Politics & Government

District 18 State Senate Candidates Insist Campaign is About More Than Gay Marriage

As Democrats tabbed former television new anchor Liz Mathis to vie for the now empty Marion senate seat, she and her challenger, Cindy Golding, insisted the campaign will be about the economy.

By Hannah Hess
IowaPolitics.com

Both candidates in the high-profile Iowa Senate District 18 race were reluctant Wednesday to answer questions about same-sex marriage, a hot topic likely to be on the minds of voters in the special election that will determine control of the Iowa Senate.

Liz Mathis, a former television news anchor from Robins who officially became the Democratic candidate in the race Wednesday night, said voices from New York, Des Moines and Washington, D.C., “are coming in and they’re trying to make gay marriage the issue of this campaign and of this district.”

She said she supports same-sex marriage, which is legal in Iowa and five other states, but does not believe it will be the cornerstone of the campaign for the Nov. 8 special election.

“The people of (Senate) District 18 are concerned about jobs and business growth, and they’re concerned about education,” said Mathis, who vowed to focus on those three issues.

Mathis’ comments echoed those of Troy Price, executive director of One Iowa, the state’s largest gay-rights advocacy group.
 
“At the end of the day, this election isn’t going to be about one issue,” Price said. “It’s going to be on the issues to bring our state together, like job creation and growing the economy and making our schools stronger.”
 
But Bob Vander Plaats, chief executive officer of The Family Leader, a nonprofit social conservative group pushing for a public vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, said his group plans to be active in the race.
 
The special election could make the difference about whether the issue is even debated in the Iowa Senate. In the fall 2009, the National Organization for Marriage got involved in a special election for Iowa House District 90 in southwest Iowa by making a controversial $86,060 ad buy for Republican Stephen Burgmeier, who ultimately lost to Democrat Curt Hanson by 107 votes.
 
Cindy Golding, a businesswoman from rural Cedar Rapids who’s the Republican candidate in Iowa Senate District 18, told IowaPolitics.com that Iowans deserve to have a vote on the issue, but declined to shed light on her personal beliefs about same-sex marriage.

“I have friends who are in gay relationships, and friends who abhor gay relationships,” Golding said, proposing that Iowans should make their own “cultural” decisions.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Iowa on April 27, 2009, following the Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Varnum v. Brien. In the case, lead plaintiff Katherine Varnum and 11 others sued Polk County Recorder Timothy Brien, who refused to grant marriage licenses.

Mathis told reporters she supports the judges’ decision, which could become an issue as she faces off against Golding to fill a seat vacated by state Sen. Swati Dandekar, D-Marion, who was appointed to the Iowa Utilities Board.
 
Democrats still hold a 25-24 majority in the Iowa Senate. But if Republicans win the special election, the two parties will be tied. That will give Republicans more leverage to push for a public vote on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, has until now declined to bring the issue up for a vote.

Yet Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, who represents half of the Senate district, said job creation and economic development will be the most important to the area's voters. In special nominating conventions last week and Wednesday night, both Mathis and Golding presented platforms focused on those issues.
 
Both women claim a quarter-century of experience on the political scene.

Mathis spent more than 25 years “asking tough questions to elected officials on both sides of the aisle” as a journalist, a fact she highlights on the campaign website launched this weekend.

Golding said she has traveled to Des Moines for 25 years as a “concerned citizen,” referring to her advocacy in land use, education and water quality issues. She said voters “know where I stand, they know that I take my time, put my effort forward to help them with their issues and they’re coming out in droves to help me.”
 
Democrats officially selected Mathis as their candidate Wednesday night following a Linn County Democratic Central Committee meeting.


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