The Itat Quarterly

I am the Treasurer of Story County and am currently the President of the Iowa State County Treasurers Association (ISCTA). Story is at the crossroads of I-35 and Highway 30, and is home to Iowa State University, but our county seat is actually Nevada (Nuh VAY duh!) not Ames. Here is a bit about me and how I ended up being Treasurer of the best county in Iowa!

I have been married to my wife, Amanda, for 17 years. We have an 11-year-old daughter, Miriam, a 5-year-old English Setter, Jude, and a 6-month-old holy terror of an orange kitten, named Blaze. We live in rural Story County in a house we built in my parents’ pasture. Most of my time outside of the office is spent coaching my daughter in various sports, helping on the family farm, bicycling, traveling, and watering the little trees I am desperately trying to turn into a wind break.

My route to Treasurer begins with being born and raised in eastern Story County on our family farm outside of Colo. Both my mother and father’s families have lived and farmed in Story County for generations. My grandparents and parents were extremely involved in their small communities of McCallsburg and Colo. My Grandpa Forrest was School Board President for years, and my Grandpa Clayton served as the mayor of Colo for six terms, helping foster my political involvement at a young age.

My family took helping people, being involved, and education seriously. I went to Colo-NESCO and took that to heart as I participated in nearly every extra-curricular activity they had (plays, swing choir, FFA, student government, all the sports, and lots of others). I went on to Simpson College where I foolishly tried to be a football star, until I injured my knee a couple of times and was involved in all sorts of intramural activities and student organizations. I got my BA in History and Political Science and followed that up with a Master of Public Administration from Drake.

One of the biggest reasons I ran for County Treasurer was to contribute to, and be involved, in my community, as I was commuting 45 miles one-way every day to downtown Des Moines. In my Grandpa Clayton’s last few months of life, he told me it made him sad that I was driving my talent to some company in Des Moines every day when we could use good people here. His comments really stuck with me.

I do not know if he mentioned that to the Story County Democratic Party, but they remembered me helping my grandpa put up signs as a kid and walking in parades and were keen to help me find a purpose here closer to home. In politics, timing is everything and after dealing with a newborn in 2014 and going through chemo in 2016 (all clear!), an opportunity to run took shape in 2018. I studied the Treasurer position, and it lined up very well with my background, education, experience, and skillset.

I love serving as the Story County Treasurer. My favorite part of the job is helping people and helping the community that I live in thrive. I also just really enjoy meeting and interacting with the folks that come into our building every day. The hardest part of being closed for six months for Covid was missing out on direct contact with our public as I really enjoy those everyday interactions.

I love our ISCTA group. In my 6 years as Treasurer, I served as Legislative Liaison for two years before running for the ISCTA Executive Board. We have an incredible group that is so supportive and helpful and is also a lot of fun to get together with! I will readily admit that even as President now, I probably do not know the answer to most questions, but I am very good at knowing who will have the answer for those questions. That is what makes our group so special, we all bring our own talents, skills and knowledge to the group and are so ready to share those gifts with others and help our fellow Treasurers. I love serving as Story County Treasurer and it has been so much fun and a real honor to serve as ISCTA President.

Ted Rasmusson, Story County Treasurer