Vander Plaats supporter and Christian radio host Steve Deace lobbed the first volley in an e-mail to conservative activists. He pointed to portions of Branstad’s record — such as tax increases during his tenure, earning an endorsement from teacher’s unions and his appointment of a lieutenant governor who supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights — and asked if they would ever consider supporting a “hypothetical candidate” with that kind of platform.

Deace got responses from numerious individuals, including former and current GOP candidates and the leaders of several of the state’s most influential conservative organizations.

Blogger and former Republican Party of Iowa Political Director Craig Robinson, a regular guest on Deace’s program who calls the radio host a “good man” and genuine friend, quickly fired back with a hypothetical of his own that criticized Vander Plaats’ record. He then took Vander Plaats supporters to task for blasting Branstad for doing things similar to another governor many of them once defended, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

I also would remind you, and a number of people on this e-mail chain (and my wife for that matter), that you guys voted for a candidate who was in favor of higher income taxes, higher sales taxes, higher gas taxes, higher grocery taxes, higher tobacco taxes, higher beer taxes, higher Internet taxes, and higher nursing home bed taxes.

You voted for a candidate who was the ONLY Republican to speak to the [National Education Association] and later receive their endorsement.

You voted for a candidate who called No Child Left Behind “the greatest education reform effort by the federal government in my lifetime.”

You voted for a candidate who supported amnesty and taxpayer-financed welfare and health care for illegal aliens.

What’s so ironic about your hypothetical question is that almost everything you take issue with in Branstad’s record are things that you either didn’t care about or chose to overlook in regards to Mike Huckabee. It looks like you have flip-flopped on these issues quicker than Mitt Romney ever could have.

Vander Plaats was Huckabee’s Iowa campaign director during the 2008 presidential caucus season, and Huckabee endorsed his gubernatorial bid last May. Many of the same groups and individuals who were active in the Huckabee presidential campaign are now supporting Vander Plaats. By the same token, many of Branstad’s supporters, including one-time chief of staff Doug Gross, were active in the campaign of Huckabee’s chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Branstad has been drawing fire from social and religious conservatives from the moment he announced he was interested in re-entering politics. A meeting with several social conservative leaders aimed at soothing their concerns ended up bolstering them, as details of a disappointed group ended up on several blogs. The back-and-forth culminated last month with state Rep. Kent Sorenson, R-Indianola, and the Iowa Family Policy Center announced that not only would they be endorsing Vander Plaats but that they would never support a Branstad candidacy.

In the aftermath, Vander Plaats refused to sign on to a loyalty oath passed by the Linn County Republican Party and also would not rule out a third-party run for governor should he be defeated in the primary.

Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa Caucuses and remains popular among Hawkeye State Republicans, said he would rather continue doing his Fox News program as opposed to re-entering the political world.

From Politico:

“The reason I wouldn’t is that this Fox gig I’ve got is really wonderful, ” he said, talking about whether or not he would get in the race given that he is a GOP front runner according to most recent polls.  “Jumping into the pool, you gottta make sure there is some water in it.”

Huckabee’s three trips to Iowa since the 2008 presidential election have stoked speculation that he is interested in another run. Two were to promote books and a third was to speak at the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s annual convention before holding a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats. Huckabee endorsed Vander Plaats earlier this year.

Scott Roeder (mugshot)

Leach publishes a newsletter called “Prayer & Action News,” which advocates the doctrine of justifiable homicide in the case of abortion doctors. The man accused of murdering Tiller, Scott Roeder, was a contributor to the publication. Leach and several other anti-abortion activists want to hire a private attorney in order to pursue a “necessity defense” for Roeder, which in general terms says that it’s OK to commit a crime in order to avoid a much greater harm.

In an exclusive interview with The Iowa Independent in August, Leach said he had drafted a legal brief on Roeder’s behalf using the “necessity defense.” Leach’s argument is that Tiller’s murder stopped an untold number of abortions.

Now Leach is organizing an online auction of items on eBay to raise money, an effort that launched Sunday night. The items include several graphic drawings done by a fellow inmate and signed by Roeder. A spokesman for eBay initially told the Kansas City Star that while the company does not oppose all listings that raise money for legal defense funds, “our policy does not permit listings that benefit someone charged with or convicted of a crime.”

The company has since announced that it will remove the items it deems violate the site’s listing policy, however several items are still available, such as a Bible once owned by an Oregon woman who shot and wounded Tiller in 1993.

Leach did not respond to a request for comment by the Iowa Independent.

Since Tiller’s murder, Leach has garnered a lot of media attention, both for his ties to Roeder and for his controversial statements regarding acts of violence against abortion providers. Shortly after Roeder’s arrest, Leach told The Iowa Independent that when human law conflicts with God’s Laws, “we ought to obey God rather than man.” He later told The Des Moines Register that he is personally no danger to abortion providers because he doesn’t know enough about guns to do any harm.

In the mid-1990s, Leach’s association with the accused killer of a Florida abortion doctor helped persuade U.S. marshals to guard the Planned Parenthood clinic in Des Moines.

In the January 1996 issue of his newsletter, Leach published the Army of God manual, which advocates the killing of the providers of abortion and contains bomb-making instructions. Because of this, he was fired from his job as a writer for an Ankeny newspaper.

In 2002, he tried to air videotape of patients entering a local Planned Parenthood clinic on public-access cable TV. Mediacom Communications Corp. decided it would not allow him to air the footage.

Now, throw former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee into the mix.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Des Moines last year promoting another book (Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent).

The winner of the 2008 Iowa Caucuses make three stops in Iowa Sunday, Nov. 8, to promote his latest book, “A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit.” Huckabee will be in Davenport at 2:30 p.m.,  Cedar Rapids at 5 p.m., and Des Moines at 8 p.m., a day after Pawlenty gives the keynote speech at a Republican Party of Iowa event in Des Moines.

It will be Huckabee’s second appearance in Iowa this year. In May, he spoke at the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s annual convention before holding a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats.

After Pawlenty and Huckabee leave town, Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul will return to Iowa for the first time since the 2008 Caucuses, where the Texas lawmaker finished fifth. Paul is scheduled to speak at Iowa State University in Ames on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. The next morning he will headline a fundraiser for state Rep. Kent Sorenson’s Iowa Senate campaign at the Des Moines Airport Holiday Inn.

The 2008 winner of the GOP Iowa Caucuses raised $304,673 during the first six months of 2009 for his PAC and disbursed $336,589, donating only $17,500 to candidates across the country. On the last day of the filing period, Huck PAC gave $2,500 to Team Vander Plaats. (The PAC paid out $131,000 in payroll and benefits for its employees, and it spent $72,100 for fundraising-related expenses.)

Huckabee endorsed Vander Plaats’ candidacy in June, keynoting a fundraiser for the Sioux City businessman that the campaign said brought in around $80,000 (gubernatorial candidates won’t file financial disclosure with the state until January). Vander Plaats was Huckabee’s Iowa campaign director during the 2007-2008 presidential caucus season.

Free and Strong America PAC, the political action committee of Huckabee’s caucus rival, Mitt Romney, contributed no money to Iowa campaigns so far this year.

But Thursday afternoon, Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Carrie Giddins talked down the chances of a split date.  “We are working with our Republican counterparts for a mutual caucus date,” said Giddins, who took pains to note that both parties still have the caucuses scheduled for the night of Jan. 14 and any other talk is just “speculation.”

“Yepsen’s wrong,” University of Iowa political science professor David Redlawsk told Iowa Independent.  “The media is one of the things that keeps Iowa in the spotlight. They certainly won’t want to gear up for TWO caucus nights, even if they are only two days apart. The logistics of caucus night for the media is pretty complex — and like everyone else they’ll be really tired of it all by January.”

“Yepsen completely ignores the potential for mischief that having caucuses on different days presents,” Redlawsk added.

Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan agreed.  “I think it’s critical that there be a single caucus time for both parties,” he said.

But Yepsen dismissed the mischief potential.  “You might get some crossovers but we don’t have a tradition of people messing around in the other party’s affairs in Iowa,” he told Iowa Independent. “We’ve often had caucus years in which one party didn’t have a meaningful caucus because they had an incumbent president.  You didn’t see Democrats trying to pack GOP caucuses in 1996, or Republicans messing around on the Democratic side in 2004 or 1984.”

“Also, these are neighborhood meetings and people know one another,” Yepsen said.  “If a bunch of (Republicans) show up at a Democratic caucus, I imagine people there will say ‘hey, what’s going on here’ and challenge the interloper.”Sullivan, who chaired the Johnson County Democratic Party from 2000 to 2003, was more concerned about mischief than Yepsen.  “There’s clearly a couple groups — Ron Paul supporters and people who are very strongly anti-war — and I can see both groups trying to participate in both caucuses,” he said.

Yepsen said such groups do not have enough organization in Iowa to make much impact. “If someone were organizing a widespread effort like that, we’d all hear about it and report it,” he said.

Sullivan thinks the effort doesn’t have to be widespread to damage the caucuses.  “You’ll have a couple people who will brag to the press,” he told Iowa Independent.  “That’s all the ammunition (Michigan Sen.) Carl Levin and others need to say, ‘look, the Iowa Caucuses don’t work.’”

“Good for him,” was the first reaction of Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett, when told of Yepsen’s column.  Though the political parties, not county auditors, are responsible for running the caucuses, Slockett has been an active caucus attendee since the 1960s. 

His concern is with space needs.  “There simply are not enough physical facilities to hold large turnouts in both parties simultaneously,” Slockett said.  “In the past we’ve had an incumbent in one of the parties, resulting in lower turnout, and that party could be put in a smaller room.” 

Sullivan thinks the size of the caucuses may already have outgrown the available rooms.  “If you’ve got 500 people in the Lincoln School gym, that’s supposed to hold 150, it’s not going to make any difference if the Republicans are there too,” he said.  “There’s no room either way.”

Slockett doesn’t think double-caucusing will be a problem.  “Iowans basically believe in clean elections and they’re honest,” he said.  “If both parties ask people not to double-vote, most people would comply.”

Yepsen believes the parties will have time to print lists of registered voters for each precinct to check registrations, or they can go on line to do so.

“That’s logistically a little challenging,” Giddins told Iowa Independent.  As the Democrats would go second under Yepsen’s scenario, they’d be the ones faced with the burden of weeding GOP caucus goers from their lists in less than 48 hours.  “These are neighborhood caucuses, and we’re going to have to take that chance that people are being honest.”

In the event that someone isn’t, Giddins said, Iowa law covers the double caucus situation that hasn’t been an issue since Republicans first joined Democrats on caucus night in 1976.  Giddins said attorneys for the IDP have reviewed the law and determined:

Iowa Code 39A.2 makes it a felony to vote more than once in the same “election.” Election is defined as including a “primary election.” Though the term “caucus” only appears sporadically throughout the Iowa Code and is not included in any of the definition sections, the definition of primary election that would apply specifically includes an election held pursuant to Iowa Code 43, which includes both primary election and caucus procedures.

In other caucus date news: