Rep. Pat Murphy calls for focus on education, Iowa energy

CEDAR RAPIDS - State Rep. Pat Murphy has been in the Iowa Legislature for 25 years and said if he's elected to the U.S. House this fall he doesn't plan to change his approach to government.

'I'm going to continue working for the middle class and I'm going to make sure that we focus on not just Dubuque, but what's best for Iowa, especially the 1st District,” Murphy told the Downtown Cedar Rapids Rotary Monday.

Murphy is running for the open seat in Iowa's 24-county 1st District that includes Cedar Rapids, Waterloo-Cedar Falls and Dubuque.

He also called for a strong focus on education, including preschool for four-year-olds and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), which he said 'will be huge as we compete against the Chinese.”

'When you look at advanced manufacturing … we need to have people strong in technology because the jobs that are in advanced manufacturing aren't like the manufacturing jobs we had 30 years ago,” Murphy said. Those jobs pay $20 to $25 an hour.

'The best way for us to grow the middle class is to make sure (students) have the best education they need,” he said. That means making sure children read at grade level by third grade, that STEM education starts in middle school and tied into community college programs 'so we children who can go out and fill those jobs.”

He believes Iowa is well-positioned to expand its renewable energy industries beyond wind power to solar and biofuels. That will help attract industries, such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM that want clean energy and an educated workforce.

Iowa needs to attract those new jobs to maintain and grow its population, Murphy said. Iowa is the only state that didn't see its population grow by at least 100 percent between 1900 and 2000.

'It's important to keep our focus on growing our economy so young people can stay here,” he said.

Iowa, he said, has done a good job on economic development, but 'we've got to push that to move it forward.”

There's room for improvement, Murphy said, but overall he's bullish on Iowa.

'Maybe I'm just an optimist, but I think this is still the best country to live in,” Murphy said when asked whether the country was on the right track. Quite frankly, can we improve our path? Yes.”

To make those changes, he said 1st District voters need to elect someone who has the experience 'to make government more flexible and reactive versus being sort of standoffish.”

He emphasized his efforts as speaker of the Iowa House to provide flood recovery funds after the 2008 flood. Murphy also promised that if elected he will work just as hard to get Water Resource Development Act funding for the Cedar Rapids flood wall.