Nicholas Gluba is “very confident” that he and other Libertarian candidates will make it onto election ballots this fall, he told reporters after making his case for governor at the Iowa State Fair.
The Libertarian gubernatorial candidate took to the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox stage Thursday afternoon to speak with fairgoers about his priorities should he be elected as the state’s leader, including restoring election integrity, overhauling property tax policy, ending eminent domain and improving the quality of both Iowa education and water.
Gluba is running with lieutenant governor candidate Charles Aldrich. They were selected Aug. 12 by the Libertarian Party after the State Objections Panel ruled in June that Gluba and previous running mate Jules Cutler were not qualified after Cutler failed to submit an affidavit of candidacy in time.
However, according to a petition Gluba and fellow Libertarians filed in Polk County District Court on Wednesday, Pate refused to accept the convention certificates to place Gluba, Aldrich and congressional candidate Jacob Heard on the ballot. The “petition for writ of mandamus” states the filers are seeking to have Pate accept and process the Libertarian candidate filings, certify them as nominees and place them on ballots. A hearing for the case is set for Aug. 21.
Gluba said he and party leadership are confident they’ll prevail. He said the fact that the fight to get on the ballot is still ongoing shows him that “one party, who may or may not currently control the state of Iowa,” is scared and is doing all it can to keep Libertarians out.
“They’re afraid. It’s legitimately a fear issue, you know,” Gluba said. “They know that they don’t have the most popular candidate, and they’re worried about losing control of the state because they’ve had control of the state for so long.”
The Libertarian Party’s issues with entering into Iowa elections need to be faced head-on by ensuring election integrity and “allowing the candidates that want to run and by allowing the people that want to vote for those candidates to have that choice,” Gluba said.
Despite receiving 8,300 nominating petitions for his campaign for governor, Gluba said the Secretary of State’s Office disregarded those Iowans’ ability to choose in removing him. The Secretary of State’s Office has not yet responded to the latest petition.
“We have a party that is actively suppressing Iowa’s ability to choose,” Gluba said. “What we need to do is suppress their ability to suppress us.”
Gluba turned to existing, proposed and enacted, policies in Iowa and other states in how to triumph over some of Iowa’s most pressing problems, he said, like eminent domain abuse and worsening water quality.
Minnesota and Wisconsin have both passed “water clarity acts” that Gluba said he pulled from in crafting his own policy for Iowa, which would include expanding fines for parties illegally dumping in Iowa water and placing restrictions on how close pesticides and other products can be used in relation to moving waterways. As “pesticides are necessary” in farming he said spraying fields won’t stop, but it shouldn’t be done next to open, non-private waterways.
When it comes to eminent domain, Gluba said he would bring back legislation written by fellow Libertarian candidate Thomas Laehn in 2025, which saw approval in the Iowa House and Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Kim Reynolds. Gluba said he would be “the governor that says yes” if it makes it through both chambers again.
“We will end eminent domain abuse in the state of Iowa. We will end it now, and we will end it permanently.”
Gluba also wants to change property tax policy in the state to have it based on the last fair-sale purchase price of the property or land rather than relying on what price county assessors place on them.
After buying his home for $180,000, Gluba said the county assessor assessed the property at $230,000 despite buyer and seller agreement on its worth, and then raised it later to $250,000. This means he’s “paying taxes on a $250,000 assessment for a house that (he) could never possibly sell for that amount.”
While Gluba said it might seem strange for a Libertarian to advocate for continuing property tax collection, he recognizes the reality that Iowa needs that line of funding for things like education, which he hopes to bring back to the highest quality in the state by simply asking teachers what they need and providing it for them.
“Property taxes are inherently immoral, and we should get rid of them, but this is Iowa. We don’t have the ability to right now,” Gluba said. “We do still have to fund some things, so we have to have some property taxes, but what we can do is make that system logical.”
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