Judge Seeks Iowa House District 80
Joe Judge (D- Albia)
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Politics runs in the family, along with a desire to serve his community. Joe Judge is looking to become the next representative for Iowa House District 80. Judge is no stranger to public service, his mother was Lt. Governor under Governor Chet Culver. “Public service has been something in my family even before she was in elected office. Goes all the way back as far as two of my great-grandfathers; served together on the Monroe County Board of Supervisors in 1900. It was something that was just brought up, public service, campaigning, advocating for your neighbors, and trying to advocate for efficient government.”
“When you grow up in it, you almost feel an obligation to try to make a difference.” Judge remembers one of his first steps into the political world, “When I was 6 years old. That was my first campaign I worked on, and I went door-to-door in Albia for Tom Harkin. Of course at 6 I probably didn’t have a good grasp on the issues, but it trained me for it. Then when I hit junior high age, my family was very actively involved and we were the ground soldiers for democratic candidates. I went door-to-door and I was in a parade about every weekend and it got to be where if I ever tried to have friends come over and spend the night, that they learned pretty quick not to spend the night at my place on a Friday night because they would end up in a parade on Saturday. That was my upbringing.”
“Before I ever decided to be a candidate, there has not been an election cycle since I was 6 years old that I have not at least spent some time knocking on doors, making phone calls, and advocating for the candidate that I think are going to be the best for our communities. I guess there is a point when you decide that you need to be the candidate; so we will see how that goes.”
Joe Judge (D- Albia), in an October interview said that one of his driving purposes behind his run has been, “a lack of negotiations. It seems like that has broken down and that the current legislature is kind of stuck.” Judge went on saying, “last year, the real motivation was the cuts in preschool and public education. I really just thought, I need to go and try to lobby a little bit more and save preschool and try to get some funding for our public education plan.”
Judge said he was going up to the state house “almost once a week” to lobby for education. “After redistricting happened I looked at it and I thought, who would best be able to advocate for Southern Iowa and express the needs for our towns, our schools, and families.” Judge considered the options and came to the conclusion, “well, maybe I should be the one that goes up and advocates for those.”
Beyond preschool, I asked Judge what other factors he found important. “Number 1 is economic development in Southern Iowa. We’ve got unemployment in our part of the state that’s high, and Appanoose County has got some serious issues with some economic development. Monroe County does. Here in Mahaska County I’ve got the rural side, but economic development spurs all communities. We just need to have advocates that are willing to stand up for this part of the state. Southern Iowa seems to get the short end of the stick a lot of times in those negations. Partly I think, a lot of times the representatives we have from here are very quiet and I don’t know necessarily what their legislative accomplishments are, even after they’ve served 20 years and never served as a committee chair; that doesn’t necessarily bode well for Southern Iowa.”
