Matt Strawn, Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI), announced today that Sarah Palin will be the Party’s special guest at their upcoming fall dinner. The Reagan Dinner: A Salute to Freedom will be held on Friday, September 17 in the evening, at a location and time that are yet to be determined.
“The Iowa GOP is pleased that Gov. Palin is traveling to Iowa to join the battle to return principled, conservative leadership to Iowa,” said Chairman Strawn. “Our economic and personal freedoms are under attack in Washington, DC and Des Moines. I know Iowa Republicans will be energized and motivated by Gov. Palin to stand up and fight for these principles all the way to Election Day and beyond.”
As noted by Craig Robinson at The Iowa Republican (TIR), the former Alaska governor and [...]
The following was released by the Polk County Republican Party:
The Polk County Republican Party commissioned a poll in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District that shows Republican Brad Zaun leading by 7.3% points in a head to head match-up with incumbent Leonard Boswell.
“These numbers are very encouraging for Senator Zaun and Republicans across the board. It is clear voters in central Iowa are looking for new, principled leadership,” said Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa Matt Strawn.
Other highlights in the survey include:
Zaun beats Boswell in Polk County, 46.5% to 38.4%
Among Independent voters, Zaun again leads Boswell, 41.3% to 31.7%
Boswell hard re-elect is only at 24.7% with a total re-elect of 34%, but 51.3% of voters say it’s time for a new person
25.4% of Democrats say it’s ‘definitely time’ for a new person
Paul McKinley is the Iowa Senate Republican Leader
Iowans received more sobering news on the economy late last week. Unemployment ticked up to 6.9 percent with 116,800 Iowans out of work – an increase of 2,600 from the month before.
This news comes as Governor Culver is traveling the state touting his $1.7 billion dollar I-JOBS program that he promised would create 30,000 jobs and spur an economic revitalization of Iowa’s economy. But since unveiling his I-JOBS idea during the Condition of the State address in January 2009, Iowa has actually lost over 30,000 jobs while nearly $1.7 billion has been added to the state’s credit card.
Based on employment numbers from Iowa Workforce Development, the [...]
[Update: some of the text of the proposed rule change included struck out content - It's corrected now. - Ed.]
Matt Strawn met with bloggers today to provide a report on the meetings he has attended at the RNC recently. One of the items he brought back was the recommendation from the Temporary Delegate Selection Committee (TDSC), tasked with looking at how to modify the rules around Primaries and Caucuses in the 2012 Presidential Nominating process.
The proposal by the committee, which will be taken up at the Summer RNC meeting in August, establishes a starting point on March 6, 2012 for primaries and caucuses. Iowa is one of 4 states exempted from the date, so we will be able to hold the Republican Iowa Caucuses earlier in the year. Matt indicated that he expected an early February date for the caucus.
Along with Iowa, the states of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada will also be exempted.
The new rules recommendation also constrains states that hold their primaries and caucuses prior to April 1 to provide proportional representation to the Republican National Convention in 2012. This is being doing to prevent a large state from holding their primary early in March and taking away the perceived impact of the exempted states. According to Matt, this rule does [...]
Overall, this was probably the most entertaining political event that I have attended yet this year. Hats off to Iowans For Tax Relief (ITR) for putting on a great program!
The afternoon consisted of a speech by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (who is currently considered a likely candidate for President in 2012, but is being shy about the idea), and 8 minute speeches by each of the candidates for Governor (except for the Democrat) intended to be focused on the Iowans for Tax Relief Candidate Questionnaire. The actual answers provided by the candidates to the questionnaire will be at ITR’s web site on Monday. Dave Stanley, Chairman and Founder of ITR and Ed Failor, Jr, President of ITR, spoke at the beginning of the event (I don’t think the video below includes Dave’s remarks). Kathy Obradovich from the Des Moines Register was the MC during the Candidates portion of the program.
I’ll be tweeting from the Iowan’s For Tax Relief (ITR) “2010 Iowa Taxpayers’ Day” event at the Northwest Holiday Inn in Des Moines. All of the candidates for Governor (except for Governor Culver) will be grilled here today, and we’ve already got a number of press and bloggers present.
Even Steve Deace is here, standing 3 feet away explaining that he tries to get to these kind of events ONCE in a while so people don’t think he’s just a disembodied voice like the namesake of “Charlie’s Angels”.
Just had a nice chat with Dawn Pettengill (Republican State Representative from District 39, Benton County), who in 2007 switched from Democrat to Republican. I asked her how it’s been being a Republican, and she said that she’s found that being a Republican aligns so much more closely to her positions and that of her constituents. I also asked her if she has been pressed to vote against her own position, and she said she has never been asked to vote a certain way. It seems like being a Republican, at least in the Iowa House, is a team effort. I’ve heard from other Republicans there that the past few sessions the Republican caucus has really been very strongly aligned on most issues.
Of all the weeks on the calendar, this may be the week Iowa taxpayers look forward to the least.
On one hand, this week marks the deadline for filing federal tax returns. Many Iowans will likely write bigger checks to both the federal and state government this year.
On the other hand, this is also the week where every school district in the state must certify their budget for the upcoming school year. Normally, this might not seem like a particularly noteworthy annual occurrence to everyday Iowans. But due to the recent actions by Governor Culver and legislative Democrats, property tax increases are on the way.
Last fall, when Governor Culver made his 10 percent across-the-board reduction after three years of unsustainable spending and irresponsible budgeting, hundreds of millions of dollars were slashed from Iowa’s schools. This left a gaping divide between the money schools had to spend and the budget they had been following.
DES MOINES – Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn issued the following statement on today’s passage of health insurance legislation by the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Instead of working for bipartisan reforms that most Iowans could support, Iowa’s congressional Democrats chose a partisan approach that amounts to a staggering, half-a-trillion dollar cost to the American taxpayer while giving the federal government an unprecedented amount of control over personal health care decisions.
“The blatant disregard shown for the opinions of everyday Iowans who oppose this partisan bill is offensive enough, but it is unconscionable for Congressmen Boswell, Braley and Loebsack to force another $562 billion in debt on our children and grandchildren.”
The Rees for Congress Campaign is inviting the public to join them in opening their new headquarters. A Grand Opening with light refreshments has been scheduled for the evening of Friday, March 12, 2010 from 5:30 – 7 p.m. The office is located on the NW corner of 5th St and Railroad Ave. There is ample parking along both sides of 5th Street and off-street [...]
Matt Strawn, Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI), announced today that Sarah Palin will be the Party’s special guest at their upcoming fall dinner. The Reagan Dinner: A Salute to Freedom will be held on Friday, September 17 in the evening, at a location and time that are yet to be determined.
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