Lieutenant governor candidate speaks in Monticello

     Senator Rita Hart, who is governor Democratic candidate Fred Hubbell’s running mate, stopped in Monticello on Oct. 29 to visit with voters at Java Jones.

     Hart, who’s been in the Iowa Senate for six years, is passionate about the divisiveness that she feels has existed in our state the past two years, since the “Republicans took over.”

     Hart grew up on a farm in northern Iowa. She was raised by a Republican mother and a Democratic father.

     “Every time we sat down at the dinner table, we would have a caucus. We talked about the issues that mattered,” she shared.

     Hart had eight siblings, and said growing up in a large family taught her a thing or two.

     “We learned at that table how to stick up for what we believe in. We learned how to stand up for what we thought was right,” she said. “I also learned, growing up with eight siblings, that if you’re going to get anyone to listen to you, you have to listen to them first. Seek first to understand before you seek to be understood.”

     Having traveled throughout Iowa the past 18 months on the campaign trail, Hart said she’s heard from people frustrated about the privatization of Medicaid, about lack of education funding, about the broken mental health system, and more.

     “It’s so important to get out and vote,” she urged. “We have great enthusiasm everywhere we go all across the state. People are fired up for this election. Who recognize, more importantly, what is at stake in this election. All things that we need to do to create the kind of change that we believe in.”

     Before Hart entered politics, she worked in education in Clinton, Iowa, for 20 years. She and her husband have owned a farm near Wheatland, Iowa, for 32 years, where they raised their five children.

     Listening to others, despite their political and person background, Hart is the attitude Hubbell and she are spreading throughout their campaign. “And it’s the attitude we will take into a gubernatorial administration,” she said.

     “I don’t care where those ideas come from, whether it’s Democratic, Republican, Independent, Libertarian,” continued Hart. “If it’s a good idea, we ought to be listening to it, and use it as part of the solution to make this state better.”

     She said this is the kind of attitude the Republicans have not been demonstrating as of late.

     “The last two years have been northing but divisive. The Republican Party went behind closed doors. They changed the rules of the Senate so they didn’t have to have public input. They didn’t have to talk to people across the aisle. They put an agenda through that has truly divided us. It doesn’t have to be that way. And in fact it should not be that way.”

     Should Hubbell and Hart win on Nov. 6, Hart said things would change. She said public workers affected by the change in collective bargaining will be given a voice, women will be able to address “the most extreme women’s health bill that we’ve ever seen,” issues due to the change in Medicaid will be addressed, and Iowa will once again become a leader when it comes to water quality and conservation measures.

     “It’s time to bring people together to work on these things so that we can come up with good solutions for Iowa,” Hart said.

     When taking questions from those present at the coffee shop, Nick Strittmatter of Monticello asked why Hubbell and Hart have not raised an issue with $1.75 million of Iowa taxpayers’ dollars going to a legal settlement concerning a sexual harassment case involving a GOP leader.

     “Why doesn’t the GOP reimburse the State of Iowa for the money?” asked Strittmatter.

     Hart said while this case did illustrate poor leadership on the behalf of Governor Reynolds, “Taxpayers ought to know up front that $1.75 million of their money went to this case. It should have been taken out of campaign money in my opinion.”

     She said Hubbell has taken a stance on egregious issues like this. “That climate that was created there should not exist anywhere. Fred has come out really strong about how we need whistleblower protections to turn that climate around. We need to see more leadership.”