Iowa City thoracic and vascular surgeon Christopher Peters will run as a Libertarian candidate for an Iowa Senate seat covering parts of Johnson and Linn Counties, though he doesn’t intend to win.
He will go up against Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Iowa City, who has been in the Iowa Senate for five terms.
“If I actually end up winning, that would be lovely,” said Peters, the owner of Iowa City Thoracic and Vascular surgery clinic, 540 E. Jefferson St.
The Lawrence, Kan., native, who graduated from the University of Kansas and served as an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps for nine years, is a father of three boys and husband to Julie Peters, a native of Whittemore, Iowa.
He said the most important issue he wants to address in his candidacy is the amount of private and public debt in both Iowa and the United States as a whole — which amounts to $13 trillion.
“It’s just a monstrous amount of debt,” he said. “It’s unlike anything we’ve seen in this country.”
Tolerance of other people’s rights is another issue he plans to address.
“The proper role of government is not to legislate morality except where [it’s] in violation of another’s rights,” he said, using gay marriage as an example.
Peters also plans to express his ideals for limited government and state sovereignty, solving problems locally rather than using help from the federal government.
“I can definitely see the problems with our current system,” he said.
While he may not plan on winning, Peters said he plans to use his candidacy as a platform to discuss these issues.
“You get a little bit more of a public view,” he said.
However, his opponent, Dvorsky, said these elections usually don’t get a lot of publicity, unless it’s a competitive race.
“There just normally isn’t a lot of information out there,” said Dvorsky, who graduated from the University of Iowa.
Peters said he believes the issues he plans to address have not been focused on by other candidates.
“Neither of these major parties are serving us well,” he said. “Their main goal is not long-term things like this. They want to get elected.”
Because he has no previous experience in the Senate, he said, he doesn’t have a position at stake.
“If the goal is actually winning, then I think you have to spend a whole lot more,” he said.
Douglas Dion, a UI associate professor of political science, wrote in an e-mail the campaign’s lack of a Republican candidate would help reduce the disadvantages for Peters. Though, he said, it would be interesting having a third party in the two-party dominated Iowa Senate.
“It should be an interesting campaign,” he wrote. “Having a Libertarian candidate going up against an appropriations chairman should lead to some interesting debate, not to mention some fireworks.”