Soul-searching Iowa GOP looks to the right

For the second election in a row, the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI) has been shut out of power.

Newly elected House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, and Assistant Minority Leader Steve Lukan, R-New Vienna.

In 2006, Democrats took control of both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion, and this year, as in the rest of the nation, the GOP saw its minority dwindle even further.

After a series of defeats, it’s typical for a political party to do some soul-searching to figure out what went wrong and what can be done to prevent further losses in the future.

As a result, a battle is raging between social conservatives and GOP moderates in Iowa, and at least for the time being, the conservatives are winning.

“It’s not an element of ‘Are you too conservative,’ it’s ‘You’re not conservative enough, and you’ve lost the trust [of voters],’” former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats said Wednesday on WHO radio’s Jan Mickelson Show, adding: “If we can’t be trusted, they won’t vote for us.”

The power of social conservatives became evident even before Election Day. At the party’s state convention, conservatives Kim Lehman and Steve Scheffler replaced more moderate Republicans representing the state on the Republican National Committee. Lehman is president of Iowa Right to Life and Scheffler is head of the Iowa Christian Alliance.

There has been much made of the recent move of state House Republicans ousting Rep. Christopher Rants as minority leader. But his replacement, Rep. Kraig Paulsen, doesn’t necessarily signal a dramatic change in direction for the party that has seen the Democrats expand their majority in the House 56-44.

Paulsen, who represents a suburb of Cedar Rapids, is a social conservative who has fought for more restrictions on illegal immigrants, opposes the statewide smoking ban and has long supported amending Iowa’s Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. Additionally, Paulsen served as Rants’ second-in-command in the House, which hardly makes for a clean break from past leadership.

“I think Rep. Paulsen and Rep. Rants are very similar in their views,” said Steve Grubbs, former chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa and CEO of the consulting firm Victory Enterprises. “Their styles are different, and I think the biggest change will be more behind the scenes.”

Rants has been the face of the House Republican opposition since 2002, clashing with Democrats in the media and raising millions for candidates around the state. Paulsen is more reflective and thoughtful, sources said, and isn’t expected to clash as openly with the majority party.

“I think I wind up a little slower than Rep. Rants,” Paulsen said.

The rest of the House GOP’s leadership is virtually unchanged, with Rep. Linda Upmeyer moving from assistant leader to whip and two of the four assistant leader positions remaining unchanged.

The GOP will also be choosing a new state chairman after the resignation of Stewart Iverson. The biggest name to throw his hat into the ring thus far is Polk County Republican chair and former State Central Committee member Ted Sporer, an outspoken social conservative who recently said he wanted his party to “fight the Democrats every day.”

From the ashes of 2008’s losses, the social conservatives within the RPI seem to be seizing power, something not all Republicans are happy with.

During a taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” Des Moines attorney (and Republican nominee for governor in 2000) Doug Gross said his party will forever be in the minority if it continues down its current path.

“When our party has litmus tests that are associated with abortion or homosexual rights or issues like this, we drive the young people away,” Gross said. “To be a success in politics, you’ve got to win elections, and you can’t win elections if you’re a minority party and you only focus on a minority of your coalition.”

Gross said the rightward drift of the state GOP will even have an affect on the national party due to the influence of the Iowa caucuses.

“We’ve gotten so far to the social right, particularly for caucus attendees, unless you can meet certain litmus tests you have a very difficult time competing in Iowa,” he said. “As a result, I think you will have some candidates who won’t compete here.”

Grubbs said that while his party does need to focus on “family values” issues, “that means protecting the family budget from taxes, increased energy bills and out-of-control spending.

“Those are traditional Republican talking points,” he said. “We win when we are fiscal conservatives. And we can be social conservatives that are still welcoming of people of all opinions.”

Moderate Republicans controlled Terrace Hill for 30 years, from the election of Robert Ray in 1969 to 1998, when Terry Branstad decided to retire from politics.  Since then, the state GOP has become much more conservative and the state has elected two Democrats, Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver, to serve as governor.

“Republicans in Iowa have to start looking to the future,” said Tim Hagle, associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa and a former member of the Johnson County Republican Central Committee. “In 2010, with Democrats in complete control of government, if the economy hasn’t improved it will make it very difficult for them to hold onto power.”

Grubbs said a gubernatorial primary in 2010 will do a lot to boost interest in the Republican Party of Iowa. A focus on controlling spending, something he said has gotten out of control under Democratic leadership, is a formula for success.

“It’s all about expanding voter turnout,” he said. “In 2008, the Republican Party of Iowa ran into the Obama juggernaut. So while we lost seats, I think in context we did pretty well. I think the party’s fortunes will improve in two years.”