Lamberti Inching Closer to a Decision?
- Thursday, May 21, 2009, 9:04
- Krusty Konservative
- 875 views
- 30 comments
Jeff Lamberti told Dave Price from WHO-TV 13 that he is indeed mulling over a run for governor. While I’ve written about the possibility of Lamberti running a couple of times, I think this is the first account of Lamberti directly telling the media that he’s thinking about it.
I know, I recently wrote that the Republican primary could just be between Vander Plaats and Rants just a few days ago, but thus is politics. I still believe it will be extremely difficult or nearly impossible for person from the business sector to jump in to this race because it would be difficult for them to define themselves on the issues of the day.
I think we will see a scenario where all the candidates involved have some sort of legislative experience or have sought office multiple time like Vader Plaats. I believe it is easier for Lamberti or a guy like State Representative Rod Roberts to enter the race for governor, than it would be for your typical business person for the reason listed above.
The part that puzzles me from Dave Price’s story is where he writes, “If I would have asked him two months ago, he probably would have said no. But now he admits he is thinking about it.” I find that to be very interesting. One could take from that that Lamberti might be motivated to either run because of the Court’s ruling on gay marriage. While I’m pretty confident that Lamberti is a proponent of traditional marriage, his comment could also mean that he disagrees with how the current field of GOP gubernatorial candidates is handling the issue.
I think more than anything, Lamberti sees an opportunity. I think a number of people believe that Vander Plaats staked out a somewhat extreme position on marriage. To his credit, he is going to be further to the right than anybody, which could be helpful in a primary. That said, while many are comfortable advocating for the people of Iowa to have a say in this matter, Vander Plaats wants the people to finally stand up to the courts and say “enough is enough.” Again, being critical of the courts isn’t a bad thing to do in a Republican primary, but articles like this one from Marc Hansen paint Vander Plaats as some sort of extremist.
On the other hand, many think that Christopher Rants is a flawed vessel. I don’t think you could find anyone who would question his intelligence and determination, but they take issue with a guy who lost the majority in the Iowa House, and continued to lose seats when they were in the minority.
Lamberti probably sees that he could easily enter the race and, in his view, give Republicans a better option than the other two who are already in this race. That might be easier said than done. The one thing any candidate needs to be successful is personal ambition. This is something that both Vander Plaats and Rants have plenty of. Both of these candidates have gotten where they are today by their own grit and determination.
Lamberti’s comments about a potential gubernatorial campaign don’t lead me to believe that he has the fire in the belly, but I have to admit, I thought the same thing about his 2006 run for Congress. Lamberti turned out to be a great candidate, but he didn’t have to go through a primary. That’s the real difference here.
If Lamberti is serious about running, he’d better act fast. Vander Plaats and Rants are out there doing their thing, and it is evident that they each want to win badly. Voters are also good at determining whether or not a candidate is in it to win it, so if Lamberti pulls the trigger, he better be ready.
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Krusty Konservative has written 223 stories on this site.
Herschel Krustofski is the pseudonym for the anonymous author of Krusty Konservative, a blog which focuses on Iowa Politics. Created in February of 2006, Krusty Konservative is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Iowa blogosphere. Since its conception, Krusty Konservative has never shied from tackling controversial issues, and providing insight to the inner workings of Republican politics in Iowa.
30 Comments on “Lamberti Inching Closer to a Decision?”
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What a terrific candidate. Hardworking, family oriented, devout Catholic (big plus in my book), reasonable, patient (will have to be with the fringe) successful businessman and lawyer, smart and has access to boodles of cash. I hope he throws his hat into the ring.
If Lamberti aspires to be as great as Dick Cheney, he will be a great governor.
Good grief, Mod, why don’t you just marry the guy if you think he’s so great. You can do that now, you know.
Sour Lydia: Tell me what you think of Jeff Lamberti.
I like Lamberti but here is my fear: RPI has been a desolate wreck for a long time. That changed with Matt Strawn last January. My fear is that if Jeff gets into the race, it will be percieved that the State Chairman is again trying to tinker with the primary which will not only upset a lot of people. You may also set up a scenario where the other candidates actually run against the Republican party its self. That would be bad. All of the good work that Matt has done these last 6 months could be undone.
I’m perfectly OK with a guy like Lamberti running but I worry that because Jeff and Matt are so close, Jeff himself could have an unintended negative impact on Matt’s administration. I really dont think we, as Republicans can afford that.
I agree with Altoona on the Strawn connection. Makes it hard for the party to look impartial.
I don’t find Lamberti to be terribly dynamic or exciting (i.e. more boring than Bob), but I can’t say I have any specific problem with him, but it’s been a while since he’s run for anything, so I may have forgotten something.
But now, of course, I know that Mod worships the ground he walks on, so that does raise some red flags.
I’ve worked with Lamberti and have a high regard for him. To say he is not exciting is probably true but after working with him, I know it’s humility and it is a strength–not a weakness.
It would be too bad if his association with Strawn would be enough to keep him from running for governor.
Strawn has done an excellent job. They are both very good people. Let the Republican voters decided. They can either reject or accept Lamberti in a primary.
Hopefully, Republicans learned a lesson from the primaries in 2002. Those that went negative lost as well they should have. It was true in the primary for governor and it was true in the four-way primary for congress in the Fifth District.
Lydia: You flatter me with your words. I am glad that my posts raise red flags with you as my purpose in posting is to provoke thought–even in the smallest of cerebral cortexes.
“The part that puzzles me from Dave Price’s story is where he writes, “If I would have asked him two months ago, he probably would have said no. But now he admits he is thinking about it.”
Or, he saw that the field of candidates hasn’t gotten any better in two months.
“On the other hand, many think that Christopher Rants is a flawed vessel. I don’t think you could find anyone who would question his intelligence and determination, but they take issue with a guy who lost the majority in the Iowa House, and continued to lose seats when they were in the minority.”
Or they take issue with the fact that he’s an egotistical jerk who got tossed out of the house leadership.
Let’s be honest Mod, you either work for Lamberti now, want to work for him in the future, or actually do have a man crush on him. You’re a little too detailed in your gushing praise to be a disinterested observer.
Actually baneful, Lydia, I have witnessed him campaign for Congress and followed his career in the General Assembly. He will be able to attract middle of the road candidates while at the same time motivate the faithful to work hard. If he is the nominee I am sure we can count on you Lydia to work your scaled tail off for him.
oops excuse me sweet Lydia. My post should read “middle of the road voters.”
DVFO, I’m not worried about them rejecting Lamberti for his association with Matt. What worries me is that the people who Matt has finally started to win over will unfairly brand him as “just another power broker from Des Moines” and compromise his administration at RPI which has so far been a great success.
I would really rather keep Strawn away from what could be a very brutal primary because of everyone today, I think he may be best positioned to stitch the party back together afterwards. I also see him as someone the party can look to as a unifying leader in the future. However, if Jeff runs, it brings the primary to his doorstep and he wont get the option of playing peacemaker when its over.
That isn’t a slight against Matt or Jeff, I like them both. But I know how it will look if Matt’s business partner enters the race as the candidate of Doug Gross. Both will be compromised and there may be immense pressure on Matt to step down. That is the absolute last thing we need right now.
Why would he have to be Gross’s candidate? Frankly, I don’t care if a good person is Gross’s person or not. The idea that Gross couldn’t come up with a good candidate is ridiculous. Gross is not terribly relevant now. He did his little survey and had his say and the rest of us can do with it what we want.
Frankly, to me it’s nothing one way or the other.
Sorry guys. Gross is relevant to lots of Repubs, especially to the business wing of our party. They far outnumber the fringe. You don’t know about them because they are busy working and are quiet.
He wouldn’t have to be Gross’s candidate and had he come to this conclusion on his own without Gross and others from his group pushing him toward it, he may have been fine to do it. The problem is that the perception will be on him from day 1. Even in the Price article he says that he wasn’t even thinking about it 2 months ago but several influential activists are asking him to run. He also said that he would make his decision by this fall which is exactly when Gross told Price his candidate would emerge. Gee, do you think people will see that as a coincidence?
It worries me because I don’t want to see Lamberti drug through the muck any more than you do. Had he been talking about this before the Gross recruiting machine kicked into high gear, he wouldn’t have had to deal with it but now, unfortunately, he will.
“Sorry guys. Gross is relevant to lots of Repubs, especially to the business wing of our party. They far outnumber the fringe.”
Yeah, that’s why there are so many people like Maggie Tinsman, Jannett Metcalf and Joy Corning winning primaries these day … That’s why Steve Roberts was reelected a National Committeeman last year. That why Steve Churchill was nominated to run for Secretary of State in 2006 after Bob Dopf won the primary … There are less of those people than you think MIE. Bottom line is that Gross is poison in the Republican party which is why I don’t want Lamberti or Strawn within 1,000 feet of him. We need both of them and I’d rather not have them tainted by his stench.
MIE,
That depends on who you talk to. I have discussed the upcoming primary with some business leaders that would like to remain nameless. The consensus on Gross is that he is undertaking this effort not for the betterment of Iowa or RPI but instead to satisfy some personal agenda. They don’t go as far as to say that he is egotistical but the inference is there.
On a side note I there have been a couple of questions that keep coming up in relation to Doug Gross in these discussions. Where was Gross in 2006? And why has he only gotten more active in the wake of the Iowa Caucus?
Al–the big business guys that write $100,000 are sitting on their hands. They are scared to death of the socons and what they have done to the party. I know for a fact that several of them are funneling $$$$ to moss back democrats through proxies. They want to see the church going drones harnassed before they plunk down $$$ for Repubs.
AG–Tinsman, Metcalf, Corning and Roberts being cashiered is exactly what’s wrong with the party. Moderates are not welcome. Most successful businessman are moderates. We may have lost the mods to the conservative wing of the democratic party. Most of the business lobby is secretly pleased as punch with this legislative session as big labor got whacked by the conservative democratic caucus. Most business types don’t give a whit about the social issues. Principal and Well Fargo both publically support gay tolerance.
Those of you that have been here a while know I’ve been hinting Jeff should run. I think he can bring the factions together and appeal beyond the base if given the opportunity, but I see the naysayers here are already looking for an excuse to start dissing him. Actually I’m not surprised, I’m pretty cynical given the purity test that some think we need to run all our potential candidates thru.
MIE,
Let’s see if I am understanding this. The big money donors will only donate to RPI and Republican candidates if social conservatives shut up. Okay I get it now, they believe in the big tent philosophy as long as they are running the show.
He doesn’t want a big tent party Al. He wants us to put up a small tent, then put on uniforms and serve his friends drinks while they sit around and complain about how they just cant get any good help these days. That exactly what MIE, Doug Gross and his little cadre of yes men think of the social conservatives. We’re just the help and we should be gracious to accept the scraps from their table like good little servants. Heaven forbid that we put down our serving trays take a seat at the table … Why, if we want a seat at the table then who will serve them cocktails and act as their foot stools? Of course, the servant demanding equality with their master must mean that the master is no longer welcome in the house any more.
Moderates are still welcome in the GOP MIE. But the rest of us aren’t going to wait on them hand and foot any longer. If that’s what your friends want in order to be “included” then I say, good riddance. Let them Democrats have you. Let them deal with your constant bellowing and crying. I, for one am tired of it. By your own admission, your friends are already funding their candidates so what good are you to us?
Altoona Guy, Why the victim mentality? I’m a social conservative that does not have a victim mentality. The process is there for all of us and there is room in the party for all of us.
This is why we have primaries. If you have strong opinions about the type of person you want to governing you, all you have to do is to make sure your side prevails in the primary.
Undoubtedly, we will be having a primary for governor. Why make a bigger deal out of it than necessary.
I’ll wait to see the whole field and then work for the one I want. However, if my person does not prevail in the primary, there is no doubt, I will be fully unified with all Republicans to defeat Culver.
AG–The fringe does have a place at the table. The problem is once seated the fringe turned a good thing into mush. The religious right governs through hysterics which alienates the middle who in turn determine the winner. Keep serving up extreme candidates for primary fights that in turn result in general election losses. My democratic friends are overjoyed by the fact this kind of dialogue is happening within our party. One other thing, AG, now that you and your ilk have chased the $$$$ out of the party, how do you expect to control the airlwaves. There is only so far that cadres of the Taliban can go with their Sunday morning windshield flyers showing mangled babies. Our job is to tamp down religious fervor and channel it into something that won’t alienate the middle.
Mod: You’re a bit too extreme yourself. If you have Democratic friends, they need to be scared to death at what their party has done to this state. There is no way they can defend the huge deficits Culver & Co have run up.
Even Democrats are going to be faced with huge tax increases and even Democrats should be able to figure our that this is no way to create a long-term favorable economic climate.
Notice all the talk about SD, TX, FL, Etc.
Even a Democrat can be made to understand that excessive government influence and regulation on business, will drive business to a more business-friendly state and take their jobs with them.
Just this week, we heard Gronstal talk about “tax cuts for the middle class”. He can’t fool me. What he really meant was this was code for a huge tax INCREASE on the rich. After all, that’s what Democrats keep telling us, right? We’ll just tax the rich. There’s not that many of them.
Well, Iowa needs all the rich people we can get. I want rich people here. I don’t want them taking their money to other lower tax states.
Democrats are economic illiterates.
Mod, on this you and I are in agreement. For the conservatives that have been quietly doing the heavy lifting it’s kinda like finally getting to sit at the big kids table only to have your weird cousin immediately throw a tantrum and start a food fight!
MIE,
Please inform us of some of these extreme candidates that won a primary on the backs of social conservatives only to lose the general election. Because as I look back at recent Gubernatorial races I sure don’t see them.
Al–I agree with you that this scenario has not played out on the recent Gubernatorial races. I suspect that had BVP been the candidate the shelacking would have been worse. What is even more troubling is how the fringe has taken over the caucuses. We embarrass overselves by lifting the amiable huckster to the national stage when Romney is the one who could have beaten Obama. I could only shake my head the other night when I listened to Salier on Deace. Those two are scary. To think that Salier almost beat Ganske is an indictment on our collective poltical judgment.
MIE,
I have to respectfully disagree with you on Romney. I believe that he had far too many skeletons in the closet to defeat Obama. His changes in position on many issues would have come back to haunt him had he been our nominee.