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Sources confirmed to conservative blogger Craig Robinson that a meeting between former Republican gubernatorial rivals Bob Vander Plaats and Terry Branstad did not go well and could result in Vander Plaats leaving the party and running as an independent this fall.
Several sources also confirmed to The Iowa Independent that the chances of a Vander Plaats independent run are 50/50.
The idea of an independent run first surfaced on the blog of Christian radio host and Vander Plaats supporter Steve Deace, who said many of the Sioux City businessman’s supporters were openly asking him to continue his quest for Terrace Hill.
From Deace’s blog:
Would Vander Plaats be willing to do it? Only he knows for sure but his silence since the primary is deafening, and he was the only Republican gubernatorial candidate who refused to pledge his loyalty to the eventual nominee while on the campaign trail. One potential clue could be a conversation I had with Vander Plaats as he was launching his bid to confront the courts last year. When I told him the attorneys in his own party establishment were likely to fight him on holding the courts in check, he made it plain to me that if the Republican Party isn’t going to stand up to the Left, even after it lets the courts destroy marriage in Iowa, he would have no interest in being a Republican anyway. Thus, there’s nothing they could offer him or threaten him with to get him to back down.
In other words, as Edmund Burke once said, “Those who have nothing to lose will always be dangerous.”
Robinson’s sources claim Vander Plaats wanted a spot on the ticket with Branstad, and when he was told that wasn’t going to happen, “he warned Branstad that he was considering an independent run, and indicated that [Iowa Family Policy Center] and Deace were supportive of the effort.”
The question that Vander Plaats and his supporters need to ask themselves is, will Republican voters tolerate such a move by Vander Plaats? If he really wanted to run as an independent candidate, he shouldn’t have sought the Republican nomination.
If he has been mulling over an independent run for a while now, he should have indicated that when asked a question about it during the Des Moines Register’s debate.
For his part, Vander Plaats dismissed the idea of an independent run several times, most recently on primary night to The Iowa Independent, saying “If I planned an independent run, I wouldn’t be meeting with Gov. Branstad.” However, his supporters, including a state lawmaker and the politically influential Christian group IFPC, were not so quick to jump on board with Team Branstad.
But as liberal blogger John Deeth points out, a message sent to supporters by Vander Plaats was “not exactly the message of reconciliation Branstad was hoping for.” In it, Vander Plaats never mentioned endorsing his former primary rival, and instead urged supporters to “continue visiting my Facebook page regularly as I will keep sharing commentary and important information with you.”
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