Several state-level and county-level candidates brought their campaigns to Perry Wednesday evening with a meet-and-greet at the home of Perry Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh and Carol Cavanaugh, where about 50 people gathered for refreshments and conversation.
Meggan Guns of West Des Moines, a candidate for Dallas County Attorney, was joined by two candidates seeking seats in the Iowa Legislature, Margaret Liston of Ogden and Joseph Shelly of Perry.
Guns, a native of Dubuque, earned a bachelor’s degree from Loras College and an MBA and JD from Drake University. She worked under Dallas County Attorney Wayne Reisetter from 2010 to 2017 and then took a position in the Polk County Attorney’s Drug and Gang Unit.
Guns now works in that office’s major offense bureau, specializing in prosecuting homicides, sex offenses, crimes against children and other felonies. She is particularly active in groups aiming to protect victims from child neglect and human trafficking.
“For this position, it is important to elect someone who can separate him or herself from politics and to do what not might always be popular,” said AnneMarie McDevitt of Perry, a local attorney who introduced Guns. “Meggan has the experience, the temperament, the character, the compassion for a county attorney for our very-much-growing county.”
Guns outlined a series of issues that have motivated her campaign, such as her goal of starting a drug and mental health court for nonviolent offenders in Dallas County, and she characterized herself as a prosecutor and not a politician.
She noted that some candidates for county attorney have openly declared an unwillingness to enforce some recently passed laws, such as Iowa’s abortion laws or immigration laws.
“We do take an oath as a county attorney to upload every single law that is put in place,” Guns said. “That’s why it is so important to have people like Margaret and Joe and people under the gold dome who are putting laws in place that we can be comfortable enforcing, and we don’t have to try to enforce laws that are unethical or unconstitutional.”
Guns expertise is such that she trains county attorneys at statewide conferences in sex crimes, human trafficking and “persistent child abuse,” such as the sad case of Sabrina Ray of Perry.
In an exception to their usual practice, the Dallas County Bar Association recently endorsed Guns for Dallas County Attorney. She has also been endorsed by former Dallas County Treasurer and county Republican stalwart Mitch Hambleton of Dallas Center.
Guns’ Republican opponent is Madison County Attorney Matt Schultz, who served one term as Iowa Secretary of State in the 2010s and spent about $250,000 in pursuing imaginary election fraudsters before he was drummed out of office. Iowa’s rightward turn toward MAGA anti-immigration now offers a more inviting climate for Schultz’s brand of politics.
Joseph Shelly is a Las Vegas native. He is serving his first term on the Perry City Council and is a member of the Dallas County Hospital Board of Trustees. Shelly is a semi-retired pipefitter who still gets calls from across the country on jobs requiring the most expertise.
The only thing Shelly is prouder of than his pipefitter’s union card is his son Omar Shelly, a successful symphony musician with the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra. He is challenging two-term Rep. Carter Nordman, a Republican from of Panora and one of the youngest lawmakers in the U.S.
“I’ve got work boots older than Mr. Nordman,” Shelly said, to the general amusement of the audience. “I know what it’s like to work a seven-day shift, 12 hours a day and build your nest egg and do some things. This is where I want to take that experience and go to the statehouse. I know how to get behind a team and work with people.”
Shelly said he opposed Nordman’s votes in support of school vouchers, local deportations and the fetal heartbeat bill, all measures passed in the current session of the Iowa Legislature. Nordman also led the effort to bring firearms into the public schools in the wake of the January shooting at Perry High School.
Margaret Liston is a five-term Ogden City Council member. Policy-wise, the Perry native is looking to fully fund Iowa’s public schools and vocational programs and stop their downward trend, to defend Iowans’ rights to make their own healthcare decisions, to stop eminent domain abuse and to bring new business opportunities to Boone, Greene, Guthrie, Dallas and Story counties.
Liston is running against first-term Sen. Jesse Green, a Boone Republican representing Iowa Senate District 24.
