Reinbeck Democrat will challenge Grassley in state house race

By: 
Robert Maharry

Dennis Evans found the inspiration to run for public office this November outside of Iowa—more specifically, in places like Kansas and Wisconsin. There, he says, Republican ideology and supply-side economics have been put to the test, and produced, in his estimation, disastrous results. Why then, he asks, do legislators here seek to imitate them?
           
“They’re following so many of those same things that happened in those states,” he said, in reference to tax cuts, collective bargaining rollbacks for public employees and education funding, among others. “When I’m 80 years old, I don’t want my grandkids to come to me and say ‘Why didn’t you do anything?’”
           
On that note, Evans, a longtime trust officer with MidwestOne Bank (and previously, Lincoln Savings Bank), is throwing his hat into the ring in House District 50, which covers southern Butler, northern Hardin and all of Grundy County, and challenging six-term incumbent Pat Grassley (R-New Hartford), one of the most well-known state politicians in Des Moines. While he doesn’t have a personal beef with Grassley, Evans, who resides in Reinbeck with his wife, sees the larger GOP agenda as dangerous and out of line with his own priorities.
           
“I have clients in Kansas, and I’ve had lots of discussions with them. What’s happened in their state, it’s just ugly,” he said. “I don’t know what (Grassley) thinks. I think he just supports the platform.”
           
Evans’s two biggest issues as a prospective legislator, in his words, are the privatization of Medicaid and “taking the focus away from education.” He opposes education savings accounts (commonly known as vouchers) for private schooling and homeschooling and strongly objects to the manner in which former Governor Terry Branstad and current Governor Kim Reynolds have transferred the administration of medical coverage for low-income Iowans to Managed Care Organizations (MCOs).
 
He also favors rescinding the recently enacted state income tax cuts (projected at over $1 billion) for fiscal reasons, and, as a banker, strongly supports taxing credit unions to “level the playing field.” Evans fears that deeper budget reductions are looming due to the legislature’s actions over the last few years. 
 
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