The Iowa Farm Bureau Wants Iowa to Lose a Seat on the House Agriculture Committee
If Cindy Axne loses, so do Iowa farmers
This past week has been a whirlwind of political activity. Just yesterday, Governor Reynolds’ bus tour stopped in Pella. Under the shadow of the Vermeer Windmill, I managed to grab a quick interview with the governor, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and local Republican candidates before they were off to the next stop. Reynolds would end her day at a Trump rally in Sioux City.
A few hours later, Democratic candidate for House District 1, Christina Bohannan, stopped by for a chat after she had toured Vermeer Manufacturing to learn what she could from Vermeer executives. After our interview, we walked over to the Pella Library, where she talked with library staff, telling them she would always have their backs. She then took off for stops in Oskaloosa, Newton, and who knows where else before ending her day before an enthusiastic crowd at an event with Democratic candidate for Governor Deidre DeJear at Simpson College.
Driving the 40+ miles from Pella to Indianola and then the 40+ miles from Indianola back home gave me plenty of time to think. And everyone who has ever driven a rattling, old vehicle across the rural landscape during deer rut and harvest season knows that 40+ miles seem like 100. My battered old pickup is so old that it lost its new truck smell in the Clinton administration.
Even though I have interviewed all of these candidates many times, I always learn something new from them each time. But during my two drives I realized and pondered the fact that the most important thing I had learned yesterday wasn’t from a candidate. It was from Gene Lucht, who has recently retired from covering Iowa agriculture for nearly 40 years, most of them as Public Affairs Editor at Iowa Farmer today. My “big learn” for the day came during the Iowa Farmers Union Lunch and Learn where IFU President Aaron Lehman asked Gene to share an overview of the midterm election coming up.
All of the video is worth watching, but this statement from Gene hit me like a brick, still stings, and the bruise is nice and purple today.
This year's election, well, its one thing to remember is next year we’ll be having hearings about the next farm bill and trying to pass that, and a couple, I guess, I don't know if you call technical aspects of that to keep in mind, one is the Ag Committee. In the house we have a race here in central and southwestern Iowa, the Third District, Cindy Axne versus Zach Nunn. No matter who you support, there is one issue worth considering there and that’s the Ag Committee. Right now Iowa has one Republican and one Democrat on the House Ag Committee. Axne is the only Democrat. If she loses and no other Democrat wins one of the eastern Iowa races, Iowa will lose a seat on the Ag Committee, because the state’s not going to have two people from one party on that committee, not in a four-person delegation, and it’s just a factor to consider out there, and I think a relatively important one that no one's talking about.
Think about it. If Axne is defeated, unless another Iowa Democrat wins a house seat, there will be no Democrat on the House Ag Committee! And one fewer Iowa voice.
Have you ever watched a House Ag Committee meeting? I have. Too many. Every Republican member I’ve ever heard speak is an ideologue, climate denier or climate foot dragger, and some are skeptical of conservation efforts in general. I know 4-H Clover Kids who know more about agriculture than some of these Republican members do.
Despite Axne’s successes, the Iowa Farm Bureau has endorsed Zach Nunn.
A friend of mine consults for the Nunn campaign, and he tells me Nunn is a good guy; the real deal. I’ll reserve judgment on that until I learn if Nunn is a REAL Republican or an insurrectionist Big Liar Republican.
Regardless, Nunn could be the best thing to come along since the invention of muck boots, but it’s still not going to get him on the House Ag Committee if he wins.
Think about that--the Iowa Farm Bureau wants to replace a member of the House Ag Committee who has worked hard and made great investments in farmers and rural Iowa with one who has no shot of being a member. To take an Iowan who is committed to the Iowa farmer off that committee. Really? If Axne loses, so do Iowa farmers, and all Iowans.
That’s a slap across the face of the Iowa farmer and rural Iowa. It’s time for the Iowa Farm Bureau to be held accountable for their anti-farmer endorsements. Call. Them. Out.
So if the Iowa Farm Bureau isn’t looking out for the Iowa farmer, who are they looking out for? We all know the answer to that question; it’s the companies up the supply chain. Apparently they believe that’s who they need Nunn to help--not Iowa farmers.
So, then, who are farmers to the Iowa Farm Bureau?
Sometimes props, always pawns.
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"And everyone who has ever driven a rattling, old vehicle across the rural landscape during deer rut and harvest season knows that 40+ miles seem like 100. "
Truer words have never been written.
Cutting to the chase: “is s/he a REAL Republican or an insurrectionist Big Liar Republican?”
Well said!