Secretary of State,   Des Moines Editorial Board

 

There was a time when the job of secretary of state was of so little importance that some state officials suggested doing away with it. The office has since taken on additional, and important, duties overseeing voter registration and setting statewide election standards.

Now the job gets a lot more respect, and it has attracted two strong candidates: Mike Mauro of Des Moines and Mary Ann Hanusa of Council Bluffs. Of the two, however, Mauro has the superior breadth of experience and passion for the job. He has worked hard to earn this position, and he deserves the voters' support.

After Mauro's Republican opponent withdrew unexpectedly this summer, the party scrambled to recruit a replacement. Hanusa, an Iowa native working as director of personal correspondence in the Bush White House, stepped forward.

Hanusa headed to Washington, D.C., following graduate school at the University of Nebraska. She has worked for the National Archives and the Bush I and II administrations and Republican congressional staffs. But she said her goal has always been to return home and to continue her public-service career here.

Hanusa, who resigned her White House job and will be married four days after the election, is a credible candidate, but she suffers from a too-brief exposure to the issues in this campaign and an opponent who is exceptionally well-prepared.

While Iowa's 99 county auditors handle most aspects of elections, the office of secretary of state has played a larger statewide role since 1999, when the office was assigned oversight of the Voter Registration Commission. The office's election role was expanded further following passage of the Help America Vote Act by Congress in 2002. Those responsibilities are likely to grow in importance over time as elections become ever more controversial due to technological change and questions about voter eligibility and accuracy of election results.

As Polk County auditor, Mauro has been the elections chief for the state's largest county for more than 20 years. He has done the job competently, with openness and high ethical standards. Those are standards all Iowans should expect from the next secretary of state. Mauro would meet them.