Frustrated Golding eyes Iowa Senate 48 bid

After nearly two months on the campaign trail, Cindy Golding is playing catch up at her family-owned businesses.

“The work doesn't stop just because you're not there,” Golding said about her 48-day campaign to fill a vacant seat in Iowa Senate 18. Democrat Liz Mathis, also of Cedar Rapids, won the race, 56 percent to 44 percent.

Even as she gets back on track at the farm, investments, property management and non-profit consulting businesses she and her husband, Joe, operate, Golding is being encouraged to get back on the campaign trail.

“I'm getting lots of calls from people asking me to run” in Iowa Senate 48, Golding said.

Senate 48 covers all of Delaware County, the northern part of Linn County, four precincts in Buchanan and part of Jones County including the towns of Monticello and Anamosa.

There is no incumbent senator in the district, but it already is attracting a crowd of hopefuls.

Democrat Rep. Nate Willems of Lisbon is running. Republicans Dan Zumbach, a Ryan farmer, and Brian Cook, a Manchester insurance salesman, have announced plans to seek the GOP nomination.

“So we're regrouping as a family, deciding whether there is enough support to move ahead,” she said. “It's not what I want as much as what the people in the district want. You can't do it by yourself.”

A part of her consideration is her frustration with the campaign in Senate 18, where Republicans held a slight voter registration edge and both House seats that make up the Senate district.

Golding was annoyed with outside groups “inserted themselves in ways I had no control over … because of the dynamics of this being the one (seat) that would balance the Senate.” If she had won, the Senate would have been knotted at 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats.

“It was incredible to me,” said Golding, who has been involved in politics for years, including a primary election a decade ago.

Although neither she nor Mathis made same-sex marriage an issue, outside groups on both sides of the debate were involved in their campaigns. Labor unions, which generally have been supportive of the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court Decision in Varnum v. Brien that struck down a state ban on same-sex marriage, and One Iowa, the state's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, went to work for Mathis. The National Organization for Marriage, The Family Leader and Family Research Council Action campaigned for Golding.

She was uncomfortable about their role.

“There are lots of ways to present your message and some of the most aggressive approaches turn people off,” Golding said. Those groups, she added, “turned off Republicans as much as energized Republicans.

“And that's unfortunate, but we could not tell them stop,” she said.

The NOM said this week it will continue its efforts to give Iowans the opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. It supported Golding “because she was committed to allowing a vote on marriage.”

“Our goal in Iowa is to play a constructive role in ensuring that the people of Iowa have the right to vote on the definition of marriage and we intend to see that happen,” said Brian Brown, NOM president. “The leadership of the state Senate has blocked a vote on marriage even though voters in 31 other states have enjoyed that right. Ultimately, democracy will not be denied in Iowa and the people will get their vote.”

During the campaign, Golding often was unaware of what the third-party groups were doing “until after it was done.”

“I didn't receive some of the mailings that I heard about when I went door knocking or when I talked to people who indicated they were undecided, “Golding said.

Despite those frustrations, Golding will continue to think about the Senate 48 race.

“We need to know how the new district will respond,” she said. “I know a lot of people in the district and we'll see what they think and what their neighbors think.”