Reynolds, Hubbel make final campaign stops in RO

Two of the candidates in the Iowa Governor’s race made final campaign stops in Red Oak last week.

Incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds made a stop at the Montgomery County YMCA to meet with voters on Oct. 29. Reynolds praised the work of Sen. Joni Ernst, who was in attendance at the Red Oak stop.

“The partnership in Washington, D.C., and what we’re doing at the state level, is second to none. We’ve never had the kind of access we have with this administration, and Joni’s access to the administration has been second to none, and that’s how you get things done. They really believe in sending it back to the states, and I certainly appreciate that. No two states are exactly alike, and we need the flexibility to design our own programs to help meet the needs of the constituents we’re representing,” Reynolds said.

The Red Oak Stop was part of Reynolds’ “Keep Iowa Moving,” or “K.I.M.” Tour, making a statewide push ahead of today’s general election.

“It’s been a lot of fun. The turnouts have been great, the enthusiasm is good, and there’s been a lot of energy and momentum. I think people recognize that elections do matter, and if we stay home, we’re not going to get the results we want.”

Reynolds said she likes to say that the State of Iowa is the one that is getting things done.

“It’s the Republican team that’s getting things done. We’ve worked so hard to cut taxes for hard-working farmers, Iowans, and small business while maintaining our priorities and doing it in a fiscally responsible manner. We are growing jobs, wages, and opportunities in every single corner, and we’re investing in our greatest asset: Our young children,” Reynolds said. “We’ve invested like never before in education, and are working to retrain Iowans to get them the skills they need through our Future Ready Iowa program that recently passed through the legislature. There are on average 66,000 jobs available across the state every day. We have jobs looking for people, and this program will help get them the skills and match them up with the great employers we have in communities across the state.”

Reynolds said her administration and the Iowa Legislature worked very hard last year to find solutions for Iowa’s heath care needs.

“Comprehensive mental health reform passed unanimously, and we’ve been building on the progress we started in 2013. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do with that affordable healthcare. If you didn’t qualify for the Obamacare subsidies, most families and small businesses couldn’t afford a 57 percent increase in their premiums, and so we worked with the legislature to find an alternative affordable healthcare option for Iowans with the Farm Bureau plans, and it’s about a 50 percent reduction in what you were seeing in premiums. The other is still in place, but this is an option for those that didn’t qualify,” commented Reynolds.

Reynolds also weighed in on the debate surrounding cuts to the IPERS program.

“There have been a lot of comments that the Republicans are going to mess with IPERS. Kevin and I worked our tails off, and I’m counting on IPERS, as is my daughter. There is no way that they are going to do anything that will impact the promise that we’ve made to Iowans regarding IPERS,” said Reynolds.

Democratic challenger Fred Hubbell , who was also making a final cris-cross through the state ahead of today’s election spoke to voters during his own stop in Montgomery County Nov. 2.

Hubbell said it would take the energy and enthusiasm of the voters to secure a win today.

“It’s going to be a close race. We’ve known that from the very beginning. If we turn out and vote, we’re going to win, and elect a lot of Democrats up and down this ticket,” Hubbell said.

Hubbell outlined some of the reasons why Iowans should get out and vote.

“We can continue going down the path we’ve been going, which means our education will go to four days a week just like Kansas. We have a choice. We can go a different direction. We can put people first in our state, and start investing in people, and that starts with education, which means making Pre-K for four-year-olds all day, all across the state,” Hubbell said.

Also, Hubbell said they needed to make sure they were fully-funding the K-12 public schools.

“If we stop these wasteful corporate tax giveaways that we identified in 2009 when I was on the tax credit review panel. Some of the tax credits make really good sense, but some don’t. The worst one is actually where the state writes $42 million a year to companies that don’t even pay income taxes in our state. There’s only one other state that does that. I think we want to go in the other direction. Give those companies a deduction they can take the benefit of, but we say we can take that $42 million and put it right in our schools.”

Hubbell said another necessity was for all Iowans to have access to quality, affordable healthcare.

“This privatization of Medicare has been a disaster. Starting at Day one, we’re going to start to reverse that. Rita Hart and I have traveled all across this state, and had roundtable discussions regarding mental health, and Medicaid privatization, and it’s impacting Iowan across our state. 40,000 Iowans have had their benefits denied and reduced because of the privatization of Medicaid. The costs for Medicaid privatization are higher now than they were before privatization. We also need to restore the funding to Planned Parenthood,” commented Hubbell.

Hubbell also made his own comments about collective bargaining and IPERS.

“We need to restore collective bargaining rights. And when it comes to IPERS, Gov. Reynolds said last year that IPERS is not sustainable. Gov. Reynolds helped bring in a Koch brothers-funded group to study the IPERS program, which recommended it should be converted to a defined-contribution plan,” said Hubbell. “Bills were introduced in the last legislative session to do that. There are already bills introduced in this next session to do that. If we don’t take away control of this legislature, and/or the governor’s office, IPERS is going to disappear, just like it did in Wisconsin, and so is the defined-benefit plan for police and fire departments. It is on the ballot. If we want to protect that plan for current and future employees, we need to take back control of this office.”