(Radio Iowa) – The state teachers’ union is backing Democrat Rob Sand’s bid to be Iowa’s next governor and three of the Republicans running for governor continue to press for immediate limits on the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.
A bill that would ban Summit from using eminent domain to seize property along the pipeline route passed the House in January. The Des Moines Register reports Eddie Andrews, who’s a member of the Iowa House, joked it may take prayer and holy oil to get the Senate to act on it. Andrews made his comments Saturday at a Cerro Gordo County GOP fundraiser in Clear Lake, where candidates Adam Steen and Brad Sherman also called on the senate to pass the bill.
At the same time, in West Des Moines, the Iowa State Education Association announced its endorsement of Democrat Rob Sand. Sand says the union’s teachers can be the secret weapon in his campaign by reaching out to Democrats, independents and Republican voters willing to split their ticket in November. “Because you know almost everyone where you live, right? And so I’m hoping you’ll be among our best volunteers,” Sand said.
According to the I-S-E-A’s president, about half the union’s members are Democrats and the other half are Republicans or independents. During remarks to the I-S-E-A’s delegate assembly, Sand repeated his call for more oversight of the state-funded Education Savings Accounts for private school expenses. And he said state government works better when neither Republicans nor Democrats controlled the legislature AND the governor’s office.
Republicans have held a majority of seats in the legislature since 2017, as Republicans Terry Branstad and Kim Reynolds have served as governor “State government hasn’t been listening for a long time. They’ve got preconceived notions, like ‘sinister teachers,” Sand said. That was a remark in 2022 from then-Senator Jack Chapman, who accused some teachers of using obscene material in their classrooms. Governor Terry Branstad was the last Republican candidate to receive the Iowa State Education Association’s endorsement, for his 1994 campaign.
The I-S-E-A invited all five Republicans running for governor this year to meet for an interview with union members. The one Republican who initially said they would do so wound up cancelling.
