Concern with Washington prompts candidate forum May 26

MOUNT PLEASANT – Judi Collora doesn't consider herself politically active, at least not when things are going well.

So the fact the she's hosting a candidate forum at 7 p.m. May 26 at her home south of Mount Pleasant suggests Collora doesn't think things are going well.

“Some folks are just unhappy with what's going on in Washington,” the Mount Pleasant business owner said Tuesday. “We just felt we needed to do something to get to know these people.”

“These people” are the four candidates in the June 8 Republican primary in Iowa's 2

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District – Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa, Steve Rathje of Cedar Rapids, and Christopher Reed and Rob Gettemy, both of Marion. The 2nd District stretches from Linn County south to the Missouri border and east to the Mississippi River.

The forum at American Outfitters, six miles south of Mount Pleasant at mile marker 35 on Highway 218 is not a party sponsored event, Collora said.

“We're a pretty good mix of Republicans, Democrats and a lot of independents,” she said.

Collora doesn't consider herself to be a part of the Tea Party despite sharing many of the same concerns as movement members – taxes, immigration and growing debt, for example.

“I think the Tea Party exists because Republicans are not conservative enough and Democratic Party is no longer a Democratic Party but an Obama party,” she said.

Collora describes herself as an “old-fashioned” conservative who has become more politically active as she's watched government debt and illegal immigration increase.

“I'm concerned for my kids and grandkids that they won't have the opportunities we've had and we haven't had the opportunities of our parents,” Collora said.

Illegal immigration has changed her community more in the past few years than it has changed in the previous 50, she added.

“Look, we're angry at the people making bad decisions, but we don't hate the people making bad decisions,” she said.

“We just want to work hard, be productive, pay our bills and don't think government has the right to take money from our kids and give it to people who want to break the law,” she said.

The forum will begin with candidates addressing the audience followed by an emcee asking questions submitted by the audience. There will be time for rebuttal, too, Collora said.

Then each candidate will go to a designated are to meet with people attending the forum.