Former Iowa Congressman and University of Iowa (UI) supporter Jim Leach passed away Wednesday, Dec. 11. He was 82.
Mr. Leach served in Congress from 1977 to 2007 and championed academic research, supporting science and humanities programs that resulted in more than a half-billion dollars of peer-reviewed competitive grants to the UI. He chaired numerous committees during his career.
Representing eastern Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives for three decades, Mr. Leach eventually served as a faculty member in the College of Law and as interim director of the Stanley Museum of Art.
After his time in elected office, he accepted teaching positions at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. He then served four years as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities before returning to Iowa to accept a three-year dual appointment as the UI chair of public affairs and visiting professor of law.
Mr. Leach served as the interim director of the UI Museum of Art from January 2017 to April 2018, during which time the museum was renamed as the Stanley Museum of Art.
Read more about Mr. Leach’s career and impact here.
In 2017, Mr. Leach was a speaker at the Corridor Business Journal’s 90 Ideas in 90 Minutes event, which featured nine local leaders who were each asked to share 10 of their best ideas for improvement in economic development, entrepreneurship, self-development or other topics that mean the most to them.
Mr. Leach chose to title his ideas “Ten ways to right the ship of state.” To honor his memory, we have revisited Mr. Leach’s ideas, as they were shared with us nearly eight years ago.
Ten ways to right the ship of state
By Jim Leach
Voters must insist that candidates for public office recognize that:
- The oath of office that elected officials are required to take is not a party unity pledge. It is a moral and legal commitment to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
- Process is our most important product. How politics is practiced is often more important than the nature of the policies that unfold.
- If elected, he or she will be a representative of the public at large, not simply those who may have voted for or financially supported him or her.
- If all men and women are created equal, it follows that all views deserve to be respectfully listened to and considered in the making of public policy.
- The national interest must always trump local or interest group concerns.
- The practice of religion must be protected as an individual right, but religious tenets of singular faiths should never be legislated in such a way as to bind people who adhere to other faith or ethical tenets.
- The courts and legislatures should reconsider recent campaign finance rulings and recognize that corporatism is not democracy. Mega campaign contributions have no legitimate role in American elections.
- Polarization is not the American way. Politicians should respect their opponents. They are rivals, not enemies.
- Civility matters. We are all connected and rely on each other.
- A hate-free nation must be a common goal.
