Several candidates on contested and uncontested ballots for the June 7th primary election spoke at a Washington County forum hosted by the Washington Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.
Chamber Executive Director Michelle Redlinger first allowed candidates running unopposed for county and legislative offices each five minutes to speak about themselves. Republican Dawn Driscoll who is currently senator for the state’s 38th district and Democrat Kevin Kinney who currently represents Washington County in the 39th district both spoke on their candidacy for the redrawn 46th district which also includes Iowa and part of Johnson counties. District 5 County Supervisor Richard Young, County Attorney John Gish, and County Treasurer Jeff Garrett also spoke for their unopposed races on the Republican ballot.
Redlinger then moderated questions submitted by the chamber and audience members to Republicans Heather Hora and Jaron Rosien who are running for State House District 92 which covers Washington and part of Johnson counties. Hora said the biggest reason she is running for the legislature is because she is a Christian mother of three young children, “And we need to do more to protect our children from what is happening in our society and our schools. Our teachers are being asked to put up with things that no one in a civil society should. Our children are being exposed to and being taught things that no child should be exposed to and taught at school. We need to protect them and have our schools get back to the basics of teaching – reading, writing, and arithmetic – and leave the morality to home.”
Hora mentioned receiving Governor Kim Reynolds’ endorsement, stating she thinks Reynolds is “one of the greatest leaders of our time.” Rosien commented on the governor’s support, “I see it less of an endorsement and more like a pair of golden handcuffs. I’ve had many good conversations with Governor Reynolds, she appointed me to the Iowa Arts Council. Governor Reynolds so desperately wants to force the [school] voucher program on citizens in Iowa that she’s taken to meddling in these primary elections. It is unprecedented and I think it is dangerous.”
Rosien said that while he has not categorically opposed school vouchers, which again failed to pass in the House this year, he opposes legislation that would “maime” public education in the process. He said that if elected he would work for his constituents and not those in the governor’s office. Candidates for the contested Supervisor District 3 (Marcus Fedler, Bill Poch) and County Recorder (Dawn Fall-Hayes, Teresa Mangold) ballots also fielded questions. For more information on voting in the primary election visit here.
