Letter to the Editor:

Thank you, Senator Sodders –

For your continued work supporting Marshalltown Commmunity College that has benefited our local students by allowing them to earn college credits while still in high school. As Chancellor Duree pointed out, you do not just talk the talk, you also walk the walk –

-for your excellent work helping our veterans at the Marshalltown Veterans’ Home. Your work has resulted in much-needed and great improvements in the facilities that our vets need and deserve –

-for your ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans in the legislature that has won you their respect and awarded you for your hard work and productivity in the Senate

-for your refusal to employ the negative ads used by your opponent. It is refreshing to see a campaign that does not resort to this nastiness –

-for your work visiting Cuba to open it up as a market for Iowa farms and businesses –

-and finally, for your courage in taking on the most powerful in state government in a valiant effort to save the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo. You not only introduced and worked for the passage of legislation to keep it open, but also you attempted to limit those in power from closing such institutions without any input from the legislature.

It is quite possible that the reason you face such powerful forces against you is that you dared to put your constituents above pandering to those in power for the sake of your own political career, and those in power see that as a real threat.

Ann Michael

Tama