2nd District: Reed calls for more personal responsibility, less government

Christopher Reed doesn't think U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack is a bad person.

In fact, he credits the Mount Vernon Democrat with standing up for veterans and National Guardsmen who were owed back pay.

It's just that he disagrees with Loebsack on, well, about everything.

“We just differ on the best way to run a nation,” says Reed, a small business owner who is one of four Republican seeking the opportunity to face Loebsack in November.

“He thinks we need more government. I think we need more personal responsibility,” Reed says.

Pick an issue from health care to taxes to government spending and Reed is at odds with Loebsack. For example, Loebsack supported the federal stimulus plan. Reed calls it “a colossal failure.”

“We still have rising unemployment and foreclosures,” he says. “The stimulus isn't creating jobs. There are more homes for sale and businesses are barely staying afloat.”

Loebsack simply isn't grounded in the real world -- the world of bottom lines and balanced budgets, Reed says.

“I've met a payroll, kept a budget, employed Iowans and contributed to the economic prosperity of many Iowans,” says Reed, who has owned and operated Iowa Answering Service for 11 years.

“Everything he has done has been in the world of theory,” he says, referring to Loebsack's career as a college political science professor. “When you own a business you can throw out the theory.”

Reed is running out of concern for the long-term future of the country.

 His slogan is “Defending the Future” for his children and future generations. “I want my kids to have the American my parents had,” he says.

 “For too long we've elected people more interested in their own prosperity rather than their posterity,” he says. “They're looking out for themselves rather than the future of the country.”

He would start by basing all of his decisions on the Constitution.

“He doesn't care about,” Reed says about Loebsack, who last year told a town hall audience “There are a lot of things we've decided on as a society that are not in the Constitution that we should have and we've done that throughout our history. If we go back to the Constitution itself, there would be a lot of things that we do that wouldn't get done.”

Reed believes he has a better understanding of the Constitution and believes that's what voters are looking for this year.

In 2008, when he ran for the U.S. Senate, Reed heard a lot of angry rhetoric and people wanted to know where he stood on immigration or other issues.

“This year they're saying, ‘Show me where in the Constitution it says you can do that,'” Reed says.

That's the sentiment that has fueled the growth of the Tea Party movement, Reed says.

Reed respects the grass roots movement that “formed out of nowhere.” He's counting on grass roots support to win the June 8 primary. Reed knows other candidates are better financed, but that's not necessarily an advantage, he says.

“You can only spend so much money,” he says, “and if you have to spend $100,000 in a 15-county race you're selling a product nobody wants.”

That swipe at rival Rob Gettemy, who put $100,000 of his own money onto his campaign, is typical of Reed. He attacked Steve Rathje's tax holiday plan at a Tea Party Tax Day rally and Mariannette Miller-Meeks' comments about the challenge of running as a Republican following the Bush administration's expansion of federal government.

“It's not the amount you spend, but the message and your likability,” Reed says. “I have donors. Grass roots people who don't have $2,400 to part with.”

“But if someone is willing to wear your t-shirt and go door-to-door for you, they're going to vote for you,” he says.

Name: Christopher Reed

Age: 38

City of Residence: Marion

Political Party: Republican

Education: Solon High School

Occupation: Owner, Iowa Answering Service

Related Experience: Navy; small business owner

Family: Wife, Kim, four children

Contact:

www.reedforiowa.com; 463 Northland Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402; 241-0565;

reedforcongress@gmail.com