Ross Wilburn, Democrat

Democrat Ross Wilburn is running for reelection, unopposed, for the Iowa House of Representatives, District 46. Wilburn is a parent, a former mayor of Iowa City, a social worker and a member of the Iowa National Guard, according to his campaign website. 

What will be your main focus when reelected Representative of Iowa?

My priorities have been reforming mental health care; protecting our civil rights; trying to create green jobs by expanding use of renewable energy; strengthening support of schools from preschool through public, community college [and] state universities; and strengthening rural and urban economies — those are the baseline priorities. The focus that I have as a Democrat is to try and get a majority back for the Democrats in the Iowa House of Representatives. That’s going to heavily influence any progress that we can make on those five different areas that I mentioned. The party in control sets the agenda for what bills get introduced into committees or not, so for right now, that’s a big focus of my energy and efforts to help get back the House. 

What have you done in your time in office to support public schools and universities?

In terms of funding, the Iowa Democratic caucus has tried to restore some funding that hasn’t gone toward K-12. One tangible thing that I’ve been able to do through the budget process is to help get funding for Vet-Med at Iowa State.

How does your background as a mayor of Iowa City, a member of the Iowa National Guard and being a parent shape who you are today and help you decide what you want to accomplish as a member of the Iowa House?

It has helped educate me and create awareness for issues that affect families, that affect local communities, as well as be aware of how different laws affect families across the state. So I would say that one is education and awareness of how down to the individual family and local level, and that’s important as a state legislator because we come from different communities, different counties that there may be a different focus on issues that are impacting those particular areas, but I think it helps me draw upon all of those areas to try and help support legislation that’s going to benefit Iowans across the board.

How has the 2007 Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement helped to create renewable jobs, and what will you continue to do for green jobs in your reelection?

I have to emphasize that the party in control determines what gets allowed to be introduced at the committee level. It’s purely numbers; it’s not an excuse. One of the committees I’m on is the Environmental Protection Committee in the House. That committee did not meet the first two weeks of the legislature because it was not assigned bills. At the very first meeting, the Republican chair of the committee basically said bills would not be introduced related to subjects introduced in the previous legislature. Therefore, we only really had three bills come across the table, and they were more administrative, procedural type bills, which was unfortunate because I know there are Republicans who would be interested in discussing how we can preserve the health of Iowa’s soil and, in some cases, restore, but the Republican leadership did not allow those bills to be introduced. If we’re able to get a majority back in the House, then we can set the agenda to have conversations about a broad variety of environmental bills, several of which were related to that Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement in terms of reducing our carbon footprint, in terms of trying to sequest your carbon, in terms of diversifying crops, conservation, all of those particular areas.

What can the people of Ames expect to see in your efforts to reform mental health care?

One emphasis will be trying to reverse the privatization of Medicaid. That has the managed care by a private company and has resulted in Iowans not receiving care, it has resulted in mental health care providers not being reimbursed in a timely way, it has resulted in providers of mental health care not being reimbursed at a level that they can make a living doing it. If we’re able to get a majority, we’re able to at least put some of those bills on the table to be discussed. If we get a majority in the House, it will require the governor, and if Republicans take control of the Senate, they at least will be able to have some discussions because a bill needs to pass both bodies of the legislature. It will help provide leverage to make progress on improving mental health care, access and quality for the people of Ames and Story County. 

How do you plan to accomplish these things in this time of division in our state and nation?

As a former mayor, I was in a position where we had to at least have conversations about the issues that impacted our citizens and, so again, I point back to by successfully getting control of a majority in one of the legislative bodies. It will give us more leverage to get people to come to the table. I gave the example of Republicans in the legislature that I know would want to talk about the environmental issues, and if there’s a different leadership, then that in and of itself will open up some dialogue.

Do you have anything else you’d like to tell the people in your district?

I know I’m unopposed, but I’m asking for their vote in the honor of representing Ames again. Amesins have talked to me about mental health care access. They’ve talked to me about concerns about public education and public dollars going toward that, they’ve spoken to me about green jobs and renewable energy. We already have Renewable Energy Group in Ames. That’s just one business — that’s one significant business, and it’s something that there’s an opportunity for, in a broad sense, expanding green jobs and opportunities, not just wind but getting into renewable fields, but also getting into solar power. I’m looking forward to having an opportunity to serve, to be able to try and bring these issues to the table.

I’m costlessly optimistic that we will be able to get a Democratic majority in the House so that we will be able to discuss some of these issues again as opposed to just having issues not addressed or only a certain agenda brought forward to the legislature, and I would say a certainly limited agenda brought to the legislature. I look forward to the opportunity to serve again. It’s been a pleasure, but before we had coronavirus come through, it’s been a pleasure having folks stop by the House of Representatives to bring information. I had people from both the United Ways to some of the human service organizations, the health and mental health care providers, the environmental groups, the chambers of commerce, all of them. It’s helpful to have the information that they send and bring to me, and I’ve been working hard with Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell to try and make sure we’re representing Ames well.

One of the areas that I didn’t mention, you had asked about bipartisan in terms of green jobs, but I should have mentioned a bipartisan effort that I helped lead for successful criminal justice reform. It was packaged under the “We the People More Perfect Union” criminal justice reform. It allowed the attorney general to prosecute a criminal offense committed by law enforcement. It prohibits the use of chokeholds by law enforcement except for extreme situations. It requires annual training by law enforcement every year, [along with] the deescalation techniques and the bias prevention. So that effect was not only bipartisan, it was unanimous in the House and the Senate. That was a major civil rights accomplishment.