Clayton will address climate crisis if elected

MONTEZUMA — John Clayton entered the race for Poweshiek County Supervisor in August as an Independent.

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Clayton faces Republican Jacki Bolen and incumbent Diana Dawley, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 General Election.

Clayton grew up on a farm outside of Brooklyn, Iowa. “My parents farmed there in Poweshiek County, and they deeply believed about conservation,” Clayton said.

“I’m a person of faith. My faith teaches me to value people and nature.”

“And also I’ve been a longtime public schoolteacher,” Clayton said. He primarily teaching 12th-grade economics, mostly in Texas.

Clayton moved back to Iowa in 2010 because his parents wanted him to assist them, he said. “I took over the management of the farm in 2010.”

Clayton is running for office because of climate change. “There’s a climate crisis, and I have not seen that addressed in previous elections at all,” he said.

Clayton says there’s a slim chance that someone running on climate action will win the election, but he hopes by raising the issue he’ll build a base so the number of voters for climate action will increase.

Other counties and cities in Iowa have hired sustainability directors to initiate climate action, said Clayton. For a small investment, maybe $75,000, Poweshiek County could hire someone to focus on Poweshiek County homeowners who could obtain grants to help them pay for energy audits and solar panels, “so we can become more resilient.”

It’s a small investment with big returns, Clayton said.

Poweshiek County Supervisors have been considering rewriting land use policies to create better rules for how the land is taken care of, said Clayton. Supervisors want to be sure that wind turbines will not be abandoned if a company stops using them.

Clayton would like to have an extensive energy audit performed on county buildings, he said, “so that we’re saving energy dollars as well. And some of those steps can be so simple. There are roofs that we could paint with a high white paint and this would help the albedo effect.”

Albedo describes how much sunlight the earth reflects.

“The earth has these greenhouse gases around it,” said Clayton, “and so that kind of maintains what temperature we are, but we’re losing the reflection through the ice melting. We’re absorbing more of it because of the loss of the ice sheet.”

Opponents argue that fighting climate change is too difficult, said Clayton, that we can’t do “all that stuff.”

“I’m saying not do all that stuff,” said Clayton. But there are small investments that can bring big returns.

County roadsides should be planted with native plants, said Clayton. That will keep water from running off and will allow it to seep into the soil.

It also benefits native wildlife. Counties are responsible to maintain those roadsides for environmental reasons, said Clayton. That’s a directive from the State of Iowa.

Clayton would also like to see the county address its drug problems. The county used to have a drug abuse counselor, he said. He’d ramp up drug abuse counseling.

Because Iowa has passed a six-week abortion ban, Clayton thinks the county should offer a $1,000 travel voucher for women who want to travel out of the state for medical advice so they can pay for that medical care out of state.

“I don’t believe they are able to get sufficient care in Iowa,” said Clayton, “and they have a right to that care.”

(“On the Ballot” is a Hometown Current series profiling candidates in Benton, Iowa and Poweshiek Counties. Articles will run as candidates are interviewed. Candidates who do not respond to requests for interviews will not be included in the series.)