Letter: Reynolds must lead in her own way

Kim Reynolds is soon to be the first woman governor of Iowa. Is she qualified? Absolutely. She has six years of experience shadowing Gov. Terry Branstad. Whenever you see Branstad you see Reynolds, standing at his side or right behind him. To paraphrase what she said recently, she has had six years of experience with the governor and has been in on every executive decision. And therein lies the problem.

The longest serving governor of Iowa, Branstad has in recent years been one of the worst I've seen in nearly 70 years. He has drastically underfunded education, interfered with what should be a partisan free judicial system, wreaked havoc in the state's mental health program, proposed a funding system for improving Iowa's water quality that would take even more away from Iowa's education needs, and has set up and stood firmly with a very controversial state board of regents, inserting his influence directly into the University of Iowa presidential selection process.

This is only a partial list of the disastrous job he has done the past six years. If Reynolds wants to be the first elected female governor of Iowa, she has two years to prove she is just more than Branstad's shadow.

Jim Davis

North Liberty