Flood recovery top priority for House 33 candidates

CEDAR RAPIDS - They're young, they feel called to serve and they see flood recovery as their top priority.

One of them will be the next state representative from Iowa House 33, which covers most of Cedar Rapids' south side.

Democrat Kristen Running-Marquardt, 32, and Republican Josh Thurston, 27, are facing off in a special election Tuesday to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Rep. Dick Taylor, a Democrat.

Voter registration favors a Democrat, but Thurston, like Running-Marquardt, emphasizes his roots in the district, his choice to return to the neighborhood and his concern for family, friends and neighbors who are still trying to recover from 2008 flooding.

“I'm an average guy. I'm a factory worker,” says Thurston, a Teamster working at Cargill. “I see the way our economy is, that jobs are leaving, and I felt that if there was something I could do to change that, to be a voice for these people, for people who are just like me, that's what I wanted to do.”

Running-Marquardt talks about coming from a “hardworking, middle-class” family with a history in the district.

“Every day I drive through the flood-devastated neighborhoods and it's heartbreaking,” she says. “I'll take that to Des Moines with me and work hard and fight hard.”

She was bitten by the political bug at an early age - her father, Rich Running, served in the Iowa House - and has worked on campaigns for the Iowa Democratic Party and the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. She also worked for Iowa for Health Care and, since last year, in U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack's Cedar Rapids office.

“I've seen firsthand the good someone in political office can do,” she says. “If given the opportunity to go to Des Moines I would remember what an honor it is and go up there and kick some butt.”

Thurston describes his previous political experience as “looking down the barrel of an M16 in Iraq.” He was in the Army for four years, including 12 months in Iraq.

“After Sept. 11, I felt I was called to serve,” Thurston says. “Now as I look at my hometown, a place I chose to come back to, I see the flood and what has and hasn't happened. I don't think Des Moines has stepped up. I don't have a set plan, but I know people need help and if there's something I can do to help them, then that's what I want to do.”

He calls for tax incentives to attract business development and jobs.

“Iowa used to be a place people came to find work, not left to find it,” Thurston says.

Running-Marquardt wants to tie flood recovery to economic development by giving local governments more flexibility to hire local contractors and local people to complete flood recovery efforts.

Although they say they aren't pushing social issues, they split on whether Iowans should have the opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage.

Thurston doesn't say whether he agrees with an Iowa Supreme Court striking down a state law banning same-sex marriage, but thinks the issue should be decided by voters.

“My personal belief, what goes on behind your closed doors is your business,” he says “I would push for every voter to have a voice on that. ‘We the people' are supposed to decide things.”

Running-Marquardt would prefer the Legislature focus on pocketbook issues. “I feel like it's settled in the court,” she says.