Rep. Derek Wulf (R-Hudson).

DYSART – Ahead of the Nov. 5 general election, Tama-Grundy Publishing sent questionnaires to all the local candidates in contested statehouse races. This week we feature responses from those running for Iowa House District 76 which includes the communities of Traer, Dysart, and Buckingham in Tama County. While incumbent state Rep. Derek Wulf, a Republican from rural Hudson, returned his questionnaire to the newspaper (see final story section below), Democratic challenger Jarred Johnston did not.

Johnston’s residency

According to county real estate records, Johnston and his wife sold their home located in the 1000 block of Dysart’s Sherman Street to Travis and Susan Bell on Aug. 5, 2024; on Aug. 1, 2024, they purchased a home in Centerville, Iowa, in Appanoose County.

When contacted this past Monday by email, Appanoose County Assessor Michael Barth told the newspaper no homestead tax credit application has been submitted to his office by the Johnstons. In Iowa, homeowners are eligible to apply for the Homestead Tax Credit when they own and occupy the property as their primary residence.

Emails from the newspaper to Johnston’s campaign account on file with the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office have gone unanswered in the weeks since the sale of his Dysart home, as has an email to his current work account.

Jarred Johnston, formerly of Dysart, submits his nomination papers for the Iowa House District 76 Democratic primary at the State Capitol in Des Moines in early March. PHOTO COURTESY OF IOWA SECRETARY OF STATE'S OFFICE

Johnston was previously employed as a teacher at Waterloo West High School. During the June 10, 2024, meeting of the Centerville Community School District Board of Education, Johnston was hired as Centerville High School’s assistant principal and activities director effective July 1, 2024.

As of press time, Centerville CSD lists Johnston as the high school’s athletic director in its online staff directory.

On Sept. 17, Tama County Elections Administrator Karen Rohrs told the newspaper in an email “the state certified to us that his name [Jarred Johnston] is to be on the ballot for the November election, so his name will be on the ballot.”

Per Iowa law, residency qualifications for candidates to the Iowa General Assembly include one year of residency in Iowa and “60 days in the district at the time of the election.”

In an investigation carried out by KCRG-TV9 back in 2022, first-time candidate Derek Wulf’s residency was scrutinized. According to KCRG’s reporting, ahead of the 2022 general election, Wulf was registered to vote in House District 76 while holding the deed to a property in House District 54 – a property which was eligible for the homestead tax credit.

At the time of the reporting, KCRG concluded Iowa’s residency law for Iowa Assembly candidates was “virtually unenforceable because nobody is checking to ensure candidates live in their district.”

The newspaper rang the doorbell at Johnston’s former Sherman Street address on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, but no one answered the door. The last names of the new deed holders were written on the side of the address’s mailbox at the time.

Despite living and working in Centerville, Johnston is still registered to vote at the Sherman Street address in Dysart, per the Benton County Democratic Central Committee. House District 76 includes portions of Tama, Black Hawk, and Benton counties.

Appanoose County is located in south central Iowa on the border with Missouri. Centerville is part of Iowa House District 26 which covers most of Appanoose County, all of Davis and Monroe counties, and a portion of Wapello County.

Meet the Candidates for House District 76: Derek Wulf

Derek Wulf, 42, is the Republican incumbent for House District 76. He lives with his wife Dresden – an animal science instructor at Hawkeye Community College to whom he has been married for 18 years – in Hudson along with their daughters Aubrey, 13, and Claire, 9. Wulf is a farmer and rancher. He is a graduate of Hudson High School; he also attended Iowa State University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science.

1. Why are you the best candidate for this office – what differentiates you from your opponent?

I’m committed to limited government, fiscal responsibility, and protecting individual liberties, which are critical in these times where such values are often underrepresented. As the current representative for HD76, I have a proven track record of legislation and policies that benefit our community. I’ve worked on initiatives that directly address our district’s needs, from improving infrastructure, growing our small-town economies, to supporting small businesses. I live here, I work here, and I’ve raised my family here. This deep connection ensures that my decisions are influenced by a genuine understanding of our community’s unique challenges and aspirations

In a time of economic uncertainty, my commitment to fiscal conservatism means I advocate for the elimination of wasteful government spending, lower taxes, and ensuring that our state’s budget is balanced without placing undue burden on future generations.

Most of the folks in our district know who I am and what I believe in. I have a clear vision for our state’s future that involves enhancing our economic competitiveness, ensuring our security, and preserving our way of life against an intrusive federal government. My opponent might offer change, but I offer progress that’s in line with our traditional values.

What differentiates me is not just policy but philosophy. My deep-seated commitment to serve this district with conservative governance, combined with my experience as your representative, a father and a farmer, makes me uniquely qualified to represent us effectively down in Des Moines.

2. What particular issues would you like to see addressed by the Iowa Legislature in the session?

While we were able to get a lot done last session, there is still more work to be done. Everywhere I go I hear about the increasing burden of property taxes. I want to be part of helping make changes to Iowa’s property taxes that put more power and certainty in the hands of the taxpayer instead of the taxing entities.

I also think that some of the changes we made last session around chronic absenteeism could use some tweaks. The goal of that legislation was to make sure that students were actually in the seats and receiving the education that the taxpayers are footing the bill for. When we learned that statewide chronic absenteeism was averaging around 25%, we wanted to take action. I think the legislation we passed could be tweaked so that kids who are doing well in school and getting their work done aren’t penalized if they want to work on the farm or attend a life-learning experience with their family. There are ways we can address this.

I also believe there is more we could do to help support small businesses across rural Iowa.

3. Please explain your position(s) on private property rights and eminent domain in Iowa.

My position on this matter is simple: eminent domain should be extremely limited, and never be used to pad the profits of a private company.

If the project is not for something that is clearly a public good, companies need to work with landowners who want infrastructure on their land instead of trying to take the land by force.

4. Where do you stand on funding for public schools, particularly rural public schools? What is your position on the Students First Act (signed into law in January of 2023) and its recent rollout?

Iowa deserves a strong and robust education system that puts the education of Iowa’s kids first. Part of a strong and robust system means giving parents and their children options. Some parents may want to open-enroll their kids to another school district or enroll them in a private school, and they deserve those options. In those instances, I believe that the funding should follow the student that we as taxpayers are paying to educate. I believe we can have strong public schools and provide good options to all parents regardless of their income level.

5. Where do you stand on access to abortion in Iowa? As of today, abortion is prohibited in Iowa after cardiac activity can be detected (roughly 6 weeks of pregnancy); there are also limited exceptions for cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality, or when the life of the mother is in danger.

I’m a pro-life person and stand behind Iowa’s heartbeat law. With that, I want to continue to focus on providing more robust resources to new moms as well as continue to improve our foster and adoption system in Iowa. I was proud to vote to double the adoption tax credit and I wish we could have gotten that bill through to the governor to sign so that more Iowa families could have the option to adopt. I will work to continue to push that policy forward.

6. ‘Cancer capital,’ ‘cancer hotspot,’ ‘cancer crisis,’ – these are just some of the phrases being used to describe Iowa following a report earlier this year from the Iowa Cancer Registry – a research group at the University of Iowa – indicating Iowa has the second-highest and fastest-growing rates of new cancers among all the states. What should the Iowa Legislature do in the upcoming session to tackle this issue, an issue that is concerning to many Iowans?

Researching causes of negative outcomes such as cancer rates is something I support our public universities engaging in. I think there is certainly a lot more research that could be done when it comes to Iowa’s health questions. To what degree are various factors impacting our health outcomes, and what can we do as individuals to improve our health over the long term? I think over the years there has been a lot of false or misleading information in this area, some of it supported by our own government. I remember when the government said that all fat is bad and we should all be eating low-fat, high-sugar garbage. In reality, there are few things you could eat that are more healthy than a good Iowa steak. We need common sense answers that can help us all make more informed decisions.

7. Housing is incredibly tight currently in many rural counties including in Tama County. If elected, what legislation will you support to ensure Iowa’s rural counties are places young families can afford to live?

We definitely need to do more to encourage developers to build in our medium to small-sized towns. Part of the problem currently is that a big portion of the housing trust fund is going towards large cities like Des Moines. I would like to see a bigger piece of that pie be dedicated to rural Iowa so that developers are incentivized to build more outside of the big metro areas.

I also plan to support funding the housing renewal program. This provides matching funds to help take houses that are in rough shape and revitalize them so that a family can move into a fully renovated home that already existed. In many of our towns, I see homes that could really benefit from this type of program.

8. Iowa is predicted to end Fiscal Year 2024 with a nearly $2 billion budget surplus. How do you think the surplus should be managed?

When it comes to the state’s budget and the surplus, I plan to continue to make sure we’re funding the services that people rely on, but putting any extra dollars back in the accounts of the taxpayers, not into additional government handouts.

I supported speeding up Iowa’s income tax decrease because the numbers showed that we could afford it. However, with these uncertain economic times, I don’t believe in overspending or rushing additional cuts that could put our strong fiscal position into jeopardy. Iowans deserve to have a state government that is fiscally disciplined and can fund the promises we’ve made to Iowans.

9. In one sentence, why should people vote for you on November 5, 2024?

I am dedicated to preserving the values of the good people of our house district, I have a proven track record of effective legislation, and I’m deeply committed to serving our community’s best interests.