What the GOP primary really means; Ed Fallon needs work
So much for strategy. As he was gearing up to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Terry Branstad told a guy that he would campaign on economic issues and on his love of the state and would stay away from the social issues that divide his party. He made his first campaign appearance Saturday, in Wilton in eastern Iowa. He did in fact talk about the economy, but he also said he favored putting Iowa’s same-sex marriage ruling to a vote of the people.
“During his remarks, Branstad called for a public referendum to define marriage,” the Quad-City Times reported. “He called the state Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage ‘appalling,’ and he likened the inability to put the issue on the ballot to a ‘dictatorship.’”
The sound you hear is the Republican moderates (all three of them) rushing to the exits. Along with a couple hundred thousand independents.
One of those three moderates sent Skinny a note last week explaining that the coming Republican primary is about a lot more than just who gets to run against Chet Culver. “A part of this is settling scores, another part is Iowa caucus related and, yes, [part is] the contest on the ballot,” this person said. He, or maybe she (“Keep my name out of the mix,” she, or maybe he, said) continued: “There was bad blood between Doug Gross and Bob VanderPlaats during the ’02 GOP gubernatorial race [which Gross lost to Tom Vilsack], especially at the end. The two ripped one another, nearly allowing Rep. Steve Sukup, as the good guy, to win a razor-thin, three-way primary race. As it was, Gross barely exceeded the minimum threshold of 35 percent to avoid the battle going to a state convention. Since then, Gross sided with [loser Jim] Nussle in his poorly run ’06 [gubernatorial] effort that saw VanderPlaats join the ticket after dropping his primary candidacy.” There’s more: “Differences continued during ’07 and early ’08 with Gross leading the Mitt Romney effort in Iowa and VanderPlaats chairing the Mike Huckabee campaign, which won. Both former Governors are quietly preparing encore efforts. Huckabee will deal with high expectations; unclear yet what commitment Romney would make to Iowa a second time around. Huckabee has endorsed VanderPlaats in the ’10 GOP primary, as you know. With a ’10 victory, a newly re-inaugurated Terry Branstad would be in the thick of the action with governors and former governors dominating the field — possibly including Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Haley Barbour, even George Pataki, who made early stops in Iowa in ’05-06, only to defer to Rudy Giuliani when he made his candidacy clear. A governor Branstad would likely remain neutral, but not necessarily his political team with a data base of updated names.” In other words, Gross is still pissed, and one reasons he’s backing Branstad is so he can settle a few scores.
It all sounds like a soap opera to Skinny, and if the GOP needs some musical accompaniment, we know whom to ask. Self-styled reformer Ed Fallon, who is nothing if not versatile, told his followers last week that “The long and short of it is this: I need to put my musical abilities on the market and would ask you to keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities.” He is, he says, available for “weddings, holiday parties and... special events.” Want “classical or light jazz?” Ed’s your man. Want someone who can handle the accordion, classical guitar, folk guitar, piano, Irish whistle or Irish drum? Ed’s your man. Want a church organist? Ed’s your man. It’s unlikely his old foe Chet Culver will sign him up for campaign events. And his note doesn’t say whether he’ll be available to play at the embezzlement trial of his friend Phyllis Stevens.
When Skinny mentioned this to a friend, the friend wondered if Ed plays the piano with both hands — “or just his left?”
That Stevens trial will be about more than embezzlement, lawyers and civil-rights folks note. Aviva’s lawyers are trying to force Marla Stevens to testify against Phyllis Stevens, her spouse, in the federal case. But it’s unclear what rules would prevail; it’s possible federal courts could say that since Iowa recognizes same-sex marriages, the right not to testify against a spouse prevails in all courts in the state. At any rate, Aviva is not making any friends in the gay and civil-rights communities by insisting on the testimony.
Back to the Republican gubernatorial wannabes. In his latest missive, Christopher Rants writes: “This week the focus turns to education. The need for a standardized school calendar and indenting students to take their tests seriously.”
That is all. CV
