Contact: tomhoefling@gmail.com
January 9, 2014
As part of a campaign to get the Republican Party back to basics, candidate for Iowa Governor Tom Hoefling and District 10 State Representative Tom Shaw today released the text of their “2014 GOP Unity Platform” in advance of the January 21st Iowa Caucus.
“Ronald Reagan said that political parties cannot be all things to all people. He was right. They can’t be, and they shouldn’t try to be. That’s why this platform contains the key principles and clear purposes that represent the core of true American republicanism. However, with this document, we’ve done it in only one hundred words, and seven simple, straightforward planks,” Hoefling said.
“I think that in recent years the Republican platform has become bloated, and more than a bit internally inconsistent and self-contradictory. It isn’t any longer a crystal-clear message that candidates can effectively run on, or something that gives people a simple plumb line of principle to hold politicians accountable. That’s why we’re suggesting this somewhat radical change of approach. We want the title ‘platform Republican’ to mean something that is unmistakable,” he added.
Representative Tom Shaw won a long-held Democrat seat four years ago running on a variation of this platform, and easily won reelection in 2012 using it as well. “I know from experience that this simple yet powerful statement of principles resonates with the voters,” Shaw said.
Hoefling and Shaw are suggesting the adoption of this platform by those who attend their precinct caucus, but are also urging individual Republicans to use it as the means to carefully qualify all delegates, party leaders, and candidates for public office.
The complete text is as follows:
2014 GOP Unity Platform
As Iowa Republicans we hereby declare our unity in firm support of these non-negotiable political principles and purposes:
We're one nation under God, and our rights come from God, not men.
The first sworn duty of every officer of government is to equally protect every individual person’s God-given, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and private property, from creation to natural death.
The God-ordained institution of one man-one woman marriage must be preserved.
The right of the people to Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.
Our national sovereignty, security, and borders must be defended.
Our republican form of representative self-government must be upheld.
The sacred oath of office to support and defend our Constitution must be fulfilled.
In order to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, we strongly urge our fellow Iowans, and all Americans, to make this platform their own, and to henceforth hold all political leaders, regardless of party, strictly accountable to it.
You can learn more about Tom Hoefling at http://www.tomhoefling.com.