For Curran, it's about 'the people down here'

OTTUMWA — Find any of Brenda Curran's large candidacy signs, and she says there are three core values she believes in: public education, reproductive freedom and working families.

The Democrat says she believes her counterpart — and neighbor — has come up short in all of them.

Curran, who is running for the Iowa House District 25 seat against Republican incumbent Hans Wilz, says she believes all three issues need to be brought to the front of voters' minds when they head to the polls Nov. 5. Curran clerked two sessions in the state house under her mother, former state Rep. Mary Gaskill.

"Hans made a lot of bad decisions this last session in my opinion," Curran said. "They didn't even talk about the AEA bill in the beginning, and that was politics at its worst.

"He wouldn't even talk policy with me. With the AEA and reproductive freedoms, his answer both times was 'There's hard feelings on both sides.'"

Curran drew on her time as a clerk as a reason for getting back into politics and representing the district, which encompasses most of Wapello County, including Ottumwa.

"I was just fine being a clerk, but I really liked digging into the legislation, reading the bills, that kind of stuff and meeting with the lobbyists," said the 52-year-old Curran. "They try to leverage you for whatever they want, but you can also ask them about the rest of the story. You can push back and ask them, 'Well, what does that mean on the other side?'

"There's just some things about the inner workings of being a clerk, and I was afforded those opportunities."

One of the more controversial bills to pass through the legislature was House File 718, which drew wide bipartisan support, but also curtailed the amount of growth cities and counties could claim from valuations. It was a bill that has made both Wapello County and the City of Ottumwa, have to tighten their budgets to adhere to the legislation.

"I would have at least picked up the phone and called and talked to my local people and known what the impact was going to be with that legislation," Curran said. "That's the first thing I thought. You pick up the phone and you talk to your locals. Hard decisions are hard, and you have to know what you're doing.

"Nobody wants to give up services and we need to reimagine the whole thing about getting taxes back to people."

While Curran wasn't "disappointed" in her party for voting for HF 718, she knew it was coming.

"They had to do what was right for their district," she said. "But I've actually talked to Democratic leadership and let them know that if there's something that goes against the party, I will vote for my district, because that's what you do as a good legislator. It's about the people down here."

Curran wants to see labor wages increased, particularly for the middle class.

"We can support working families and provide a little relief so the 'American Dream' doesn't seem so far away. The middle class has been shrunk and squeezed the last two decades," she said.

Regarding reproductive freedom, Curran wants to do away with the six-week deadline the state has passed for abortion.

"We need to go back to what it was before (20 weeks). I can't tell you what the bill would look like, and I would work with leadership and with the senate," she said. "We're foregoing federal funding that would provide education about reproductive care for not only women, but men as well.

"There are barriers to care here, and I get concerned about young women, and them understanding what's going on with their bodies," Curran said. "They don't need disinformation. I've been told many times I'm a baby-killer. I'm a mother-saver, and I'm trying to prevent women from dying of sepsis."

Curran also took issue with the vote to allow educational savings accounts, which use taxpayer money for private education, she said. Curran is a graduate of Seton Catholic School in Ottumwa, and her parents helped start the school.

"To us, it was always like, if you want the Catholic education, you pay for it yourself. It was understood that if you go above and beyond private or public education, then that's on you," she said. "I don't understand the thinking that the dollars follow the kid, because what that's going to do is hurt the public schools. I just don't agree with it. If you want private education, you pay for it yourself.

"I think options are great, and the private education provides that. I'm not sure parents fully appreciate what their rights and responsibilities are when it comes to their kids' education."

Curran said if she is elected, she will be accessible to her constituents.

"I think that's something my mother taught me. You make yourself available, show up at city council meetings and you get yourself in the room," she said. "Town halls are definitely important, and it's a setting that people are more comfortable bring you their problems. I want to make sure I'm available because I think that is definitely a good thing."

Curran said she believes now is her chance to "do good for the people in this area."

"I kind of heard the call (to run)," she said. "I'm putting it on the line and I want to work for the people, and I just think it's important that we focus on the people. I just think you need somebody with a little bit of political imagination.

"We need to have somebody who has some connections and knows how government works. We can disagree, but let's just do the good of the people. Whether you're right, left, center, I don't really care. Sometimes I just think the labels are hurting us. We're so much more than these labels. You choose a party because you have to, but that doesn't mean we believe all the things."