BeanWalker Approved: Schickel Endorses Rod Roberts
- Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 22:49
- Iowa, News Center
- 1,049 views
- 7 comments
Republican Party of Iowa State Central Committee member Bill Schickel has resigned as Secretary of the Party in order to support the gubernatorial campaign of State Representative Rod Roberts. Schickel said he resigned because officers have agreed to remain neutral in the primary. He will, however, complete his term as a member of the State Central Committee representing the 4th District.
“I can no longer remain neutral,” said Schickel, a former state representative and Mason City mayor. “Our party is currently divided. Neither of the frontrunners has shown that they can bring the two sides together. If the current division continues we will certainly lose in November. Rod Roberts has the best chance of beating Chet Culver.”
“He is the only candidate who has demonstrated he can bring together the fiscal and social conservative wings of our party. He has also proven that he can attract the Independents and Democrats that are critical to victory,” Schickel said. “He has done it during the campaign. He did it as a state representative. And he did it in five previous elections.”
“Rod is an underdog right now, but he is also the candidate with momentum,” Schickel said. “While the numbers for the frontrunners have remained essentially flat, Rod in the past three months has gone from almost no voter recognition to capturing 19 percent of the Republican vote in the Dallas County straw poll and winning the Guthrie County straw poll this past weekend.”
“Whenever Republicans meet him, they are won over,” Schickel said. “He is a solid fiscal and social conservative who is also a fresh face. That is exactly what our party needs, and more importantly, what Iowa needs.”
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7 Comments on “BeanWalker Approved: Schickel Endorses Rod Roberts”
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While I’m staying neutral in the Iowa Governor Primary – I did want to say a few good words about my friend Bill. ( Bill is unaware I’m saying this about him) Bill is wonderful to work with on the State Central Committee. Bill has the best leadership mentality i could ask for – that’s very high praise from me. Bill always answers his cell or calls me back as soon as he can. Since being elected to the Central Committee in 2008 Bill is the only one of the 3 who has been to Allamakee county since the 08 district convention. Bill practices “good business” – he does not engage in the inside baseball that makes so many people ill. With Bill – his word is always good. I am very much looking forward to Bill being re elected at the 4th Congressional Dist convention. Our party needs more people like Bill. If everyone strived to act with the same morals, judgment and leadership mentality as Bill does- we would never have some of the inside baseball issues we do. God Bless Bill Schickel.
-Mark Vonderohe
Chairman – Allamakee County Republicans
A man of integrity endorsing a man of integrity.
I appreciate the fact that Schickel is stepping down as Secretary…however, Mark, I do believe he should take the route taken by former 2nd District SCC member David Chung and resign altogether from the SCC at this time and not choose to run for re-election in April. If you’ll recall, Chung resigned his post on the SCC last fall in order to work on behalf of Christian Fong’s campaign for Governor.
Members of the RPI State Central Committee should stay out of primary contests. Its caused far too many problems in the past of SCC members being accused of making it appear that RPI favors one candidate over another.
If Schickel feels that he can not stay neutral and must support a candidate..that’s most certainly his right to do so. However, he was elected to represent ALL Republicans in the 4th CD. Not all Republicans are obviously going to support the candidate that he supports.
New SCC members are going to be elected at District Conventions in a little over a month, so a resignation now would not have a drastic effect on the SCC.
I’ll never vote for any state central committee member or county chair that taints a primary with their endorsement. Speaking of taints, that reminds me of this one time over at Al’s Saloon where we had a taint euphenism contest and Trixie won with ‘Chin rest’. Giggidy giggidy goo!
We elect party leaders who are leaders. I expect leaders to take a stand on issues they are passionate about even when I disagree. If someone isn’t willing to take a stand they are no leader at all.
AuH20…
Put yourself in the position of a candidate… Say you’re running for office and you’re involved in a primary with another candidate. I don’t think you’d appreciate having someone who’s sitting on the Board of Directors for the State Party issuing a public endorsement of your opponent and then working for the election of your opponent.
It smacks of party elites trying to influence people as to what candidates are “worthy” of support and who are not. People tend to be turned off by that…
Thats why folks like Schickel need to take a cue from David Chung…He did the right thing in stepping down from the SCC when he chose to endorse and work for a candidate’s election.
Frankly, color me unimpressed.
My experience with Schickel, is that he is another middle of the road moderate, faux conservative.
An endorsement by him hurts Roberts in my opinion.
Of course, I want politicians who actually know and follow the Constitution, so I don’t like many of the candidates the Repugnant party throws up on us.