Oh Really, Mary Lundby?!?
July 27, 2008 11 Comments
Delivered to my door via The (Ames) Tribune: “Party veterans: GOP stresses social issues too much.”
Well, that got my skimming the news down to actually reading an entire article. It was well worth my time.
According to Mary Lundby, former Iowa Senate Republican leader, many GOP voters in Iowa are more worried about the economy and energy prices than they are about social issues including abortion or gay rights.
Lundby also asserts that the state party’s central committee has given a short shrift to other topics in favor of social issues and that could turn off voters. “Voters have got so many other issues on their minds, and when you only coalesce on those (social) issues, you lose those voters in the chatter, and we can’t afford that.” Lundby also states that the central committee has lost touch with the rank-and-file voters and her hopes for Republicans to retake the Iowa House this fall have faded.
News Flash, Mary Lundby: Long before Scheffler and Lehman took on the leadership of the Republican National Committee, you were losing voters like me. I must be a wonder-voter: I am concerned about social issues AND economy and energy prices. I am concerned that people like you have not cared about what I think. So, don’t go about trying to scare people from voting republican. The same article that quotes you also goes on to say that prior to this year religious conservatives comprised around 35-40 percent of Republican caucus turnout, but that polls this year indicated that proportion jumped to around 60 percent. (These stats from Dennis Goldford, professor of politics at Drake University.)
Personally, my hopes for Republicans to retake the Iowa House have not “faded”- they are alive and well as many more people like me are wonder-voters who care about the big picture and are working with time, money, and devotion to an important cause – electing candidates who share our vision about Iowa and America.
Iowa can’t afford more years of the women and men that we elect, thinking they represent our values and concerns, not working to get the job done or voting with disregard to what their constituents want. We demand action and we want it sooner not later. Some have ‘lost touch’ and it is not the large percent of Republican caucus voters and state convention delegates. There was a big message sent- the question is, Mary Lundby, why did you not hear it?
She implies if we lose Republicans, it will be the social conservatives fault.
Good thing Iowa Brigade is searching out the good candidates and armed to help them win. She replaced Stew Iverson a couple years back. I know she is more charged. I hope she will hear from us and others that we are charged for change too!
But most people who bother to read Lundy’s comments will believe her. We have our work cut out for us!
Ms. Lundby fails to realize that the GOP has been losing a lot over the last few election cycles. It isn’t because of the social conservatives. It is because the GOP has failed to stand for anything other than corporate welfare for the last couple of election cycles. When the party fails to uphold its core values whether they are fiscal or social then it loses. It’s base becomes disillusioned. That is why Roberts and Greiner lost. They represented the status quo establishment. If the party had stayed true to its stated beliefs there would not have been the overwhelming support for Scheffler and Lehman. Blaming the social issues is disingenuous.
Mary Lundby endorsed Rudy Gulliani. Need I say more?
And the GOP ousted Stew Iverson to put her in charge, saying Stew’s pro-life and pro-marriage positions were too conservative for them!
I wish we could go back to the conservative leadership Iverson offered!
I don’t understand why the moderates can’t accept the social conservatives rising up. Hey, isn’t it us that laid the foundations of the party?
It’s kind of like being new in politics and not being very wanted- at meetings, conventions, etc.
Conservatives are wanted when it comes in handy- not when we think, unite, and work together as a group.
I could feel it at my caucus site- there was passion for a conservative candidate and that passion is not going to go away just because the Lundby’s of Iowa want us to be quiet and stay in our out of the way places.
Mary Lundy also co-sponsored a proposed ban on so-called “assault weapons,” helping to alienate gun owners from their traditional refuge in the GOP too.
No doubt Mary Lundby is smarting a bit and feeling the turn of the worm. She is retiring and the candidate she supported to take her place was defeated in the primary by pro life Joe Childers. In November he will have popular Democrat Swati Dandekar to overcome—let’s hope Joe wins.
Meanwhile Mary is just going to have to deal with her pain. If she wanted to keep her power in the state senate I don’t understand why she didn’t keep her seat….just a thought…
I read this morning in the D. M Register of Mrs. Lundby’s illness and I am sad.
In the end, no matter what our political views and disagreements, it is family and friends, and faith that gives us comfort in the hard times. It is my prayer that Mary Lundby feels the love of many. I am sure Mrs. Lundby is beloved to many.
Yes, is there any word on Mary Lundby?? And maybe she has been a ill a while and that is why she decided not to keep her seat?
Mary Lundby is to be commended for her dedication as a public official, an endeavor for which I myself do not have the courage or stamina. My prayers for her and her family.