In an email apparently sent to state legislators and obtained by anonymous blogger Krusty Konservative, Rants writes, “I’ve put 2,300 miles on my car driving around the state talking to donors and activists about running for Governor.”

In the letter, Rants also predicts that defeating Culver would require raising “at least” $8-10 million for his campaign.  No one will claim he lacks ambition.

Rants served as Speaker of the Iowa House before Republicans lost control of the chamber in 2006.  He led House Republicans through the 2008 campaign as Minority Leader but was ousted before this year’s legislative session began.

He is a proven fundraiser, and he is feared on the floor of the House for his mastery of parliamentary procedure.  But statewide, his profile is not very high.

Here are some relevant pieces of Rants’s letter, as printed by Krusty:

[...]

I’m not making any official announcements or anything like that just yet. I’m taking stock first to see if I can find the support, and if I do, then I’ll let the press know. I have my eyes wide open. Its at least an $8M – $10M endeavor – or $110,000 a week as I like to say… I want to put some money in the bank, and be sure of financial backing before I take a stab at that.

So far it’s been encouraging. I have a series of fundraisers set up, and people who have agreed to help organize and set things up for me. I’ll be on the road this coming week again – back to the east coast of the state. I’ve been posting teasers about what I’m doing on Facebook and Twitter, so if you are curious you can always figure out where I’m traveling by looking there.

In case you are wondering – yes, Trudy and the girls are on board. I think they view this as either way we are all home together be it at Terrace Hill or Sioux City… Trudy and I have been talking about it a while, and once her health issues were resolved we were good to go.

[...]

At some point in time come June I’ll be giving you a call to talk more in depth about the race, share some polling info, etc… but for now, I just wanted you to hear it from me.

[...]

After weeks of taking shots from the blogosphere, Krishna decided enough was enough, saying not only do they “spew hatred” and spread lies, but Iowa’s anonymous bloggers also discourage good people from getting involved in politics.

The response from anonymous blogger Krusty Konservative was more laid back than one might expect, but every bit as unforgiving.

Gopal, I have not lied about your past; I have simply made sure people knew about it. Sorry you if you cannot accept the truth. You might be glad to know that I held back at times, because I wanted to keep the debate about your “candidacy” for chairman about the facts.

Another anonymous blogger at “In Flyover Country” took a more direct approach, saying the bloggers are more loyal to the state party than someone who would criticize it publicly.

Yes, we’re the ones going out and blasting the entire central committee.  We’re the ones name-calling in public of those people who would NEVER vote for us, and we’re bitter about it.  We’re the ones who got kicked off the SCC in 2000.  How could we be so blind.  You’re right, almighty Gopal.  We’re the big, bad BLOGGER PEOPLE!!!  Ooooooh….we’re so scary.

“In Flyover Country” also told it’s readers that Krishna announcing he was not a candidate is proof that…

… there is a God, er…holy cow, Buddha, or whatever…

Yikes.

Not surprisingly, those bloggers who put their names next to their words took a more measured approach to the news that Krishna was not a candidate for chair.

At his blog “HawkeyeGOP,” Republican State Central Committee member David Chung called the race for RPI chair “silly season,” saying he’ll be glad when it’s all over with.

And the call for Krishna’s ouster as party treasurer is hitting a fever pitch in each of the blogs’ comment sections, with most hoping he will get thrown off the State Central Committee altogether.

All this should make for an interesting meeting on Saturday. Unfortunately, the vote for chair and other leadership positions is not open to the public or the media. The party plans to unveil its new leader shortly after the meeting concludes at 12:30 p.m. in the RPI Headquarters, 621 E 9th St., Des Moines.

Krusty was the conservative muckraker of the Iowa blogosphere, frequently posting rumors and interesting tidbits that did not follow the typical Republican party line.  “I enjoyed reading Krusty's blog because it was informative and didn't resort to partisan talking points and attacks,” said ‘noneed4thneed,’ who writes the progressive blog Century of the Common Iowan – also anonymously.

But the need for anonymity can complicate the job of a controversial blogger, and Krusty appeared to value his anonymity above all else.  In an email interview with the National Journal’s Conn Carroll, Krusty refused to answer several questions that had been asked of most of the major bloggers in Iowa and other early primary states.  Krusty explained, “I'm an anonymous blogger, so I will not answer any questions that might lead to my true identity being discovered. I am currently employed, which works out really well because a klown can't live on seltzer water and splattered pies.”

Wednesday, in a post that broke from his trademark practice of replacing all Cs at the beginning of words with Ks, Krusty announced that he would stop blogging.  “Yesterday the ugly side of politics reared its ugly head,” he wrote.

I don’t know if its something I wrote recently that caused it or what the deal is, but there is some nasty stuff going on that center around this blog. I don’t really care what people think of me or like what I write, I never have and never will. I write what is on my mind and what I observe here in Iowa, and I’ll stand by anything that’s ever been written on this blog.

A day before his last post, Krusty incited controversy by calling for the resignation of Mary Lundby, Republican Minority Leader in the Iowa Senate.  “I criticized [former Republican leader Stu] Iverson’s ousters after they made their move at the end of the 2006 session. After the election I was hopeful Lundby, et al would be an effective minority. I was wrong.”  Krusty, a self-proclaimed ‘konservative’ Republican, has taken issue with Lundby’s more moderate positions.

The past days’ events have only served to intensify questions of Krusty’s identity, as it seems clear from his last post, titled “Blackmail and Extortion,” that someone who claims to know who he is may have threatened to release identifying information.

Many wonder whether the Republican leadership in the Iowa Senate was involved, including noneed4thneed: “I think it is rather interesting that yesterday he wrote about what a bad job the Republican leadership in the Senate was doing and now he has been blackmailed and is shutting down,” he said.  Kimberly Steenhoek, Communications Director for Iowa Senate Republicans, did not respond to our request for comment.

One popular theory is that Tim Albrecht, former Communications Director for Chris Rants (Rants served as Speaker of the House until Republicans lost their majority this year) and current Iowa Communications Director for Mitt Romney for President, is the man behind the Krusty's mask.  Before Krusty shut down comments on his blog, anonymous commenters frequently posted “Tim Albrecht is Krusty,” which may have provoked Krusty to stop allowing comments altogether.

But if Krusty is Albrecht, his posts have successfully hidden it.  When Romney’s hire of Albrecht was announced, Krusty wrote this post.  And generally, Krusty’s coverage has tended to favor the lesser candidates over the frontrunners for the Republican nomination.

If Krusty is not Albrecht, many believe that he may be another staffer for the House Republican leadership.  In sifting through over a year of posts, we could not find any posts in which Krusty was as critical of the House Republicans as he has been of other Republican figures in the Iowa Senate and the Presidential Campaign.  Krusty may have been referring to the rumor that he works for Republican leaders in the House when he wrote,

If these threats [to release my identity] only affected me, I’d give this little wimp a piece of my mind and continue business as usual, but it doesn’t affect just me, other people could suffer far greater consequences than I, and I just don’t think its right for the lives of innocent people to be ruined because somebody thinks that they are involved with the creation, maintenance, and content of this blog. As much as I’ve enjoyed this blog and the important conversations it has initiated it’s just not worth dragging innocent people through the politics of personal destruction.

For now, questions will continue to swirl around the Iowa blogosphere until they are answered – particularly in light of Krusty’s apparent admission that the release of his identity might be politically damaging to his employer.  For his part, although Krusty agreed to ‘look over’ my interview questions for him by email (the only form of communication he will accept), he has not yet responded with any comments.