John McCain picked up a relatively rare newspaper endorsement Saturday from the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The eastern Iowa daily also backed incumbent Democrats Tom Harkin for U.S. Senate and Bruce Braley in the 1st Congressional District, but chose Republican challengers Mariannette Miller-Meeks over 2nd District Rep. Dave Loebsack and Kim Schmett over Leonard Boswell in the 3rd District.

“Obama has offered no clear plan to deal with our country’s staggering debt,” wrote the Gazette editorial board, citing McCain’s economic policies as the main reason for the endorsement. “(Obama’s) tax plan could stifle the economic rebound we desperately need.”

But the Gazette expressed disapproval of McCain’s vice presidential choice. “Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin might well shake up Washington’s entrenched politics as usual, but she obviously lacks working knowledge and understanding of foreign policy and many national issues, which raises valid questions about McCain’s judgment in choosing her.”

The Gazette cited Harkin’s seniority in its endorsement and noted that his Republican challenger, Marion businessman Christopher Reed, did not meet with the editorial board.

Likewise, Bruce Braley’s challenger, state Sen. Dave Hartsuch, did not meet with the editorial board, which said Braley “quickly gained a reputation in his first term as a smart, bulldog questioner who does his homework.”

“We were pretty comfortable with endorsing Loebsack for a second term … until we met Mariannette Miller-Meeks,” writes the board. While praising the Mt. Vernon freshman Loebsack, the endorsement calls Miller-Meeks a “dynamo” who can “say no to requests and programs that can’t be funded without more taxpayer debt.”

In contrast, the Gazette had little praise for the 3rd District candidates and said Boswell offered few specifics. Schmett “didn’t exactly wow us… but it’s time for someone else to represent the 3rd District.”

The Gazette has a policy of no endorsements in caucuses and primaries.

In 2006, veteran Republicans Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota, Jim Leach in Iowa and Jim Ryun in Kansas suddenly found themselves in tough reelection fights. By the time the party saw what was happening, it was already too late.

And thus it is this year, as the GOP moves resources. In Iowa, that’s going to mean, if anything, Rep. Tom Latham, who has a race on his hands in the 4th District against Becky Greenwald.

National Republicans don’t have much invested in the other races, and the Latham-Greenwald race is the only one in the state that’s on the national handicapper’s lists (though still near the bottom.)

Democrat Rob Hubler is running a spirited race against Steve King, the other Republican incumbent, but the district lines strongly favor King.

In the 2nd District, Mariannette Miller-Meeks is an energetic and very visible opponent to Dave Loebsack, but she was never the pick of the RNCC. They’re the ones who recruited Peter Teahen, but the base rejected him in the primary. His donation to Democrat Julie Thomas in her 2002 race against Leach was probably the fatal blow. “Support ALL Republicans” is a big meme on the GOP side of the Iowa blogosphere.

Of course, Loebsack wasn’t on the Dem’s national priority lists in 2006 until … well, until after he won. But he was swimming with the national tide, not against it. And the fact that Leach has enthusiastically and actively been campaigning for Obama doesn’t help the Republican who’s trying to win his seat back.

In the Des Moines-based 3rd District, Kim Schmett looks like an abandoned backup plan, positioned for a serious race if Ed Fallon had knocked off Leonard Boswell in the Democratic primary.

And in the 1st District, the race has descended to the point that Dave Hartsuch is calling John McCain too pro-gay. Seriously. Hartsuch has said he was not invited to Saturday’s McCain rally in Davenport because he disagreed with McCain on the definition of traditional marriage. The Hartsuch campaign, and the Christopher Reed Senate campaign, seem to be focused now more on winning position in the ongoing internal battle within the Republican Party of Iowa than on their opponents.

Thus it is in politics. Both parties, in cold political Darwinism, leave the weak to die. It happened to me in my own legislative race 12 years ago. But at the moment, the grumbling appears louder on the Republican side.

Iowa’s conservative blogosphere is grumbling that Christopher Reed, the long-shot challenger to Senator Tom Harkin, is being triaged out. The latest controversy centers around Reed’s charges on Steve Deace’s WHO radio show that that Caleb Hunter, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI), is “actively telling Iowa voters not to support my candidacy because I have no chance to win.” Reed also said Hunter was telling donors their efforts were better spent on trying to win back the Iowa House, where Democrats now hold a 53-47 edge.

“The only groups that I have seen attempting to support Reed at all are the Iowa Right to Life and Iowa Christian Alliance,” writes the Iowa Defense Alliance blog, saying that the treatment of Reed reflects on the Republican State Convention’s battle over National Committee seats. “These are the same people that claimed that (Iowa Right to Life head) Kim Lehman couldn’t be a national chairwoman because she wouldn’t support all Republicans. Now the shoe is on the other foot. These same people are now doing what they claimed that Lehman would do,” Iowa Defense Alliance writes, calling RPI leadership “the Romney Party of Iowa.”

“Reed’s information is second or third hand,” writes Republican state central committee member David Chung at the Hawkeye GOP blog. “I do not know exactly what was said or where but it sounds as if it lost something in the translation.”

“(Former state Rep. George) Eichhorn was definitely the ‘insider’ candidate with more ties to party leadership, and I’m sure they weren’t too happy when their buddy got beat,” writes Nathan Greene at Battleground Iowa. “I don’t think Hunter was telling people not to vote for Reed, but he was certainly telling people he doesn’t think Reed has a chance, so people should send their money and their volunteer hours over to (House minority leader Christopher) Rants.”

“It’s one thing if the party doesn’t have the money to financially support Reed,” writes Greene. It is another thing altogether to actively attempt to sabotage his volunteer and fundraising efforts.”

The multiple posts on the party’s support, or lack thereof, have led to comment wars on the blogs. “You, Christopher, have raised less than $20,000 for your campaign for US SENATE – you need to just curl up and hide your pitiful, pitiful self — you are an embarrassment,” writes an anonymous ‘Steve’ on Battleground Iowa. “Go buy yourself another suit or haircut with your campaign funds,” he adds, repeating an often-noted criticism of Reed.

Clayton County Republican Chairwoman Gwen Eilers has gone so far as to send out a mass email urging Republicans to write in third-place primary candidate Steve Rathje instead of voting for Reed.

“It is no secret that RPI has limited funds this election cycle,” writes Chung. “I supported the decision to target these funds to those races where they are likely to be affect the outcome. These chosen few are not chosen for their ideological purity. If it were so, Reed would be at the top of the list. But a dispassionate view, looking to target key races, the U.S. Senate race is not one of them.”

Despite his near-invisibility, Reed is reaching as high as 40 percent in some polls, simply by being Not Tom Harkin. Yet, with Republican presidential nominee John McCain in the state Saturday, Reed’s name was not mentioned from the podium in Davenport, and no Reed signs were visible in the hall.

Instead, underscoring the Republican Party’s apparent priority, state Rep. Steve Olson said, “I believe we can take over the Iowa House.” Also speaking were state Rep. Jamie Van Fossen and two legislative challengers: Ross Paustian, House 84 challenger against first-term Democrat Elesha Gayman, and state senate challenger Shawn Hamerlink, opposing Sen. Frank Wood.

And with the presidential candidate of his party in his home county, sitting state senator and 1st Congressional District challenger Dave Hartsuch did not speak. National handicappers all rank the 1st District as safe for freshman Democrat Bruce Braley.

From a Hartsuch campaign press release entitled “McCain ’08 Shows Gay Pride By Snubbing Hartsuch”:

According to a representative of the McCain ’08 campaign, the national campaign office would not approve Senator Hartsuch to speak because of comments which he had made two years earlier in defense of traditional marriage.

…

Senator McCain voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have defined marriage as only between one man and one woman. At that time, Senator McCain called such prohibitions “Un-Republican”, and “inconsistent with the core values of the party.” In 2002, Senator McCain supported Richter Elser, an openly gay GOP candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives by sending a fund-raising letter to Elser supporters. According to advocate.com, McCain wrote, “Our party’s strength, like our country’s strength, comes from inclusion, not exclusion.” Today, social conservatives were excluded.

This is not the first time local Republican candidates have been frustrated by the McCain campaign ahead of a scheduled event.  Last month, GOP State House candidate Kathy Potts complained to the Iowa Independent that she had been excluded from a McCain visit to Cedar Rapids.

It couldn’t be more different this year.

Dave Hartsuch

In a district that was held for decades, under varying configurations, by Republicans like Tom Tauke, Jim Leach, and Nussle, the Republican nominee is having trouble even campaigning door to door. State Sen. David Hartsuch of Bettendorf says he doesn’t even have enough money in the bank to print flyers for doorknocking.

Still, Hartsuch thinks his solid conservative message will prevail in the district, which includes Waterloo, Dubuque, and Davenport. “I think the Republican Party doesn’t even think this is a winnable race. They think it’s a left leaning district. But Chuck Grassley got 69 percent of the vote in the 1st District in `04.”

Hartsuch hopes to make a silk purse out of the sow’s ear of an underfinanced campaign. “Three-quarters of his contributions come from trial attorneys,” he said of Braley, who headed the Iowa Trial Lawyer’s Association before he was elected. “He’s got a spigot of fundraising. He turns it on, the money flows out. And he’s been very responsive to that constituency”

The Democrats have a post-caucus voter registration lead of about 10,000 in the 1st District, but Hartsuch thinks many of those registered Democrats aren’t going to be voting Democratic. “The Democrats have has a concerted effort to enroll Democrats. I believe in some case, particularly with regard to unions, I think they actually use coercive methods.”

Braley defeated Republican Mike Whalen in the 2006 race, 55 percent to 43 percent. But Hartsuch notes that Mary Anne Hanusa, the little-known, last minute replacement Republican candidate for Secretary of State, won 42 percent in the 1st District. “That should tell you there’s a substantial baseline Republican vote,” he said. “I believe this is a winnable race.”

Hartsuch, an emergency room physician who is also a certified public accountant, got his start in electoral politics two years ago, challenging and defeating long-time moderate Republican state senator Maggie Tinsman in the primary. Hartsuch then narrowly defeated Democrat Phyllis Thede in November, in a normally Republican district. Since Hartsuch is in the middle of his term, he can return to the state Senate if his challenge to Braley is unsuccessful.

“America is at a tipping point as to the preservation of its values. Liberalism has really laid waste to traditional American ideology, and the result has been a decline in our standard of living, a decline in our traditional values, and a lot of Americans are concerned about that.”

Hartsuch says the issues he hears about most from voters are higher energy prices, higher taxes, border security and preserving patient choice in health care “Barack Obama is going to drive us into socialized medicine where people use their ability to choose providers,” he said of the Democratic standard bearer.

As for his own party, Hartsuch said, “I think we are polarized right now, and I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. I endorsed Mike Huckabee (in the caucuses), but I think in retrospect John McCain would be the best person to unite this country.”

“Where we’re at as a party is kind of where the Whig party was at at the formation of the Republican Party years ago with Abraham Lincoln,” said Hartsuch. The Whigs didn’t want to address the issue of slavery, and Lincoln was willing to take that issue on. I’ve been reading a lot of Lincoln’s speeches lately, and those same discussions revolve around a lot of these social issues like same-sex marriage. The question is, does one state have a right to marry same sex couples that would otherwise be considered not married in another state. It was the same question in the Dred Scott decision with regard to slavery.”

“I’m getting a lot of questions on the same-sex marriage issue, and certainly it’s an issue which divides Bruce Braley and myself,” said Hartsuch. “He already said in the last election that he felt it was discriminatory and he opposes any constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. I, on the other hand, of course have been a strong defender of traditional marriage in the Senate, and the general public supports traditional marriage.”

“Bruce Braley has voted to raise taxes by not making the tax cuts permanent,” Hartsuch said of his opponent. “He has consistently voted against any expansion of oil production or energy production. The Democrats have been trying to make it appear as if they’re for expanded drilling but in reality those proposals are kind of empty.”

“Congressman Leach is well-respected across the state of Iowa by Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike, and we are honored to have his support,” said Obama Iowa State Director Jackie Norris in a press release. “This election is about changing the way Washington does business, and many Republicans like Congressman Leach understand America cannot afford another four years of the failed policies of the Bush Administration.”

“It’s rather ironic that someone like Jim Leach, a person who placed such a strong focus on campaign finance issues, would be endorsing the first presidential candidate since Watergate to skirt the public financing program in the general election,” said Iowa McCain spokesperson Wendy Riemann in a press release. “Despite Obama’s lofty speeches on change, Iowans know that real change comes from working across the aisle to get things done. A single endorsement does not hide the fact that Senator Obama has no record of achievement beyond the confines of his party. While John McCain has spent his career putting the country first — ahead of personal and party interests – Senator Obama’s record is a lesson in partisanship.”

Iowa’s top Republican blogger, Krusty Konservative, expressed surprise at the endorsement. “While he is very well respected in the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport area, his endorsement doesn’t carry much weight unless he’s willing to make some appearances and work to get his former supporters to back Obama,” writes Krusty.

Republican activist Mike Thayer, author of the Coralville Courier blog, disagrees. “Not surprising, and another example of how and why many GOP faithful lost faith in Jim Leach,” he told Iowa Independent.

State Sen. Dave Hartsuch of Bettendorf, the Republican candidate for Congress against Rep. Bruce Braley in the 1st Congressional District, is a conservative who defeated moderate incumbent Maggie Tinsman in a 2006 primary. Hartsuch said Leach had been quoted in a recent issue of Campaigns and Elections magazine as a supporter of the Republican Leadership Council, a group that hopes to move the party in a more moderate direction. “I think it’s interesting,” Hartsuch said of Leach’s endorsement, “because it really shows how far to the left this group is.”

“For some reason, probably the war, (Leach) feels that he cannot support John McCain,” writes Republican state central committee member David Chung at his Hawkeye GOP blog. Leach was one of only five Republican House members to vote against the war in 2002. “Moderates in the party have long complained that conservatives would abandon them. In fact it is obvious that just the opposite is true,” said Chung.