Newsmakers - As seen by Herb Hake
Cartoon #5 Published 9-8-1976
Les Santee

“We need a rest from state government now and then.” So says Leslie C. Santee, who has been politically oriented from the day of his birth. His grandfather, who built the house at 703 Walnut where Les was born, voted for Abraham Lincoln, when Abe was running for Congress as a Whig. Later, when Grandfather moved to Iowa, he helped to organize the Republican Party. The GOP line has been unbroken ever since.
Leslie’s father, Charles B. Santee, served three terms in the legislature and wrote the first Primary Road law in the state of Iowa. Les went to Des Moines in 1955 and served two terms in the House, the second as Chairman of the Insurance Committee. In those days, the Iowa General Assembly only met every other year, and there was time for a legislator to engage in other business besides law-making.
In the case of the Santee family, the business was Real Estate. The office opened by C. B. Santee in 1890 was located on the corner now occupied by Baird and Fink. As a boy, Les had ambitions to become a mining engineer. After a year at the Colorado School of Mines, he transferred to Iowa State, but left college in his senior year to join his father in selling real estate.

Father and son handled both urban and rural properties. During the Depression years, many farms were for sale, and Les sold “quite a lot of Iowa land.” He also raised 7,000 turkeys per year on a farm near Janesville. When he was elected to the legislature, he sold his turkey farm.