Bruce Gardner, the independent candidate for Senate District 42, made a last-minute campaign stop in Mount Vernon the week of Oct. 24.
Gardner was among the candidates speaking at Cornell College ahead of the satellite voting station held at the Cornell Small Athletic and Wellness complex’ group exercise room Thursday, Oct. 27.
Gardner identified four key issues for him in the election – clean water and soil health, clean renewable energy, education and a new agriculture future to include rural communities.
Gardner was born and raised on a family farm in Benton County, where he has operated a grain terminal and ag marketing and research firm. He has also held private sector jobs in agricultural equipment manufacturing and agricultural input finance.
He has worked for federal and state farm agencies with a focus on soil and water conservation, renewable energy, rural economic development and public disaster relief.
“I know the challenges of making a good living on the farm and in rural Iowa,” Gardner said. “It takes hard work, but we also need policies that support farm families with a greater farm net income. We need greater investment in rural communities. We need to support good public schools in rural communities. We need policies that help us save our precious soils and give us clean air and clean water and clean energy.”
Gardner expounded on water quality, noting that Iowa and the Midwest were leading in run-off in fields that is creating hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, contributing to dying fish and wildlife in the region.
As well, ethanol-85 was something he supported, noting the importance of ethanol to Iowa farmers.
Mount Vernon and Lisbon would be among the rural areas that are in his scope for a new agriculture future as well.
Gardner has also worked on economic development groups, including the Iowa Future project, recycling and source reduction planning for the county of San Diego and the development of the largest wind generation field in Southwest Minnesota, which now is the backbone of renewable energy in Iowa.
Gardner said Iowa used to be ranked number one in the nation for education when he graduated high school, and has now slipped to somewhere between 19 and 24.
“We also have many young people who get educated here, but after graduating college, seek employment opportunities elsewhere, leading to a brain drain in this state,” Gardner said. “We need to fund education in this state and make it a priority again.”
District 42 in the state legislature is made up of rural Benton and Linn Counties. Gardner as an independent is running for the seat against incumbent Charlie McClintock (R-Alburnett) and Jessica Wiskus (D-Lisbon).