(Radio Iowa) – A political operative who’s worked on presidential and U.S. senate campaigns in the past has submitted the paperwork to put her own name on ballots for the Iowa’s Democratic Primary for governor. Julie Stauch of West Des Moines says she submitted about four-thousand signatures on her nominating petitions.  “I didn’t go out and collect all of those, but in several situations I was the one who could go get the and so I did,” Stauch said. “Yesterday was my last stop and one of the ladies said: ‘You know what? I’ve never had a candidate ask me to sign their petition before. I like this.'”

Iowa law requires statewide candidates to submit at least 35-hundred signatures and they must have collected at least 100 signatures in 19 different counties. “It’s probably a little more overwrought than it needs to be in terms of people participating in democracy. When I ran Mazie Hirono’s campaign in Hawaii…25 signatures was all you needed to get on the ballot, so we had 10 people in that primary,” Stauch said, laughing. “It was an adventure.”

Stauch says changing Iowa’s ballot access rules isn’t among her priority issues. “Water, public schools and those health care fights,” Stauch said. “That’s a lot to get done and a lot to move the needle on.” Stauch says Iowa’s cancer rate, nursing home care and access to O-B G-Y-Ns are all concerns voters raise about Iowa’s health care system as she has campaigned around the state.  “I don’t have my own agenda,” Stauch said. “I’m just finding out what they want done and I’m going to go to work on it.”

Stauch is running against State Auditor Rob Sand, who announced his campaign for governor last spring and submitted nearly 28-thousand signatures on his nominating petitions earlier this week.