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Guth and Paschen are seeking the District 28 Iowa Senate seat

Sen. Dennis Guth

Editor’s note: As we wind down the final week before the November election,

we are featuring the candidates seeking the District 28 Iowa Senate seat:

Dennis Guth, the incumbent, and Cynthia Paschen. They were asked identical questions.

Sen. Dennis Guth:

What would you like the voters to know about you personally, your professional history, and your history in public service positions?

I have lived on a farm just outside Klemme my entire life. I graduated from Iowa State University in 1977 with a degree in Agricultural Mechanization. In 1978, I married my highschool sweetheart. We have five children and the 15th grandchild is on the way. While at Iowa State I was introduced to Jesus Christ as my personal savior and was discipled by the Navigator’s ministry. I have cultivated a Biblical Worldview and seek to apply that to all areas of my life.

What, in your opinion, is something that you can bring to the Iowa Senate that you believe is crucially needed?

A moral compass and a passion for the freedoms given to us by God.

How do you see yourself fulfilling the role of District 28 Senator?

In order to represent the people, you must get to know them. I endeavour to listen to the people and combine their thoughts with the principles of our Founding Fathers to make Iowa a safe and productive place to live and raise a family.

What should be the priorities of the Iowa Senate?

The first priority of a legislator should be to protect our God-given rights and freedoms. We should strive to provide an environment in which children have healthy boundaries that allows them to be all they can be.

Issue: Tell the voters your position on the proposed carbon capture technology and Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.

I believe that carbon capture is a fake objective that will provide no discernable environmental benefit while wasting taxpayer money. It will transfer wealth from hardworking taxpayers to wealthy investors who will force eminent domain on unwilling landowners, harming valuable farmland, and introducing a safety hazard in rural Iowa.

Issue: Tell the voters your position on increasing the numbers of high-population animal confinements.

Confined Animal Feeding Operations, CAFOs, need to be located with common sense. They provide a good economic benefit by adding value to local corn, soybeans and dried distillers grains. They provide a good natural fertilizer that enhances the crop production and soil health of the land surrounding them. They should not be placed where neighbors suffer from odor or flies.

Issue: Talk about local control with regards to questions 5 and 6. For instance, tell the voters the process of how the state, and not individual counties, make decisions regarding the placement of either a proposed pipeline or a high-population animal confinement.

There is a benefit to having consistent rules statewide, but there needs to be more local control over where pipelines and CAFOs are located. Currently, the state prohibits counties from establishing setbacks from residences and public places like schools or medical facilities. A similar issue is the siting of wind farms and solar arrays. Legislation that I introduced the last two years would deal with the use of eminent domain for these purposes. Unfortunately, this legislation did not advance.

What paramount issue do you see that needs the Senate’s/state’s attention? Please elaborate.

A matter of importance to Iowans is the ability to have all the information about a medical treatment, especially vaccines, before getting treated. Citizens must have the right to refuse a treatment/vaccine without facing unreasonable consequences like losing their job. Big Pharma should be held accountable for injuries incurred from their products.

Add any comments that you wish to convey to Hamilton County voters.

When we understand that our rights and freedoms come from God, it makes it apparent that the government should not be limiting those freedoms according to a changeable standard set by man. When we give that power to government, history shows that tyranny is the inevitable result.

Cynthia Paschen:

What would you like the voters to know about you personally, your professional history, and your history in public service positions?

I have lived and worked and raised my family in Iowa. My two adult children live in Chicago and Colorado Springs. My husband John and I met as teens at Iowa State University and married in 1982. We have a home in Ames and a farm in Jewell. We both love Iowa and know we can do better than under the Republican trifecta.

What, in your opinion, is something that you can bring to the Iowa Senate that you believe is crucially needed?

I have raised two teenagers, and had a happy and successful marriage, so I believe lots of those skills would be helpful in Des Moines: compromise, kindness, negotiation, and on and on.

How do you see yourself fulfilling the role of District 28 Senator?

If I’m successful on election day, I would love to serve one four-year term and recruit a young woman to replace me. We have way too many elderly folks in the Legislature. We need young people and working class people and people of color who aren’t running to better their bank accounts and stock portfolios and egos.

What should be the priorities of the Iowa Senate?

Priority No. 1 ought to be improving public education, from Head Start to K-12 public schools to robust community colleges and state universities. Public dollars for public schools.

Issue: Tell the voters your position on the proposed carbon capture technology and Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.

No eminent domain for private gain. It’s simple. And I signed a pledge not to take money from Bruce Rastetter or Summit. No way Jose.

Issue: Tell the voters your position on increasing the numbers of high-population animal confinements.

We need a moratorium on CAFOs. In Hamilton County we have 7,000 hogs per human. That’s a lot of pig crap in our waterways. It’s not sustainable.

Issue: Talk about local control with regards to questions 5 and 6. For instance, tell the voters the process of how the state, and not individual counties, make decisions regarding the placement of either a proposed pipeline or a high-population animal confinement.

The legislators seem to have a problem with local control. They took away collective bargaining rights, which hurts lots of working families. The folks on boards of supervisors feel much of their local control has been stripped. Same for school boards and city councils and soil and water boards.

Government works best with real, effective, transparent local control and a state auditor who can actually audit.

What paramount issue do you see that needs the Senate’s/state’s attention? Please elaborate.

Public funds for public schools, no more private school vouchers, and fully funding our Area Education Associations.

Add any comments that you wish to convey to Hamilton County voters.

I believe someone else’s reproductive health care is between them and their medical provider. It’s none of our business, and certainly none of Dennis Guth’s business. Leave it to the professionals.

Iowa is already dead last in OB/GYN physicians per capita. Infant and maternal mortality is rising under the Six-Week Abortion Ban. Women are having to travel out of state for medical care and some of them will die in the process.

Starting at $3.46/week.

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