Private sector leadership needed to start Iowa economic engine: Vander Plaats

By James Q. Lynch 

The Gazette

WALFORD – Debbie Brooks sees Bob Vander Plaats as a little bit “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” ands lot of Thomas Edison.

“He's just an everyday person with the experience to come in and be a leader,” Brooks said after the Republican gubernatorial hopeful spoke to a couple of dozen people in her Walford living room Thursday evening. “He not only sees the need for change, but he knows how to do it.” Like Edison, she added, Vander Plaats doesn't stop if things don't work the first time, but keeps trying.

The need for change couldn't be clearer, according to Vander Plaats, who is making his third run for governor. He's not running because of what's wrong with Iowa, but because he sees Iowa's vast potential. Iowa has the natural resources, the educated workforce and the infrastructure to be the country's next economic engine.

However, the state needs new leadership to make that happen, he said. The state needs a new CEO from the private sector, Vander Plaats said, one whose mindset is to do “more and more and more with less. That's how we compete.”

Government, on the other hand, “is the only entity I know that produces less and less and less but wants more and more and more.”

“He's right. We have to make more with less,” said Coggon business owner Bruce Hamilton, who said Vander Plaats “has a good vision of where the state needs to go” and will be a “strong leader with a good moral compass.”

It's not simply a matter of electing a Republican, Vander Plaats said. He argued that he offers a different vision and skill set than either Democratic Gov. Chet Culver or his GOP rivals former Gov. Terry Branstad and Rep. Rod Roberts.

“I believe Iowa has a real choice in this election,” he said. “The choice is simply this: Does Iowa want to go back? Does Iowa want to stay with the present? Or does Iowa want to go boldly into the future. I believe if Iowans wants to go boldly into the future, they will embrace our campaign.”

In today's anti-incumbent political environment, being a former elected officeholder or a current elected officeholder is not an asset, Vander Plaats said.

He's been a teacher and principal, president and CEO of a social services agency and now owns a business consulting firm, but has never held elected office. Rather than that being a disadvantage, Vander Plaats, said in recent elections Democrats have proven skilled at molding GOP candidates' records in office into a “fear tag and scare people out of the voting booth.”