VANDER PLAATS STOPS INCLUDE DENISON, CRESTON, KNOXVILLE, FAIRFIELD, MOUNT PLEASANT, KEOKUK, BURLINGTON, GRINNELL, DALLAS CENTER DURING WEEK OF MARCH 1

             DES MOINES – Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats will make campaign appearances across southern Iowa during the week of March 1, appear at a pre-county convention event in Dallas Center on March 5 and travel to several GOP county conventions on March 6.
 
                        On Monday, March 1, Vander Plaats will be at Godfather’s Pizza, 2506 4th Avenue South, Denison, at noon. He will be at the Pizza Ranch, 520 Livingston Ave., Creston, at 6:00 p.m. that same day.  On Tuesday, March 2, Vander Plaats will make a "Bob on the Job" visit to Boyt Harness in Osceola.  He will be at Godfather’s Pizza, 1504 North Lincoln St., Knoxville, at noon.  At 6:00 p.m. that day, he will be in Ottumwa at the Country Kitchen, 1107 N. Quincy St.
 
            On Wednesday, Vander Plaats has a noon stop at the Pizza Ranch, 1103 W. Burlington Ave., in Fairfield and a 6:00 p.m. stop at the Pizza Ranch, 708 N. Grand Ave., Mount Pleasant.  Vander Plaats will be at the Hawkeye Restaurant, 105 North Park Drive, in Keokuk at noon Thursday. He will be at RonDavoo Pizza, 605 S. 10th Street, Burlington at 6:00 p.m. Thursday.
 
            On Friday, Vander Plaats will speak at Godfather’s Pizza, 800 Fourth Ave., Grinnell, at noon.  He will attend the Dallas County GOP pre-convention rally at 6:00 p.m. Friday at the Dallas Center Elementary School in Dallas Center.  He is expected to attend several county conventions on Saturday. Details will be released early next week.
 
            “Iowa needs a governor who is finally going to control the ridiculous level of state government spending – and that’s exactly what I’ll do. We also need a governor who will create an economic environment that says Iowa is open for business so big, medium and small companies can thrive and create new jobs,” Vander Plaats said.  “I have some ideas about how to make that happen, including creating a fair tax structure for all businesses by ending the way government currently tries to pick winners and losers.”
 
            He added, “I’m especially interested in hearing what business owners, working Iowans, retirees, students and those who have lost their jobs during Chet Culver’s watch have to say about the best ways to get our state moving in the right direction.  I encourage anyone with ideas about improving our economy and any aspect of government to join me at one of these events and we’ll have an honest conversation about what to do to make Iowa’s future better.”
 
            Vander Plaats was the Republicans’ 2006 lieutenant governor nominee.  He was a high school teacher and principal before being named chief executive officer of Opportunities Unlimited, a Sioux City non-profit organization that cares for people with head and spinal injuries.  Vander Plaats and his wife, Darla, have four sons. Their third son, Lucas, was born with a serious physical disability and inspired Vander Plaats to write the book, “Light from Lucas.”

Posted via web from Team Vander Plaats

Mike Huckabee stumps in Iowa for Vander Plaats

Mike Huckabee stumps in Iowa for Vander Plaats

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Tea Party movement represents an energized Republican base, and its members shouldn’t think of looking elsewhere. That’s Mike Huckabee’s advice.

“I think the Tea Party has energized a whole new political group of people,” Huckabee, the former Arkansas Republican governor and current Fox News commentator. “It’s been 100 percent positive.”

Huckabee, in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday to rally support for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats, said the year-old protest movement has attracted new activists to the party.

Huckabee and Vander Plaats want to make them feel at home.

“For the most part, they’ll join up with conservative Republicans,” Huckabee said.

He’s probably right: In a CNN-Opinion Research poll last week, 44 percent of those who had attended Tea Party events or otherwise supported the movement identified themselves as Republicans. Of the 52 percent who self-identified as “independent,” 87 percent said they would vote for a Republican congressional candidate if an independent alternative weren’t available.

Huckabee wants to make sure an independent isn’t available.

“If the Tea Party falls into a third party, it’s the end of it,” he said. “Their power now is that they represent a mood and a spirit, not an organization. When they become institutionalized, that will be their demise.”

Vander Plaats is the best fit for the newcomers, especially those concerned over the state Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage, according to Huckabee.

via qctimes.com

Posted via web from Team Vander Plaats

Huckabee: I’m here as a positive, not negative force « Iowa Independent

Huckabee: I’m here as a positive, not negative force

2008 Caucus winner downplays his 2012 aspirations while stumping for Vander Plaats

By Lynda Waddington 2/24/10 2:40 PM

CEDAR RAPIDS — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made clear Wednesday at a press conference that his presence in the state was to accentuate the positives of the person he believes is the best choice to lead the state of Iowa, and not to serve as a negative attack dog on other politicians.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob Vander Plaats talk to the media in Cedar Rapids (photo by Lynda Waddington/Iowa Independent).

Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa presidential caucuses, will make several stops Wednesday on behalf of Bob Vander Plaats, a Sioux City businessman in the midst of a heated Republican gubernatorial primary. The Iowa Family Policy Center, an influential conservative religious organization, has made clear that as an organization it will not support any other candidate for governor besides Vander Plaats, and that it will encourage those who feel the same to stay home if another candidate wins the June primary.

“[T]hat’s not why I’m here. I’m not here to get in the middle of their (The Iowa Family Policy Center’s) business,” said Huckabee, noting that he and Terry Branstad, Iowa’s former governor now considered the front-runner for the Republican nomination, have long been friends.

“We not only served together as governors, but we were co-national chairs for the presidential election bid for Lamar Alexander at one time. We’ve been good friends during my many visits to Iowa. This is not about Terry Branstad. This is about the very strong, deep, personal relationship I have with Bob Vander Plaats, plus my confidence that he would be a great governor at this time in Iowa.”

Huckabee, who is the only Republican presidential candidate from recent years to foster and maintain an active political arm in Iowa, also downplayed any connection of his recent state visits to a 2012 bid of his own.

“I think it is too early. I know a lot of people are already laying out the tracks and getting all set, but I love what I’m doing,” he said, and noted the success of both his television show on the FOX cable network and his radio commentary series.

“This year I’m busy helping people like Bob,” he said. “I think it is a little getting ahead of the process when we are already trying to lay out what’s going to happen in 2012 [when] 2010 is the election cycle we have to focus upon. And, I’m not ruling anything out, but I’m not even going to start thinking about my position in 2012 until sometime in 2011. I understand that others are head-long and full-throttled. I get that. I don’t have the luxury of that because I’m totally consumed right now with what I already have to do.”

He added that his reasons for visiting the Hawkeye State are “not so much about what I’m going to do in the future, but a whole lot to do with what I’ve already done in the past” and the people he has come to know and respect in the state.

via iowaindependent.com

Posted via web from Team Vander Plaats

Vander Plaats campaigns in Davenport

Vander Plaats campaigns in Davenport

byThomas Geyer

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John Schultz Republican candidate for Iowa Governor Bob Vander Plaats shakes the hand of Linda Willareth of Bettendorf, Thursday Feb. 18, 2010, during a campaign stop at Godfather's Pizza in Davenport. (John Schultz / Quad-City Times)

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It is a great time for someone who has never held political office to make a run for the governorship of Iowa, Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats said Thursday.

Speaking to about 50 people at the Godfather’s Pizza restaurant on East Kimberly Road in Davenport, Vander Plaats, one of three candidates vying for the Republican nomination, said he has no political record by which he can be hanged. 

The other two candidates are former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and State Rep. Rob Roberts of Carroll. Earlier Thursday, a fourth Republican candidate, Christopher Rants, dropped out of the race.

“I believe Gov. (Chet) Culver wants Branstad to be the Republican nominee,” Vander Plaats said. “He has a record big-time to run against.”

Culver has had the recession to deal with, while Branstad had the 1980s, Vander Plaats said. 

While Branstad was in office, he said, the state sales tax was raised twice, fees were increased 30 times, and gambling and the lottery were established to help pay state bills.

Vander Plaats said Culver has grown the government, and hired 2,500 new employees during his tenure. When the recession took its toll, he added, the Culver administration instituted a 10 percent across-the-board cut that showed no imagination.

Instead, Culver should have cut programs that were not working and the state could do without, Vander Plaats said. 

The state’s tax structure also does not promote the growth of private business, he added. 

Vander Plaats said that Iowa is first in the nation in a wage disparity between government employees and private sector employees, with the government employees coming out on top.

It used to be that people would work in the private sector for good salaries, benefits and job security, he said. Now, people try to be hired by a government agency for those same incentives private industry used to provide.

“How long can you grow the public sector at the expense of the private sector and have things turn out well?” he asked the crowd.

The state does not have a revenue problem, Vander Plaats said. “It has a spending problem.”

To grow Iowa, the state’s education system has to be improved, the tax system must be more business friendly, the bureaucracy must be reduced, and Iowa must remain a right to work state, he said.

“I want to be a transformation governor that opens up the state for business and limits government,” Vander Plaats said.

via qctimes.com

Posted via web from Team Vander Plaats

GlobeGazette.com :: Vander Plaats to visit Mason City Wednesday. ..

Vander Plaats to visit Mason City Wednesday

MASON CITY — Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, will greet people at the Pizza Ranch starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Vander Plaats sought the nomination in 2002 and 2006. He became the running mate of the eventual candidate, Jim Nussle, in 2006.

He will compete in a Republican primary this year with former governor Terry Branstad of Urbandale, State Rep. Rod Roberts of Carroll, and State Rep. Chris Rants of Sioux City.

— By John Skipper

via globegazette.com

Posted via web from Team Vander Plaats