By Joe Bolkcom, Des Moines; former Iowa City state senator Ashley Hinson knows Iowans are tired of the Trump chaos. She knows Iowans want change. What she fears most is an Iowa opponent with hard-won, real-life experience who has the back of ordinary Iowans. Hinson has two strong Democratic opponents, Zach Wahls and Josh Turek. Both are […]
Joe Bolkcom
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: It’s time to clean the statehouse
Iowa Republicans can’t be trusted to manage your money anymore. Their reckless revenue and spending decisions have made a shambles of the state finances. They have created a huge $1.2 billion budget deficit that will soon blow a massive hole in the state budget and undermine essential services we depend on. Since they took over […]
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: Iowa’s MAGA nanny state is thriving
Iowans will soon re-elect, and elect new, city council and school board members. Hundreds of Iowans have put themselves and their ideas forward as they campaign for votes based on addressing unique local challenges and needs. These local elected officials are the backbone of making our small government democracy work. They make decisions for all […]
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: Reynolds has failed to protect Iowa County workers and residents
By Joe Bolkcom, Iowa City Why was Governor Reynolds the only Iowan to be surprised that a company trying to turn roofing shingles into diesel fuel would require a poisonous mix of toxic, dangerous chemicals? And why wasn’t it obvious to her that the workers involved in turning shingles into diesel fuel would be working […]
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: Reynolds not keeping Iowans safe
The toxic fire, explosion and the hospitalization of 10-15 workers at 6C-Zero in Marengo was a completely preventable disaster. That is if Governor Reynolds were not calling all the shots on how and when to regulate unsafe, polluting businesses in our state. The safety of the 30 workers, dozens of emergency responders and the entire […]
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: Reynolds isn’t really pro-life
Governor Reynolds continues to take victory laps for how she has managed the pandemic. She touts her efforts to be the first state to command kids back to school and to keep Iowa “open for business” as Iowans were filling hospital beds and clinging to life on ventilators. Iowa recently surpassed 10,000 COVID deaths. That […]
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Letter to the editor: Cannabis criminalization is failed public policy for Iowa
This March 22 marks the 50th anniversary of an important report from the Shafer Commission, a Nixon-appointed group tasked with studying marijuana and issuing policy recommendations. The group’s findings called for the decriminalization of cannabis possession in the U.S., but alas, the suggestions went unheeded. Our state, 50 years later, remains one of the 19 […]
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: Let’s talk weather
We Iowans love to talk about the weather! Not Governor Reynolds. She didn’t mention the recent off-the-charts weather disaster in her rosy Condition of the State address recently. On Dec. 15, Iowans once again experienced a set of events that no one alive has ever witnessed before. A record temperature of 74 degrees. The first […]
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: Iowa’s workforce crisis, dangerous prisons and neglected state parks are the result of GOP policy
Iowa’s workforce crisis and rural decline can be traced to irresponsible Republican tax and economic policies year after year. Their actions bring to life the words of their puppet master Grover Norquist who said, “I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can […]
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Letter from Joe Bolkcom: Are rural Iowa communities better off today than they were five years ago?
By Joe Bolkcom, Iowa Senator, Iowa City Iowa Republicans’ tax and economic policies have hollowed out Iowa’s small communities and rural landscape. Their big business approach to every problem have resulted in everything getting bigger: worker shortages, farms, packing plants, chemical and fertilizer companies, tractors, consolidated schools, convenience store chains, food and childcare deserts, CAFOs, […]
