With the primary election less than a week away, the Democratic candidates for Iowa governor had one last debate on May 30 in the State Historical Museum auditorium in Des Moines.
The June 5 primary will decide which of the five contenders will run against Republican incumbent Kim Reynolds in November.
The candidates — union leader Cathy Glasson, retired business executive Fred Hubbell, phycisian Andy McGuire, former state and federal official John Norris, and former Iowa City Mayor Ross Wilburn — discussed a wide range of topics, including gun control, health care, and recent legislation passed by the state Legislature.
Nate Boulton’s exit from the race
Shortly after the beginning of the debate, candidates were asked about Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, and his exit from the gubernatorial race amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Boulton suspended his campaign May 24.
Candidates noted they share the same goals as Boulton and encouraged his supporters to vote for them during the primary. Norris said it is important for Boulton’s supporters to stay involved.
RELATED: Boulton suspends gubernatorial campaign after sexual-misconduct allegations
“While it’s unfortunate what happened, the issues and causes that Nate was about are still important to all of us and to you,” Norris said.
Tax reform
Candidates were critical of Gov. Kim Reynolds and the tax reform bill she signed into law hours before the start of the debate. The 2018 Legislative session passed a tax package that would cut taxes by $2 billion over the next six years. The bill passed the Senate and House on May 5 with a 28-20 and 54-32 vote, respectively.
“I signed this bill for every Iowan who works hard to earn a paycheck and deserves to keep more of it,” she said after the signing. “It’s one of the reasons I feel so strongly that government must never forget that it’s the people’s money they’re spending.”
RELATED: Session adjourns after tax bill finalized
Glasson said she believes the tax bill will help high-income households more than low-income households. She also noted her interest in looking at different sources of revenue to offset the cuts. Some sources Glasson proposed included rolling back tax breaks to wealthy corporations and legalizing the personal use of marijuana.
Wilburn agreed with Glasson’s idea of new sources of revenue, saying medical marijuana growth and gambling on professional sports could be new sources. He wants to repeal the new tax bill and look into taxes that make sense to Iowans, such as those for mental health care, clean water, and education funding.
“Iowans want respect, and Iowans want to have meaningful, sensible taxes based on the services they are receiving” Wilburn said during the debate.
Hubbell said that while he would have vetoed the tax package if he were in Reynold’s position, he thought portions of the bill could be helpful, noting there are parts of the tax law that Democrats have worked for in the past.
“They’re promising that all of a sudden with this tax law, revenues are going to jump,” he said. “Well, they’ve tried that in Kansas, they’ve tried it in Oklahoma, they’ve tried it in this country before, and it doesn’t work.”
Norris and McGuire also said they would repeal the bill if elected.
“To me, when you’re cutting [funding] right now for the services, the math doesn’t add up to then cut your revenue,” McGuire said during the debate.
Her plan would evaluate the services people need and then look at the revenue needed for those services, noting that people are her priority. Like Hubbell, McGuire said she thought parts of the bill could be helpful.
Norris said he thought it is not the time for tax cuts; instead, state government should invest in state-sponsored programs while the economy is doing well.
“This is not a time to increase the economic disparity we have in Iowa; this tax cut furthers that economic disparity,” Norris said.
Abortion
The candidates were in agreement about a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Many said the decision should be between a woman and her doctor.
“As a doctor, I can tell you, these are excruciating situations, and we need to make sure that every one of those, which are so unique, is done between a doctor and a patient,” McGuire said.
Reynolds signed a bill May 4 that would ban most abortions when a heartbeat is detected, which can be as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy. The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in mid-May, and a judge will hear arguments on the suit June 1.
RELATED: Reynolds signs ‘heartbeat bill’ into law
“… this is bigger than just a law. This is about life,” Reynolds said in a May 4 press release after signing the bill. “I am not going to back down from who I am or what I believe in.”
Norris said that while he respects religious beliefs regarding abortion, he believes government should not be the vehicle to strip away the rights of people who don’t hold the same beliefs.
Glasson also said she believes the government should not be involved in the decision to have an abortion, noting that Planned Parenthood needs funding to allow for a wide access in order for women to make that choice.
“I have seen and heard the consequences, medical consequences, of women who can’t access safe reproductive health-care services,” Glasson said during the debate. “It’s a choice whether you have an abortion or not; the option should be there for women to make that decision.”
Wilburn said pregnancy prevention and education, in addition to funding for adoption and training parents, should also be supported. McGuire emphasized the importance of affordable and accessible birth control.
Privatized Medicaid
In 2015, then-Gov. Terry Branstad ordered a shift to privatize Medicaid. Medicaid is federal/state insurance program for low-income individuals that was previously more heavily controlled by government. Now, state funding is directed to managed-care organizations, which make insurance-coverage decisions for enrolled patients.
The candidates agreed that repealing Branstad’s plan would be one of their first priorities, emphasizing that a replacement plan could be a long process.
“I think we need to recognize first that the privatization of Medicaid has been an absolute failure of our state,” Hubbell said.
Day 1, Hubbell said, he would cancel the contracts and start recruiting people in the Department of Human Services. He would like to restore collective bargaining for health-care workers in order to attract people back to those jobs.
Glasson and McGuire said they would repeal Medicaid with an executive order as soon as possible.
Glasson said she would like to transition to a universal, single-payer plan to cover every Iowan, a position the health-care union leader’s campaign has advocated.
McGuire said she has seen the effects that privatized Medicaid has had on Iowa and wants to ensure patients are at the center and that providers continue to get paid during the transition.
“Right now, we are not paying some of our providers; we have 20 to 30 rural hospitals that could go under with the present way we’re doing Medicaid,” McGuire said.
Wilburn said that if elected, he would start the process the day after the general election and make that process part of the transition team between governors. Transparency and having a plan is important in the process, he said, and by switching instantly, the transition would be smoother.
Norris criticized the switch to privatized Medicaid, saying he believes companies took over Medicaid in a backdoor deal to turn a quick profit. He stressed the importance of focusing on health outcomes instead of profits for insurance companies.
His plan would take two years to reverse privatized Medicaid, a process that, he said, he would start on his first day in office. The plan would begin with rebuilding the state’s capacity to manage Medicaid, which he believes was eroded by privatization.
Gun control
One of the final topics discussed by the five candidates came from a question from the public regarding gun laws. All candidates advocated for stricter gun laws as a way to reduce gun violence.
“It is not about taking away the rights of hunters,” Wilburn said during the debate.
As governor, he said, he would push for updating the comprehensive national background check system, because there are differences among states’ compliance in updating the information.
RELATED: In the gun-control debate, what’s the priority: safety or freedom?
Wilburn would try to reverse the stand-your-ground law, which not long ago went into effect in the state. He noted that the law sends a strong unwelcoming signal in the state.
Glasson’s plan for gun safety would include a 72-hour waiting period before purchases, a ban on high-powered assault rifles, raising the minimum age to purchase to 21, and universal, comprehensive background checks on every gun sale.
“This is not a radical notion that when a family or a parent sends their child to school or someone to work, that they come home safe at the end of the day,” Glasson said.
McGuire agreed with Glasson, saying adults should be held responsible for ensuring their guns are locked up and protected so children cannot get to them.
“I’ve been in the emergency rooms when I’ve seen what the weapons of war, as I would call them, do to people,” McGuire said during the debate. “It doesn’t take you long to realize we should not have those on our streets.”
Norris stressed the importance of commonsense gun laws that include waiting periods and banning items that convert weapons into automatic weapons. He also said he wants to work on the mental-health side to minimize threats from those who are unable to handle a gun.
RELATED: AR-15 Rifles in Iowa
Hubbell critiqued Reynolds on her statement that gun control should be a federal issue and there are reasonable laws in place. He believes that there should be a discussion about gun safety and public safety, not gun rights and gun control.
Hubbell also noted that eight county sheriffs supporting his campaign want discretion in granting licenses, and he supports the idea.
Sarah Watson contributed to the reporting of this story