Editorials: Change at the top

Iowa could return to its moderate good sense with Gov. Kim Reynolds retired. For nearly a decade, Reynolds presided over declining school test scores, banning books in schools, shaming of gays, denying Black history, harassing immigrants, and an intensified pollution of our air and water. She finally had the good sense to go, announcing last week that she will not seek a third full term as governor. Good.

Republicans will line up for a primary election to select her replacement. Former Republican State Rep. Brad Sherman, a pastor from Williamsburg, had planned to challenge Reynolds in a primary from the right. He will run.

Attorney General Brenna Bird said she would pray over it and decide whether to run — that suggests she is running. President Trump once suggested that she would be governor some day.

Matt Whitaker, recently appointed ambassador to NATO, served for a cup of coffee as attorney general in the first Trump Administration. The former Iowa Hawkeye football player would be a formidable candidate.

The strongest candidate, and probably the least likely, is Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig, a Cylinder native and Buena Vista University graduate, comes across as friendlier and more pragmatic than Bird or Whitaker. His current post is a sweet job. He could be ag secretary forever.

Many other Republicans could give it a go, such as House Speaker Pat Grassley. The list could go on. These are the most prominent. Steve King? You just never know.

On the Democratic side, there is State Auditor Rob Sand and as much money as he needs. About $10 million ought to be enough to scare off or beat anybody with some bus tokens. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst is said to be a contender.

Sand can beat Bird. She is a zealot. He runs as a pragmatist who would just as soon we did not have political parties. The rap on Sand is that he is too middling. His wife’s family made a fortune in meatpacking. Tom Harkin he is not. Sand is a moderate from Decorah who likes to shoot guns. We believe that more aggressive use of his authority as auditor would have prevented the emasculation of his office by the governor and legislature. We should remind ourselves that this style resulted in Sand being the only Democrat to hold statewide office, and that Harold Hughes is dead.

People may be uncomfortable with Bird’s bloodlust. She got elected not because people were enthused about her but because they were tired of Tom Miller, who had served as attorney general forever and made Sand look like a radical.

One-party government is not good for Iowa. Reynolds might find this a good time to jump ship because our economic performance is among the worst of the states, and our budget will be a desperate mess by the time she leaves office. She does no favors for those who would succeed her.

Iowa has done best when government is divided. Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack got a lot done with Republican Senate Leader Jeff Lamberti. That’s how the lake got dredged and King’s Pointe Resort got built. Under one-party rule, the marina was left to rot and the state shut down the Storm Lake DNR office.

Since it is inconceivable for Democrats to take control of either the Iowa Senate or House in 2026, they must put their shoulder into the governor’s race. This is their chance. Cash is king, and Sand has cash.

A Democrat would have an exceedingly difficult time defeating Mike Naig. They should hope Bird is the nominee.

ALSO ON THE BALLOT IN 2026 is the US Senate seat held by Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican who hails from Red Oak but is very much of Washington nowadays. Democrats think that may leave an opening: State Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville, State Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs, State Rep. JD Scholten of Sioux City and Nathan Sage of Knoxville all have said they are at least thinking about running. It is presumed that Ernst will seek re-election. It can’t be that much fun as a majority senator who has acceded her constitutional authority to the president. She is well familiar with the senior generals in the Pentagon, ProPublica has reported, and could command a comfortable living as a lobbyist. Ernst may remain comfortable with the fact that Iowans are loathe to unseat an incumbent, no matter the indiscretion.

Starving art

The Storm Lake City Council has funded the Witter Galley for as long as we recall, but not this fiscal year. The council cut off the gallery and the Buena Vista County Historical Society from funding. City Manager Keri Navratil says it is because the treasury is short on funds, but she found $15,000 for Kids Fest and $4,450 for Breakfast with Santa. If the city cannot afford to support the gallery, it is yet another example of poor management.

The city has plenty of money to spend on lawyers to battle the county on a lawsuit that is apparently going nowhere. The layers of management rise in salary.

Back before all this progress, we were able to set aside money for the Witter Gallery. Now we lack the management ability and the class to support the gallery that resides in a poorly maintained public library building.

Property taxes and fees are going up while basic services deteriorate. That is the new theme of local government. We hope they can afford eggs for breakfast with Santa.

Losing ag markets

The trade war between China and the United States will price Iowa soy and pork out of the Chinese export market. It’s been happening since the first Trump Administration, and through the Biden Administration. Self-sufficiency in feeding its people remains the Communist government’s priority.

China has been cultivating long-term relationships in South America as rain forests in Brazil give way to row crop and livestock production. Brazil took the US spot as the top ag exporter to China. Iowa commodity groups have courted China since President Richard Nixon’s 1972 detente. Xi Jinping visited Iowa and encouraged China to follow Iowa production models. He was friends with Terry Branstad, who went from governor to Chinese ambassador for the United States.

That relationship has been cut as our economies decouple.

Commodity markets traded sideways to up a bit since late last week, when Trump and Xi ratcheted up tariffs as if in a game of chicken. The trade already priced in most of the export market loss when soybeans plunged 35 cents per bushel on tariff announcements. Trump backed off the most severe tariffs for 90 days, and the market responded with a relief bump. A weak US dollar and weather concerns came back to the fore as most people figured that the Chinese market was lost.

China does not buy that much from the United States. It is a primary consumer of Iowa pork and soy. This is the place where China can cause the most pain for perceived aggression from the United States. Iowa is bearing a disproportionate burden because it did such a good job selling our products to Beijing over the past 50 years. All that is unraveling, and it is impossible to say where it all leads. It is unlikely that we will enjoy the robust ag exports that we once did with China. It is probable that more rain forest will be cleared to make way for soybeans.

If this is a paradigm shift in markets and production, Iowa would be wise to see it and plan for it. Maybe we don’t need crops planted into the river bank and hog confinements around every corner. The Trump USDA is poised to deliver disaster relief of up to $30 billion this year for loss of sales to China. That will do little to alter production patterns as the next farm bill is likely to curtail efforts to idle acres for conservation. We sought the Chinese market because of our chronic over-production. Why should any other Asian nation trust us as reliable trading partners? Now we have lost the export relief valve but have not addressed the root of the issue: chronic over-production of row crops while depleting natural resources.