ADEL, Iowa — After two decades on the Dallas County Board of Supervisors, Republican Mark Hanson of Waukee is making a bid for the statehouse by challenging two-term Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, a West Des Moines Democrat, for the Iowa Senate District 14 seat, which includes Adel, Waukee, Van Meter and the Dallas County portions of Clive and West Des Moines.
“It has been an honor to help lead Dallas County through such an extraordinary period of growth,” Hanson said Thursday as he filed nomination papers in the office of the Iowa Secretary of State. “I am running for the Iowa Senate to take the same principles that put Dallas County in a position to succeed, provide citizens with excellent services and quality of life and apply them to state government.”
Hanson, a native of Rosemount, Minnesota, was elected to the Dallas County Board of Supervisors in 2004. He touts numerous accomplishments during his tenure, including the annual decrease in the county property tax rate and the construction of the Dallas County Law Enforcement Center, which brought to the sheriff’s office “the facilities and resources necessary to protect the residents of the fast-growing county,” he said in a statement.
Hanson noted he was also instrumental in developing the new Dallas County Administration Building, currently under construction on the square in Adel and set to open this fall to serve the rapidly growing county population.
Hanson said he has been a lifelong advocate of parks, health and recreation, and so he strongly supported the completion of several quality-of-life amenities in Dallas County, including the Raccoon River Valley Trail North Loop and the High Trestle Trail connection to Perry.
“Citizens can expect a commonsense approach to growth, economic and quality of life opportunities, as well as a proponent of public safety in the Iowa Senate,” Hanson said. “I look forward to listening to voters and sharing my ideas for how to keep our communities vibrant and safe and ensuring Iowa schools are the best in the country.”
Hanson and his wife, Tamera, moved their young family to Dallas County in 2000. Hanson formerly worked as a legislative liaison and was for four years the vice president of membership for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry. He was the executive director of the Iowa Association of Area Agencies on Aging from 2005-2017. His two adult children are both graduates of Waukee High School.
Mark,
As a county supervisor, you handed Tyson nearly $600,000 in tax breaks and let them keep them even after they didn’t do what they said they’d do (and even the state pulled back the tax break for their contractual breach).
Today the same company laid off 1,200 people in Perry, and the community is devastated again.
Are you man enough to admit you messed up here and stole taxpayer money to give to a billion-dollar corporation that ultimately screwed over the constituents you want to vote for you?
(Anyone who runs into Mark out and about, feel free to ask him.)