The Ron Paul Party of Iowa

After reading Kevin Hall’s piece yesterday at The Iowa Republican about the staffing changes at the Republican Party of Iowa, and his preview on this Saturday’s State Convention I have to ask, “why does Kevin hate liberty?”

I don’t think Kevin hates liberty, but that is a common response by some Ron Paul supporters when you speak in opposition about some of the happenings going on in Iowa.  I encourage you to read Kevin’s pieces, but here is a recap of the changes that have taken place.

• Eight of the State Central Committee Members are Ron Paul backers.
• The State Chair, A.J. Spiker, is a former Iowa co-chair for Ron Paul’s campaign.
• The majority of the national convention delegates will be Ron Paul backers.
• The rules committee, comprised of a majority of Ron Paul backers, changed the rules allowing a simple majority vote for the National Committeewoman and National Committeeman positions.  It used to be the winner had to receive 50%.  This makes it highly likely that outgoing State Representative and Ron Paul supporter, Kim Pearson, will become the next Republican National Committeewoman for Iowa since the non-Ron Paul vote will be split four ways.  If there had to be a run-off that likely wouldn’t be the case.  I personally like Kim and consider her a friend and we many shared values, convictions and a shared faith.  I just can’t see her in this role however.  That’s why I endorsed Tamara Scott she can unite the party, while at the same time advance conservative principles.  If the non-Ron Paul supporters don’t coalesce around one candidate with it’s Tamara, Scott County GOP Chair Judy Davidson or Montgomery County GOP Chair Margaret Stoldorf it will be Pearson who wins.  Somebody who can’t garner 50% of the delegate vote shouldn’t represent the state party within the Republican National Committee.
• Kevin pointed out platform changes that have been made by a, you guessed it, a platform committee loaded with Ron Paul backers… “And our platform preamble will be plagiarized from the Libertarian Party, while platform planks will change from supporting Israel to not providing any foreign aid to anyone (11.8), changing Iowa to a recall state like Wisconsin (7.9), and allowing the Mike Gronstal-controlled legislature to pick our U.S. Senators (7.6)  …”  Why in the world would we want to become a recall state?  I understand the desire to repeal the 17th Amendment, but frankly it isn’t going to happen.  A federal personhood amendment or marriage amendment has a better chance of passing out of Congress and being ratified than what they suggest.  Their position on Israel goes against what a clear majority of the Republican Party believes.
• A.J. Spiker’s hires.  I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but his actions prove that I was wrong to do that.  All three hires (Megan Stiles as the Communications Director, Steve Bierfeldt as the new executive director, and John Ferland as the organization director) had to be Ron Paul backers?  That isn’t to speak against their qualifications, but if there was an area where Spiker could have showed some good will this was it.  With most of what I listed above the rest of the party only has itself to blame.  They were out-hustled by the Paul campaign as they were better organized.  Spiker mishandled Bierfeldt’s hiring by non consulting all of the State Central Committee and not announcing the hire until 10 days before the state convention when he will have a new state central committee that will rubber stamp it.

They can certainly ramrod all of this through on Saturday, which I’m sure they will.  But what they have likely done is prepared the way for a backlash.  It makes me think of the saying, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice then shame on me.”  I’m sure that will come into play next time around.  In the meantime it will be interesting to see what kind of financial backlash the Republican Ron Paul Party of Iowa will face.