Stories

The Iowa Family Policy Center’s controversial anti-endorsement of former Gov. Terry Branstad is causing some turmoil in one of it’s leaders’ home district.
Danny Carroll, who chairs IFPC, used to represent House District 75, made up of portions of Poweshiek and Mahaska Counties. In 2006 he lost to Democrat Eric Palmer (and again in 2008), and [...]

Former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad stopped in Sioux City Friday as part of his “Comeback Tour,” and several conservatives took the opportunity to press him on issues he’s caught flak for since re-entering politics last year.
Bret Hayworth of the Sioux City Journal reports Branstad faced tough questions about his stance on same-sex marriage, his choice [...]

The public refusal of an influential social conservative group to support the eventual GOP nominee for governor is causing long-term damage to the party and could result in a second term for Gov. Chet Culver, Republican leaders said Tuesday.

DES MOINES — It was billed as the beginning of a legislative fight to overturn last year’s Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. But a Tuesday afternoon rally on the Capitol steps quickly turned into a campaign event for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats.

Four prominent leaders of Iowa’s social conservative movement are criticizing the Republican Party of Iowa and its leadership in the state Senate for not doing more to overturn the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, saying if the next legislative session is no better, 2010 will be “the year of the primary.”
After the last [...]

Opponents of same-sex marriage say they will continue to fight to overturn last week’s Supreme Court ruling, but they admit their chances in the short term are slim.

Peter Teahen, who ran a failed bid for the GOP nomination for congress in Iowa’s second district in 2008, has signed on to Bob Vander Plaats’s gubernatorial campaign, the Des Moines Register reports.

Matt Strawn, a former congressional aide and co-owner of the Iowa Barnstormers Arena Football team, has been elected chair of the Republican Party of Iowa.
Strawn, 35, also served for a time as director of John McCain’s Iowa presidential campaign. His selection as leader of Iowa’s GOP follows a long, and occasionally ugly, few weeks of [...]

After weeks of rumors, meetings and deal making, party insiders say the race to be chair of the Republican Party of Iowa has essentially come down to two men — Danny Carroll and Matt Strawn.

Two seasoned party leaders are front-runners for the chairmanship of the Republican Party of Iowa, insiders say, but most believe the race is far from over.