Republican Kim Reynolds, the G.O.P.’s nominee for lieutenant governor, says she wants to be an “honest broker” in a statewide conversation about which levels of government should perform which duties and that’s why she’s not making any specific proposals.
“I want everybody at the table to help us walk through that,” she says. “It needs to be a collaborative effort. It cannot be a top-down because they’ve been talking about doing this for 20 years, since I’ve been a county treasurer, and it never happens because people tend to get very territorial, very defensive.”
Reynolds, who is from Osceola, was the treasurer in Clarke County before winning a seat in the Iowa Senate in 2008. Terry Branstad, the Republican candidate for governor, chose Reynolds as his running mate in late June and she’s promised to lead an effort to recalibrate the duties of government, perhaps shifting some responsibilities from the state to counties and moving other duties from the local level up to state government. Reynolds says as she’s campaigned throughout the state this summer and fall, she’s been hearing from local officials who’re interested in that process.
“They’re coming to me and saying, ‘I’d like to be a part of that. I’d like to do this,'” Reynolds says. “I think what they’re really concerned about, a lot of it, is to make sure that, you know, we take a look at the laws and make sure that we don’t have laws that would restrict the ability to collaborate between Adams County and Clarke County. We needed to go through all of the legislation to make sure that we don’t have road blocks there and maybe incent counties that are doing that and really encourage that and showcase them.”
But Reynolds says taxpayers, ultimately, will have to support the proposals. “The taxpayers in Adams County, if they’re willing to pay the amount of taxes to get the services they expect, I’m not sure that someone from Clarke County or someone from Des Moines should say, ‘No, you shouldn’t exist,'” Reynolds says.
According to the campaign schedule released by Branstad’s communications director, Reynolds has no public events today. She has one late tomorrow afternoon at the Spencer Public Library. Thursday is another day in which Reynolds is not making public appearances, but on Friday she’ll be making public stops in Garner, Webster City and Clarion. Last week, during a “get out the vote” speech at Drake University, Reynolds invited the 16 students in the room to volunteer on the campaign.
“We are not slowing down. We are not letting up. We cannot become complacent,” she said. “We need to double and triple our efforts and we will continue to do that.”
Democrat Patty Judge is Iowa’s current lieutenant governor who is seeking reelection as Governor Chet Culver’s running mate. Judge criticized Reynolds over the weekend for failing to agree to debate her. The Culver campaign has not released a public schedule for Judge’s appearances this week.