Who should run in the 4th District?

Last month, Selden Spencer surprised many when he announced that he would not run again in Iowa's 4th district. That left Democrats searching for a candidate to unseat Rep. Tom Latham, who votes with President Bush nearly 90% of the time. I know party leaders have been asking different people about a possible run, but with no luck.

William Myers from Humboldt is an Iraq Vet who is considering a run, but he is virtually an unknown among Democratic activists in the district. Also, I have rumors that Kevin Miskell, who is Vice President of the Iowa Farmer's Union, is considering a run.

I thought I would rank the possible candidates that could run in the 4th district. My criteria are experience and location within the district. One problem with Spencer's campaign was it was very Ames (Story Co. ) centered. The size of the district (28 counties) means the candidates must do well in Ft. Dodge (Webster Co.) and Mason City (Cerro Gordo Co.) and not just Story County to win. The candidate also needs a hook that would make them credible with rural voters.

Here are my rankings of possible candidates to run against Latham in Iowa's 4th District...

1. Daryl Beall- State Senator from Ft. Dodge. Would help win Webster County and probably has better name recognition throughout the northern parts of the district. Not up for reelection in 2008.

2. Jack Kibbie - One reason Democrats might be having a hard time recruiting a candidate is because it is the expected the 4th district will be redistricted out when Iowa loses a House seat in 2012. Running for Congress could cap off a long political career for Kibbie, who first served in the Iowa House in the 1960's and then later ran for the Iowa Senate in 1988. Kibbie currently is the Senate President and is up for reelection in 2008.

3. McKinley Bailey - Bailey was elected to the Iowa House in 2006 and is only 26 years old. However, his experience serving in Iraq would instantly make him credible on the top issue in the campaign. Bailey represents Webster County, an area Democrats must win to beat Latham.

4. Lisa Heddens - Heddens is currently an assistant Majority Leader in the Iowa House, where she has served since 2002. Iowa has never elected a woman to Congress or as Governor and Heddens would be a strong opponent. She is from Ames and would need to campaign hard in northern Iowa. If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee and there is a large turnout among woman, Heddens could win.

5. Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald - Fitzgerald's brother, Michael, is the State Treasurer. Since he is up for reelection as County Sheriff, he'd be a longshot to run.

Others...

• State Rep. Mark Kuhn of Charles City
  
• State Rep. Mark Smith of Marshalltown
• State Sen. Amanda Ragan of Mason City
• State Rep. Marcella Frevert of Emmetsburg
  
• activist Sue Dinsdale
• John Norris, who ran against Latham in 2002
• A young activist from the Ames area - There are many from the area who have worked on campaigns the past few years that could step into the race.
  

Please chime in with your thoughts.

Rep. Mark Smith Touts Education Improvements

My State Representitive Mark Smith (D-Marshalltown) put out a press release this week citing the improvements in education made during the last legislative session. As a teacher, I am very excited about many of these.

SMITH TOUTS EDUCATION IMPROVEMENTS
FROM 2007 SESSION

Des Moines, Iowa – State Representative Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown cited improvements in education from birth to college as one of the top achievements of the 2007 legislative session, which ended last month.

“We came into session with a detailed plan to improve our education system and ensure our graduates are prepared for the jobs in today’s global economy. We accomplished every piece of our education agenda and Iowans will see the difference with expanded pre-school opportunities, more competitive pay for teachers and more affordable higher education,” said Smith.

Education highlights from the 2007 legislative session include:

Early Childhood
• Expanded special education services for birth to three year olds
(Senate File 588)
• 90% of four year olds have access to quality, affordable pre-school
within the next four years (House File 877)

K-12 Education
• Raised Iowa teacher salaries from 42nd to 25th over the next two years
(Senate File 277)
• Insisted that Iowa teachers are certified in the subjects they teach
(Senate File 588)
• Expanded tutoring and before/after-school programs to ensure students
get the academic assistance they need to be proficient at their grade
level (Senate File 588)

Higher Education
• Expanded work-study programs for community college and university
students (Senate File 588)
• Limited state university tuition increases to no more than the rate of
inflation (Senate File 588/Senate File 601)
• Made Iowa community college tuitions comparable to states in the
region (Senate File 588/Senate File 601)

Smith highlights expanded access to pre-school, higher teacher pay, and more affordable higher education. Many would think I would be most excited about the teacher pay since I am a teacher. However, I think the expanded access to pre-school and affordable higher education will have the most long lasting benefits and are the most significant achievements. Don't get me wrong, the extra money I will be getting next year and beyond will be nice, but you don't go into teacher to earn a lot of money.

The expanded access to pre-school will greatly help students come to school prepared to learn. This will make my job easy. I teach 2nd grade and this year I had 5 students reading at a kindergarten level at the beginning of the year. Of these students, only 1 had attended pre-school.

I have written numerous times about the rise in cost of a college education and our debt for diploma system. If we want to keep our young adults in the state, affodable higher education must be a priority.

It is great to see education once again become a priority in our state. These efforts will only strengthen our state in the future.

Iowa Utilities Board Holds Public Hearing on Marshalltown Coal Plant

On Monday the Iowa Utilities Board held the first public hearing in Marshalltown about Alliant Energy's plan to build a new coal powered power plant in Marshalltown. According to the Marshalltown Times Republican about 70 people attended and most spoke in favor of it.

Sally Wilson expressed concerns about the environmental impacts and sustainability of the power plant.

Economic development is not necessarily sustainable development,” added Sally Wilson, a Marshalltown Community College associate professor of biology. “We’re concerned about security and yet we’re willing to become more dependant on one single source of coal and one single source of power. ... I think Alliant is a secure enough, large enough, aggressive enough company that you can be leaders in this area and really look at how you can minimize or eliminate the dependence on these fossil fuels.

State Representitive Mark Smith supports the plant, but expressed some concerns about the environmental impacts...

[I agree] about the volatility of the natural gas market — and we saw those spikes in 2001 occur in this state and the difficulty a number of small businesses had surviving that,” said Smith, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives’ Human Resources Committee and Environmental Protection Committee. “We also know that as we advance the switchgrass industry — all of the different sources that we can of other sources of energy — we are not far enough along at this point to have that fill our electrical needs here in the state.

I was unable to attend the meeting because I am swamped with the end of the school year. However, this topic is one issue that I plan to write a lot about this summer. Stay tuned for more info.

**Update**
I heard from someone who attended the meeting that the plant has been designed to be able to run on switchgrass instead of coal in the future if the technology is available.