At Least They Can Agree On This
As you probably know, I spent last Thursday and Friday afternoons at the National Cattle Congress, interviewing various candidates who are on the November ballot in our first-ever “Candidate Cattle Call”.
A total of 18 candidates, from three political parties, over those two days.
Agreement between Democrats and Republicans was, as expected, hard to find. But it seems I found two areas.
Both candidates for Congress from northeast Iowa–incumbent Republican Ashley Hinson and Democrat challenger Liz Mathis–believe Congress should intervene on the issue of abortion. They have diametrically opposed views about what that action should be…but they both think Congress can in essence override the Supreme Court’s determination that this a “state’s rights” issue.
The other area of agreement among candidates for the Iowa House and Senate…regardless of political party affiliation…is to be against carbon pipelines, like the multiple proposals currently out there that would forever adversely affect Iowa’s best-in-the-world farmland, along with other hazards too numerous to mention here.
The candidates were pretty clear, regardless of party, that voters were very much against these intrusions and they’d vote accordingly if something came up in the legislature.
That’s the problem, though…where’s the line where the state’s lawmakers can limit how someone wants to use their property? I don’t think I want government getting too deep in those weeds, but the overall public health and public policy harm these pipelines will cause could help nip these projects in the bud.
So far, however, those who have the loudest governmental voices are either silent, or suggest this is progress.
Seems to me, however, that if voters don’t want these pipelines, and candidates from both major political parties are at best highly skeptical…that should be enough for state officials to pay close attention and listen to the people before decisions are made that lead to adverse consequences that cannot be reversed.
