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Storm Lake Times Endorses Mike Blouin
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Race
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| Contributor | COSDem |
| Last Edited | COSDem May 29, 2006 05:16pm |
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| Category | Endorsement |
| News Date | Monday, May 29, 2006 11:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Anyone who reads this page knows we are great fans of Mike Blouin, Democratic candidate for governor in the June 6 primary. A few years ago we asked for his help in developing Project Awaysis when he was director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. He immediately ordered up a planning grant that brought the project to life. We found him to be a man of his word who delivers on his promises, and that counts for a lot with us.
That Blouin has been a friend to Storm Lake and Buena Vista County is good enough for us. Of course, much more is at stake in the governor’s race this fall. We think Blouin is the candidate in the best position to help this state turn the corner into an era of prosperity and rural revitalization the likes of which none of us has witnessed.
Iowa has been languishing for more than 20 years as farming operations have consolidated and manufacturing jobs have been lost at an alarming rate. Now, a sense of hope is in the air as the promise of an economy built around agriculture, food, fuel and biotechnology is just starting to take hold. As we have oft said, and repeated Wednesday, the key lies in research at our great state universities — especially at Iowa State University — and transferring that knowledge into productive applications in the marketplace. We can make fuel from corn stalks, plastics from polymers derived from starches, and cures for diseases from livestock embryos. The implications are enormous for rural Iowa.
Nobody appreciates this fact more than Blouin. He is the one who set the agenda as the chief economic development agent for Gov. Tom Vilsack. Blouin is the one who commissioned the Battelle Institute to identify Iowa’s key strengths in the biotech sector. (It found that Iowa indeed has structural advantages, given the right investment in public and private research.) He is the architect of the Iowa Values Fund, which has launched new ventures and new jobs all across the state (including a gra |
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