Huckabee Returns to Iowa to Stump for Vander Plaats
- Thursday, February 25, 2010, 4:22
- Iowa, News Center, Top Story
- 2,096 views
- 33 comments
2008 Iowa Caucus winner Mike Huckabee was in the state yesterday to help his former Iowa campaign chairman, Bob Vander Plaats. Huckabee devoted most of his day to helping Vander Plaats’ campaign for governor. He attended a high-dollar fundraiser in Cedar Rapids over the noon hour, headlined an event for the Iowa Family Policy Center in Des Moines in the afternoon, and then headed back to Cedar Rapids for an evening rally for the Vander Plaats campaign.
Huckabee touched down at the Eastern Iowa Airport around noon yesterday. His plane was 30 minutes late, but he did spend about 15 minutes talking to the media before departing to the Cedar Rapids Country Club. Huckabee was asked numerous questions regarding the Tea Party movement and the ramifications for Republicans.
TheIowaRepublican.com asked Governor Huckabee, “This afternoon you are attending an event for IFPC in Des Moines. They have said if that, if Terry Branstad is our [Republican] nominee, they cannot support him. You have served in some capacity with Governor Branstad, so, is that an approach you endorse, or what’s your take on that?
After ten minutes of conversation about the Tea Party movement, TheIowaRepublican.com asked Governor Huckabee what makes Governor Culver a poor governor who deserves to be replaced.
The Vander Plaats campaign did a good job of utilizing Huckabee’s time in Iowa. They visited the two largest communities in the state. In Cedar Rapids, they held a fundraiser that cost $1,500 per person or $2,500 per couple. The rally later in the day was free, as was the IFPC event in Des Moines, however, contributions were solicited at that event.
While Vander Plaats got a lot of mileage out of Huckabee’s visit in terms of events, the media had limited opportunities to ask Huckabee and Vander Plaats questions. Members of the media were allowed to cover all of the events except for the fundraiser, but not allowing them the opportunity to ask questions of Huckabee and Vander Plaats in Des Moines and at the rally in Cedar Rapids might have cost them some media coverage.
The press coverage of Huckabee’s visit to Des Moines was more about Huckabee reminiscing about his time running for president than about the guy he traveled to the state to help get elected governor. The press availability in Cedar Rapids yielded stories about what Huckabee thought of the Tea Party movement and IFPC’s marriage initiatives. In most of the stories thus far, Vander Plaats is merely a sub plot.
What the Vander Plaats campaign needs more of than anything is an infusion of cash and a bunch of earned media. There is no doubt that Vander Plaats was able to raise money, attract larger than normal crowds, and get some media coverage, but the question remains whether or not he has what it takes to truly challenge former Governor Terry Branstad in the primary.
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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.
33 Comments on “Huckabee Returns to Iowa to Stump for Vander Plaats”
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Problem with giving $$ to BVP is that he will spend it on staff and self (i.e., reimbursements and meals with supporter(s)).
Well, it’s nice to know that I’m not a “good Christian” because I don’t support these pandering charlatans. If this is what passes for conservatism, please count me out!!!
No one who truly knows Huck’s record could ever call him a true conservative. Timmy used the right word–pandering. Both Huck and BVP are panderers. They tell a group whatever it is they think the group wants to hear.
It seems these Huck worshippers have not bothered to check the facts behind his governing.
BVP’s EO has been largely discredited and is not even being talked about any longer which leaves BVP in a lesser position than any of the other two candidates. Whatever happened to BVP’s idea of opting Iowa out of big government’s national take over of health care?
He has nothing left that gives anyone hope he can do anything as good as Roberts or Branstad.
I’m confused about the Governor’s circular rationale concerning marriage. So. . . marriage is a bedrock, etc. etc. I get that. Marriage prevents poverty, okay. A stable 2 parent household is an ideal setting to raise children and for them to get a HS education and avoid poverty, okay. But is the Governor implying that only a marriage between a man and a woman can provide that environment? How will same-sex marriage not promote and increase the hedging against the ills of society he speaks of? It doesnt make sense. It seems as if he didn’t want to be open and candid on the topic with the media. It is hard to take him serious when in one breath he thinks his version of marriage will save kids and end poverty and in the next say same-sex couples can’t get married when their marriage in all likelihood may ’save kids and end poverty’.
I’d like to hear about numbers for his event in CR and $$ raised at this fundraiser. Didn’t see much word in the media this AM about large numbers for the rally in Cedar Rapids…
Lamar Alexander? How can a REAL conservative support Lamar Alexander? (note sarcasm) By the tone of Huckabees answer, it sounds like he is ready to come back to Iowa to help his “friend” Terry Branstad become governor again.
HawkCR1
Since there was an press avail in the morning, I doubt there was much of a media presence at the rally. Another reason why it was odd they didn’t do a press avail in Des Moines and then get the CR media at the rally.
It was really a crazy day. I would have liked to have gone to the rally, but instead I went to the the press avail in CR then rushed back to Des Moines for the IFPC event. I didn’t want to wait out the 6 hours between the press avail and rally in CR.
Ouch. That had to sting BVP to stand there & listen to Huckabee praise Branstad. You can see him standing there thinking “shut up, Mike!!”
Also, please don’t forget to follow the IFPC pharisees edict, that today we must all pray for “God’s choice for governor”, Bob Panders Lots.
Wow. That is a lot of flying. Was it a private jet? Did Vander Plaats have to pay for it and actually lose money on this event? If so, how will Bob continue to pay himself to run for governor?
private jet
You know, I keep hearing how BVP is no conservative. I’m guessing that by implication, Branstad is. I’ve thise question over and over and no one wants to answer it. Is being a conservative mean you raise taxes and fees 30 different times? Is it growing government consistently over 16 years? Is it raising the sales tax? Is it keeping two sets of books for the budget? Are these things what it means to be conservative?
Geez ConThink…why you gotta make it about another candidate? Can’t stick up for your guy without putting others down?
MONEY IS NOT ENOUGH. Mike Huckabee in yesterday’s quick visit was obviously attempting to assist his former campaign coordinator during his 2008 successful caucus campaign. He certainly has the right, as does any voter to choose his preference for a gubernatorial candidate in any state. Huckabee’s supporting Vander Plaats both verbally and as an active fundraiser. Yet Mike Huckabee realizes, after this own experience in Iowa during the 2008 caucuses, that money alone is not a guarantor of any candidate’s victory. Romney spent much more in Iowa than Huckabee in 2008 and couldn’t carry the Republican caucuses that particular year. One is reminded in recent political History of “Walk-in Laughton” the former candidate for the U.S. senate in Florida, Lawton Chiles who chose to walk the state rather than spend money he didn’t have available–he was elected.
Simply being a friend, an early supporter, even a campaign manager, although commendable is not enough in today’s political arena to be elected Governor of Iowa. Voters this year are looking for ideas that propose job restoration, smaller government, less regulation and a strategic achievable plan for progress.
Iowa voters will be looking for plans which make sense to voters that can be achieved not just idle promises, supported by fundraisers that seek to buy what only effective plans and vision can purchase. Money is not enough!
Dr.Alan Phillips
Does VP really want Huckabee endorsing him? Huckabee did somehow won the Iowa caucus, but he ultimately lost the race for president. He was pigeonholed as “religion candidate”. I suppose that fits well with VP though.
I must agree with Sparta. Huckabee’s argument for the marriage amendment didn’t really address the core issue(though I wouldn’t call the arguemtn circular). Iowa’s current marriage law(or rather the effectie law decreed by the court) even now provides for two parent households. What he should have said is that research clearly shows that the best environment is better too raise a child than by their married mother and father. He should that, at best, not enough research has been done to show that same sex parenting(a relatively recent phenomenon) is just as good. He should have said that the tradtional definition of marriage as been the moral, social, and legal institution that linked a man with a woman and thier children. He should have said that the court’s decree makes marriage just an amorphous relationship about love between two adults, and that children and procreation might as well be an afterthought. He should have said that the court’s might in the future redefine marriage in the future to include various polygamous/polyamorous relationships(This is more than just some crazy slippery slope:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2010/01/03/loves_new_frontier/).
Justyn,
As to answering the actual question…crickets
re-do:
Does VP really want Huckabee endorsing him? Huckabee did somehow won the Iowa caucus, but he ultimately lost the race for president. He was pigeonholed as “religion candidate”. I suppose that fits well with VP though.
I must agree with Sparta. Huckabee’s argument for the marriage amendment didn’t really address the core issue(though I wouldn’t call the argument circular). Iowa’s current marriage law(or rather the effective law decreed by the court) even now provides for two parent households. What he should have said is that research clearly shows that the best environment is better too raise a child than by their married mother and father. He should that, at best, not enough research has been done to show that same sex parenting(a relatively recent phenomenon) is just as good. He should have said that the tradtional definition of marriage as been the moral, social, and legal institution that linked a man with a woman and their children. He should have said that the court’s decree makes marriage just an amorphous relationship about love between two adults, and that children and procreation might as well be an afterthought. He should have said that the courts might redefine marriage in the future to include various polygamous/polyamorous relationships(This is more than just some crazy slippery slope:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2010/01/03/loves_new_frontier/).
Conthink, you’re either michael kiernan or steve deace? I can’t figure out which one. It’s so easy to take things out of context and make them sound so damaging. What is an executive mentor? I’m really curious. I want to be that when I grow up.
Michael,
I applaud you for at least attempting to put some kind of rationale for Mr. Branstad’s record. Although the, ‘that was a different time’ argument falls a bit short for myself. You see, either government got bigger, or it didn’t. Taxes and fees were raised 30 different times, or the weren’t. The sales was increased, or it wasn’t. So, please explain to me how these things are conservative.
So, Roberts is the only Conservative running then? That’s how this logic seems to be laid out. Now, will someone please post all the taxes Roberts has voted for so we can clearly establish that there are NO conservatives running for Governor?
Waywardson
There are no conservatives in congress. Nor has there been since the 16th amendment. If there was, there wouldn’t be an income tax.
Luke
PS: I learned everything I know from Glenn Beck.
Love to see you guys lose sleep, once again, over the question of who is paying for the private jets. And if the turnout was low you jokers would have been on here bright and early shouting it from the rooftops. Must have been a lot of people at the rally, eh?
I heard there was hardly anyone at the rally. If there were, you jokers would have been on here bright and early shouting it from the rooftops. Must have been nobody at the rally, eh?
Justyn, don’t you wish you knew………….
Waywardson,
You may be right, but it may depend on what your definition of conservative is. Apparently Michael and Justyn believe that a conservative is someone who raises taxes and fees 30 different times, who grows the size of government consistently over 16 years, who raises the sales tax by some 60%, who keeps two sets of financial books for the state.
I think a conservative lowers income taxes by 10%. I think a conservative recruits and calls on hundreds of business to come to Iowa or expand in Iowa to GIVE PEOPLE JOBS AND KEEP PEOPLE HERE! I think a conservative provides a good environment for business to thrive! I think a conservative gets rid of the inheritance tax! I think it helps if the conservative is a veteran, I am! Conservative Thinker, aka michael kiernan, go back to writing freak press releases. Those are the worst press releases I’ve ever read!
Michael,
First off I am not the Michael Kiernan that you keep bringing up. If you would like to chat in person, you’re more than welcome to attend the next Boone County Central Committee meeting.
Now, if someone lowers your income tax by 10%, but raises your sales tax by 60%, where do you think you come out in that equation?
CT, do you support the huckabee’s fairtax? So if the fairtax raises the sales tax by 400%, where do you think you come out in that equation unless you’re Daniel Boone? Iowa’s sales tax is one of the lower in the midwest and we don’t pay taxes on grocery, pharm, etc., thanks to who? Do you remember when Gov Branstad was in office and the D’s tried to take that away? I live in eastern Iowa. Never been to Boone, sorry.
CT – if someone cuts my income tax by 10% but raises my sales tax by 60% while keeping the exemptions, I come out ahead. Way ahead. And if you want to know what real growth in government looks like, take a look at BVP’s hero – Mike Huckabee’s Arkansas. He makes Governor Branstad look like a piker.
Also, as for fiscal management, ask the folks at Opportunity Iowa what kind of fiscal manager BVP was. I wouldn’t trust him to balance my kids’ checkbook, let alone mine or the State of Iowa.
News flash….., From The POLK CITY LOG CABIN REPUBULICANS.
A straw poll was taken asking members who they preferred for Governor:
Rod Roberts
Terry Branstad
Bob Vander Plaats
With all votes cast, (95%] prefer the ROD!!!!!!! One hearing impaired man likes Bob, and one vision impaired member liked Terry.
It’s funny that you mention an income tax reduction. It seems that Mr. Branstad wanted to raise income taxes, “…Branstad, who defeated Democrat Lowell Junkins for governor by running on a program attacking tax increases and borrowing money through bonding, has proposed a 4-cent increase in gas tax, a cigarette-tax increase, and an increase in the amount Iowans pay in state income taxes…” – Des Moines Register.
Also, strangly, it seems Mr. Branstad wanted to eliminate the “deductibility of federal income taxes on state tax returns“. So it seems to me, that if Branstad had gotten his way, income taxes too, would have gone up. Now again, how is that conservative?
I fully agree with Mike Huckabee’s take on CPAC and the Tea Parties and it was great to see him again back in Iowa for Bob Vander Plaats. Not sure if he will run again or not but it would be nice to have a true fiscal and social conservative (not to mention an adult) in the White House. Those who know him best support him the most. There is a reason for that. They know his real record, not the twist fest and nearly humorous distortions you read in comment sections like these.
I personally know people who lived in Arkansas during his time as Governor. When Huckabee arrived, Arkansas was a corrupt state, with education, unemployment and infrastructure ranking among the lowest in the USA. And despite lowering taxes more than any Arkansas governor in state history, he has always answered for one significant tax hike to rebuild the state’s foundational woes. What you don’t hear much of, is that he signed the bill into law after the voters passed a ballot initiative in favor of the tax funded projects…by 80%!
Huckabee didn’t raise taxes, the people did. And to say that the most visible advocate for the Fair Tax Plan in American politics is liberal with economic policy, seems more than a little odd. That is not a liberal vision regarding tax reform and economic recovery. It, like many of his ideas and accomplishments, is an example of thinking outside the box and being bold enough to enact creative solutions to big problems,without worrying what the polls will say the next day. He answered to no establishment. He was loyal to no lobbyist. He made some human mistakes and still does, but he did his best and he did a great job.
What Huckabee’s record shows as an executive leader, is that he is the most deserving person to credit for the literal modernization of the state. By the end of his era, Arkansas proved to be a model for restoration. Booming economy, low unemployment, better schools (went from 48th to 9th place), higher incomes and a relatively low tax burden compared to many states. And, though he arrived with the biggest state debt in history, he left with a surplus of millions of dollars.
Mike Huckabee is in a league of his own. He has the most experience of anyone in the GOP bullpen at this time and has a likeability factor that would run off of any chart. Plus, his communication skills would even be envied by Ronald Reagan. If Obama wins a second term, it won’t be because of the liberals. It will be because many so called “conservatives” were so ill-informed and boneheaded where Huckabee is concerned that they failed to unite behind the wisest, most talented leader our nation has seen in a generation. Rush-Beck-Coulter-Malkin and their ilk offered up Obama for us the last time around and it appears they are gearing up for act two in 2012.
If some of the comments above in this thread are from people claiming to be “conservatives”…we are in one world of hurt.
No Randy, we are in a world of hurt if so-called “conservatives” are willing to swallow populist socialism just because somebody throws a few “God words” around!
That last paragraph is one of the oddest things I’ve ever read on this site, Randy.