U.S. Senate candidate visits Decorah

Yes, the U.S. Senate election in Iowa is in November of 2016--18 months away.  But it's a fact of politics that a campaign for office now is longer than it used to be.

That's what brought Democrat Bob Krause to Decorah on Saturday.  Krause is a former state legislator in the 1980s who then worked for the Iowa DOT as district planner for a large part of eastern Iowa for 15 years.  He now works in Des Moines for a defense contractor, after spending a few years overseas in Dubai.

On Saturday Krause met with local Democrats at Java John's in Decorah. 
He left the Iowa DOT in early 2008 to advise the government of Dubai, United Arab

Krause said the key issue in the 2016 US Senate race is stagnant and low wages and that many other national problems cannot be resolved without acting on this. He promised to work to raise the national $7.25 per hour minimum wage, which is the current pay for 300,000 Iowans. Of these 300,000 workers, 70 percent are women.  Krause pointed out that incumbent U.S. Senator Charles Grassley has opposed an increase in the federal minimum wage.

After the discussion, Krause and his wife Vicky toured the Winneshiek Farmers Market.