Narcisse Talks Empowering People

Candidate for Iowa Governor, Jonathan Narcisse (D).

Candidate for Iowa Governor, Jonathan Narcisse (D).

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Sharing his vision for Iowa is a focus of Democrat candidate Jonathan Narcisse.

The campaign trail is nothing new for Narcisse, who has run for Iowa’s top job in the past. “The last time was a wonderful experience,” said Narcisse.

“We had a chance to engage people in all 99 counties,” Narcisse said of his previous run for Governor. With that came experience and a better focus for this year’s run. Meeting people and finding solutions are important for the candidate.

Being effective in his campaign and being able to raise the funds to have an effective campaign were important in deciding to run once again. As with any candidate, their belief that they can win is always an important factor in the decision to run.

Narcisse said that in a one-on-one run against Tyler Olsen, “I would probably not be running,” added Narcisse. “He would have been formidable in the Democratic primary.”

“Jack Hatch, despite the inevitability narrative that the Register especially and other media is promoting, after entering the race effectively in May, after spending a couple hundred thousand of that four hundred some thousand he’s raised, in his Registers own Iowa poll, he could not beat Bob Krause. Bob Krause was beating him,” said Narcisse.

Narcisse says “the narrative of Jack being the inevitable candidate and the front runner is absurd.” Narcisse says that once he beats him (Hatch), “it will make the leap to competing against Branstad that much easier.”

“I thought, if Jack is my opponent, I can be the nominee of my party,” Narcisse said. “Then it gets very, very interesting from there.”

Narcisse doesn’t see himself as a candidate that can’t win, or one that is only in the race to further the discussion on some particular subject. Narcisse does have a narrative for his campaign, and believes he brings solutions to issues Iowans are facing.

Narcisse says that Branstad made four promises “when he returned to the political arena that he has not kept.” Narcissee says that Branstad “hasn’t created two-hundred-thousand jobs. He didn’t raise personal family income 20%. He not only failed to restore world class education to Iowa, his own education chief spoke of the dire condition education in Iowa is in.” Narcisse goes on, “Governor Branstad not only didn’t reduce state government by 15%, he’s grown the budget basically every year he’s been in there.”

Narccisse says that under Branstad’s leadership, the State of Iowa’s budget has grown from 14.1 billion to 14.2 billion dollars. “He grew welfare from 39.9% to 41.5%, and yet he still managed to hurt people.”

“He (Branstad) grew government, grew spending and still hurt people,” says Narcisse. “Meanwhile he lined government with individuals who are wholly unqualified for the positions they have.”

Narcisse believes society must move towards “true compassion.” “True compassion doesn’t look like entitlement, it looks like empowerment.”

“Take for example requiring ID to use food stamps. On the surface people go, ‘you’re so mean’. No, it’s not mean. We’re providing you hundreds of dollars of compassion so you can feed your family and your children. It’s not too much to ask for integrity in that process,” says Narcisse who believes that Branstad has not helped in providing integrity to the program.

“Along with his (Branstad) allies in the Senate,” Narcisse said, “I imagine that Mike Gronstal (D) and Governor Branstad really enjoy each other since they both get what they want from each other consistently.”

“When individuals are allowed to sell those food stamps, and not only defraud the taxpayers, they then often use the proceeds for gambling, liquor or tobacco, and the purchase of illegal drugs,” explained Narcisse.  “When you then allow that money to be used for the purchase of illegal drugs, you create competition to sell those drugs, particularly in places like Des Moines or Waterloo and Davenport. Now the way that competition is resolved is not through commercial advertising ‘Where’s the Beef’, or the Coke and Pepsi challenge, it’s through violence and gunfire. As violence and gunfire increase in Waterloo where I hosted radio for 10 years,  and Davenport where I published, or Des Moines, where I live.”

Narcisse says that with those problems then plaguing communities, people and families don’t want to move to those locations. “So then you often end up with communities that are dominated by slum lords and those who can’t escape that environment. Now I choose to live there, but so many don’t choose, they have no other choice.”

Narcisse says that lives are destroyed by the compassion, “lives are destroyed”. “If we only required one simple thing, show me your ID that you’re the person entitled to these benefits, and then you can access them.”

“When individuals get benefits, in order to lift them up, they also ought to get a work assignment. Once upon a time, there was a Democrat who believed that in a time of depression, the way to lift people up was not just to give them stuff, but to put them to work doing things like planting trees and painting murals in post offices,” Narcisse said. “What’s wrong with saying to individuals when they get their benefits, you also get a work assignment?”

“Do something constructive that benefits society and engages you in the redemptive and healing properties of work,” says Narcisse. “What’s wrong with that?”

“When you give somebody [benefits], you pay their rent, you pay their utilities, you buy their food, you pay for their medical it makes sense to say we want to move you to self sufficiency instead of just perpetual dependence. So we’re also gonna say you know what, you need to either go to class and get a skill trade, an education or you need to work constructively,” said Narcisse.

Narcisse says the work isn’t there as punishment, “but the path to your self-sufficiency is through your once again rediscovering your ability to contribute.”

I then asked Narcisse about the Republican plan for voter ID which has met with stiff resistance from those in the Democratic ranks because they believe it causes disenfranchisement. “I have no problem with ensuring the integrity of elections, although I think that’s just a boondoggle issue for Republicans.”

“You know what the number one job of the governor is?” Narcisse asked, “It’s not to have all the answers, and I don’t have all the answers. I’m not the smartest person in the room. If I’m the smartest person in the room, we’re in trouble as a state. The number one job of a governor is to surround himself with really smart, able and competent people with the ability to be effective in their area of their specialization. People with the moral and ethical compass to put the interest of our state, our taxpayers and our families and children first and foremost. Especially above political and partisan agendas, Narcisse said in closing. “If that happens, we can rebuild our state and restore integrity to government.”

If you would like to learn more about Jonathan Narcisse and his campaign to become the next governor of Iowa, you can visit his website HERE.

Posted by on Feb 3 2014. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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