The Iowa House District 50 race is, in my opinion, one of the more interesting ones to watch as it pits two well respected incumbents against each other after the district lines were redrawn. The new House District 50 consists of northern Hardin, Grundy and southern Butler Counties. State Representative Annette Sweeney (R-Alden) who currently represents House District 44 (Hardin County and western Marshall County) and State Representative Pat Grassley (R-New Hartford) who currently serves House District 17 (Butler County and the western half of Bremer County) have run an excellent race. They both have positive attributes and both would serve the district well. There is no Democrat challenger for the general election so the winner of this primary will likely represent the district.
I’d like to commend Annette Sweeney to the voters of the new Iowa House District 50. State Representative Sweeney I believe has the best handle on the issues facing the district, namely, agriculture. She has been a leader in the House in area of agriculture. She has chaired the House Agriculture Committee. She has led trade missions on behalf of Iowa agriculture. She has been the co-author of model legislation, the Ag Protection Act, that protects family farms. She understands the issue.
She has been a leader for life who most recently sponsored the “Sweeney Amendment” in an attempt to defund abortion providers of Iowa taxpayer money. She has been the co-sponsor of numerous pro-life bills. She also was a co-sponsor of the Iowa Marriage Amendment which passed the Iowa House last session. She is an advocate of local control in education which is very important to me. We need such leaders in the House to push back against Governor Branstad’s education agenda.
While State Representative Pat Grassley is a good man I believe Iowa District 50 and the Iowa House would be best served by Annette Sweeney. So please vote for Annette Sweeney on Tuesday and send her back to the House!