Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield visits West Liberty

Talks to business, community leaders

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After growing up in a small town, Theresa Greenfield seemed right at home Thursday afternoon when she came to West Liberty, visiting with members of the community at the downtown Puebla Mexican Restaurant as she campaigned for a U.S. Senate seat less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
“I don’t see them as Democrats or Republicans,” said Greenfield, who is hoping to unseat Republican Senator Joni Ernst.
“We have to come together,” she said, noting people in small towns may have their differences, but they work together to get things done. “We need a whole lot more of that in Washington.”
“The nice thing about a small town is that we’re in a bubble,” added Monica Leo, director of the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre in West Liberty, pointing out working together is the way small towns get things accomplished.
Greenfield went on to talk about the fact she’s been to a lot of small towns throughout the state in her campaign and pointed out every small town has something special, noticing the welcome mural painted this past summer in downtown West Liberty by teachers.
Lisa Browning told Greenfield about the fact small businesses are hurting, the candidate pointing out more stimulus packages need to be passed to keep main street businesses alive through the pandemic.
Greenfield met with about a dozen local community and business leaders in an event organized by city council member Jose Zacarius.
Irma Esquivel, owner of Puebla, also got a chance to talk one on one with Greenfield, citing her problems of staying in business during the pandemic.
Dream Catchers leader Ed Moreno was one of those who first greeted Greenfield to West Liberty, getting some first-hand insight on what the possible junior senator thought about business, education and other topics.
Greenfield talked both outside and inside the restaurant as she rubbed elbows with everyone she came across, mostly members of the West Liberty business community, taking precautions in avoiding the COVID-19 virus with social distancing and masks.
The event was stalked by three different television crews who all talked individually with Greenfield.
Greenfield was first questioned about doing more for public schools, Duffy DeFrance questioning the fact Iowa seems to be slipping in state aid for education. Greenfield said she would push for universal pre-school kindergarten in schools and tuition-free community college and technical schools, noting there are a lot of high school grads who simply aren’t going on to secondary education because they can’t afford the debt load. Greenfield said the nation needs to bring back technical arts programs to rebuild the workforce.
“We need to set students on a path to be successful,” she said.
Leo told Greenfield about the fact when she first went into business in West Liberty as an artist, she got a lot of work from the Iowa Arts Council, but said that business had dried up because of the fact so many college grads are coming out of school with large debts, unable to pursue art interests.
Greenfield said three of her main topics in running for the senate is health care, education and the arts.
Greenfield quickly moved on to health care, which she said was the number one topic anywhere she went, working to provide better care and deductions in prescription coverage for seniors, reduce deductibles and work for better rural care, noting Iowa is losing more and more small town hospitals, noting so many of those facilities are key elements of small communities.
As a junior senator, Greenfield said she would work to support the Affordable Care Act and said although there are things that need to be changed, Washington has learned a lot in the past 10 years since it became reality.
“I think health care should be a right,” she said.
She said the COVID-19 crisis has done a lot of damage to the country, noting many businesses and families are struggling.
“The science is clear,” she said, noting the country needs to continue to invest in protective gear, approve state-wide mask mandates, and approve another stimulus package to aid the unemployed, paid sick leave and reinvest in the economy to put people back to work.
Greenfield said immigration needs to be modernized and “more welcoming,” noting parents need to come to Iowa with their children. “Everyone loves their family,” she said, noting no one wants separation, pointing out the process has to be made easier, but the country needs to be “safe, strong and smart.”
“Finally, we have to be humane about it,” she added.
Growing up on a farm in northern Iowa, Riceland, Greenfield said she would work for fair trade, bio-fuels and rebuilding markets for livestock and grains.
“We need to level the playing field,” she said. She said conservation needs to become a new commodity and said bills passed in Washington has cost ethanol plants four billion gallons of fuel, forcing many plants to close and affecting the way of life in dozens of Iowa communities.
She also talked about rebuilding infrastructure, noting Iowa has some of the worst bridges and roads in the country, pointing out a new infrastructure bill needs to get approved for the nation which has gone too long without repairing roads and bridges.
Greenfield said she was going to have a late lunch at the restaurant before moving on in her campaign, although West Liberty was the third stop of the day, which started in Donnellson on a farm and later moved to Burlington, where she toured a training center. She called her visit to West Liberty her Small Business Tour.

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