Live from the Scott County GOP Dinner

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 18:32
Craig Robinson, Iowa, News Center
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11 comments

reaganpp(1) TheIowaRepublican.com is at the First Annual Scott County Ronald Reagan Dinner. The room is packed. Nearly 350 people are expected to attend. Former New York Governor George Pataki is the keynote speaker. Christian Fong, Chris Rants, Rod Roberts and Bob Vander Plaats are in attendance and will each get five minutes to address the crowd.

Also in attendance but not speaking is Secretary of State candidates Matt Schultz and George Eichhorn, 1st congressional candidate Rod Blum, State Treasurer candidate Dave Jamison and numerous other local candidates.

Great crowd. Lot of energy. Wonderful event.

Update One:

Dinner has been served.

County party raised $25,000 for the event.

Honoring the former county treasurer who served 50 years in that capacity.

Reading letter from Senator Grassley who is in Washington.

Ross Paustian will once again challenge Rep. Elesha Gayman

Jamison, Eichhorn, Schultz, and Blum address the crowd.

Gubernatorial Candidate Speeches

Fong give a good speech. Best speech that I’ve heard him give. Lots of talk about vision and conservative principles.

Rants speech was really good. Did a great job of talking about local issues. Respectfully took on Fong and Branstad on certain issues. Rants talked about how Republicans have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Ended up about talking his record of accomplishments.

Rod Roberts talked about his background. Talked about protecting Iowa’s right-to-work status. Not just defend right-to-work, but champion it. Eliminate the corporate income tax. Complete highway 30 and highway 20. Very similar to the speech he gave in Des Moines, but more forceful.

Vander Plaats begins by mentioning the Faithful Four, Rants, Roberts, Fong, and Vander Plaats. Big at Branstad for not attending these county events. Four things I’m going to do. 1. Executive order to stay gay marriage. 2. Make state government more efficient. 3. Open up Iowa for Business. 4. Reorganize education.

Tonight’s winner? In my opinion its Rants.

Governor Pataki

Governor Pataki was very funny at times but brutally harsh on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and President Obama. Democrats are wrong on health care, wrong on the economy, and wrong on foreign policy. It’s not America’s strength that causes problems in the world, its American’s weakness that causes problems around the world.

Pataki gave a great speech.

Tags: Campaign 2010, Fong, Pataki, Rants, Roberts, Vander Plaats

About the Author

Craig Robinson has written 454 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.

11 Comments on “Live from the Scott County GOP Dinner”

Deace voted for Obama wrote on 10 November, 2009, 20:33
It’s no surprise that Rants gave the best speech. He has the most depth of knowledge.
Al wrote on 10 November, 2009, 20:43
When Rants first jumped in the race I questioned his motives and discounted him because he lost the GOP leadership in the house. I must say that he is changing my mind.
anonymous wrote on 10 November, 2009, 22:25
Love the great coverage of these events. Provides such a better sense of what is going on statewide than was ever available before. Not surprising that Rants was the winner. He always is at these events and everywhere else. At our local event, they all said the same thing they’ve said ad nauseum before – Fong will cut taxes to 0 percent (fat chance); BVP will issue the executive order and he’s Dutch, etc. etc. But Rants had fresh, new and topical information about recent events even in his standard stump speech.
Shane Vander Hart wrote on 10 November, 2009, 23:01
And Branstad wasn’t there because why?

Is he running, or does he expect a coronation?
Peggy wrote on 10 November, 2009, 23:38
Well said, Shane!
HawkCR1 wrote on 11 November, 2009, 1:33
No one said Branstad expects a “coronation”….for all you know Shane…Branstad might have had a family obligation….

Last time I checked, attending every single event isn’t a requirement for winning a primary…heck, even Presidential candidates aren’t able to come to every single county event…
Peggy wrote on 11 November, 2009, 7:13
“Last time I checked, attending every single event isn’t a requirement for winning a primary”

Yeah, when you receive three quarters of a million dollars from the Republican Governors Association, the need to campaign and meet the constituents drops dramatically. Funny how that works.
Peggy wrote on 11 November, 2009, 11:48
Come on, Hawk….it’s appearing more and more like Camp Branstad believes his nomination is a lock and he’s not going to have to work for it.

A lot of Republicans are turned off by the way his campaign is being handled to this point.
HawkCR1 wrote on 11 November, 2009, 12:11
“A lot of Republicans are turned off by the way his campaign is being handled”??? Really..according to who? Steve Deace?

While you’re here moaning on a blog… the Branstad campaign is working build organizational resources in all 99 counties. Branstad knows he’s going to have to work to earn the nomination.

One bad speech does not make or break a candidacy…if that was the case..Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants should have been done long ago.

Wow…this talk sounds so much like 94 when Grandy was running…how people accused Branstad of thinking the nomination was “a lock”..how people were so “turned off” by him…
Scott M wrote on 11 November, 2009, 13:19
There actually are a lot of people being turned off by the way Branstad’s campaign is being handled. Some of his earliest supporters for this run are being ignored, as is their good advice.

He keeps making one stupid move after another. At this point, we’re way beyond this being “just one bad speech.”

He’s well down the road of making bad campaign decisions. Unless he changes things very quickly, his legacy is going to sink faster than the Titanic.
Peggy wrote on 11 November, 2009, 15:12
“Really..according to who? Steve Deace? ” — HawkCR1

No…like regular Republicans who like to discuss politics, coming up to me asking, “What do you think of this Branstad deal?”

I’m not soliciting comments from people – they’re offering them.

Is Iowa’s governorship for sale to the highest bidder or what?