Friday, June 26, 2009

Roberts: GOP must reach out to independents, Dems

Potential Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts says simple math will make for some complicated political choices in 2010.

Roberts, a veteran state representative from Carroll who is close to forming an exploratory committee for a run at Terrace Hill, says the candidate who emerges from what could be a large GOP primary must not be so entrenched with the base to be hamstrung in efforts to appeal to other voters.

“The price can’t just be winning the nomination,” Roberts said.

According to the Associated Press, voter registration in Iowa as of June 1 showed 684,443 registered Democrats, compared with 577,645 Republicans. Iowans who registered without a party preference outnumbered both groups, with 694,397 people, The AP reported.

An ordained pastor (although he hasn’t been behind the pulpit for 20 years) Roberts is development director for the 125-congregation strong Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in Iowa. Roberts is a skilled orator who uses consensus-building language, measured words, not the vitriol of some in his party. His votes may be the same as many hot-blooded conservatives on social issues but Roberts says “some of the hyperbole goes to excess.”

“Having a healthy dose of humility is helpful,” Roberts said. “There’s still something very powerful about the spoken word.”

While the GOP is at a voter registration disadvantage in Iowa — and President Barack Obama likely will be a crucial campaign surrogate for Democratic Gov. Chet Culver — Roberts said the race is winnable.

“Governor Culver is vulnerable,” Roberts said. “I think he can be defeated.”

Republicans may have to do it with less campaign money than Culver, Roberts said.

Roberts has been meeting with potential advisors and supporters from a geographic diverse cross-section of Iowa.

As he’s unannounced a Roberts platform is still very much evolving but he makes it clear economic issues will be primary.

Roberts will be one of what is expected to be a handful of potential candidates for governor to attend a Sac County GOP fund-raiser on Saturday.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

UC Davis Prof: Absence of rural voice on Supreme Court does matter

In a story published Monday in the Center For Rural Strategies' Daily Yonder, I wrote about the lack of any significant rural connections in the biographies of the likely next U.S. Supreme Court, one that would appear to replace Justice David Souter and his rural New Hampshire background with Judge Sonia Sotomayor from the Bronx, N.Y.

Lisa Pruitt, a University of California Davis School of Law professor
who contributes to the Web log Legal Ruralism, picked up the story on the Internet and added expertise to my pedestrian instincts. Among Pruitt’s specialties is an area she calls law and rural livelihoods.

“Some judges are clearly more sensitive to rural realities than others, and this sensitivity influences their decision making,” Pruitt writes on the Web log. “Whether this sensitivity is due to those judges’ rural upbringings or other rural exposure, I cannot say. But rural difference from what has become an implicit urban norm is often legally relevant — as I’ve often argued in my scholarship.

“I have no doubt that we need judges (and justices!) who have a capacity to recognize that, judges who — at a minimum — are open to learning about rural realities when presented with them.”

In theory, judges born in Trenton, N.J, — such as Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia — should be able to apply the law and follow the Constitution in cases that pit urban interests against rural.

That said, I’d agree with U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who while supporting Sotomayor, is urging President Obama to make his next Supreme Court appointment with consideration given to candidates outside the Ivy League, maybe even someone who went to night law school in a heavily rural state.

Hopefully, Professor Pruitt and others involved with scholarship at the intersection of rural life and law will follow our urban-dominated Court to see if any decisions show bias to-ward their collective citified biographies.

If Hispanics are cheering probable newfound representation with Sotomayor on the Court shouldn’t rural Americans be troubled (if not outraged) at the absence of anyone with our geo-graphic orientation?

Monday, June 15, 2009

Cityview publishes column on Rod Roberts




By DOUGLAS BURNS

When Rod Roberts embarked on his first Statehouse bid in 1998, I was skeptical. In fact, the candidacy of this ordained Christian conservative pastor frightened me.

With a passionate belief in separation of church and state, I had visions of Rod as something of a localized Pat Robertson, an evangelical bent on Bible-beating his view of life and Christianity into his politics, his representation of us. Most of all I feared that if Roberts, a Republican, shirt-sleeved his brand of Protestantism, he’d expose rifts in this city that we’ve long since repaired to make way for collective progress and respect.

After hundreds of interviews and interaction with Roberts over the last decade, I can now say that my initial suspicions, which I think Rod himself would admit were fair and not borne out of any malice, were dead wrong.

Simply put, Roberts has demonstrated himself to be a member of that proud tradition of Christians in politics, those whose private faith informs their public acts.

Over his nine years in the Iowa House, Roberts, the Iowa development director with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, has been a reliable vote on social conservative issues to be sure. He’s vehemently opposed to abortion and is steadfast in his religiously based view that marriage should be between one man and one woman. Organizations such as the decidedly right-of-center Iowa Family Policy Center know this and tell us they’re quite comfortable with the prospect of a Governor Rod Roberts. They trust him.

But it is not with social issues that Roberts has made his name in the Legislature and Iowa politics. Specifically, Roberts fought for legislation that has dispersed money from casino-rich counties to the rest of the state through Endow Iowa. Rural areas without slot-machine-fed streams of cash benefit enormously from this. It is a signature accomplishment.

The full column is published in Cityview

A moving take on late-term abortion



Lynda Waddington, the talented eastern Iowa journalist and essayist, has a thought-provoking and exceptionally moving piece in the London Guardian newspaper about her decision to have a late-term abortion some years ago. It was a baby this mother of three wanted. Lynda explains her painful situation and in so doing explodes some of the myths about late-term abortions.

This should be read with an open mind -- and a heart.

Here is The Guardian:

The death of a child is like a shotgun blast to your chest. In the beginning, you just numbly stare at the raw hole, wondering what happened. Then the pain takes hold and every other aspect of life is obliterated. With time, the raw edges scab over, but it never fully heals. Unfortunately for American women living in such a politically charged climate, such wounds are often reopened.

According to the popular wisdom spouted by anti-abortionists, women like me who have late-term abortions are promiscuous, neglect birth control and are then either too lazy or too ignorant to schedule an earlier abortion. This rhetoric, elevated to obscene levels, has become even louder since the killing of Dr George Tiller, the US abortion doctor who was shot last month in Kansas, where I had my termination.

Roberts close to announcing exploratory committee



State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, says he’s close to announcing the formation of an exploratory committee for a gubernatorial campaign in 2010.

“I’m pretty much 95 percent decided to do this with the exploratory committee,” Roberts said.

At this point the veteran legislator said he was not prepared to release names of those who would serve on an exploratory committee.

The ability to reach voters in Iowa’s vast geography will play a major role in Roberts’ ultimate decision, he said.

“There’s a lot of ground,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot of folks.”

The key charge of the exploratory committee will be to determine if Roberts has the fund-raising muscle to be competitive. He would look for a green light on that before announcing a run.

A large field is emerging of possible GOP candidates to challenge Democratic Gov. Chet Culver. As it stands that Republican list would include: Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats (who ran in 2006 before joining forces with the eventual nominee, Congressman Jim Nussle) U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, State Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City, former State Sen. Jeff Lamberti, an Ankeny lawyer and board member of Casey’s General Stores, State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone and Vermeer Corp. president Mary Andringa of Mitchellville.

Roberts knows he doesn’t go into the starting gate with the best odds. That suits him just fine.

“I kind of like being the darkhorse person in the mix of names,” Roberts said.
Roberts has been receiving more media attention around Iowa in recent weeks.

WHO-TV’s Dave Price ran a Web log post titled “Don’t forget about Rod Roberts” which went on to analyze some of the possible field and Roberts place within it.

Roberts will be one of what is expected to be a handful of potential candidates for governor to attend a Sac County GOP fund-raiser on Saturday, June 27.

Last week, Roberts attended the Iowa Association of Business and Industry event in Arnolds Park in which former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was the featured speaker. Roberts said the event gave him an opportunity to further network with leaders in Iowa and potential supporters.

Supreme Court will lack a rural voice



By DOUGLAS BURNS

With the swirl of barbs and recriminations over Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination centering on race, little attention is being paid to what is a glaring lack of representation on the high court: Rural America.

If Sotomayor is confirmed, she will break a barrier as the first Latino to be seated on the Supreme Court. But as she joins the court and Justice David Souter, who grew up in Weare, N.H., leaves, the Court’s collection of nine biographies will be decidedly urban, Eastern and heavy on Ivy League education.

Of the nine justices, only Clarence Thomas can lay claim to any real rural ties. He was born in Pin Point, Ga., a rural community founded by free slaves. But Thomas lived there for only six years (albeit without indoor plumbing) before his house burned and a grandfather took him to the nearby city of Savannah. Thomas’ wife is from Omaha, Neb., and as the Omaha World-Herald pointed out this weekend, he does know University of Nebraska Husker football.

The full story is published at The Daily Yonder.com.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Q&A with possible GOP White House candidate



SIOUX CITY - The Daily Times Herald and La Prensa, an Iowa Spanish-language newspaper, inter-viewed U.S. Sen. John En-sign, a Nevada Republican, this week in Sioux City.

Ensign, chairman of the Republican Policy Commit-tee, delivered an American Future Fund lecture in Sioux City after visiting Blue Bunny ice cream in Le Mars and Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center. The senator is viewed by some in the party as an "ideas" leader, and his visit to northwest Iowa sparked much speculation about a possible presidential bid in 2012. Ensign has not announced such a move.

Daily Times Herald: On your way here from Le Mars and Sioux Center you went through farm fields and saw wind turbines that are sub-sidized by the federal gov-ernment. You've advocated free-market principles, keeping the government out of as much business as pos-sible in your view. What should the federal govern-ment's role be in Iowa agri-culture?

Senator Ensign: First of all, let's look at energy. We subsidize oil with our mili-tary. That is the bottom line. I think we subsidize oil to a great degree. So for a period of time to subsidize some of the alternative energies until they can become more competitive, I don't have a problem with that. If oil was truly a free market and we didn't have to use our mili-tary to subsidize it, then put everything on a level play-ing field.

But because we do subsi-dize that right now I have no problem subsidizing some of the renewables.

As far as farm subsidies, you have to remember I come from a state that gets no farm subsidies, even for our farmers that we have. We don't grow any of the crops that get that so I've voted against farm bills in the past because they don't benefit Nevadans and I rep-resent Nevada.

Daily Times Herald: (Joking) Just make flights cheaper from Omaha to Las Vegas.

Senator Ensign: (Laugh-ing) Well, we have a new airline that at least makes it reasonable for people to come Las Vegas called Alle-giant Air. I encourage peo-ple to check it out.

La Prensa: In 2007 you opposed the immigration reform bill. Your state is one with more immigrants. What are your thoughts on that issue for the Hispanic com-munity?

Senator Ensign: That bill itself was actually never voted on. That bill was pulled from the floor. What I believe should have hap-pened with that bill, if we would have taken the so-called amnesty, the green card, out of the bill so we could have proven that we were securing the borders, that we were sanctioning employers that were not following the law, and that the program was working, that for instance people who were here were getting signed up - we were doing background checks, elimi-nating people who were criminals. A certain per-centage are going to be criminals. We want them out of the country.

And then we also want to encourage people, for in-stance, with work visas to give them more time in this country that they learn Eng-lish, they learn it well, that they learn what it means to be an American, that they have a job with health insur-ance. Reward them for things that are good for America that are also good for the immigrants.

In six, seven, eight years down the road, once we've proven all those things work, then revisit the issue of green cards and citizen-ships and things like that.

The problem is in 1986 all of those reforms were prom-ised when they gave am-nesty but they never did the reforms. So let's prove to the American people that the reforms are working first and then we can talk about the green-card issue and things like that down the road.

Daily Times Herald: Senator, do you think the United States is less safe today than it was on January 20 of this year and what evi-dence would you have to support you answer.

Senator Ensign: I be-lieve that certainly we've put ourselves in a much more difficult position to keep us safe because we've taken away some of the tools that potentially could be used. Enhanced interroga-tion techniques without a doubt have kept us safer. We have stopped several terror-ist attacks against the United States using en-hanced interrogation tech-niques. We no longer have those tools available. So if we get a situation to prevent the next 9/11 and now we don't have those, could it potentially? It's potentially less safe because we don't have the tools that kept us safer in the past.

Rants is wrong about fallout from a Roberts bid

Last week in Sioux City I had the chance to talk with a state representative from there, Christopher Rants, a Republican who is considering running for governor.

It's quite possible that Rants could face State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, and many other GOP candidates in what promises to be a crowded gubernatorial primary field as the party works to redefine itself in the wake of a 2008 thrashing. Roberts is mulling his own Terrace Hill bid.

Rants applied the expected niceties to his fellow Republican, calling Roberts a swell fella and holding true to Ronald Reagan's famous 11th commandment: Never speak ill of another Republican.

But Rants told me a Roberts announcement for governor would open the door for Democrats to run for his House seat, that if Roberts entered the primary, and lost, voters here wouldn't be accommodating and send him back to the Legislature.

I'll be direct: Rants is wrong.

First, I have heard no rumblings about a Democratic contender for Roberts' seat.

Both Roberts and State Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View, ran unopposed in their last races in districts in which Carroll is the dominant city. This is an embarrassment for the local Democratic Party.

Voters in Carroll should have no problem giving Roberts a chance to run in a gubernatorial primary next summer and keep his name up for re-election to the House should he fall short with his greater ambition.

The truth is voters probably won't have a choice. I'll be surprised if a viable Democrat steps forward even though there are several highly qualified potential candidates here.


This appeared in Carroll Daily Times Herald.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Nevada senator's Iowa visit fuels White House speculation



SIOUX CITY - U.S. Sen. John Ensign, a conservative Republican from Nevada, said Monday in Sioux City his party can appeal to women and minorities on educational choice.

"This is an issue we can actually take back," Ensign said.

Stirring speculation about a potential presidential run in 2012 the telegenic, silver-haired veterinarian spoke to more than 100 people in attendance for an American Future Fund lecture at the main library in downtown Sioux City. Earlier in the day Ensign toured the Blue Bunny ice cream plant in Le Mars and Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center.

Before he entered politics, getting elected to Congress in 1994, Ensign opened the first 24-hour animal hospital in Las Vegas.

"We need new idea leaders, new conservatives, that come out with brand-new ideas, new solutions for the challenges America faces," said Tim Albrecht, communications director for American Future Fund, a conservative, free-market political advocacy organization. "Senator Ensign is definitely an ideas guy and that's what conservatives are thirsty for."

The chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, a top position in his party's leadership structure, Ensign is not a declared for the presidency. But his visit to northwest Iowa drew CNN and Fox News cameras - as well as early vetting from Republicans eager for an alternative to President Barack Obama.

"We need as a party new ideas," said State Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City. "That's the Republicans' way back to the majority. It's not just saying 'We're Republicans. It's 'We're Republicans with ideas on energy, with ideas on health care, that are reaching out to younger voters, to minority voters.'"



Rants, a possible gubernatorial candidate who had dinner with Ensign Monday night, said the Nevadan is doing all the right things to position himself as a national voice for the party.

Ensign touched on many conventional GOP themes, and strongly criticized Obama, but didn't do so in harsh or shrill terms, an approach not lost on Rants.

"You can be just as conservative as anybody else out there, but you need to deliver that message in a non-threatening way," Rants said. "It doesn't change your values. It changes in how you deliver it to people."

Ensign drew some his most sustained applause at the event, peopled by a decidedly conservative crowd, with his call for changes to the American educational system.

"I think more choice in education will lead to better schools," Ensign said, making the case for vouchers and other programs aimed at creating private school options for more young people in the K-12 range.

Ensign said bad teachers shouldn't be able to hide behind strong unions.

And he sees educational choice as the "new civil right." Too many families are mired in underachieving school districts, he said.

"We can take that issue away from the Democrats," Ensign said.

Ensign joked that his political orientation was as a Democrat - one who at age 18 voted for President Jimmy Carter. But Ensign said he changed his political allegiances quickly.

"Once you learn to meet your own payroll you certainly understand why limited government is a good idea," Ensign said.

Ensign said Obama's stimulus plan, bailouts of the auto industry and budget plans, amount to a modern-day New Deal.

"I don't think we (the federal government) should be owning auto companies," Ensign said.

Of Obama's budget Ensign said: "That was the scariest thing I've ever seen come to Washington, D.C."

Ensign acknowledged that "there's a crisis going on in the United States" with health care.

But he said the Democrats under Obama are steering the nation toward a Canadian or European model of health care in which the Republican senator thinks bureaucrats will be positioned between doctors and patients.

On the energy front, Ensign favors federal support for transitioning biofuels and other renewables into viability but he argues that the nation needs more clean coal and nuclear power in the mix.

Albrecht said Ensign's remarks resonated with the audience in Sioux City.

"It was like a sea of bobble heads because there was a lot of nodding going on," Albrecht said.

Added Albrecht, "Conservatism, despite reports to the contrary, is alive and well. We saw it tonight in Sioux City."

This story first appeared in The Carroll Daily Times Herald.