Kim Reynolds has occupied the spot as the most unpopular governor in America nearly as long as Terry Branstad wore a mustache in Terrace Hill. She ran up a whale of a deficit and is skedaddling after a decade of mediocrity and decline for our state. Good riddance.
Our economy is as poor as Mississippi, our cancer rate as deadly as Kentucky. Our test scores are falling as our property taxes are rising. Into this steaming hot cow pie steps Randy Feenstra of Hull, congressman of little note but a congressman nonetheless who fed off money from Smithfield as part of China Inc.
Trump wouldn’t let him talk in Clive. Then came the caucuses last week, and Feenstra polled at third or fourth where straw polls were held. The hammer came down when fellow Dutchman and moral arbiter Bob Vander Plaats endorsed Adam Steen for governor.
Feenstra has been avoiding Steen and the others. He blew off the Moms for Liberty forum where his opponents strutted their religious extremism. Feenstra was busy raising more than $4 million with the help of Matt Whitaker, who served for a cup of coffee as US attorney general in Trump’s first term.
Feenstra unseated Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, in a primary after Republicans got tired of King’s retrograde candor (following a 20-year run of speaking his mind about Latinos, Africans and gays, among others, which didn’t bother Republicans until Democrat JD Scholten nearly beat him).
You have to think that if Feenstra could oust King he knows his way around a Republican primary campaign. Sioux County takes care of their own, and that’s a leg up in a Christian mud fight.
Clear evidence presents itself, however, of the rift in Republican ranks driven by the bad politics of the Summit carbon pipeline. The libertarian wing feels a theft of sacred property rights through eminent domain. The commodity groups want to protect the ethanol industry, which declares the pipeline as an existential necessity. In order to serve the farmer, you first must have clear title to his farm.
King is on Steen’s side of this debate. They will give Feenstra nothing but headaches. With a quarter of the funds but a ton of zealotry such a coalition can move voters from the pews to the polls. A lot will depend on whether the legislature can jigger a pipeline solution that does not blow up the party before the midterm elections.
Democrat Rob Sand has collected more than $12 million. He already has some pretty good ads on TV with teachers wondering why Republicans won’t let State Auditor Sand audit the school voucher program. Even if you support private school subsidies, you would also support transparency over how tax dollars are spent. Sand also is rolling out a compelling online campaign that details a decade of decline in Iowa.
The legislature is doubling down on abortion restrictions, shaming gays and discrediting vaccines while doing nothing effective about ballooning property taxes. They are handing Sand a gift.
Feenstra is calloused by Congress. He would be a back bencher in the minority next January. He knows it. So you might as well take the residuals of your Smithfield money and run for governor. It works out for the foreigners vested in no regulation of manure.
Even Northwest Iowa Republicans might not be so eager to turn out for a corporate ticket riding hog confinements and pipelines. Why vote for more hardship for Holstein as Ridge View sorts out its own political woes based on state neglect (if not hostility) to rural community survival? Just let it become part of OABCIG. Then it would be OABCIGSCGH. That is the Reynolds/Feenstra agenda. Who wants another helping of that? Higher taxes, fewer schools, darkened health clinics, air that can gag a buzzard and water not fit for a slug.
Feenstra is the best-known candidate. Sure, you must know Brad Sherman, right? Or Adam Steen, who is morally superior enough to make himself attractive to people who get their religion off the TV. Iowans may have had their fill of the Moms for Liberty and their queer bashing. They are becoming skeptical of cruel stupidity that hunts down US citizens.
The Iowa Republican Party is split and foundering. It does not know when to stop its crusades against the people. Feenstra is likely to emerge the nominee because he is a congressman who toes the corporate line. That is not a good electoral position right about now.
Sand is the critic and outsider yet beholden like them all to dance with the money that brung them. At this point, you would rather be Sand riding in to deliver us from Kim Reynolds and her nastiness. Whoever follows her act has some heavy baggage to lug, and this legislature will only make it worse. Feenstra’s campaign slogan is that he will not let Iowa become California. What a winner.
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