Candidate Profiles

1. Inadequate public school funding - we need to fully fund our public schools to keep up with inflation. This includes making sure our public funds stay in our public schools. 2. Protection of individual rights - we need to pass legislation that will protect the rights of Iowans including the right for a woman to make healthcare decisions with her medical provider. 3. Address environmental issues - we need to fund research to get to the bottom of why Iowa is second in the country in cancer rates.

Adequate funding for public schools is essential to a quality education system. Our State Supplemental Aid given to Iowa schools has not kept up with inflation and as a result, schools are forced to make difficult decisions such as cutting staff, increasing class sizes or reducing programs offered to our students. Iowa was once one of the national leaders in education and it will take further investment to return us to that status.

Yes - I would support a ban on hand-held mobile devices while driving. The use of a hand-held device is certainly distracting and poses a definite safety concern.

Due to high staff turnover due in part to low wages, legislators need to prioritize raising the wages of nursing home workers to attract and retain staff. Neighboring states have raised their minimum wage and are attracting our workforce. We also need to increase the number of nursing home inspectors to make sure safety is a priority of the residents.

Yes. The state should provide funding for cancer research, prevention and early screenings to find out why our state has the second highest cancer rate for the second year in a row. We need to prioritize access to early screening measures such as colon screening and mammography to catch cancer in its early stages. We must continue to investigate cancer clusters to research the complex combination of factors that are leading to the cancers. We must also incentivize known ways to reduce cancers such as radon mitigation or reverse osmosis systems to filter water - especially in our rural areas.

We need to pass legislation for sustainable funding for conservation and protection of our natural resources including farm conservation programs. We must support comprehensive water monitoring programs. We must also levy meaningful fines for violators of our water quality laws.

We need to provide legislation that will assist in recruiting and maintaining a mental health workforce that will meet the needs of Iowans. All but two of Iowa's psychiatric hospitals have closed which has led Iowa to the worst in the nation in psychiatric beds per capita. We also need to provide resources to increase behavioral health services in schools for students and staff.

Abortion, contraception and in vitro fertilization are healthcare services and should be available to a woman. These decisions should not be restricted by lawmakers in Des Moines who are not trained professionals in the medical profession.

No. Medical decisions need to be made between a woman and healthcare providers. I would not support a life at conception bill because this could lead to a reduction in medical services available to women. "Life at conception" is a phrase that is used when debating whether to limit a woman's right to make the decisions, including healthcare, mental, emotional and financial, which are best for her life. It places the embryo or fetus "life" status at the same level as the woman's.

We need to fully fund our public schools to ensure that our school districts are not having to make decisions about cutting staff or cutting programs. We need to restore our Area Education System so that they can continue to provide services to our special education students and quality professional development to our staff. The Iowa Legislature should leave the setting of curriculum standards and classroom content up to the teachers and administrators who have been properly trained in their field of expertise.

We must continue to offer economic incentives for businesses that will come to Iowa for the long-term and invest in our state with high paying jobs. We must also work with local governments to reinvigorate our small towns.