slipshod at best. There was no formal orientation when she left her job as executive director of the Iowa Architectural Foundation to work for the caucus, she said. Anderson also eventually realized that the personnel guidelines document she'd been given was missing every other page, she said. 

That portrayal was bolstered by testimony Tuesday afternoon from John Hodges, who was the Republican caucus staff director from 2011-2012. Called by Carroll to testify, Hodges told jurors that there were few personnel files on employees when he took over the office. Hodges had to ask before being given any sort of policy manual for employees, he said. 

"I had to seek things out," he said. "There wasn't a lot provided when I came." 

Hodges, now the chairman of the Iowa Board of Parole, was nondescript when Carroll asked whether he remembered Anderson complaining to him about the office environment.

"I cannot say she didn't. I just don't recall," he said. 

But Anderson recounted for the jury several complaints she made to superiors that she believes were ineffective or fell on deaf ears. 

The first complaint Anderson made happened in 2010 when Friedrich's behavior worsened, she said. Peter Matthes, the staff director at the time, promised he would speak with Friedrich, Anderson testified. Friedrich was initially quiet around the office for a short time, but became angry approximately one week later, Anderson said.  

"He came into the office absolutely belligerent, yelling and screaming at everyone in the office," she said. "And he started saying, 'You can't tell me what to do. This is a free country. I can say whatever I want, you're not going to stifle my speech.'"

Anderson said she made another complaint to Hodges in November 2012 after she heard Friedrich gossip with a Republican senator about the college sex life of a female Democratic senator. The next month, Friedrich made a comment in a staff meeting that a potential clerk for Sen. Bill Dix, the senate minority leader, liked sleeping with black men. 

That comment prompted Ed Failor Jr., a senior aide to Dix, to call Anderson and another female staffer into his office for questions on the senior analyst's past behavior, Anderson said. She told jurors that Failor was unclear what he would do, but the senior aide said "he would handle" the matter.   

Anderson admitted during questioning from Assistant Attorney General Molly Weber that she had participated in some off-color jokes during her tenure in the office. Weber showed jurors a string of emails where Anderson used curse words, described frustrations with employees and responded to sex jokes sent by coworkers. 

But Anderson said several times throughout the day that the office had a "go along to get along" atmosphere that left her little choice but to participate at times. 

"I played along," she said. "I said some things that I still think about today that I regret. I made some jokes that were kind of crass because I wanted to get along to get access to that boy's club." 

The jury of five men and four women is set to continue hearing testimony from Anderson on Wednesday. 

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