What Will Be The Major Issues of 2010
- Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 4:30
- Iowa, Top Story
- 1,486 views
- 26 comments
With marriage licenses being issued to gay couples all across Iowa, political pundits and strategists have begun to discuss what the political ramifications will be for candidates in 2010 and beyond. Since the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision on April 3rd, the issue of gay marriage has been front and center in Iowa, and it is expected to remain there for quite some time.
While it is safe to say that gay marriage will be an issue in next year’s elections, the 18 months between now and Election Day represents a lifetime in politics. In the most recent presidential election, Sen. John McCain was able to win the Republican nomination mainly because the surge in Iraq was successful. McCain was the main advocate for the strategy, and thus was rewarded for it.
Unfortunately for McCain, the public wasn’t focused on Iraq in the final months of the campaign. Instead the economy took center stage, and McCain lost his signature issue and the election. Similarly, many congressional candidates were running campaign ads talking about high gas prices in the Summer, but by Fall, the price of a gallon of gas was cut in half. Furthermore, the swine flu outbreak could be a huge factor if it’s an epidemic, or, if it’s contained, it could not be a political issue at all.
Nobody can accurately predict what issues will be paramount so long before an election, but there are two things that will undoubtedly remain as top concerns throughout the 2010 elections: gay marriage and government overspending. Other issues are likely to emerge, but there is nothing that will remove these two issues from the political debate in Iowa.
In regards to gay marriage, the effort to pass a constitutional amendment requires the legislature to pass the amendment in two consecutive general assemblies before the people of Iowa have the opportunity to vote on it. This means that the gay marriage issue will remain alive through the 2010 election and beyond. While passing the marriage amendment will continue to be a top priority, so will electing supporters of traditional marriage to the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate.
It is also safe to assume that the mess that is our state budget will also remain a key issue. This past legislative session, Governor Culver and the Democrats failed to bring the state budget in line with revenues. It is expected that the budget gap for fiscal year 2011 will be $890 million. Making matters worse, Culver and the Democrats also borrowed $765 million to fund various projects.
Democrat strategists warn that Iowa Republicans could overplay the marriage issue by focusing only on that one thing. However, GOP legislators have proven this year that they are more than capable to focusing on more than just one issue. If the only thing Iowans were upset about was the Court’s decision, that criticism would be well placed. But Iowans are equally upset with a legislature and Governor who are out-of-step with them on almost every other issue addressed at the statehouse this year.
Iowa Republicans are well positioned to campaign against Governor Culver and the Democrats. A disciplined campaign that spotlights the Democrats’ out-of-whack budget practices, their $765 million borrowing plan, and their refusal to let the people of Iowa vote on a marriage amendment, will be a deadly combination that Democrats will have to deal with.
About the Author
Craig Robinson has written 700 stories on this site.
Craig Robinson serves as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheIowaRepublican.com. Prior to founding Iowa's largest conservative news site, Robinson served as the Political Director of the Republican Party of Iowa during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. In that capacity, Robinson planned and organized the largest political event in 2007, the Iowa Straw Poll, in Ames, Iowa. Robinson also organized the 2008 Republican caucuses in Iowa, and was later dispatched to Nevada to help with the caucuses there. Robinson cut his teeth in Iowa politics during the 2000 caucus campaign of businessman Steve Forbes and has been involved with most major campaigns in the state since then. His extensive political background and rolodex give him a unique perspective from which to monitor the political pulse of Iowa.
26 Comments on “What Will Be The Major Issues of 2010”
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The GOP needs to keep pounding the drum on the core issues and point out the arrogance of the majority party as much as posssible without over-playing it. 2nd, we need get a game plan and work on the grass-roots level. We got beat last time partly because the other side knew how to be “community organizers” and get out the vote. They had a message and knew how to get it out, we need to take a lesson from that. 3rd, we need to stop the infighting and put a lid on the turd throwers like deace. There is nothing wrong with dissenting opinion, in fact it is healthy at times, but the last thing we need right now is someone supposedly on our side undermining our every move!
When are you going to get it? Deace is not on your side.
Deace is on nobody’s side but his own.
I apologize to everyone who read my previous post…I know Deace had nothing to do with the subject of this article or any of the posts…I must confess I’m actually a little bit crazy
We NEED to focus on our outrageous budget, the lack of timely flood relief from the likes of Loebsack and Boswell, and the disappearing jobs in Iowa.
Want to make sure that Loebsack and Boswell are re-elected? Then make it about Gay marriage. Steve Deace (the man helping get all these Democrats elected) will want you to live and die on that hill. Well, we will all die and lose if we try to be the champion of “traditional marriage”.
Let’s get Loebsack and Boswell out of Washington.
Jeff,
While you make some good points, I do not think it is worth winning just to have lower taxes. I agree that would be nice, but unless our party stands for something, what is the value of winning elections. Money is worthless if my generation continues to slaughter babies and promote deviancy. You can champion all the tax cuts, foreign policy, and small government you want, but I believe as Republicans, we should at a minimum support our Party platform. In case you were wondering, the right to life is the Iowa Republican Party’s first plank, and traditional marriage is another of our core values. Let’s champion the party platform, and die on that hill. It will certainly be a group effort, and bashing Deace will not accomplish that goal.
Timmy’s exactly right in that we got to get a game plan together… That also means we need to focus a great deal on training and preparing our activists for next year. RPI needs to get out to all of our counties..and make sure our county level leaders have the resources needed to train their people in running election campaigns for local candidates..fundraising…and even in election law so that they can take on county auditors who try to tilt the field towards Democrats.
There certainly wont be a lack of volunteers next year..people are fired up..and they’re even going to be more fired up next year when the Democrats will most certainly try to ram federal deductability again, as well as the union bills again.
The Democrats also will likely be looking to raise whatever taxes and fees they possibly can next year as well..because they’re going to be looking down the barrel of a massive deficit..with only two choices..make massive cuts or raise taxes. We all know they wont stomach cuts..so they’ll try to raise taxes. Except they wont have the federal “stimulus” money to bail them out.
We’ve been handed some great issues to run candidates on..we need to put the support structure in place to help them now…
/Well, we will all die and lose if we try to be the champion of “traditional marriage”./
How many times do we have to relinquish our planks before the platform is no longer recognizable?
I have absolutely no interest in getting along with liberals – and I sure don’t want to BECOME one just to win elections!
I did some research, and as it turns out the Democrats are right. The tax code is unfair, and reworking it is the only way to ensure a just society. Not only that, but labor bills actually help working class families, so we should be trying to get them passed if we want to have a thriving middle class.
Lastly, gay marriage is something that future generations will look back on in disgust that anyone ever fought so hard to stop it. I think we need to get on the correct side of history and do what is right — support gay marriage.
I’m sorry for all the previous posts on this site. I was so very wrong.
Ha ha Steve..You’re funny. Have the guts to post under your own name…
Guts! Guts I do have. What I don’t actually have are ideas, but you have to admit that I’m really good at slinging mud and promoting the division between people. Politics as usual right? Isn’t that what Obama said?
Steve..you’re only proving that you can’t be intellectually honest and engage in debate without engaging in hyperbole and utter BS. Its sad..but par for the course for you.
If it were me posting under my name, you’d be right, Mr. Todd. But luckily someone has hijacked this site and started posting under everyone elses name (that wasn’t me posting as you above).
Thinking, think a little harder. LOSING SUCKS!!! What we have now is the result of that. Get it through your heads, we don’t need to abandon our planks but when deace is actually helping the other side, he needs a good bashing!!!
I for one completely believe you Mr. Right. You have never done anything on this site that would betray our absolute confidence in you. Unlike us “right wing nutjobs”, you would win with only class and sophistication. I know you pretty well as a person (as you mentioned Steve Right is your real name), and I know you would never mis-inform the readers here to propogate your own belief system.
Losing does suck, Timmy, I agree. But winning elections with people who are unwilling to advance the party platform disgusts me more. Please explain what winning, in and of itself, accomplishes. Maybe you could ask Stu Iverson how just winning without principle will turn out.
Deace is not the reason we lost the last election, our party abandoning its platform is. No, in general I do not agree with Deace’s tactics and I agree it creates a bad name for the party. He is one of the smartest people I’ve ever heard, but he does not have wisdom. Great, you’ve proven that Deace is a Democratic operative. Unfortunately, you’ve also managed to divide our party. Congratulations, how do you want to proceed in winning elections now?
We can argue about this all day long, but look at the election results. Obama won the election by 4% of the vote. Every Democrat in America wholeheartedly supported him, and he won by 4%. Republicans, however, nominated someone that the party supported, not embraced, and we still almost won. Imagine if you could garner the support of those Christian Conservatives everyone supposedly ignores. Yes, taxes and small government are important, but so are the social issues. I would rather lose elections, than sacrifice my convictions. Losing sucks, but losing principle sucks more Timmy!
First of all, I’m not the one trying to divide the party, I’ve been there for sometime now working for the very conservative priciples you say we have abandoned. Where have you been? If deace wants to promote the conservative cause, then why is it he is basically only attacking CONSERVATIVES??? Think about it!
Leave Deace alone. He is irrelevant to your mission. If your goal is to “work for the very conservative princples” I’m talking about, then how does it help to continually question Deace. Let me make myself very clear, I am not defending or supporting Deace. But regardless of whether you like him or not, he is a voice on the radio. He will continue to stay on the air because 250,000 people all over the state listen to his show every single day.
I’m thrilled that you’ve been here for sometime working, but how are you unifying the party right now? How are you building a coalition to preserve your values right now? And what does winning the next election accomplish if you have lost those values?
I am perfectly okay if you disagree with my opinion, but I believe its crucial to know what you stand for when you are trying to win elections. I am tired of people saying losing elections suck. Of course it does, but how is winning elections going to be any better if we have left all our principles to win those elections?
The friend of my enemy is also my enemy. I don’t have a show from 4:00 to 7:00pm on WHO so I post here. You bet I’m angry when those that have worked so long to at least try to do something get continually dumped on by some neophyte who hasn’t offered anything constructive to the cause! I have and will continue to do my part. Like I said I’m not the one trying to divide us but think very hard, how does spending 3 hrs every afternoon dumping on good people like Paul McKinley, Steve King, etc. actually help?
It doesn’t, but how does posting here about “bad people” unite us or help us?
thinking, I believe what you see right now, is that when people’s pocket books are taking a hit, losing jobs, soldiers are dying, people’s priorites change, and divisive issues like gay marriage, abortion take a back seat with most americans, trying to use those issues to make a “comeback” I believe will be futile. Its the “economy dummy” as I have heard many pundits shout. Focus on the economy and you mind have shot, if you don’t, then looke to 2012.
Silence
Maybe some of you will wake up and realize the damage he is doing!!! Silence actually has a point, the electorate HAS changed but that doesn’t mean we need to give up on those conservative principles either.
One more point about the electorate, it is getting younger, and there is no doubt that younger generations care less about race, gay marriage and related issues, and other social conservative issues. The republican party will have to adjust or find themselves in more in the minority.
Silence
Not sure where you get your demographics Silence, but Iowa has the fourth oldest population in the nation.
That is as of 2003, and I know we are coming up on a new census, but I do not expect us to leave the top 10. We continue to suffer from population drain and we all know we will lose yet another Congressional District the round after.
The gay issue has nothing to do with hip, young, avant garde politics. Nothing to do with liberal agenda. There are states far more liberal than Iowa who have defeated it and where judges could easily rule it in by fiat. Why not California? Why not Illinois?
Because the GOP in those states is dead! Where as certain PTB in the GOP in Iowa are very much alive and doing well. Personally and politically. It is in their selfish interests to make sure that there are enough bogeymen to keep the dollars flowing.
Don’t imagine Iowa as you seek it to be, know it for what it is. It happened here, not there, not for any other factor, than blatant betrayal from within!
The republicans blew it on marriage a few years ago. They could have saved us from having to deal with this at all. Don’t count out the younger generation. My teen-aged daughters and their friends get it, especially about abortion. My daughters understand that they only got to be here because I wanted them. Many of their generation aren’t here but should have been. I’m sickened when I look at the world we’re leaving to them – we’ve got to fix it now! My oldest daughter can’t let her watch TV at all; the commercials are worse than the awful shows. The social issues are just as important as reducing the size of government. We’ve got to do both.
The social issues are the symptoms. The fiscal issues are the means. Deprive them of the means, and the symptoms will vanish. Fight the symptoms and the cold persists. Ignore the symptoms and you are not healthy enough to end the means. You must do both and do both with the proper focus to each.
Wayward, you make no sense once again, the point is the younger generations do not find your social issues as important as you, it doesn’t matter if Iowa is the third oldest state or whatever othe jibberish you wrote. You rants once again make little sense.
Silence