Blouin leaves state post for Dubuque

Font Size:

By Dan Gearino | Thursday, January 11, 2007 1:48 PM CST | () comments

TODAY: (Updated 1:51 p.m.) DES MOINES — Mike Blouin has left his post as Iowa Department of Economic Development director for a top job at a Dubuque development group.

The announcement, to be made at an afternoon news conference in Dubuque, ends two months of speculation about whether Gov.-elect Culver would work with the man who was his closest rival in the Democratic gubernatorial primary last June.

During the campaign, Blouin criticized Culver’s economic development plans, at one point saying Culver “clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Despite their differences, Blouin said last month that he was interested in remaining on the job during the Culver administration.

Culver is expected to name an interim director of the economic development department later today.

Blouin, 61, will join the Greater Dubuque Development Corp. and will work with Rick Dickinson, the group’s executive director.

Blouin was hired to head the economic development department in December 2002 by Gov. Tom Vilsack. He resigned in July 2005 to run for governor. Vilsack reappointed Blouin to head the department last August.

Blouin was the point person in the creation and administration of the Iowa Values Fund, the largest economic development program in Iowa history. The fund includes roughly $50 million per year in incentives for corporate relocation or expansion.

In taking the director job in 2002, Blouin was returning to government after a long absence. He was elected to the Iowa House in 1968 when he was 22 years old. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1974 and served two terms. After a brief stint working for the Jimmy Carter administration, Blouin decided to leave politics and return to Iowa.

He spent most of the 1980s and 1990s working as a local economic development official in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.

Dan Gearino can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 and dan.gearino@lee.net.