GOP hopefuls strees financial responsibility

By James Q. Lynch

By James Q. Lynch

The Gazette

MANCHESTER - Hearing from five gubernatorial hopefuls Tuesday night probably didn't make the choice any easier for Delaware County Republicans looking for a conservative candidate in 2010.

Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone, Christian Fong of Cedar Rapids, Rep. Chris Rants of Sioux City, Rep.

Rod Roberts of Carroll and Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City promised fiscal accountability, family values and creation of an economic climate to foster job creation and business development.

The election will rise and fall on job creation, Behn said. His vision is “for our daughters and sons, granddaughters and grandsons, to be able to find a job, create a business good enough they can stay in Iowa if they want to.” “But if we can't get runaway spending under control we can't do that,” Behn said.

Vander Plaats won applause with his promise to issue an executive order to stay the Iowa Supreme Court decisions legalizing same-sex marriage until Iowans have an opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between “one man and one woman. Period.” Rants trained his sights on Gov. Chet Culver, who said there's no reason for alarm about the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System's nearly $5 billion loss last year.

“That's irresponsible to the people who depend on that fund and the (taxpayers) who are on the hook to make up the difference if something doesn't change,” Rants said.

Iowans, Fong said, need more than the hope and change Democrats have been promising: “We need something we can believe in,” he said.

For him, that's core Iowa values - “hard work, integrity . . . the values your parents taught you” - and the election will be about restoring those Iowa values.

The overarching issue in 2010 will be capable and effective leadership, Roberts said, as the next governor will have to get the state's fiscal house in order.

The governor, he said, must be the “chief advocate of a healthy business climate” needed to put the 110,000 unemployed Iowans back to work.