Cindy Golding is a dedicated wife, mother of six, and grandmother of 21 perfect grandchildren. She and her husband Joe have also been “Mom” and “Dad” to nine foreign-exchange students and numerous other teens working through life challenges.
Education
Cindy knows that education is not a one-size-fits-all solution. For example, some students should go to college, some should go to a trade school or receive union training, and some should learn on the job. Bigger is not better. Children learn best in their own communities and Cindy supports small community schools such as those that her daughters graduated from.
Being alert to nature provides a ton of learning opportunities. Here Cindy uses the internet to help three of her grandchildren learn about feathers, goose anatomy, and how our founding fathers used quill pens to write our Constitution.
Economic Health
Great jobs for Iowans result from successful businesses and farms. Government’s role is to level the playing field, protect the environment, and then get out of the way and watch the magic happen.
Cindy grew up working in her family’s business of making gym mats. Following her parents’ example, she has started several successful businesses and provided employment to scores of Iowans.
Cindy, her husband Joe, and son Ben at a trade show for Advancement Resources, one of the companies Cindy co-founded. It has grown into a global provider of training and consulting services.
Simultaneously, Cindy owns and operates several farms, including her Sweet Maple Farms brand that produces premium Iowa maple syrup and grass horse hay.
Video of Sweet Maple Farms maple syrup production
The derecho destroyed several acres of Cindy’s “sugarbush.” Here she is pushing tree tops into the fire. Note the large logs in the background that will be sawed for spalted hard maple lumber then turned into furniture on the farm.
Cindy and her daughter Lynnea cutting away damage from the derecho. All the Golding children learned how to handle equipment safely, drive tractors, fix plumbing, and build. They became engineers, business owners, and great adults.
Family Values
Cindy and Joe have six children and 21 grandchildren. Their children grew up working on the farms and in the businesses. The family attended church services together each week and the kids were active in youth groups. The Golding family values working together and playing together. A family reunion of kids, spouses, and grandchildren is a loud and boisterous affair and generally includes water sports.
Four of Cindy’s grandchildren cool off in the farm pond.
Landowner Rights
Cindy is a staunch defender of landowner rights and has been active in several issues where government overreach has threatened property owners. In particular, she has been frustrated where eminent domain has been utilized for projects that clearly benefited big wigs of international corporations and their stockholders, but not the public good as was originally intended.
“Landowner rights” does not mean that landowners can do things that harm their neighbors. The state has the responsibility to ensure that projects on one tract do not cause harm to other landowners.
Rural vs Urban
Cindy has served on the Linn County Farm Bureau for over 22 years and has been an extremely active proponent of agricultural and rural issues to the state legislature. Cindy led a group fighting against aggressive involuntary annexation of huge swaths of rural land, taking this action all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court (where they won!). Cindy will continue to fight to ensure rural-urban cooperation as opposed to urban dominance.
Small Town and Rural Economic Health
Small towns are essential for the economic health of rural Iowa. That’s where we in rural Linn County find community, support civic clubs, educate our children, and celebrate graduations. Cindy will support rural economic health and local schools in the State House.