GOP chief: 'Robust primary' good for party

MOUNT VERNON – Watching six candidates actively seeking the Republican Party of Iowa nomination for governor has Jeff Boeyink thinking positive thoughts.

The party's executive director has heard all the warnings about intra-party feuding leaving the party -- that in the last decade has lost the governor's office, both chambers of the Iowa Legislature and a couple of congressional seats -- too weak and fractured to mount a serious challenge to first-term Democrat Gov. Chet Culver in 2010.

However, Boeyink thinks a “robust primary” is just the ticket to bring the party back to life.

“The energy it will create for us will be great,” Boeyink said at a six-county GOP picnic near Mount Vernon Friday night.

Two of the candidates, Christian Fong of Cedar Rapids and Rep. Rod Roberts of Carroll, and surrogates for other candidates worked the picnic crowd at Palisades-Kepler State Park. Others in the race are Rep. Chris Rants and Bob Vander Plaats, both of Sioux City, and Sens. Paul McKinley of Chariton and Jerry Behn of Boone.

Regardless of how many of the candidates make it to the June 2010 primary election, Boeyink thinks the race will help Republicans turn around their voter registration numbers. After decades of outnumbering Democrats, the GOP now trails in voter registration by 114,642.

Republicans' largest voter registration edge was after the 1994 primary race that pitted Gov. Terry Branstad against U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy, Boeyink said.

Since then, “Democrats have been having all the fun,” he said, referring to the 2004 and 2008 Iowa caucus contests and the three-way primary for governor in 2006. The enthusiasm and energy of those contests generated a surge in Democratic voter registration numbers.

“This race gives us that opportunity,” Boeyink said. “That's all good.”

Democrats have had a lot of fun I recent elections because it has been winning those elections, said Norm Sterzenbach, executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party.

“It's true you need to organize and energize volunteers, but nothing does that like winning elections,” he said. “Nothing succeeds like success. And the Republican Party of Iowa has had precious little of it in the last two election cycles, having had their message soundly rejected by Iowa voters.”