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Buena Vista County Republicans noted with some disappointment the no-shows at a candidate forum the local party sponsored at Buena Vista University on Saturday, April 18: US Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, gubernatorial candidates Randy Feenstra and Zach Lahn, and congressional candidate Chris McGowan. Moderator Lynn Evans, the state senator from Aurelia, cautioned his friends in the GOP not to overlook Northwest Iowa as placards on stage dentified the ghosts.
Feenstra has made not showing up a feature of his campaign and of his time in office. Storm Lake barely knows the congressman from Hull. He is the Establishment candidate and as such does not sully himself by being among the other candidates. He has enough money and name ID within the party that he doesn’t need a forum.
Zach Lahn is running as an economic populist who thinks our schools are teaching Marxism. He wants to break up consolidated power and apparently thinks everyone else agrees with him so he doesn’t need to show up, either. Good luck with that strategy, since 99% of sales is about showing up. Lahn says he has his own money to spend, so maybe he doesn’t need to show up in Storm Lake, either.
Gubernatorial candidates Adam Steen, Brad Sherman and Eddie Andrews did show up. Primary voters, take heed. A poll reported by the Iowa Standard shows no candidate for governor reaching 35% support, which result in the June primary election would throw the race to a nominating convention. Such a convention well could favor Steen, endorsed by the Family Leader, or a candidate who is not even on the dance card at this point. Feenstra is the front runner with the money and endorsements but without apparent mojo. He could use some partisan exposure. His TV ads are about rousting immigrants, which is not the top issue even among Republican primary voters in his own congressional district. It’s the economy, stupid. Perhaps Feenstra has enough of that corporate Establishment money to win the primary making people think that the problem is Mexicans in Denison. Donald Trump doesn’t mind that much.
Hinson is from eastern Iowa. Western Iowa is where 40% of the Republican turnout comes from, Evans reminds us. Hinson has work to do around here. Her primary opponent Jim Carlin showed up at BVU. He is from Sioux City. Republicans should take note of his name.
Buena Vista University is conservative enough. The county voted bigly for Trump. So what gives?
It’s a lack of enthusiasm. The dog caught the bumper. Republicans hold Congress, the White House, the statehouse and the courthouse. The state universities and judicial system, too. They have all the power and cannot deliver. In Storm Lake, property taxes are ballooning alongside fees. Boone is cutting teachers. Health care costs are a fright, and rural services are amputated. The state lays claim to private property for a pipeline and to slosh out another corporate subsidy from the taxes assessed on the working mules. You have all the power and what have you done for the people? Who wants to take that question first?
If the candidates don’t show up the people won’t. Democratic candidates like Rob Sand (governor) and Chris Jones (secretary of agriculture) are drawing large and energetic crowds. The enthusiasm gap appears to favor the party out of power or no party at all. They have the easier task by positing: Look what the Republicans have done with 10 years of complete and consolidated power, and they are too lazy or arrogant to even show up in Storm Lake to account for themselves. Why get out of your chair to vote for several more years of smug that leads to higher property taxes, toxic water and worse schools?
The midterm elections could be fraught for the GOP in Iowa. They should be, when the leading Republicans disregard Storm Lake and the Buena Vista County Republican Party.
Gov. Kim Reynolds swore that marijuana would not be legal under her watch. She stayed true to her pledge. Iowa still locks people up for taking a puff of the stuff and robbing the cupboard for Cheetos. Meanwhile, the weed stores in East Dubuque and Moline, Ill., are going gangbusters on Iowa business. It’s coming on in Minnesota. Legal in Missouri. In Nebraska, hemp products that can stone you are in array for adult consumers.
Reynolds is not running. A new sheriff may be coming to the statehouse. State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, is running for governor and is calling for legalization. He announced it with good humor on April 20. We are aware of no other candidate for governor running on legalization, certainly not as a featured plank.
Most voters share Sand’s opinions. Iowans are voting by driving over the river with their considerable tax dollars funding Illinois. Those tax dollars could stay in Iowa. Sand points out that we face billion-dollar deficits unless something is done to increase revenue or shut off the classroom lights. Sand frames it as a pragmatic choice. People are doing it. Keep it among adults. The state can regulate and tax it. No sense spending money on “three hots and a cot” in jail for grown adults taking a toke in private.
“I just think we should treat it like alcohol,” Sand said. “I don’t understand why it’s complicated. We tried prohibition for alcohol. It turned out to be a really bad idea.”
Alcohol is legal. So is tobacco. As far as we know, they do more harm than cannabis. Nobody knows for sure because research on the plant has been all but banned by federal rules. None other than President Donald Trump changed that position last week, switching the federal classification of marijuana as having no redeeming value to Schedue 3, which means it now may be the subject of research. Many people already get doctor’s clearance in Iowa to use cannabis for pain, PTSD and to relieve the side effects of cancer treatment.
If elected, Sand probably will have to deal with a Republican-controlled legislature that is not so amenable. So Sand’s campaign talk could sound just like another empty promise from a politician. Sand is a lawyer, so pay close attention — he makes it sound as if he can do it through executive authority. He did not make that explicit in his announcement. Here is what his website says:
“Right now, alcohol is regulated under the Alcoholic Beverages Division. As governor, Rob would add cannabis experts to the already-existing division to be charged with regulating the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and sale of cannabis. These experts would implement age restrictions, quality and safety standards, and taxation similar to how alcohol is regulated in the state.”
If this is not what he means, then Sand is just smokin’ and jokin’ voters, because a Republican legislature will not legalize cannabis, hemp derivatives or any semblance thereof. It should, but it will not. If Sand says he can do it through executive authority, like Trump does, that would be a reason for libertarians and other actual conservatives to vote for him.
Thanks to our friends at the Cedar Rapids Gazette for pointing to a survey of public universities by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association showing that state support for our Regents universities declined by 46% in inflation-adjusted terms since 2001. It was the steepest drop in the nation. Average tuition at a public university in Iowa is about $17,000. It’s half that in Nebraska, and just $11,000 in Illinois or Wisconsin.
Higher education generally has been under an all-out assault from legislators. It used to be an industry for the state that attracted out-of-state revenue but that is changing precisely because politics is undermining academic offerings and quality. If you can get a better education in Nebraska, you can root for the Cyclones from Lincoln. We are driving young folks off as if we don’t want them here. It’s easier to farm without communities rearing families getting in the way.
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