Grassley plans call for unity at Iowa GOP convention Saturday

UPDATED: Faced with a takeover of the Republican Party of Iowa by supporters of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul, Sen. Chuck Grassley plans to call for unity when the party has its state convention this weekend.

The RPI convention in Des Moines Saturday comes after a year in which Iowa Republicans first backed Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in the GOP Straw Poll before giving former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a caucus night victory only to see former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum declared the winner when the votes were certified. Now U.S. Rep. Paul appears to be the big winner, as his supporters have filled many top posts in the party, packed the slate of delegates to the Republican National Convention in August and written a proposed state platform that reflects many of his positions.

So Grassley, the titular head of the state party by virtue of his 50-plus years in public office, including 32 years in the Senate, will call for the party to unite in helping elect Romney.

“I'm going to have a message to all of the delegates, not just the Paul people, that we have to join arms in order to win this election and carry Iowa,” Grassley said June Wednesday.

He did not comment on a proposed plank in the Iowa GOP platform calls for presidential candidates to “show proof of being a ‘natural born citizen' of the United States” before their name is placed in nomination.

The plank came up from the grassroots, from the local precinct caucuses, according to Don Racheter, chairman of the platform committee. It's an acknowledgement that many Republicans think Obama is not a “natural born citizen” because his father was Kenyan. Some people believe Obama doesn't meet the constitutional requirements to serve as president.

Racheter conceded the plank is a “shot” at the Democratic president who is seeking a second term, but rejected the suggestion it is a “birther” plank.

“It does not assert that Obama is not a citizen, but rather makes the point that he does not meet the very special eligibility requirement written into the Constitution in paragraph five of Article II by the Founding Fathers that only pertains to people seeking the presidency,” Racheter said. He cited requirements that “both your parents must be citizens of the U.S. at the time of your birth, which everyone agrees Obama's father was not.”

Although passage of the 14th amendment to give citizenship to those born as slaves, it did not change this section of the Constitution, Racheter said.

“There has been no such amendment, and there has been no clear Supreme Court decision on this special point, so the general understanding of what a natural born citizen was common at the time of the adoption of the Constitution must hold,” he said

The issue has been much discussed in several forums, including a Congressional Research Service report last year that, among other things, dismissed other claims that Obama was not eligible to be president.

“It should be noted that there is, significantly, no historical nor controlling legal holding in American jurisprudence to support the argument that parental citizenship governs and controls the eligibility of a native born U.S. citizen to be president,” according to that report. It added there also is no historical foundation in the statements of the framers of the constitution or in the record of debates of its ratification, either.

Another plank that may provoke a spirited debate calls for state party officials to remain neutral in primaries. Several members of the State Central Committee publicly backed candidates in the 2012 precinct caucuses. Some party members feel that is inappropriate, Racheter said.

Approximately 2,500 delegates are eligible to participate in the convention, which convenes at 9:30 a.m. at  Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Much of the business of the convention, such as electing a slate of 13 national convention delegates, is perfunctory. The proposed national convention delegates are: Gov. Terry Branstad, Boone; Margaret Stoldorf, Montgomery; Sen. Chuck Grassley, Butler; Michelle Bullock, Polk; James Mills, Floyd; Steve Anders, Pottawattamie; Roger Leahy, Jefferson; Mark Hansen, Pottawattamie; Will Johnson, Dubuque; Lexy Nuzum, Madison; Andrea Bie, Allamakee; David Fischer, Polk; and Drew Ivers, Hamilton.

Out of that group and the 13 alternates nominated, only Branstad has endorsed the presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Three endorsed Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa precinct caucus straw vote. The others, for the most part, backed Paul in the caucuses.

Delegates elected Saturday will join 12 delegates – three from each of the four congressional districts – who will be elected on Friday night. All told, Iowa will send 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August.

Also on Saturday, the convention will elect Iowa's members of the Republican National Convention. Steve Scheffler of West Des Moines is seeking another term, but is being challenged by David Chung of Cedar Rapids. Rep. Kim Pearson of Pleasant Hill, Tamara Scott of Warren County, Judy Davidson of Scott County are running for national committeewoman and Margaret Stoldorf of Montgomery County. The current member, Kim Lehman is not seeking re-election.

Many of the state's top GOP elected officials – Branstad, Grassley and other congressional and statewide officeholders – are scheduled to speak to the convention.

For more on the convention, including the proposed platform, visit

http://iowagop.org/pdf/convention_tabloid.pdf.