Irish Senate honors Iowa journalist for Pulitzer after Iowa Senate refuses

The Irish Senate passed a motion Thursday to honor an Iowa journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize last year but has not been recognized by the Iowa Senate.

Storm Lake Times editor Art Cullen won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing last year, but members of the GOP-controlled Iowa Senate have stalled a resolution to honor him, the Des Moines Register reported.

Republicans in Iowa indicated that the journalist’s reporting had rubbed some lawmakers the wrong way, which is why Senate Resolution 108 has been stalled for months.

“He is critical of anything that Republicans do, starting with Donald Trump and (U.S. Rep.) Steve King,” state Sen. Mark Segebart (R) said. “So, yes, he is not one of our favorite newspapermen.”

On Thursday, Irish Sen. Mark Daly said he introduced a motion to recognize Cullen’s achievement.

Cullen’s family has ties going back five generations to Kilkenny, Ireland, the Register reported.

“I proposed the motion and it was passed this morning by the Irish Senate,” wrote Daly, who is the spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, the Irish Overseas and Diaspora.

The motion reads: “That Seanad Eireann recognises the outstanding achievement of the Storm Lake Times Newspaper, Storm Lake, Iowa, winning the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing by its editor Mr. Art Cullen, whose ancestors came from Ireland.”

Cullen responded by saying, “I will take a resolution from the Irish Senate any day.”

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver (R) told reporters on Thursday that they’re “not really taking the lead from the Irish Senate” on considering the resolution.

Cullen, from Storm Lake, in northwest Iowa, won the prestigious journalism award last year for his editorials on water quality and agricultural interests in Iowa.

This year’s Pulitzer for Editorial Writing also went to an Iowa newspaper, The Des Moines Register.

Andie Dominick won this week for her reporting on Iowa’s Medicaid system.