The public notice page of the July 15, 1993, Osceola Sentinel Tribune started off with the minutes of the Clarke County Board of Supervisors’ June 30 meeting. Between a seasonal-employee hire and rejecting bids on care of the courthouse lawn was this resolution:
Kim Reynolds, Deputy in the Auto Department has been appointed 1st Deputy Treasurer at 80 percent of the Treasurer’s salary, to replace Sharon Dunfee who is resigning from the position, effective June 30, 1993.
The rise to top deputy put Reynolds in good position to run for Clarke County treasurer when that officeholder retired after the 1994 midterm elections. She won. And now, after a winding path, she’s the first female governor of Iowa.
Reynolds enters the 2018 technically-not-a-re-election campaign without ever having done a statewide debate, thanks to Ron Corbett concentrating more on sending copies of his book to small-county Farm Bureau officeholders than gathering petition signatures.
That puts nearly all the state/federal action today on the Democrats’ side. The governor’s race got scrambled with a warning against bumping, grinding, and early voting. Now that Republicans have broken the glass ceiling for Iowa at governor, senator, and speaker of the House, there are some who really want a female Democrat to take the 1st or 3rd District. (The EMILY’s List PAC endorsed Abby Finkenauer a year ago.)
(I found the Reynolds item when reading the Murray school board minutes on the same page. The board set up a meeting with Grand Valley on whole-grade sharing. Nothing came of it.)