Senate Candidate Mark Doland Speaks in New Sharon

Iowa Senate Candidate Mark Doland takes questions from a group gathered in New Sharon on November 2nd, 2011

New Sharon, Iowa- State Senate Candidate Mark Doland was on hand at a small, private gathering last Thursday for a question and answer session. The candidate was questioned over a wide variety of issues for about 90 minutes.

Doland’s first question was specifically what role his faith played in his decision to run for the state senate. “I believe that I was called into politics about four years ago . not as a candidate, but I’ve helped many different candidates to get elected and some of them that I’ve helped didn’t get elected.” Doland went on to cite candidates such as Mike Huckabee and Danny Carroll as some of the candidates he had campaigned for. Doland said he campaigned for candidates who were “like minded, Christian people.”

Doland also talked about his method in choosing a candidate to support in various elections. “When you’re trying to select a candidate for office, this is the method I use anyway. What I need to know more than anything is can I trust them? Will they be a God first candidate that consults with God before they make any decisions? I think that’s very important.”

Doland was next asked if he believes big government or less government should be used to help solve our economic problems. “Less Government. There’s a three prong method that has been talked about and you’re going to hear this probably from all the candidates. You need to cut taxes, you need to cut the burdensome regulations, you gotta get government out of the business and picking winners or losers,” Doland said.

Doland was next questioned on education and what his thoughts for Iowa education are. “The underlying factors, I believe, are the federal mandates that are being put on the classroom. I think that we’ve got to get the federal government out of the classroom. I believe that competition drives quality. We need to emphasize all three different forms of education. Number one- public school, which most kids attend. Our kids to go a private school, Christian school, but you also have a homeschool. They cut funding for homeschool by half back about 2008, 2007, somewhere around there and I believe that that should be reimbursed. I believe that parents should have the ability to choose the kind of education their children has. Most people can’t afford private school so by default their parents have to send them to public school because that’s the only option that they have. The product that they’re getting is kind of like a big government thanks,” Doland said.

The candidate next answered a question about judicial activism in Iowa. “The prime example of that [judicial activism] is in Iowa when the seven Supreme Court justices ruled in Varnum vs. Brien that homosexual couples could be married under Iowa law because it violated the equal protection under the law clause part of the constitution. I believe that in the Constitution, the Supreme Court was given the least amount of authority and designed that way on purpose,” Doland said.

Doland next talked about his support for Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in the 2012 Presidential Election. “I’m proud to support Michele Bachmann. In full disclosure, I’m on her payroll. I’ve been working for her since June. They called me and I’ve been an activist in southeast Iowa. I have 20 counties that I’m over. I’ve organized that area for the past several months but she is a wonderful, wonderful candidate. I like that there are so many good ones [candidates] this time to choose from but I believe that she is the full package. She has not compromised on anything.”

Doland also commented on the recent announcement from Senator McKinley that he will not seek re-election. “There has been this infighting that has been going on for a long time. I’ve had full knowledge of it for months and by him stepping down, I think it’s the best way to address the issue that they have in their infighting right now.”

Doland continued. “Paul McKinley, by him stepping down, I believe he did the right thing.”

Lastly, Doland said why people should vote for him over Ken Rozenboom in the Republican Primary. “A couple of things with Ken. Number one, he’s already a supervisor. I ran for an office. I was on the school board in Fremont and during my term on the school board I could’ve ran for another office after I was just elected to the school board. I chose not to because I ran for that office. I was just elected to it and I figured I made [inaudible] a covenant with the people that I was going to finish out my term. So I finished out my term,” Doland said.

“He was recently to the board of supervisors of Mahaska County back in November of 2010. So he’s not even been on the job a full year. He took office in January. I’ve heard a lot of people that said if he ran for that office, he should finish the term. He’s got three years left on his term,” said Doland.