-----"What would be different in Iowa under your leadership vs that of Governor Branstad? What would your top priorities be as governor?"-----
I'm a conservative Reagan Republican. Governor Branstad, for all his admirable qualities, is cut from “moderate” Republican cloth. So, you will see quite a bit of difference.
1) I will do everything within my legitimate power to stop the practice of human abortion in our state, and in our nation. It’s immoral and unconstitutional. Instead of fulfilling the ultimate stated purpose of the U.S. Constitution “to secure the Blessings of Liberty to our Posterity,” we are eradicating that posterity.
2) I will do everything within my legitimate power to stop the radical homosexual agenda which has done so much harm to the indispensable institution of one man-one woman marriage, religious liberty, and constitutional republican self-government in our state.
3) I will fight out-of-control judges, restoring the constitutional checks and balances which are supposed to be the mainstay of our system. I will work to amend our state constitution to restore control over the choice of our judges to the people and their elected representatives. It is an un-American violation of republican self-government, quite frankly, to let the bar association have control of our judiciary and our judicial picks as we have foolishly done for the last fifty years or so in Iowa.
4) I will work to reform our education system by restoring true local control over the schools. And that means control over the money. I don’t want to send our education dollars to either Washington, DC or to Des Moines, have them run those dollars through a huge bureaucracy, after which they send a fraction back to the local level with strings attached. In my opinion, that sort of system is stupid and wrong. We can do better. Much better.
5) I will work for real economic development, of a completely different sort than what has been passed off as such in recent decades. I believe that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” In other words, no special deals for favored individuals, companies or groups. I believe in the equal protection of the laws, so I would be seeking to implement policies and pass legislation that favors ALL productive Iowans, not just a few.
----“How would you be able to achieve your plans in light of the Democrat/Republican balance in the state house?”----
Let’s work together to throw them out of power in 2014 and then we won’t have to concern ourselves with that.
I hope you don’t think that last reply is flip, because I’m dead serious.
I have much more to say on all these subjects, but I’m simply out of time this evening.
But let’s keep the conversation going!
For Iowa, for America, for our Posterity,
Tom Hoefling