Iowa House District 38 Candidate Q&A: Brad Magg

Name: Brad Magg

Age: 38

Residence: Colfax

Occupation: Owner, Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe and Spring City Pharmacy

Office seeking: Iowa House District 38

1. Introduce/Reintroduce yourself to voters and explain why you are running.

Magg: As a lifelong resident of Jasper County, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have experienced the amazing support of “Iowa Nice” my entire life. As a child, when word traveled of my passion for baking, community members started ordering baked goods to encourage my interests. That turned into food and meals, which led to me starting Magg Family Catering when I was 14. The amazing educators and administration at Colfax-Mingo Schools went above and beyond to help me succeed. From being understanding with my attendance so I could make deliveries, to teachers tailoring curriculum just for me that aligned to my business interests, to not dropping the Accounting II class despite me being the only student, I will always be forever grateful for public education. And it makes me sick to see the lack of funding and unfunded or underfunded mandates implemented with the obvious goal to make public schools fail. My mother often worked three jobs and still struggled to keep a roof over our heads when I was growing up. I never would have been able to attend a private school if our local public school had been less desirable.

After attending DMACC, at the age of 20 my local banker saw my work ethic and believed in me enough that I was able to buy Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City. Understanding that being successful with a business in a small community is as much, if not more, about how much you support the community than how much the community supports you, I wanted to fill a gap in a community that had nowhere to eat besides Casey’s. So we added food to go along with the ice cream.

Passionate about giving back to the community that had given me so much, I ran for the Colfax City Council with the goal of working to build up the community so that it was an attractive place for my friends and classmates to move back to and hopefully so future generations wouldn’t want to leave in the first place. I’m now serving my 15th year on the Colfax City Council.

A few years ago our only pharmacy in Colfax closed its doors after over 100 years of being in business. After losing our medical clinic a year or two prior and realizing that an outside entity wouldn’t re-open the kind of pharmacy that our community and every community deserves, myself along with some other local leaders decided to roll up our sleeves and re-open the only pharmacy in Colfax, and the only locally owned pharmacy in Jasper County. Despite knowing that it would be a tremendous undertaking that we’d be lucky if we even broke even, and that we did not fully understand what we were getting ourselves into we still proceeded. We severely underestimated how bad all of the conditions would be, and three years later we’re hanging on by a thread.

All of these things have given me experience and a perspective that has made me appreciate the simplest of things even more. When Rep. Dunwell started working so passionately to undermine and take away the authorities of local government like city councils, counties and school boards, I became frustrated with his disconnect and unwillingness to listen to almost every elected official in his district and knew that something needed to be done.

2. Several legislative actions have impacted public schools over the past few years, to mixed reception from the public. Do you agree with past action? What sorts of changes do you want to see in the future? Should input from HD38 school districts go into your decision making?

Magg: Funding public schools is the most important functions of a state legislature. All Iowans benefit when our public schools are strong, not simply those with children currently in the system. For decades, the reputation of Iowa’s schools was second to none. It was a common point of pride. A schoolhouse was even chosen to be Iowa’s emblem in the special states’ quarter program during the early 2000s. Public education was unique when the United States was founded, and it has been key to the success of this country over its history.

Iowa’s excellent public school reputation has been lost in the past 10 years. It seems obvious to me that the goal of having the best public schools should not be a partisan issue, but it has become one. The majority party’s very controversial and unpopular legislation that enabled parents to receive taxpayer money (vouchers) to pay private, almost always religious, school tuition was a seismic shift. Although the Iowa majority party likes to stress that the move increases “parent choice” in where their kids go to school, in reality there has always been choice. Parents had the option to send their kids to private school at their own expense.

Not surprisingly, most private schools promptly increased their tuition after the law passed. The vouchers didn’t end up making it possible for less affluent parents to choose private school. The vouchers simply transferred taxpayer money to those more affluent parents.

The AEA restructure passed this past session was another example of a law affecting public schools that Iowans did not want. Iowa’s unique and effective Area Education Agencies enable rural special needs students to receive the same high-quality assistance that is commonly more available in urban districts. Virtually no one was in favor of the proposal except the governor. Legislators heard from record numbers of parents and public school administrators, including in House District 38, that the AEA change would hurt their students. But the majority party passed the legislation anyway with Rep. Dunwell being one of its biggest champions.

3. Iowa ranks last among 52 states and territories for OB-GYN physicians per capita, and a number of rural hospitals — including Newton’s — have closed their birthing units. How should Iowa lawmakers respond to this problem? How are smaller communities supposed to thrive in this environment?

Magg: Smaller Iowa communities will find it very challenging to survive in this environment. MercyOne’s closure of its pre-natal and delivery services will force young families away from Jasper County, exactly the people that communities need to attract if rural Iowa can be sustained and (hopefully) revived.

Newton News reported that 10 years of failed attempts to recruit OB-GYN physicians to Newton was the major factor in MercyOne’s decision to stop services. Legislators have passed some measures to help physician shortages such as loan forgiveness and tort reform.

But these efforts likely won’t do much to alleviate the decline of obstetric care in Iowa. It’s well known that Iowa ranks near the bottom of states for the number, per capita, of obstetricians and gynecologists. And now that there is a near total abortion ban in the state, the one residency OB-GYN program in the state at the University of Iowa will likely have trouble recruiting new students and residents. Pregnancy termination is a vital healthcare skill that new OB-GYNs need to acquire; University of Iowa has said they will try to keep their program accredited, but students may have to go to other states for clinical experience. It would not be surprising if OB-GYN students prefer to be trained in states without restrictions. Since medical doctors often stay in the state where they do their residency, that’s not good news for increasing Iowa’s number of OB-GYNs or medical professionals in general. Recently a parent gave birth to their child in their car on the shoulder of I-80 and that is only going to become a more frequent occurrence given an undesirable environment that has been worsened.

Republican legislators, including Rep. Dunwell, are responsible for Iowa’s near total abortion ban. They will be responsible for the continued shortage of OB-GYNs and the bad maternal and infant health outcomes that result.

4. In Jasper County, a number of taxing entities have taken issue with House File 718 and the restrictions it has put on certain levies. How do you feel lawmakers should approach the property tax system that both benefits Iowans while also allowing cities and counties to grow naturally?

Magg: As a 15-year member of the Colfax City Council, never have any of us said, “Let’s raise taxes and spend more.” It’s always been a discussion and a goal to do more with less. I guarantee that’s been the same mentality with the county board of supervisors and school boards. So, it was a slap in the face to all local leaders when this legislation passed that was nothing more than a bragging point for state elected officials while putting the burden on local school boards and municipalities making them look like the bad guys when services ultimately have to be cut. Local government control begins in our communities where we the residents know what’s truly going on. Not at the state level by representatives that might attend a local school board or city council meeting once a year.

5. While there are certainly unanimous or near-unanimous decisions that happen in the Legislature, so often it seems like the most talked about/impactful bills are decided by party majorities. Do you think representative government ends after the result on Election Day? How important is resident feedback to you?

Magg: I think that the size and scope of the legislative majorities are important factors to consider. When both the Iowa House, Senate and the governor are all one party, and the majorities are as large as they have been, there are no effective checks and balances on that power. The bigger the majority, the more lopsided each standing committee in each chamber becomes. The minority party has less and less power to introduce any bills that have a chance to be assigned to a committee, much less get passed out of committee and sent to the floor for a vote. Minority party amendments that might soften the more extreme parts of a bill go down to defeat. Then it does seem that representative government is a distant dream. From speaking with school superintendents and other leaders across the district, the same story of frustrations about voicing concern and opposition to bills to our current representative that still proceeded to champion them through the House, repeat like a broken record. I’ll be honest, I have no desire to achieve a higher elected office or make a career of it. Therefore I will never not vote in the best interest of the constituents of District 38, even if it may affect being re-elected or my status within a political party.

6. Adding riders or unrelated provisions in bills is practiced by lawmakers in both the state and federal level, but social media is making these actions more well known and perhaps not quite as popular. How do you feel about riders and their use in the Iowa Legislature? When are they appropriate?

Magg: From what I’ve learned, adding unrelated provisions to bills is frowned upon by both parties. Usually, the practice can be avoided by a more balanced party legislative makeup and a better distribution of viewpoints within a party. It’s no secret that the majority party has become more extreme over the past 10 years. For instance, Gov. Reynolds was unsuccessful getting her school voucher bill passed the first two times she tried. Then she actively campaigned against members of her own party who had voted against it. She worked to make the majority party more one-sided, thus making it more likely that unrelated provisions wouldn’t be challenged successfully. At the end of the session there’s a bill known informally as the “Christmas tree bill” that has unrelated items grouped together so the legislation gets passed efficiently. That can be OK or not OK depending on what is being pushed through. One positive of social media is that more awareness is being brought to practices like this and holding their elected officials accountable.

7. What issues are most important to you for the next two years of this term? Are there any issues in Iowa you feel deserve more attention?

Magg: During the next two years, if elected, my party will most likely still be in the minority. This will be a crucial time to advocate for bipartisanship and working to bring both sides closer together; to build relationships and find common ground with those many would consider the enemy. My goal, if nothing else, is to bring a little compassion, common sense and cooperation to the Capitol. At minimum, if I can just soften one bad, hurtful thing that may become law and hopefully restore faith in democracy for at least one Iowan. While supporting public education and restoring local control are the two issues that convinced me I needed to step up and help, pharmacy reimbursement and access to health care definitely needs more attention. Some of it can be as simple as holding PBM’s accountable, which would make drastic strides in preventing the 40 percent of pharmacies that are expected to close in Iowa while also lowering insurance costs for employers because of increased transparency.

8. Any final comments you’d like to make to voters?

Magg: The Jasper County that I have lived in all of my life and taken so much pride in, is so much better than the representation Mr. Dunwell is giving us. We’ve always been a community that wants the best for everybody, not just ourselves. We’ve always taken great pride in our public schools and worked together, despite our differences, during difficult times. From voting to refuse federal funds for low income children’s summer meal programs to putting crippling mandates on public schools while simultaneously taking money from them to give to private schools without the same mandates and oversight, it’s clear that Jon Dunwell hasn’t lived in Iowa long enough to understand our needs and desires. That may be how they do things in Minnesota, Florida or Colorado, but I don’t believe it’s how the Jasper County that I know and love wants to be represented.

If I’m wrong, and the voters in District 38 do feel this way, then I will be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing I at least gave the community another option. I’ve always believed in watering my own grass, rather than moving in search of greener grass. But I will never force my beliefs onto others that think differently than I do in the process.