Berkley Bedell

Berkley Warren Bedell (March 5, 1921 – December 7, 2019) was an American Democratic Party politician and businessman who served as the U.S. representative for Iowa's 6th congressional district from 1975 to 1987. After starting a successful business in his youth, Berkley Fly Co., he ran for Congress in 1972, but was defeated by incumbent Wiley Mayne. Bedell was educated in Spirit Lake public schools. He graduated from Spirit Lake High School in 1939, where he earned spending money with a business in the midst of the Great Depression.

After graduating from high school, he attended Iowa State University from 1940 to 1942, where he met fellow ISU student Elinor Healy (March 9, 1923 – March 2, 2017) from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Berkley and Elinor married in Minneapolis on August 29, 1943, and their son Kenneth was born in 1947, Thomas in 1950 and daughter Joanne in 1952. While studying at Iowa State, Berkley joined the Iowa Gamma chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Berkley's college and personal life was interrupted in 1942 when he joined the army. He served in the United States Army as first lieutenant and flight trainer from 1942 to 1945. When he got back, he began to garner success from his fishing tackle business. His business became larger, with hundreds of employees and international operations; he had become a millionaire by the 1960s. He served as member of the Spirit Lake Board of Education from 1957 to 1962.

Political career

Running for Congress By the early 1970s, Bedell had decided to run for political office. In 1972, he ran against Wiley Mayne, a Republican incumbent in Iowa's 6th congressional district. Mayne was a staunch supporter of Richard Nixon and secured victory along with the President in a year favorable to the Republicans. Mayne, however, would politically suffer after Watergate (he was one of only a few Republicans to vote against impeaching the President on the judiciary committee.) The damage had already been done, and Bedell defeated Mayne in a 1974 rematch. This type of communication told Bedell of the types of issues affecting his farming constituency. Thus, though Bedell had not farmed in his life, he would take steps in Congress to benefit farmers. Bedell's original plan set the rate the barge industry paid as directly related to the amount the Government spent on waterway projects. This would have the additional effect of helping curb unnecessary waterway projects, and it was the same plan proposed by Pete Domenici in the Senate.

On the other hand, opponents of the Bedell plan had a very different view of this legislation. Representatives such as Pat Roberts claimed that the referendum was redundant because the farmers already voted the politicians into office, and this bill was an example of the politicians not doing their jobs. The Reagan Administration opposed the bill because of their opposition to production controls, and the President threatened to veto the farm bill if Bedell's plan was left in place. When the bill got to the floor, an amendment was proposed to strike this provision, and it was passed 251–174.

Investigations of large businesses While in Congress, Bedell was Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee, and he used this position to investigate underselling on the part of large oil companies. He also claimed that certain large oil companies underpaid their "windfall taxes" in certain cases and wanted to pass legislation to increase regulations on these corporations. Bedell used this opportunity to attack the Administration for "not caring" about small business owners, and he advocated that Governmental agencies put aside 1–3% of their research and development money for small businesses.

Disagreement with Reagan In late 1982, Congress passed a law which forbade the United States from funding groups aiming to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Then, in 1983, Bedell visited Nicaragua and Honduras along with Representative Robert G. Torricelli. During the trip, Bedell spoke with soldiers, generals, governmental officials and members of the contras. His conclusion at the end of the trip was that Ronald Reagan was aiding the Contras in violation of federal law. He promised to hold hearings after returning to Congress. Bedell would later join other House Democrats in demanding documents from the White House related to the contras, but the Reagan Administration refused to provide them. Bedell became angrier with the Reagan Administration as the decade wore on. He called his Central American policies "sheer lunacy", saying that the mining of harbors was an act of war. Bedell would retire from Congress before Reagan's actions in Central America would culminate with the Iran–Contra Affair.

Bedell was a sharp critic of Reagan's agricultural policies, calling for John Block to resign after calling his agricultural plan a failure that was "dead on arrival" in both the House and the Senate. Reagan's agricultural plan consisted primarily of a gradual reduction in farm subsidies. He also attacked the Department of Agriculture for "looking backward" when it dismissed the only expert on organic farming. Also, as chairman of the subcommittee on Department Operations, Research and Foreign Agriculture, which was in charge of regulating USDA operations, he opposed the proposals Reagan had for reforming the organization. The proposals generally involved shifting costs for meat inspections and other USDA duties from the federal government to the industry.

Alleged customs violations by Berkley and Co. In 1981, it was revealed in internal memos that Bedell may have known about potential customs violations that his company Berkley and Co. engaged in. It asserted that Bedell had gone to Taiwan in 1973 to discuss "prior violations of customs law" in regard to the sale of fishing rods from the company's Taiwan subsidiary. Bedell responded by denying any wrongdoing, saying that he has not been personally involved in the company in years. In the end, no charges were levied against him, and he was reelected after the story was published.

After politics

On May 22, 2007, Chris Dodd met with Bedell at the Kibbie Farm in Emmetsburg, Iowa. Bedell decided not to seek reelection in 1986 after contracting Lyme disease from a tick bite. Afterward, he founded a center for alternative medicine and was a noted advocate of health freedom. Due largely to his friendship with Tom Harkin, he remained an important political figure in Iowa, with politicians such as Howard Dean meeting him in their trips to the state.

As an opponent of the Vietnam War, Bedell signed a petition urging against United States military intervention in Iraq. This petition was signed with the names of 70 former Congressmen from the 1970s and was presented in a press conference on March 15, 2003. Bedell said that it was unbelievable for the United States to settle disputes with war, and he said that an Iraq war would be similar to the Vietnam War. Bedell would later officially endorse Howard Dean's candidacy. For the 2008 election, Bedell met with Chris Dodd.

In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Bedell endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Bedell was a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.

Bedell died in Naples, Florida, on December 7, 2019, at age 98, from complications of a stroke he suffered three days earlier.

Peace Harbor Built in 2004, Peace Harbor is Tom and Molly Bedell's former 25,000 square foot home on 1.26 acres with 178 feet of West Lake Okoboji shoreline near Spirit Lake, Iowa. It has a master wing, fifteen bathrooms, eight bedrooms all facing the lake, six garages, an indoor entertainment stage overlooking the water, a gathering room with a Brazilian blue marble floor and seating for over a hundred, a master retreat, master retreat bathroom, receiving room, conference room and private office with sweeping views of West Lake Okoboji, a commercial caterers kitchen, guest suite with its own bar, caretaker suite, caretaker suite kitchen, exercise room, upper level art studio, a movie theater with its own Lakeland Theatre Concession stand, and a large Irish Pub known as Kevin O'Sullivan's Pub. In June 2021, it listed for $9.9 million and was one of the most expensive homes in Iowa.