Nate Willems says he wants to be the people's attorney, not an attorney for Iowa's biggest corporations, as he runs for Iowa attorney general.
Willems, a Democratic Mount Vernon labor lawyer and former legislator, is running as a Democrat against Republican incumbent Brenna Bird. He addressed supporters from the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair.
Here's what he said on Friday, Aug. 21:
Willems' law practice focuses on wage theft and other labor issues, and he's made that a centerpiece of his campaign, promising to open a wage theft enforcement division if elected as attorney general.
On the stage, he said wage theft costs Iowans $900 million per year, and Bird's office "does nothing about it and is never going do anything about it."
"Over the last 18 years, I've represented tens of thousands of Iowans and recovered tens of millions of dollars," he said. "But the truth is, a lot of the work that I've been doing is work that the attorney general's office could be doing, but does not."
Willems also accused Bird of going easy on big companies who violate air and water polution rules, saying she imposed minimal penalties on a Postville meatpacking plant that repeatedly polluted waterways and cooperative responsible for a massive fertilizer spill.
He particularly criticized her lack of action against a Shell Rock ethanol plant found to have discharged...
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