Iowa Defense Alliance

It has been several months since I declared Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats the frontrunner in the battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. A lot has transpired since I penned by thoughts on the race all those many months ago. We have seen Governor Culver continue to fail in leading our state back to prosperity. We have seen the state budget continue to bleed red faster than any other time in recent memory. In the race for the primary we have seen some candidates beginning to rise, while others may have declined. And we have seen a legendary political figure enter the race. With all the recent developments in this race I felt that it was time to provide my own analysis of this race.

As I mentioned above, several months ago I declared that Bob Vander Plaats was the clear frontrunner in the race for the Republican primary. And I still believe that he is the front runner, but things may be changing. Some of Vander Plaats challengers have been rising lately. In particular former House Minority Leader Christopher Rants has been pouring on the steam in his effort to secure the nomination. I would credit Rants’ rise to his efforts to actually explain to the people of Iowa where he would save money in the state budget. Over the last month or so Rants has been very clear in stating that he is going to tell the people of Iowa what they need to here even if it is not what they want to hear. And I believe that this strategy is paying off for Representative Rants.

One of the biggest news stories in recent months is the entry of former Governor Terry Branstad into the race for the Republican Gubernatorial nomination. The only reason that I would include Governor Branstad this high up on the list is due to his name recognition. His early campaign has been run poorly and only recently launched a website. To further castigate his chances at winning the primary Branstad put in a pitiful performance at the most recent RPI fundraiser in Des Moines. The performance was so bad that some of the other candidates could be heard afterward saying they felt sorry for him. The bottom line is that without the name recognition Branstad would be an “also ran”. For his sake I hope that he picks it up a few notches otherwise his legacy will be a shambles.

Also on the rise in recent weeks is Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong. When Fong first announced his intentions to run for office I discounted his campaign as an also ran. I have been however pleasantly surprised with his efforts at this point. There are however several points that would seem to be working against him. One of those is his political contributions to two far left Democrats from the Cedar Rapids area. The other is an apparently poor campaign management. I have been informed of several occasions where the campaign has double booked a specific time only to have to cancel one of them. I think that if he could effectively address both of these issues his campaign could be a contender in June 2010.

Essentially tied with Fong in my opinion is Rod Roberts. Roberts has surprised many people by winning a couple of county straw polls over some of the more well known candidates. He has been fighting the obscurity that comes with little to no name recognition. He is an intelligent, passionate, and well spoken individual that truly believes in his conservative principles. I just don’t know if he will be able to overcome his name recognition deficit.

As I stated earlier I believe that the race is currently closer than ever before. Anyone of these candidates could claim the top spot in a matter of days. However like I stated some of these candidates really need to work on their campaigns and their message to maximize their investment. Of all the candidates I think that Rants has the least amount of work to do. The other candidates should take a good look at his campaign and do their best to emulate it. He is attending every event that he can and working hard to get his message to the people of Iowa. This is definitely a recipe for success. The next 6 months are going to be interesting.