Letter to the Editor: Franken best choice for U.S. Senate nominee

By J. R. Ackley, Marble Rock

I have never seen a candidate more qualified for senator than Admiral Mike Franken. His education is first rate, with degrees in engineering and physics, but his experience and character are his best assets.

He has commanded ships, and squadrons of ships, and deployments of combined forces in Africa. He was the first military advisor on Ted Kennedy’s staff, and the first commander of the USS Winston Churchill.

His abilities are many and varied. He has negotiated treaties, prepared budgets and conducted diplomacy. From leading 4,000 military in Africa, and combating pirates and the Ebola virus, to navigating the Defense Department in Washington, he has shown he is able to “get ‘er done.”

He comes from Iowa, from Lebanon, a town that makes my hometown of Marble Rock look big. He worked in a hog plant and a machine shop before going to the military, and he is still rooted in rural Iowa.

He has come home to show Joni Ernst that it takes more than making a pig squeal to be a senator from Iowa. Mike Franken has what it takes to stand up for Iowa in Washington.