In a similar vein, Francis Thicke recently posted this to Facebook: People have asked me for a recommendation on who to vote for for Jefferson County Agricultural Extension Council. This is an important race for reasons I will explain below. My recommendation: Barbara Kistler Wally DeVasier Jeffery Dunbar Eric Miller This election is very important because one incumbent council member, who is also on the ballot this time, has been extremely disruptive and needs to be voted off the council. She has bullied council members and staff and has caused five to resign. Because of her bullying behavior, ISU Extension has had to rewrite and strengthen its statewide policy on bullying by Extension Council members.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony...@yahoo.com> wrote : "All politics is local." -Tip O'Neill FW: Friends – Please forgive this if you have already received a similar email. I generally do not send around candidate endorsements, but I and the undersigned feel strongly about our local election. I am not presuming to know what anyone else should do; I just wanted to share these opinions. The County Supervisor election is critical this year. There are two open positions, and we get to vote for two people. We, the undersigned, strongly support Dee Sandquist and Margaret Dwyer. This breaks some boundaries, admittedly. Marg is a Democrat, and Dee is a Republican. The signers of this letter are from all parties, and many will vote straight Democratic in the upcoming national and state races. But partisanship and party affiliation are not very relevant for County Supervisors. What’s critical is the policies the candidates support, the values they hold, their ability to lead, and the directions in which they will lead the county. Marg and Dee simply outshine the other candidates on these levels. The Democrats among us will NOT be checking the "All Democrats" box on our ballot, and we urge you to consider doing the same. We will check the boxes for Marg and Dee. What we need are Supervisors who recognize the threats our county faces, and who are willing to step outside the box of conventional, "business as usual" thinking. We face a growing onslaught of factory hog farms (CAFOs) and other dangers to our quality of life – much of that driven by outside corporate interests. We need Supervisors who will make it a top priority to protect our soil, water, and air, and to look for sustainable solutions. We also need Supervisors who will face the social challenges of our community, including our unacceptable levels of hunger and poverty (higher than average in Iowa). And we need Supervisors who are committed to Strategic Planning, to create a more positive future for all county citizens. We have the chance now to fundamentally change the alignment of our County Board. Both Margaret Dwyer and Dee Sandquist have genuine concern for our environment and our people. They are open to new thinking, and they are committed to forging a new vision for Jefferson County. What about Paul Gandy? Paul is a Democrat who has only very lately gotten involved in local political issues. He has not demonstrated a strong commitment to move beyond conventional thinking or to lead the county with a new vision. At the candidate forum in September he said that used to have a “knee-jerk reaction” against CAFOs, but now his “opinion has changed.” He visited his first hog confinement recently and reported that "you could not smell it” even from a stone’s throw away. (The hog operation he visited was small, much too small even to qualify as a CAFO, much smaller than those operations that cause the most serious problems, but he did not realize or did not acknowledge that fact.) He went on to suggest that farmers know what they are doing, and we should generally get out of their way and let them do it. The status quo has not been good to Iowa in recent years (as the crisis at the Des Moines Waterworks attests), and we need Supervisors who clearly recognize that fact. What about Lee Dimmitt, the incumbent? Lee has been very competent operationally, but he has shown himself to be committed to the status quo. At a public forum in September, for example, when Marg Dwyer asked the audience and the panel, "Who would be fine having a CAFO move in next door to you?" Lee immediately raised his hand. He tends to work the system as it exists, rather than investigating how it needs to be changed and improved. Dee and Marg are both natural leaders, creative thinkers, and savvy bridge-builders. Marg served on the school board for years, and has been a successful vice president at Cambridge Investment. Dee directed the Nutrition, Diabetes, Weight Management and Wound Care group at a top medical center, and is now spearheading the Hunger Dialog coalition in Jefferson County with remarkable success. Something else about Dee: She connects naturally with the rural community as well as our urban areas. She is the only candidate who lives in the country. She and her husband work a farm that has been in her family for generations, and she has a passion for keeping up with the latest research and best practices in agriculture. They raise pigs sustainably (selling to Niman Ranch), have converted half their fields to non-GMO crops, are experimenting with organic crops, and are committed to practices to preserve the soil. This is the kind of agricultural orientation that is essential for our county and its future. It’s time move beyond partisan concerns in the Supervisor race, and make the best choice for Jefferson County's future. We hope you will join us in voting for Dee Sandquist and Margaret Dwyer. Respectfully yours, Francis Thicke Thom & Diana Krystofiak Bruce Grady John Ikerd Fred Rosenberg Clyde Cleveland Jim Rubis Linda Hedquist Christopher Bell Bob Ferguson Cindy and Dave Ballou Carol Olicker
