2nd District candidates take unity pledge

The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS – Four candidates for the 2nd District Republican nomination pledged to support the winner of the June 8 primary and not to run as a third-party candidate.

“There are 104,000 Republicans registered in this district,” Steve Rathje of Cedar Rapids said at a forum Tuesday. “There are 165,000 Democrats and 144,000 registered independents. If we're going to win, we need to come together and come together as a team.”

“Loebsack is the enemy. Not any of us,” added Chris Reed of Marion, referring to two-term incumbent Democrat Rep. Dave Loebsack.

“The Tea Party is a great movement,” said Rob Gettemy of Marion, who has participated in its events, “but I will absolutely support any one of these three.”

In taking the unity pledge at the forum sponsored by the Five Season Republican Women, Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa warned of the perils of a primary race. If candidates are disrespectful to one another, she said, the primary will be “nasty” and “vitriolic.”

“We will not win if we do not come together,” Miller-Meeks said, noting only one-fourth of 2nd District voters are registered Republicans. “The goal is not to tear each other apart. The goal is to permanently retire Mr. Loebsack.”

The candidates spoke of the need to know the electorate and connect with voters, many of whom are not satisfied with the status       quo and are looking for change.

“The fundamental question is who is the electorate this year,” Gettemy said. “We all know where we all stand, (but) the electorate is different from this room. We need to connect with that electorate

“I talked to a lot of people who know something is wrong,” he said. “They may not know the issues as well as all of you, but they know something is wrong. They have a hunger to elect people who are not the same, not Washington, not politicians.”

Rathje said he's “sick and tired” of candidates who simply tout their knowledge of the issues without being able to relate to voters.

“You give me a candidate who can stand up here and articulate a message to those people sitting around their kitchen tables wondering how they're going to make ends meet and I guarantee you that's the candidate I'll get behind,” he said.

Voters are tired of rhetoric and want action, the candidates said. Reed said he's ready to “hit the deck plates running.”

“Unlike Mr. Loebsack, who I believe took a year-and-a-half to find the bathroom out there, we can't have a representative who's going to wait to get things done,” Reed said.

Miller-Meeks pledged to be a congresswoman who puts her constituents first.

“I refuse to accept a pay raise before asking any single solitary Iowan to do more with less,” she said. “If you can't give a soldier a raise or a senior citizen a cost-of-living adjustment, it's improper for your representative to ask for more.”

The candidates are scheduled to meet in another forum at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Coralville Public Library, 1401 5th St.

By James Q. Lynch