Abdul-Samad gets weak nod

Abdul-Samad gets weak nod
REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
October 27, 2006

(snip)Sometimes none of the candidates in a race seems to deserve election, and that's the case this year in House District 66, in the heart of Des Moines.

But voters have to make a choice, so we will, too: We recommend Ako Abdul-Samad, a Des Moines school board member and founder and CEO of Creative Visions, a nonprofit social-services agency. The seat is open because of Ed Fallon's unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

It's hard, though, to have confidence that Abdul-Samad, a Democrat, will be a watchdog for the public's interests. Abdul-Samad resigned from the board of the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium this spring after a state audit exposed excessive salaries. A federal investigation is under way. Perhaps even more stunning, it was revealed that CIETC had shorted his own agency nearly $180,000, yet Abdul-Samad was unaware of it.

The problem is the three other candidates seeking the seat seem to know little about the issues, especially education.(/snip)