Christian Fong, Chris Rants, Rod Roberts, and Bob Vander Plaats were all in attendance. Jerry Behn was unable to attend because he is busy with the harvest. Behn farms in rural Boone County, and former Governor Terry Branstad had a scheduling conflict. Branstad had already committed to headline a fundraiser for State Senator Larry Noble before he received his invitation to the Scott County event. Sen. Noble was part of Branstad’s Iowa State Patrol security detail during his administration, and the two remain good friends.

With no gubernatorial candidate having a geographical advantage in Scott County or the other river counties on the eastern side of the state, it is likely that the Republican primary could be determined by who is able to garner the most support in those counties. In TheIowaRepublican.com poll, the only candidate who was able to beat Governor Culver in a head-to-head matchup statewide was the candidate who was able to beat him in eastern Iowa.

The one gubernatorial candidate who stood out above the rest last night was State Representative Chris Rants. While the other three gubernatorial candidates delivered remarks similar to those they have shared at other events across the state, Rants adapted his remarks to talk about what Governor Culver’s fiscal mismanagement will cost the local community.

Rants began his remarks by sharing the story about Lt. Governor Patty Judge coming to Sergeant Bluff, a town that Rants represents, to give them an I-Jobs grant to refurbish the city hall. Rants then told the audience, “What Patty Judge giveth, Chet Culver taketh away.” Rants then told the crowd that Culver’s fiscal mismanagement will force the Sergeant Bluff school district to increase property taxes by over $400,000.

Rants then asked if anyone in the room knew what Governor Culver’s budget cuts were going to cost the property tax payers in the Davenport School district. Rants informed them that the cost will be $7.6 million. He also drove home the point that, while Sergeant Bluff received $250,000 I-Jobs grant to remodel their city hall, the city of Davenport has not received any I-Jobs money for its big sewer project. Rants’ ability to talk about local issues played well with the audience. Of all the candidate speeches, Rants was the one candidate who grabbed everyone’s attention.

Both Rants and Vander Plaats also took some not so subtle shots at former governor Terry Branstad’s absence. Rants said, “I want to be your next governor. I can’t imagine wanting to be your governor and not being here tonight.” Rants then talked about the importance of winning Scott County if Republicans want to win statewide elections.

Bob Vander Plaats began his speech by acknowledging what he calls “The Faithful Four.” Vander Plaats explained that the faithful four are the four candidates who have traveled to countless meetings like this. The “Faithful Four” includes Christian Fong, Chris Rants, Rod Roberts, and Vander Plaats himself.

The comradery that seems to be developing between these four candidates seems to have extended beyond just attending the same event. Before the event began, Bob Vander Plaats approached Christian Fong and said, “I see you have had the same idea I had.” Vander Plaats was referring to Fong’s new hair cut. Vander Plaats also admitted to getting one, too. After the event, Rod Roberts mentioned Vander Plaats’ “Faithful Four” comment and said that he will offer to buy Vander Plaats a root beer.

The main attraction at the event was former New York Governor George Pataki. Pataki didn’t disappoint. While Pataki was very funny at times, he viciously attacked President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Governor Pataki said, “Democrats are wrong on healthcare, wrong on the economy, and wrong on foreign policy.”

The former New York governor ended his speech by focusing on foreign policy. “It’s not America’s strength that causes problems in the world, it’s America’s weakness. I understand the consequences of America being weak. I was in New York on September 11th,” Pataki added.

He also called out President Obama for being weak on terrorism. Pataki said, “Mr. President, don’t use your Justice Department to investigate our CIA agents. Use them to investigate Islamic terrorists.”

Pataki concluded his remarks by saying, “It’s not just about our party, it’s about our country, and it’s about our future.”

The Scott County Republican Ronald Reagan Dinner symbolizes a new direction the Scott County GOP has taken in terms of its focus on major donor fundraising. Last night’s event was as nice, or nicer, than many of the statewide fundraisers put on by the Republican Party of Iowa. The widely successful event will most likely mean larger crowds and better known speakers for future events.

Scott County GOP finance chairman Brian Kennedy and county chairwoman Judy Davidson should be commended for their vision and hard work in putting together an event of this magnitude.

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.

In January of 2000, there were almost 5,000 more registered Republicans in Scott County than there were registered Democrats. Today, Democrats enjoy a registered voter advantage of 8,622 over Republicans. The 13,000 person swing in registered voters explains why Republicans have struggled to win elections in Scott County, the first congressional district, and statewide.

In the late 1990’s, Republican statewide candidates could win if they were able to perform reasonably well in Polk County. Many times, western Iowa counties as along with eastern Iowa Republican strongholds like Scott County could offset the margin that Democratic candidates could build in Polk and Johnson counties. Unfortunately, those were the glory days of Republican politics. In recent years, the only area of the state in which Republicans can build significant margins over Democrats is in northwest Iowa.

The good news for Republicans is that recent elections have shown that good candidates can win in eastern Iowa. Nick Wagner and Renee Schulte were able to win two urban Linn County seats in the Iowa House in 2008, and Shawn Hamerlinck was able to win a Scott County Senate seat that year as well. Hamerlinck’s victory doubled the number of Republican state senators in the 1st Congressional District from one to two.

Another important development in terms of the Republican recovery in Eastern Iowa is the resurgence of the Scott County Republican Party. While Scott County has always enjoyed great activist support, they are now ramping up their fundraising efforts, which will allow them to have a greater impact on the 2010 elections. If successful, what is happening in Scott County should be implemented in every other urban county in the state.

Helping to lead the way for the Scott County GOP is former Republican Party of Iowa Chairman, Brian Kennedy. Kennedy, who ran for congress in 2006, has signed on to serve at the Scott County Republicans’ Finance chair. Kennedy’s first course of action was to develop and implement a major donor program. Raising money for county party organizations is not easy work. For most counties, Iowa’s first in the nation caucuses allow them to raise significant money to fund their efforts. Additionally, many counties also have a Century Club which solicits $100 donations.

Kennedy’s more aggressive fundraising approach has the Scott County Republican Party raising money more like the state party does. Instead of individual ticket sales and $100 contributions, the Scott County GOP has a Lincoln Club, which asks supporters for large yearly donations in return for tickets to all of their events and quarterly briefings from influential politicos. The Scott County GOP’s first quarterly briefing featured Gentry Collins, the current political director for the Republican National Committee. Collins, a native Iowan, met with members to give them an update about what RNC is currently working on.

Kennedy believes that eastern Iowa will play a critical role in next year’s Republican primary and general election. Five of the six current gubernatorial candidates all call western or central Iowa home. The only candidate from eastern Iowa is Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong. With no candidate having a geographical advantage in Scott County and the other river counties on the eastern side of the state, it is likely that the Republican primary will be determined by who is able to garner the most support in those counties.

Eastern Iowa also likely holds the key to defeating Governor Chet Culver. In TheIowaRepublican.com poll, the only candidate who was able to beat Governor Culver in a head-to-head matchup was Terry Branstad. The reason why Branstad was able to soundly defeat Culver is because of how well he did in eastern Iowa. For any candidate to be successful against Culver, he will have to perform well in eastern Iowa.

Kennedy believes that the message that will resonate with eastern Iowa voters should focus on job creation and the economy. Data from the Iowa Workforce Development office shows that the unemployment rate in Scott County is currently at 7.3 percent, four points higher than it was when Governor Chet Culver took office in January of 2007. The 1st congressional district has historically been considered to be a Democrat-leaning district because it contains blue-collar towns like Davenport, Dubuque, Clinton, and Waterloo. However, before the 2006 elections, the district was represented by Republicans for more than 20 years.

The 2010 elections should bring a lot of opportunities for Iowa Republicans to pick up legislative seats and win statewide contests. However, if Republicans are going to be successful, they must build the grassroots organization necessary to turn out enough votes on Election Day. That takes a lot of money, and that is why Brian Kennedy and the Scott County GOP should be commended for their hard work and dedication to help elect Republicans.

The Scott County GOP will hold its first annual Reagan Dinner next Tuesday. The event will feature the Republican candidates for governor, as well as former New York Governor George Pataki. The event will be held at the Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center at 5:15 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here. TheIowaRepublican.com will be in Scott County to cover the event next week.

Before the lecture series, Governor Pataki headlined the American Future Fund’s PAC fundraiser, which was held at the Star Bar in Des Moines. Over 50 people attended the fundraiser for the political arm of the organization. Organizers were very pleased with the turnout.

After that event concluded, Pataki headed to AFF’s lecture series at Drake University. Over one hundred people filled up Cartright Hall in Drake’s law school. Pataki used the event to criticize Obama’s policies over his first 100 days in office. Pataki also used his Iowa visit call on President Obama to remove Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano from office.

Pataki said, “We have a Homeland Security Secretary who is more frightened by the threat of our returning soldiers than by the threat of Islamic terrorists.” Governor Pataki then added, “Mr. President, I’m more frightened by your Homeland Security Secretary than I am of our returning Veterans. I am frightened by a Homeland Security Secretary who suggests that friends, families and neighbors of our Vets should be concerned that they could become right-leaning extremists. She is dead wrong. What she has done is an insult to every veteran and an insult to every American; the right thing to do is fire her.”

Pataki also provided a great Republican response to President Obama’s visit to Newton. It was unfortunate that only Fox News and The Iowa Republican were at this event to report on it. In Newton yesterday, President Obama told the audience that his budget sets aside billions of dollars to build a new power grid for America. Such a grid would allow the energy produced in the wind farms of the Midwest to be sent to other regions of the country.

While Governor Pataki also talked about the need for a new power grid, his proposal doesn’t involve the use of billions of taxpayer dollars. Instead, Pataki said that private companies are willing to build modern transmission lines, but they are halted by federal, state, and local regulations. Pataki said we need to eliminate the red tape and let private industry lead the way, not government.

Pataki’s speech was full of passion and conservative ideas. The American Future Fund’s lecture series is already a success because it is providing a platform to discuss the conservative alternatives to the Obama administration’s proposals.

Last night The Iowa Republican and American Future Fund teamed up to sponsor a contest that will take place throughout the lecture series. There will be more details on the contest and how you can sign up for a chance to win a Flip Mino camcorder in the coming days. The people who signed up at last night’s event were also asked to text The Iowa Republican what they thought of Pataki’s speech. Below is some of the feedback we received.

“Fantastic speech. Great event.”

“Strong, bold, and forward thinking. Key point: future success depends on promoting our own conservative solutions. Well done, Governor.”

“Awesome!”

“It was extremely good. I am very glad there are people like him out there standing up for the people of our great country of America.”

“This was a great talk with intelligent and specific details.”

“Great speech, hit everything GOP needs to do.”

“He was good. Had some great ideas for promoting our principles, especially with respect to energy.”

“Pataki was inspiring and just what I needed as a conservative to start getting pumped up for 2010!”

I want to thank everyone who signed up for the contest and sent us back their reaction to Pataki’s speech. I was not able to list all of the responses, but they were all positive. I also want to congratulate the two individuals who won the $15 Starbucks gift certificates.

In a conference call yesterday with reporters, Pataki came out strongly in support of traditional marriage. Kay Henderson, the News Director of Radio Iowa, asked Pataki about same-sex marriage which is and issue here and in Pataki’s home state of New York. Below is Pataki’s answer to Henderson’s question:

“I happen to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. That was the law in New York when I was there and it’s still the law today and I think it is the appropriate law,” Pataki said.

“But I think there is another issue here and that is the whole question of judicial activism…The governor is proposing legislation, it’s passed the state assembly — that’s the way to make policy determinations. You want to have the elected representatives of the people vote when you’re making important policy decisions. You don’t want — in most cases — unelected judges, unaccountable judges declare by dictate what they believe policy should be. When that happens, we have removed the elected representatives of the people from their primary role which is to determine policy and pass legislation.

“So on the issue itself I think marriage is between a man and a woman and should continue to be between a man and a woman. On what happened when a court determines otherwise…whether you agree with the decision, whether agree with the action they took or not, it is wrong for the judiciary to overstep its appropriate role and to take away from the elected officials their right to set the policy of the state and our country.”

Henderson also asked Pataki about the recent comments by McCain advisor Steve Schmidt, who recently came out in favor of same-sex marriage and wants Republicans to drop the issue. You can read Pataki’s answer on Henderson’s blog by clicking here.

When asked if his visit to Iowa indicates that he might be looking to run for President in 2012, Pataki said that he wants to help the Americans Future Fund elect conservative candidates in 2009 and 2010.

The American Future Fund Lecture Series is open to the public.

American Future Fund Lecture Series
Featuring Former New York Governor George Pataki
Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 7 p.m.

Drake University Law School
Cartright Hall, Room 213
2621 Carpenter Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa

Click here to RSVP

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee have already visited the state since Election Day. Gov. Jindal was in Iowa to help the Iowa Family Policy Center, and Huckabee made a swing through Iowa to promote his new book. Just recently, the American Future Fund, a national conservative group based in Iowa, announced that they are holding a conservative lecture series that will begin this Wednesday.

The series will kick off on Wednesday night at Drake University. Former New York Governor George Pataki will present, “Yes We Still Can: Why Washington Has Failed, and How We Can Reclaim America’s Future.” Pataki spent considerable time meeting the people of Iowa in 2005 and 2006. Many Iowans expected Pataki to run for President in 2008. In the fall of 2006, Pataki assembled a well-respected group of political operatives to work in Iowa for his 21st Century Freedom PAC.

The list of people who backed Pataki early on included former State Senator Stewart Iverson, Ed Failor, Jr.(President of Iowans for Tax Relief), Loras Schulte (Former RPI State Central Committee member and well respected social conservative), Craig Schoenfeld (Campaign veteran, and Iowa lobbyist), Erik Helland (now a State Representative), Jo-Ellen Hill (Ted Sporer’s wife, Ted was a SCC member and Polk County Chairman at the time), and Noreen Bush (who is now Rep. Kraig Paulsen’s Chief of Staff).

Pataki seemed to have a lot of the necessary pieces in the summer of 2006, but one by one they all left his leadership PAC in the fall of that year, many of them ending up with Senator John McCain’s campaign.

The American Future Fund also released dates for two other lectures. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) will speak in Sioux City on June 1, and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) will appear in Dubuque on Oct. 1. The series will provide an excellent opportunity for potential 2012 candidates to come to Iowa and test the waters. The series will also provide Iowans with an early, unvarnished look at some of the politicians who want to be part of national discussion as Republicans start to look for a presidential candidate to support in 2012.

National political pundits have begun to speculate on what type of impact the court’s ruling will have on the caucuses. Overwhelmingly, these pundits all agree that the court’s decision will force Republican presidential hopefuls to the right.

I agree with the national pundits that our presidential candidates will have to address the gay marriage issue. However, I think it is inaccurate to say that the only thing that Iowa Republicans will care about in 2012 is passing a marriage amendment to the Iowa Constitution. One only needs to attend a presidential campaign event in Iowa to see proof that Iowans care about a number of issues facing our country. I also think it’s a safe bet that, no matter where these candidates spend their time campaigning between now and the Iowa Caucuses, the issue of gay marriage will be on minds of primary and caucus voters all across America.

Case in point would be Pataki’s home state of New York. New York Gov. David Paterson was recently joined by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at a news conference announcing plans to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. It doesn’t matter if these candidates are campaigning in California, New York, or Iowa, the issue of same-sex marriage will be one that they will have to address.

The Iowa Republican will be covering the American Future Fund Lecture Series from start to finish. If you would like to attend one of these events, their contact information is located below.

American Future Fund Lecture Series
Featuring Former New York Governor George Pataki

Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 7 p.m.

Drake University Law School
Cartright Hall, Room 213
2621 Carpenter Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa

More information about the American Future Fund can be found by visiting their website: www.AmericanFutureFund.com

American Future Fund
4225 Fleur Drive, #142
Des Moines, IA 50321
Email: info@americanfuturefund.com
Phone: (515) 720-5250