Gary Worthan (born January 11, 1954) is the Iowa State Representative from the 11th District. He has served in the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

since 2007, having won a December 13, 2006 special election to replace the deceased Mary Lou Freeman, who had run unopposed in the general election. Smith was born and lives in

Storm Lake, Iowa Storm Lake is a city in Buena Vista County, Iowa, United States. The population was 11,269 in the 2020 census, an increase from 10,076 in the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Buena Vista County. Storm Lake is home to Buena Vista Universit ...

. He has an A.A. in farm operations from

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

. , Worthan serves on several committees in the Iowa House – the Appropriations committee, the Judiciary committee, the Public Safety committee, and the Veterans Affairs committee. He also serves as chair of the Justice System Appropriations Subcommittee. In 2018, he was instrumental in killing a pilot program that aimed to limit the number of people awaiting trial in jail because they cannot afford bail. Worthan was chairman of the subcommittee that oversaw the judicial budget; the editorial board of the ''

Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junctio ...

'', which called the pilot program a "worthwhile experiment in criminal justice reform" criticized Worthan for scrapping the program only weeks before the end of a legislative session ("a time-honored method for legislators and lobbyists to try to slip provisions into law with little notice or public scrutiny"), and the lawmakers for protecting "special interests". On August 30, 2019 CNN reported that Josh Lederman , a co owner of Lederman Bail Bonds, had made significant donations to Worthan's Campaign, alongside donations to other Iowa Republicans. In April 2019, Worthan proposed legislation that would curtail the powers of the Iowa Attorney General to limit the office's ability to take part in lawsuits. Tom Miller, the Democratic Attorney General, had joined six lawsuits against Trump administration policies, such as the family separation policy.

Electoral history

References

External links

Representative Gary Worthan
''official Iowa General Assembly site'' *
Financial information (state office)
at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
Profile
at ''Iowa House Republicans'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Worthan, Gary 1954 births Iowa State University alumni Republican Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives Living people People from Storm Lake, Iowa 21st-century American politicians