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A $2,500 donation from the politically influential Iowans for Tax Relief (ITR) to incumbent Democratic state Rep. Geri Huser has drawn outrage from many conservatives who say it is a slap in the face to a GOP candidate with a much stronger record on tax issues.
Christian radio host Steve Deace first pointed out the donation last month. Deace called ITR the “most powerful advocacy group within the Republican Party,” saying it’s nearly impossible to get elected to anything meaningful in Iowa as a Republican without ITR’s support. So after years of conservatives being told they must be loyal to the GOP, to see a group with such close ties to the party support a Democrat is hard to swallow, Deace said.
Routinely the grassroots/conservative/constitutionalist/Christian base of the Republican Party has been criticized and lectured to by the GOP establishment for being less and less willing to support the establishment’s favorite RINOs. It used to be that the party leadership at least patronized us with their phony application of Ronald Reagan’s “the person who is my 80% friend isn’t my 20% enemy” saying. Now, they don’t even offer that. Now we’re told to vote for legal positivist, pro-amnesty, tax-raising, big government statists just because they’re Republicans and not Democrats.
However, today we’re going to turn the tables on the establishment and ask them if they’re willing to live up to their own standard of party unity above all else.
Huser is running in House District 42 against Republican Kim Pearson, a darling of evangelical and tea party voters. During an appearance Monday on Deace’s show, Pearson said she called Ed Failor Jr., president of ITR, to discuss the group’s donation. The two did speak, Pearson said, although she would not discuss what she was told about why the group donated to Huser.
Pearson says she explains the donation to her supporters by asking them to look at other candidates ITR has endorsed, a statement that served as a veiled shot at GOP gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad. ITR endorsed Branstad shortly before the primary over the choice of the evangelical base of the party, Bob Vander Plaats.
“Not that I’m saying ITR is part of the ruling elite, but ‘we the people,’ you know they have a grip and power and it is just the ruling class that ‘we the people’ have to hold accountable,” she said.
Drew Ivers, a member of the Republican Party of Iowa state central committee, wrote a letter to Republicans urging them to, “counter the disadvantage ITR has created” by donating money directly to Pearson.
Huser is part of a group of moderate Democratic lawmakers known in political circles as the “Six Pack.” The group — which also includes state Reps. Brian Quirk, Doris Kelley, McKinley Bailey, Larry Marek and retiring Rep. Dolores Mertz — regularly votes with Republicans on issues like prevailing wage and other priorities of organized labor. Huser also broke with House Democrats to support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
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