I wasn’t able to live blog the Iowa GOP state central committee meeting as their wifi wasn’t working properly. I live tweeted it instead from my phone. As expected, A.J. Spiker won re-election as chair of the Republican Party of Iowa edging out Bill Schickel 13 votes to 5. I’ve embedded some of the “money tweets” below. Also I’d like to apologize to Bill Schickel as I repeatedly misspelled his name in my tweets. Sorry Bill!
Steve Scheffler says disunity needs to stop, nominates @ajspiker for @iowagop chair.”A.J. quickly earned the trust of Reines Preibus.”
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker raised over $600K, and managed over $5 million in victory fund.Wrote a check to every candidate. — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker Despite unwarranted criticism I worked with Republicans of all stripes… Cites several examples. — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker I am not a chairman who will toe the party line if it means throwing grassroots activists aside. — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker I believe that chair oversees party functions and upholds principles. #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel – rise above individual personalities and do what is best for entire party all 600K Republicans #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel – the promise is not being fulfilled, cites losses, “our party is at risk of being a dinosaur if we don’t change.” #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel says @ajspiker has run a good old boy campaign one on one, which is fine if not running for #iagop chair
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel #iagop needs to be party of solutions and ideas, not just say what we are against.Time to accomplish platform.
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker Reince Priebus has been good to work with and good to #iagop, plans to support his reelect as #RNC chair. — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel “I am a supporter of the straw poll.” Not role of #iagop chair to pick fight with @terrybranstad over it. — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker straw poll – great event, but some candidates have put too much stock in it without building infastructure cites @michelebachmann — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker putting together 12 month fundraising plan, resurrecting finance committe which should have never been disbanded. — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker @terrybranstad hasn’t unendorsed me publicly – room laughs #iagop (response to endorsement question) — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
@ajspiker we lose members of this party if we don’t stand up on issues (in particular discussing #fiscalcliff) #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel will speak out on issues if helpful when consulting leadership.
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel is open to having #iagop chair elected at state convention, but thinks current system is ok.
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel we keep people in party if we instill confidence #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel chair shouldn’t brought entire Ron Paul staff over.Said it disenfranchised Republicans. — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Scheikel said supporters of any candidate should be engaged and feel welcome #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Bill Schiekel – I think Steve and our staff are doing a good job.He doesn’t plan on changing staff. #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
An addendum to the quote above, Schickel gave the caveat if they supported his plans/goals, etc.
Will you support every candidate after primaries?Both candidates said they would. #iagop — Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
I spoke with Tamara Scott, Iowa’s Republican National Committeewoman after the vote and she said, “I think that the agreement coming from the committee meeting today, with members wanting to move forward in a unified fashion to do what is best for the 600,000 Republicans across the state.”
Iowa Republican National Committeeman Steve Scheffler said, “I think it was a harmonious day. We elected the leadership for the next two years and now I think it is incumbent on everybody to get behind the team and figure out how we can elect a Republican slate in 2014 and 16. So we have differences from time to time, but by and large we are together on issues and we just need to major on the majors and not major on the minors.”
A.J. Spiker said following the state central committee meeting, “I was very pleased with the 13 to 5 vote count. Bill is a very capable, worthy opponent to be running against for the state chairman position. To receive 13 votes of the 18 committee members I felt very good about their view of how I conducted myself as chairman and their decision to retain me.” When he was elected early in 2012 to fill the vacancy left by Matt Strawn the vote count was 9 to 8, but there were additional members of Campaign for Liberty who were elected to the state central committee since. He received votes beyond members with that background however.
The Co-Chair race was between David Fischer who was also one of Ron Paul’s Iowa co-chairs along with A.J. Spiker, Eric Rosenthal and Wes Enos. Fischer won with 11 votes, Rosenthal had 4 votes and Enos had 3. Mark Doland was unopposed for the Secretary’s position when Wes Enos was nominated, but said he’d withdraw. John Kabitzke was unopposed for the treasurers position.
Some tweets during the co-chair race I’d like to highlight:
Jamie Johnson said that SCC needs to send clear message that we are not the Ron Paul Party of Iowa. #iagop
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Johnson nominated Wes Enos.
Fischer quotes @jimdemint “I am no longer confident that Republicans have been reliable partner for the conservative cause.” #iagop
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Fischer: Our party needs to be about more than protecting our party, primaries strength party #iagop
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
A correction to the tweet above, it should say, “our party needs to be about more than protecting incumbents.”
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Wes Enos: Regarding who supported what candidate… “Who cares?”. We are not going to get anywhere applying labels #iagop
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
Rosenthal: If we don’t have integrity in our voting process how can we ask anyone to run #iagop
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) January 5, 2013
A side note, the state central committee later in the meeting formed a voting fraud task force.
A.J. Spiker in an official statement sent out after the votes said, “I am proud of all our dedicated Republican candidates who ran for party positions today. We had an open and honest discussion that allowed each candidate to outline their values and their direction for the Republican Party. I will be honored to work with David Fischer, John Kabitzke, Mark Doland and all the members of our State Central Committee going forward to advance the principles of our party and elect Republicans. Together we will continue to build a strong Republican party dedicated to the principles of less government, lower taxes, and a return to the Constitution.”