Sand and Lahn split on culture wars, mental health care and school funding in final governor debate

REAL DUBUQUE NEWS (RDN) CEDAR RAPIDS: Democrat Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn met Tuesday night for the third and final debate in Iowa's open governor's race, a 90-minute event hosted by KCRG-TV9 and The Gazette in Cedar Rapids. KCRG anchor Beth Malicki and Gazette political reporter Erin Murphy moderated. The debate came exactly one week before Election Day on Nov. 3. A Real Clear Politics rolling average cited by the Des Moines Register put Sand ahead of Lahn by about 6 percentage points. On culture war issues, the two presented sharply different visions. Lahn, who has framed much of his campaign around restoring Iowa's culture, said fighting on the culture side is, in his words, an absolute issue to fight on, 100 percent. He said Western culture has come under attack, pointing to business, government, the church and the family. Sand has vowed to veto culture war bills that reach his desk. Asked for examples, he pointed to Iowa's six-week abortion ban, calling it incredibly restrictive, and said he would veto going further. On mental health access, both candidates were asked how they would improve access to inpatient psychiatric beds. Sand spoke about his own family's struggle to find a bed for someone in need, and said one way to improve access is to reverse the privatization of Iowa's Medicaid program while keeping a managed-care format. He said too many Iowans are being denied services and clinics are closing because they cannot keep up, adding that the companies are just looking for ways to say no. Lahn said he would keep Medicaid privatization but increase oversight, saying the private sector can handle these things better than the government can, but the government has a very distinct role to play in oversight and being the watchdog of these organizations. He also said Iowa needs to open mental health facilities and figure out how to allocate scarce resources. On Education Savings Accounts, Lahn said private schools should be able to turn away students who are not the right fit for the program they designed, calling the ESA program a foundational freedom and saying the state should continue to fund it without limits. Sand disagreed, saying private schools that are taking public money should have to take whichever students say they want to attend there. He said he would advocate for income limits on the program, noting that any Iowa family can currently qualify regardless of income. The pair previously debated on Oct. 6 and Oct. 14. A debate scheduled for Oct. 21 was called off after Sand withdrew following the Oct. 15 death of his brother-in-law, Walter Lauridsen II.