Four statewide candidates made their case to Iowa voters this weekend, with the Iowa State Fair as the backdrop.
The two candidates vying to be Iowa’s next governor are among the more than 225,000 people who passed through the gates at the Iowa State Fair Friday and Saturday. Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn spoke at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox Friday evening under a steady rain, telling a crowd of supporters the system is rigged against the little guys in favor of the big guys.
“Washington, D.C., has been a captured place for a very long time and the people of Iowa – the farmers, the community members, the people who live here – are the ones left holding the bag,” he said. “But we can fight back in the state of Iowa.”
Lahn listed the promises he made during the GOP Primary, which he said will address the “hollowing out” of Iowa. “Enough of this partisan bullcrap that’s been going on for a long time. Both sides are implicated in many of these issues and we need somebody who’s going to fight the special interests, the corporate giants and lobbyists. I’m here to do exactly that for you.”
Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for governor, took the same stage on Saturday. Sand told a crowd of his supporters many of the problems Iowa faces are due to Republicans having control of state government for the past decade. “I’m not here to tell you that the answer is to give the other party 10 years of one-party control. If you think that that’s the answer, then I think that you should visit California or New York. They are not utopia,” Sand said, “…because when too few people have too much power for too long, bad things happen.”
Sand said the “imbalance” in Iowa’s politics has led to a “corruption crisis” in state government. “This is a simple concept…crop rotation and that’s works for politicians the same way it works for corn and beans, ladies and gentlemen,” Sand said. “Time to rotate the crops in the capitol building.”
The Democrat and the Libertarian who are running for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat say it’s time to curb the politicial power of economic elites. Democrat Josh Turek spoke at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair Friday, promising to support legislation in the U.S. Senate that would require corporations to reveal political spending to shareholders.
“I am going to fight for campaign finance reform…but second, I’m going to fight for ethics reforms — both to the Supreme Court and members of congress,” Turek said. “I’m going to fight for term limits.”
Turek told the crowd billionaires and corporations are corrupting the political process. “And I’m also going to fight for every single members of congress to have at least one annual town hall,” Turek said, “because members of congress should be accountable to their constituents…not just to the billionaires, donors and lobbyists.”
Libertarian candidate Thomas Laehnn spoke at the Soapbox Saturday. “Private interests — political action committees, interest groups — have commandeered the legislative process such that our representatives in the House and Senate in Washington, D.C., and the House and Senate in Des Moines are no longer working for us.”
Laehn criticized the political action committees that are supporting Turek’s campaign as well as the donors who are backing Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson’s U.S. Senate campaign. “If Ashley or Josh is elected, whom will they serve?” Laehn asked. “It will not be you or me. It will be the corporate interests that are funding their campaigns.”
Hinson appeared alongside two Trump Administration officials in a podcast at the state fair on Friday and she is scheduled to speak at the Soapbox this week.