Iowa Senate District 45’s primary winner must help Dems build coalitions, candidates say

Janice Weiner, an Iowa City City Council member, is the Democratic candidate for Iowa Senate District 45. (Photo supplied by Jaime Moquin)

John Raley, an insurance agent, is a candidate for Iowa Senate District 45. (Submitted photo)

IOWA CITY — The Democrat who wins Iowa Senate District 45 must be outspoken on Democratic priorities, but willing to work with Republicans to get things done.

This is according to Janice Weiner, an Iowa City Council member who is running against John Raley, an insurance agent, in the Democratic primary June 7.

There are no Republicans running in the heavily-Democratic district that’s been led for 24 years by Sen. Joe Bolkcom, who is retiring. As such, the primary will likely decide who the winner is before the November general election. District 45 includes Iowa City and University Heights. Early voting starts Wednesday.

“Whoever is in the Iowa Senate needs to figure out how to work with people to get things passed or make things less bad until Democrats control at least one lever of power,” Weiner said, acknowledging Republicans now control the Iowa Senate, Iowa House and Governor’s Office.

“Whoever represents this district also has an obligation to speak out and speak up because it’s not something every elected representative can afford to do. If they are in a swing district, they would be putting their seat at risk.”

Raley agrees on the need to build coalitions.

“There has to be a leader with the skill set to work across the aisle,” he said.

Weiner, 64, and Raley, 63, have shared the stage several times this spring, most recently at a May 9 forum hosted by the Johnson County League of Women Voters. They speak highly of one another, but note clear differences in what they offer to voters.

Raley has lived in Eastern Iowa for 44 years, since he first moved to Cedar Rapids to attend Coe College.

Education has always been one of Iowa’s strengths, yet standardized test scores have fallen in the past 20 years, putting Iowa’s public K-12 schools on par with national averages. Raley would like to see more state funding for K-12 schools and for Iowa’s public universities — including the University of Iowa, which is in District 45.

“We’re a unique university because we’re a teaching and research hospital and university with a lot of graduate programs,” he said. “It seems like we have to rely on federal government dollars when we get grants and those dollars don’t always come at once.”

Raley would like to see more support for small businesses, which make up 99 percent of Iowa’s businesses overall, according to the 2021 Iowa Small Business Profile.

As the owner of an American Family Insurance agency in Iowa City, Raley helped Iowa City residents recover after the floods of 1993 and 2008, as well as the 2006 tornado and 2020 derecho.

Raley said his experience as president of the National Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors taught him how to work with 2,000 members who have different political and regional priorities. The group developed legislation to help customers save for college and to reduce fraud against older Americans.

John Raley

Age: 63

Occupation: Insurance agent

Family: Three adult children

Weiner grew up in Coralville and graduated from Iowa City West High School before leaving Iowa for Princeton University and later Stanford Law School. She served in the U.S. State Department, taking posts in Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Poland, Canada, Mexico and Washington, D.C.

She moved back to Iowa in 2015 and was elected to the Iowa City Council in 2019.

“I’ve gotten some really excellent experience on City Council,” Weiner said, calling out the council’s work distributing pandemic relief funds and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

But when Bolkcom announced he would retire, Weiner decided she would get into the race. Johnson County also will be losing Rep. Mary Mascher, who will not run again in 2022 after 14 terms in the House. State Rep. Christina Bohannan also is running for Congress.

If elected, Weiner’s top priority will be maintaining Iowa’s voting rights and further improving the state’s child care system.

“They (lawmakers) didn’t touch on the most consequential issue, which is figuring out how to pay child care workers more and possibly getting them benefits,” she said. “It’s foundational to everything: education, workforce, expanding our workforce.”

She said her time in the foreign service, working with people from various cultures, will help her form relationships with Democrats and Republicans in the Iowa Legislature.