After almost 30 years on the farm and six years in the state senate, Patty Judge wants to take her advocacy of agricultural issues to a higher level.

Judge, a Democrat from Albia, is running for Iowa’s open secretary of state position against Republican Dan Brown of Iowa Falls.

As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Judge has addressed dicey issues such as hog lots, declining small towns and corporate farming.

“I ran for the Senate in 1992 because of my concern about agriculture and about rural communities,” she said.

This concern comes straight from the heart. Judge and her husband, John, have managed a 1700-acre family farm outside Albia since 1970. This hands-on involvement, she said, makes her a perfect fit in the secretary’s chair.

“I have had to go to the courthouse and pay property taxes, I’ve had to face the bankers, and I’ve been there in the good times too,” she said. “My experience from being there puts me above my opponent.”

Judge cited “chronic, systemic” problems in small towns as a defect that needs fixing.

During the farm crisis of the 1980s, she said the “in-towners” suffered along with the farmers.

“We watched banks close, and we watched businesses close, and we watched schools consolidate. We don’t want to go through that again,” she said. “Main Street Iowa depends on agriculture. That’s what has kept stores on Main Street open. As agriculture leaves, that jeopardizes our Main Street businesses.”

The small-town economy can be aided by new businesses, a shot in the arm that can also stop the “brain drain,” Judge said.

“We’re letting our young people leave in mass exodus from rural communities,” she said. “For educated college grads in Iowa in the near future, there can be a very bright future in biotechnology. I believe that Iowa will become the center of the universe for that.”

Judge said one area poised for growth is value-added agriculture.

“There’s a lot of difference between the price of a bushel of corn and corn sweetener or ethanol,” she said. “That’s the money we can capture.”

She cited a soybean-flour substitute for Formica countertops and a soy-diesel replacement for hydraulic fluid as two other products that can be made by Iowa businesses from the state’s raw commodities.

“Those kind of things are limited only by people’s imaginations,” Judge said.

During last year’s session, the Legislature allocated $25 million in entrepreneurial aid for new businesses in Iowa or expansions of existing ones. Judge said the tendency after landmark legislation such as the “venture capital” bill is to neglect the issue, but she pledged to oppose that trend.

“I can’t let that happen. It’s too important to Iowa,” she said.

Above all, Judge is looking out for the people who will determine Iowa’s farming future.

“It’s such a good way of life and such a good thing for family,” she said. “I’m really concerned with preserving the best of it.”