ROGERS — Jana Della Rosa, a former account manager to Walmart for a $2.6 billion consumer products company, has decided to be a stay-at-home mom — and candidate for state lawmaker.
Della Rosa, 36, is also an engineer. She graduated with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas in 2000 “and there were no jobs in that field here,” she said. “Too many people have to choose between moving for a job and staying the place you love, and I want to minimize that. I want more job opportunities here. I know you can’t cover every single field that exists in any one area, but there should be more options.”
Della Rosa announced Tuesday for the state House District 90 seat held by Rep. Les “Skip” Carnine, R-Rogers. Carnine is ineligible for re-election to the House because of the state constitution’s limit on House terms. Della Rosa and her husband, Russell, are lifelong residents of Northwest Arkansas. Russell Della Rosa is from Tontitown and the candidate grew up on Springdale. Both moved to Rogers seven years ago, she said.
Last year, Della Rosa left her 10-year career at the Church and Dwight Co. She worked at the New Jersey-based firm’s Bentonville office. Della Rosa started there as an entry-level sales analyst and rose to the national account manager position for the company, representing the firm and its products to Walmart. Church and Dwight is best known for its Arm & Hammer line of products. Other product lines include Nair, Oxi Clean and Orajel.
Della Rosa left her career “because it was my turn. My husband stayed at home with our first child,” she said. “When our second child was born, I said it was my turn. I called dibs.”
Education, lowering the tax burden on families, job creation and economic growth would be her main priorities if elected, Della Rosa said. She isn't interested in cutting back money for public education but believes public schools could be allowed to do more with what they have. Too much time and effort is spent “teaching to the tests,” she said. “I’m a parent. I’ve seen paperwork on my child when he was in public school that was that thick,” holding a two-inch gap between her fingers. Her oldest child now attends Montessori School in Rogers.
The candidate became active in politics after the birth of the couple’s first child, now 7 years. She didn't run for office but became active in Conservative Arkansas, a nonprofit group organized to hold elected Republican officials accountable to conservative positions after their election.
“You have a whole different viewpoint on things when your viewpoint is for your child, what kind of country he’s going to live in, rather than yourself,” Della Rosa said.
The Republican took the majority in the Legislature for the first time in the 2012 election. The majority’s decision to support the “private option” plan to subsidize private insurance for lower-income Arkansans is a divisive issue among conservatives. If she had been in the Legislature, she probably would have voted for it, she said.
“Our representative were between a rock and a hard place,” Della Rosa said. “The (federal) health care law was passed and was going to be implemented. They had to do something or the federal government was going to do it. We were left with a truckload of lemons and had to do something with it.”
“No one was getting out of that decision with everybody happy,” she said.