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Citizens grill candidates at West Point forum | Print |  E-mail
Monday, 15 September 2008

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By Chris Faulkner/MVM News Network

WEST POINT - Plenty of questions. Plenty of answers.

But no more than two dozens citizens showed up at Wednesday's Meet the Candidate forum at the West Point Library.

This was the first of two forums presented by the Lee County Farm Bureau. The second will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Ivor Fowler Community Center in Montrose.

Instead of a debate format, the candidates present were given time to introduce themselves and tell why they should be elected for their respective office.

This forum's candidates were U.S. House of Representative candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Ottumwa, Iowa House of Representative candidate Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, Iowa Senate candidates Doug Abolt, R-Donnellson, and incumbent Gene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, Lee County Supervisor candidates Mike Fraise (D), Ron Fedler (D) and Larry Kruse (R).

What follows is a summary of the issues discussed.

Up in smoke?

Don Lucas asked Gene Fraise about his support for the Iowa Smokefree Air Act.

“You believe in free enterprise and the choice of owners as to how they run their businesses,” Lucas said.

Yet the Air Act takes the constitutional right to allow or not allow smoking in their businesses away from them, he said.

“It's not unconstitutional,” Fraise said. “Twenty-three states have done it.”

However, he did add the part of the act exempting casinos was probably unconstitutional and that could be challenged.

“I know Larry Duncan,” Fraise said of the West Burlington tavern owner publicly defying the law. “He's a staunch Republican. I think it's a Republican-driven issue.”

That brought a sharp reaction, apparently from the Republicans in the audience.

Fraise said 80 percent of the calls and e-mails he and his staff received on the issue were in favor of the Smokefree Act. He also said he was told by some of his fellow senators that if he didn't vote for the act, they wouldn't support the new prison to be built in Fort Madison.

Abolt, like Fraise, is a non-smoker, and he didn't like coming home from some places “having to take a shower.” But, he said, “This is a pure case of regulation of business. The better we reduce government regulations and taxation, the better off we'll be.

“Talk of the police in cities,” Abolt said. “It's unenforceable. It's disrupted small business owners.”

One woman in the audience said a relative has asthma and can't tolerate a smoke-filled atmosphere.

Abolt said he felt sorry for her, but that “it's not the government's job to tell a business owner what to do.”

What will you do?

Pat Breen asked similar questions of supervisor candidates Mike Fraise and Ron Fedler.

Fraise, the son of Sen. Fraise, said in his introductory talk he “would work tirelessly to make sure the prison is built in Fort Madison.” Fraise works as a correctional officer at Iowa State Penitentiary and is vice president of AFSCME Local 2989.

He also would address disaster and safety issues for the county.

“My construction background will help me get to the root of the problem,” Fraise said.

Breen said that the current supervisors of both parties are in support of the prison staying in Fort Madison, “so what would you do?”

“I've worked with AFSCME to get it signed,” Fraise said. “If we don't, what we have will continue to rise (in expenses).”

Breen also wanted to know what kind of jobs Fedler would bring to the county. Fedler had listed jobs stemming from the alternative fuels industry that are springing up. Breen said he thought the current supervisors were working on those types of jobs.

“I would work more aggressively,” Fedler said.

More gas talk

U.S. House candidate Miller-Meeks addressed a question about the federal government becoming more involved with alternative fuels, in particular ethanol.

“We can't grow our economy unless we have a safe energy supply,” Miller-Meeks said.

She said ethanol shouldn't be taking the brunt of the blame for high food prices.

“Wheat and rice production are down,” she said. “Corn and soy aren't to blame for that.”

She likes the idea of wind energy but said transmission lines might have to be built, such as to harness wind in Fort Madison and Keokuk but sending it to Des Moines.
 
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