Patty Judge, the Democrat running against Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, opposes an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would require a balanced federal budget.
“My objection to those kind of amendments is they really do not take into account what might happen: war, catastrophic events,” Judge said today during an interview. “…I think that we need to leave that out of our constitution.”
Judge served four years as Iowa’s lietenant governor and eight years as a state senator. The State of Iowa has a balanced budget requirement, but Judge said it’s not needed.
“We have always found ways to make certain that our budgets were balanced, that we left a healthy balance in the bank,” Judge said. “I think that’s part of being an Iowan. It’s part of being frugal and, you know, we’ve done a good job here. I wish the federal government has done as well as we had over the years.”
Judge made her comments during a late-morning taping of the “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight on Iowa Public Television. A spokesman for Grassley has said Judge “shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near” the U.S. Senate because of the way she and Governor Chet Culver managed the state budget. Grassley campaign manager Bob Haus said Judge and Culver approved too much state borrowing and too much state spending and that’s why they were “kicked out of office” when Culver and Judge sought reelection in 2010.
Grassley’s campaign is also criticizing Judge for comments she made during an interview with the Sioux City Journal earlier this week. Judge told the newspaper’s editorial board it was “not really clear” to her what a sanctuary city was and she’d been asking her staff about it. Grassley’s campaign calls that a “stunning lack of basic knowledge” that shows Judge is “unqualified” to be a U.S. Senator. On Friday, Judge told reporters she was “trying to get the person interviewing” her to say “what he thought” a sanctuary city was.
“If we had a comprehensive immigration reform, the whole question of sanctuary cities, all of these issues would be taken care of,” Judge said. “The obstruction, the deliberate action to not move forward with immigration reform has really compounded this issue.”
Judge told reporters it’s time to quit talking about “single pieces” for a reform package and pass the entire thing.
In addition, Grassley’s campaign faults Judge for being unfamiliar with “Sarah’s Law” when she spoke with the Sioux City Journal’s editorial board. Judge initially said she didn’t know what Sarah’s Law was. When told it was a law drafted in response to the death of Sarah Root, a Council Bluffs woman who died in a wreck police say was caused by someone in the country illegally, Judge said the proposal was something she “would look at.”