The environmental politics class at Simpson noticed the lack of information about environmental issues available about the candidates for the governor’s race in Iowa, so they decided to do something about it.

The class, offered at Simpson as POSC 370 Environmental Politics, is made of most environmental science majors but includes many political science majors as well. Because of this, the voter’s guide also includes information about how the candidates are funding their campaigns.

The goal is to help educate communities, including Simpson, on issues that may not get much attention otherwise,” Kedron Bardwell, assistant professor of political science, said about his class. “It was not on the syllabus for this class. We wanted to do something practical, sort of a citizens education project. We chopped two weeks of reading, and pushed them back. We spent the time talking about the project and gathering the data.”

The ethanol issue seems to be taking the forefront of most of the debates, leaving many of the other environmental issues by the wayside.

“The Web sites for the candidates are vague on these issues so for this other information, like the environmental first fund, soil and land conservation funds,” Bardwell said. “You really couldn’t figure out what the differences between the candidates were on these other issues besides ethanol.”

To view the voter’s guide just click on the link below.