Video presentations from David Vaudt, who criticized Democrats 30% slash of his budget as an attempt to “muzzle the taxpayers’ watchdog” and Bill Northey who wants to see more republicans in the state capital.

Representatives Tom Latham and Steve King could not attend, but they probably had a good excuse since they are working in Washington tonight.  Both provided videos where they spoke to the health care bill being debated today.  Both are trying to kill it.  King stated that ”Iowans need to speak out until the bill is mortally wounded with a stake in its heart!”

Huge applause came for Senator Grassley as he stepped on the stage to speak.

Quotes from Chuck Grassley: “Our common focus is leadship and vision for the future.”, “Iowans of every political stripe were telling me, both by words and by action, that they are scared.” “For the first time in the history of the United States the government wants to tell us we must buy something.”  Grassley also mentioned that Republicans have a 200 page bill as an alternative to Democrats 1,995 page bill.  “They want to redistribute wealth, they want to take property without just compensation, and that is not Constitutional.  That won’t happen on my watch.”

Quotes from Matt Strawn: “It’s a good week to be a Republican, not just because of how we won, but how we were able to show the distinctions between Republicans and Democrats to the voters.”, “Iowans are desperate for competent leadership.”  “Real leaders don’t sign the largest budget in the states history and then try to convince iowans otherwise.” 

Pawlenty: “Chuck Grassley has changed Washington more than Washington has change him.” “(Re: Virginia and New Jersey) We need to launch the same comeback across America.” 

Tim Pawlenty provided a stimulating speech to Republicans in Iowa tonight.  It was clear before too long that he was working on his 2012 campaign, but provided ammunition and motivation to push folks toward 2010 as well.

All of the candidates for Governor provided strong speeches, each providing their own unique angle on pretty much the same message: Culver is making a mess of things, we need to cut spending, fix the definition of Marriage, bring more jobs to Iowa by making the state more business friendly. 

Tonight was the first big night for Republican activists to get a taste of Terry Branstad 2.0 (or perhaps 2.1).   He seemed a little rough tonight, starting out hesitatingly, but he eventually warmed up and did well. 

A major benefit of tonight’s event is the continued opportunity for activists to hear not just stump speeches, but ideas.  Although Republicans will be selecting one person to run against Chet Culver, the combined voices of all of the candidates bring some great perspective, great ideas, great concepts to merge together into a platform that our candidate for governor, whoever that ends up being, can bring.  The crowd tonight was well engaged… the big challenge is to keep them and voters engaged through the coming year and maintaining focus.

You can watch the entire event at CSPAN’s web site shortly.  We will provide a direct link to the video tomorrow.

New for me tonight is the Press Pass.  Even though I would have planned to attend anyhow, I was invited to be part of Bloggers’ Row, with the opportunity to speak with all of the candidates prior to the event.  Sharing the table with Craig Robinson of The Iowa Republican, and Albert Bregar of Iowa Defense Alliance, Grant Young of Questions, Comments and Insults,  Shane Vander Hart of Caffienated Thoughts, and some others.

Looks like we get to interview a bunch of politicians.  Should be interesting.

Note: Art Smith is Communications Director for the Polk County Republican Party.  His views as expressed here are not necessarily those of the Polk County Republican Party.

Just an observation but if the Executive Director of the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI)leaves this key position to work on the Branstad campaign, is that not sufficient reason to confirm that Branstad is going to run?   Well, Jeff Boeyink did.  RPI has benefited greatly from Jeff’s work, and will certainly be a challenged in finding a comparable replacement.  Matt Strawn had this to say today:

“I hope all Iowa Republicans join me in thanking Jeff for a job well done. The Iowa GOP is better off because of his service and tireless advocacy for principled, conservative government. I’m personally grateful for his wisdom and guidance and wish him well.”

This is a major coup for the Branstad campaign, due to Boeyink’s strong skills, relationships, experience, and the level of credibility he adds to the campaign.

From Terry Branstad’s campaign comes this statement:

Richard Schwarm today announced the hiring of Jeffrey Boeyink to lead the Terry Branstad 2010 Committee as it continues to explore a possible gubernatorial run by former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad.

Schwarm said, “This is the next natural step in our exploratory process as we move from a volunteer effort to the acquisition of professional staff and financial resources to take Terry Branstad 2010 to the next level of effectiveness.”

Boeyink has served as Executive Director of the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI) since last February and resigned yesterday to accept this new position. Prior to joining RPI, Boeyink served as President of Iowans for Tax Relief where he worked for more than two decades.

Schwarm also noted, “This appointment does not signal any change in Terry Branstad’s status as a potential gubernatorial candidate. He continues in his role at Des Moines University and will make his plans known at a future date.”

Others commenting today included Polk County GOP Co-Chair Will Rogers:

“Jeff has a tremendous amount of experience and will bring a level of talent to the race that is unparalleled by any of the other campaigns including Culver’s.”

The story broke this morning at The Iowa Republican web site (although I first found out about it from David Chung’s Hawkeye GOP site via Facebook).  As David stated, finding a new Exective Director is going to be job one for Matt Strawn.

For all of the other candidates for Governor, I think the time has come to acknowledge that Branstad is in the race, despite Schwarm’s comments about the campaign being “exploratory”.  For some, that might mean cutting off the campaign and for others it means being more direct in speaking about Branstad’s record and ability to beat Culver.  Either way, the elephant in the room should be visible now.

We will be talking about this today on The Bean Walker Live! internet radio show during the first hour.  Email me or chat me your comments today!

Join us!

“Iowans are overwhelmingly in favor of making health care more affordable, accessible and portable. Most Iowans are also happy with their health care coverage, they just want their elected officials to institute some reasonable and responsible market-based revisions to the current system to make health care less expensive, more accessible and more portable.

“The direction some in Washington D.C. want to pursue will not make health care more affordable, accessible or portable and instead amounts to a government take over of nearly one-fifth of the country’s economy. Instead of empowering patients and physicians, the direction D.C. is headed will strip away personal liberties and empower government bureaucrats. Now is not the time to throw out the entire system we utilize today and replace with an expensive, rigid and confusing bureaucrat controlled government takeover. The plans being discussed in Washington would add hundreds of billions in debt and do nothing to improve affordability, accessibility or portability.

“Instead, Iowa Senate Republicans are proposing a set of initiatives and reforms that can be implemented at a state level within the market-based health care system already in place. They are carefully crafted to make health care in Iowa more affordable, more accessible and more portable.

“First, Iowa Republicans propose to establish a statewide online information hub that brings together both cost and outcome quality data in a searchable format for consumers. We believe the information age provides a tremendous opportunity to compare cost and quality in the delivery of health care services. Competition and comparisons save employers, families and individuals money.

“Younger Iowans in the 18-30 age, given their relative age and better health, often do not make purchasing health insurance a high priority. As a result, when they do have to seek medical treatment it is often for a serious condition and therefore very expensive. In fact, there are 106,000 Iowans in this age group who do not have health insurance and account for roughly half of all the uninsured in the entire state. Therefore, Senate Republicans propose legislation that will encourage the development of low cost market-based catastrophic insurance products that will provide base care for younger Iowans.

“Third, no serious attempt at reducing rising health care and insurance costs can move forward without an honest attempt to address the issue of medical malpractice reform. We have continually championed the need to pass legislation that raises the burden of proof for malpractice claims and places reasonable limits on payment for damages. Those hefty costs are passed on to consumers like you.

“Next, current law allows large employers the opportunity to deduct health care costs “above the line” – meaning a dollar for dollar reduction in their taxable income equal to the employer share of health insurance costs. This is a tremendous incentive for employers to provide health insurance to their employees. Thus, it should be no surprise an independent study shows 94 percent of employers who have 50 or more employees provide health insurance, whereas 36 percent of employers who have 10 or fewer employees only offer health benefits.

“Because a significant portion of our population now work for small businesses or for themselves, we believe such “above the line” deductions for health insurance costs should be extended to all businesses and individuals. Some estimates suggest an above the line deduction for health insurance costs may provide a 30 percent savings on such costs and provide a significant incentive to offer health insurance benefits to their employees. If it’s good enough for Wall Street, it ought to be good enough for Main Street.

“Prevention programs that encourage long-term commitment to wellness practices are proven to reduce demand for expensive health services and curb future growth in health care spending. However, our current system chooses to focus on imposing penalties on those who practice less healthy lifestyle through higher insurance rates rather than rewarding good health practices with lower rates.

“Consequently, we propose legislation to encourage insurers to offer “prevention credits” to individuals and businesses that can be used to reduce health insurance rates for those that demonstrate a commitment to wellness and prevention. “Prevention credits” will allow an average Iowa family to save upwards of 15 percent on their health insurance premium or $1,635 on an average family policy. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services there is a return on investment of up to $4.91 for every dollar spent on wellness.

“Finally, we favor a bill that prohibits the denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions if you change policies within a health insurance company. Simply changing policies within a company does not mean you should lose your coverage if you have a pre-existing condition.

“I know we can make a real difference in lowering the cost of health care without turning our entire health care system and a large segment of our economy over to the government. We must utilize common sense reforms that can be done right here in Iowa. We can be a leader in showing the rest of the country how to achieve market based health care reforms that make health care more affordable, accessible and portable without adding hundreds of billions in generational debt and putting the government in charge of our health care.

 ”As always, I welcome hearing from you and can be reached by phone at 515-281-3560 or by e-mail at paul.mckinley@legis.state.ia.us.”

I think there is a lot to be said for focusing many of these efforts at a state level instead of federal.  Some states, like Florida, have implemented some tremendous solutions to help reduce costs and ensure that patients help participate in controlling those costs.  In some cases, both the challenges and solutions may more regionally specific and better solved regionally.

One area that will likely require some federal oversight will be cross-state portability.  Some states might be resistant to such portability (and admittedly, due to influence by Insurance Lobbiests), but it would still be beneficial to make this a joint effort between the states under the herding of Congress.

I like where Iowa Republican leadership is headed.

This fundraising event will be held at Living History Farms Flynn Barn (11121 Hickman Road in Urbandale) on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 5:30p (buffet dinner catered by The Iowa Machine Shed starts at 6:00p).  Parking will be available at the Visitor Center, and a shuttle will take you to the barn.  Handicapped assistance will be provided.

Tickets cost $30/single, $50/couple and $65/family

If you would like to RSVP, purchase a ticket, or have a question please contact:

• Connie Schmett – connieschmett@polkgop.com or 515-238-3611
• John Bloom – johnbloom@polkgop.com or 515-494-7458
• Will Rogers – willrogers@polkgop.com or 515-669-1648

Last Tuesday (September 29), I hosted the second half of Tim Albrecht’s program “The Bean Walker Live!” on Des Moines Local Live, and today begins 3 weeks of hosting the program in full while Tim concentrates on getting married!

On today’s show, during the first hour I will have Shane Vander Hart from Serve Our Youth Network to share about the volunteer opportunities they have and how they cooperate with local government to impact the lives of high-risk kids in the Des Moines Metro area.

During the second hour, Connie Schmett from Polk County (Iowa) Republicans will join us to talk about the upcoming Fall Dinner at Living History Farms this Sunday featuring the Iowa Republican Gubernatorial Candidates.  We will also talk about some of the big issues in state and federal government this week.

Here’s a link to the podcast of last week’s show.

Although I’m pleased to be included in this project, more importantly I’m impressed that the Register is providing a forum that allows more established bloggers an opportunity to present opinions on topics that are important to everyone from such a variety of perspectives. Most people in Central Iowa recognize that the Register’s editorial positions tend to lean to the Left (although they occasionally surprise us). It is an exceptional publication that works with people from an opposing perspective as actively as The Des Moines Register is at this time.

Bloggers featured include:

From the Left:

• Conner Anderson (the cman blog)
• John Deeth (John Deeth Blog)

From the Right:

• Katie Koberg (VP of Iowans for Tax Relief)
• Shane Vander Hart (Caffeinated Thoughts and occasionally here at The Conservative Reader)
• Art Smith (The Conservative Reader)

From Across The Spectrum:

• Graham Gillette (twitter)
• Steffen Schmidt (InsiderIowa.com)

All of these folks have great ideas and I’m looking forward to interacting with them and Des Moines Register readers.

Radio Gig

This coming week will also be the beginning of four weeks of filling in for Tim Albrecht on his internet radio program “The Beanwalker Live!” on the Macs World Live internet radio station. On Tuesday September 29th, I will be filling the 4:00 to 5:00 PM time slot. On Octobers 6th, 13th and 20th, I will be doing the entire two hours from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. I plan to have some great guests in October, so please check it out! And if you can’t catch it live, podcasts will be available!

This is one of the most important non-profit organizations in Iowa providing counseling and assistance to pregnant women.  Services available include financial assistance, pre- and post-natal health care, a safe place to stay, child care, and counseling, to name a few.  There are resources out there and there are people who care.  For more information, visit their web site at this link.

The Power Plant and Equipment Levy passed in West Des Moines.  Des Moines and Johnston each passed the Revenue Purpose Statement for the 1 cent option sales tax.  Ankeny voted down the bond issue to build a new elementary school.  And Urbandale voted down their Power Plant and Equipment Levy.

It’s too bad that voter turnout was down from prior elections.  Evidently a reflection of what people really care about.

Not schools.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

West Des Moines residents, thanks for voting in Mark Lagomarcino.  I think you’ll be glad you did.