Rozenboom Looking For Second Term

Ken Rozenboom (R) at his desk in the Iowa Senate Chambers.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – November elections will be for a variety of offices, not just choosing the next president.

Iowa Senator Ken Rozenboom (R) has announced his decision to seek a second term in office, representing Iowa Senate District 40.

Rozenboom, who is also a former Mahaska County Supervisor, took office after defeating Tim Tripp (D) for the seat back in 2012.

“I’m seeking re-election because I believe I’m doing what I’m suppose to be doing right now. And that may sound a little strange to people, but my life experiences, my knowledge of the issues, kind of supports my work in the Senate I believe,” says Rozenboom.

Rozenboom, who is the ranking member of the Natural Resources and Environment committee, said, “I’m deeply concerned about what is going on in Iowa with respect to water quality, the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit. It greatly upsets me because for a variety of reasons. Number one, it’s predicated on false premises. Number two, for us to have another big part of public policy established by the courts is not the way we should be doing business.”

“I have concerns that it will impact Iowa, and not only Iowa, it will have far reaching effects across the country, because bad precedence’s will be set if the wrong decisions are made,” added Rozenboom.

Rozenboom says that his hope is to serve in an Iowa Senate where Republicans are the majority; where Democrats are currently the majority. Rozenboom says that he would become chair of the Natural Resources and Environment committee, where his working knowledge on the issues and his background would “help guide the discussion and any possible legislation on that [water quality] issue.

Rozenboom said that along the way he’s learned that he’s more interested in policy over politics. “That may surprise some people, and in a way it even surprises me, but I weary really quickly of people that are motivated simply by how it will effect them politically, or how will effect a certain party politically. I don’t think we’re up there [Iowa Senate] to make political considerations as much as we are to establish good public policy for the State of Iowa.”

“So, I’ve gotten a really heightened awareness of the difference between policy and politics. I don’t always like what I see when it comes to politics.”

About a month after Rozenboom entered the Iowa Senate, his adopted son began the search for his birth mother, and he located her. “It was a very poignant example in our family of the whole matter of abortion and adoption and difficult pregnancies and unwanted children. In our family, that all comes together in a very positive way.”

“A few weeks after I got in the senate I felt compelled to speak on the issue of abortion, because I do feel that as partisan as it is and as political as it is, we should be able to rise above that and recognize what we’re dealing with. And as legislatures, we need to find a lot more common ground than we’ve done in the past, and address some of the issues on both sides of the isle.”

Rozenboom said that he believes he has an audience on the abortion issue with both parties, “I have a responsibility to address those issues in that context, hopefully in a very positive way.”

“The very nature of the issue is life and death. The very nature of the issue is that a baby, a pre-born baby, is either going to live or going to die based on decisions adults make. Sometimes, in the politics of it all, I think we loose sight of that characteristic of this issue. We deal with budget matters, we talked about those today. People don’t generally live and die based upon budget matters. We talk about education. We talk about water quality. We talk about a lot of things, but the ante ramps up when we’re talking about life or death,” added Rozenboom.

“I think they’re extremely important issues. Not only politically, but to our culture…to who we are as a people in the country. Who we are as Iowans.”

You can visit with Sen. Rozenboom at the next Eggs and Issues on January 23, 2016, at 8:30 am inside Smokey Row.