MASON CITY – Democratic Candidate for Governor Cathy Glasson headlined a town hall sponsored by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement PAC Thursday night in Mason City. The ICU nurse and union leader has traveled the state engaging in a series of town halls focused on the concerns of everyday Iowans. Speaking to an audience at the First Congressional UCC in Mason City, Glasson addressed the importance of every Iowan having clean water.
“There’s no urban rural divide on this – every Iowan should be concerned about their water quality and every Iowan should be outraged that factory farms continue to pollute and endanger our communities.” Glasson stated. “These corporate polluters dump toxic waste, chemicals, and fertilizers into our waterways endangering our drinking water and the politicians in the pocket of big agriculture do nothing. Enough is enough.”
Glasson said that as Governor she would support a moratorium on permits for new or expanded factory farms. “We need a governor who isn’t afraid to stand up to corporate agriculture and tell them their days of polluting our rivers and streams are over”. Glasson continued. “We need less factory farms in Iowa, not more, that is why I support a moratorium on new permits for factory farms until fewer than one hundred waterways are polluted in Iowa.”
“I am supporting Cathy because she isn’t afraid to call out the major problems in our state” said Mason City resident Johnny Wilder. “She has a strong economic message and won’t be afraid to take on the big money interests controlling Iowa politics and polluting Iowa’s water.
“There’s no urban rural divide on this – every Iowan should be concerned about their water quality & every Iowan should be outraged that factory farms continue to pollute and endanger our communities.”
Cathy Glasson, 59, is the President of SEW Local 199 representing thousands of nurses, health care workers and school support employees across Iowa. She is a registered nurse who worked in the intensive care unit at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where she led the effort to unionize her fellow nurses 18 years ago. She lives in Coralville, Iowa with her husband Matt, a labor educator.
