2nd District GOP hopeful promises 'distinct difference'

By James Q. Lynch

The Gazette

SOLON – Christopher Reed wants to enact term limits for members of Congress – starting with 2

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District Rep. Dave Loebsack.

Reed, a Cedar Rapids businessman, formally entered the race to replace Loebsack Thursday, charging that the Democratic incumbent simply follows his party rather than represent the district and has failed to deliver the help needed to recover from historic flooding in 2008.

In announcing his candidacy in his hometown of Solon and in Cedar Rapids, Reed, 37, spent most of his time criticizing Loebsack's support of health-care reform, climate change legislation and costly, heavy-handed intervention in the private sector.

“Washington is not listening to the American populace any longer,” he said. “Bailouts for billionaires, stimulus packages, government takeover of private industry, 1,900-page health-care plans that Americans don't want.

“It's time we take our country back,” Reed said. “Someone must stand and say ours will not be the last generation to know liberty and freedom.

“I am that someone. I am a conservative running for Congress. I want to restore the principles of this great nation: individual liberty, personal freedom and personal responsibility,” he said.

Personal responsibility extends to the “average person going to Washington to represent his state,” Reed said, explaining why the first thing he'd like to do as a member of Congress is limit the number of terms he could serve.

“The era of the career politician needs to be over,” he said.

His problem with Loebsack, a second-term Democrat from Mount Vernon, is his “determinant effort to vote for a health-care bill Americans don't want,” Reed said. Noting health-care bill opponents were demonstrating in Washington Thursday, Reed said Loebsack's “in his office, but not listening. He's still determined to vote for this bill even though it's bad for America, it's bad for our future and it's bad for our economy.”

Loebsack's has taken a “back seat” on flood recovery, Reed said.

“There have been a lot of empty promises,” he said. “It's been 18 months and people still are living in FEMA trailers.

“There's too much bureaucracy. We need people who can make decisions,” Reed said.

Reed will have competition for the GOP nomination to face Loebsack, a retired Cornell College political science professor. Ottumwa ophthalmologist Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who lost to Loebsack in 2008, and Cedar Rapids businessman Steve Rathje have both indicated they will run.

Reed promised to offer voters a “distinct difference” to Loebsack, who captured 57 percent of the vote in his first re-election attempt.

“In 2008, we didn't offer a very big difference between Dave Loebsack and the Republican who ran against him,” Reed said, referring to Miller-Meeks. “With my candidacy, there will be a huge difference. People will see you are going to get A or B, not two similar candidates to choose from.

“We are going to offer a real difference,” he said.

Former Linn County Republican Co-Chairman Harold Barnes believes Reed offers the GOP its best opportunity to win back the 2

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District seat held by Rep. Jim Leach until 2006.

“He's the strongest candidate and I have confidence he can get the job done,” Barnes said. “He's a Navy veteran, he owns a business, he's met a payroll. He's been through all those things Dave Loebsack hasn't been through. He's been tested.”