Although one Democratic candidate has been all over the world as a member of the armed forces, he is setting out to serve Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Leonard Boswell, congressional candidate for the 3rd District, has served the Iowa Senate for 12 years.

Boswell, a farmer from Indianola, has been prominent in addressing the problems and concerns he feels have been caused by the large-scale hog factories that have spread throughout Iowa. As a member of the Iowa Senate, Boswell worked to pass a series of changes in the Iowa law for more stringent environment laws for the hog companies.

“We must recognize the strength of Iowa’s agricultural economy and the quality of Iowa’s environment are not mutually exclusive issues. The challenge is to meet the highest standard on both issues,” he said.

Boswell graduated from Lamoni High School. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Graceland College in Lamoni.

He was drafted as a private into the United States Army in 1956, where he served for twenty years and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

He served two NATO tours in Europe, four years in Germany and three years in Portugal. He also served two one-year tours in Vietnam.

After retiring from the Army in 1976, he returned to Iowa with his family to farm. In 1984 Boswell was elected to the Iowa Senate. He was re-elected to his third term in 1992 when he garnered more than 60 percent of the vote.

He was elected Senate President in November of 1992 by a unanimous vote.

Boswell is pro-choice. He has a long track record in the Iowa Senate for protecting wetlands and does not support weakening the Environment Protection Agency.

Iowa spends more than half of its budget on education, said Jeani Murray of the Boswell campaign, which is not comparable to the education dollar percentage spent by the federal government. She said Boswell favors spending on education.