2022 a rebuilding year for Iowa Libertarians

There seems to be a lot working against Iowa’s third-largest political party as the 2022 elections approach.

The Libertarian Party of Iowa suffered a setback last year when its former chairman was charged for stealing $10,000 in party funds. The national party also replaced its leader last year after the previous chairman resigned over a spat with a state affiliate, part of an ongoing series of intraparty quarrels. And a state law passed by Iowa Republicans last year makes it harder for third-party candidates to get on the ballot.

Rick Stewart of Cedar Rapids, Libertarian candidate for governor, thinks a seemingly down year is a blessing for his campaign. He says the recent controversies have sparked new interest in the party and, with fewer candidates on the ballot, activists can focus more attention on the top-of-the-ticket race.

“This incident that you reported on,” Stewart told me in a recent interview, “where our chair was released from his duties, that really brought Iowa Libertarians out of the woodwork.”

The current political landscape in Iowa — with an increasingly dominant Republican Party and a floundering Democratic Party — could bode well for Stewart’s odds of getting 2 percent in a three-way gubernatorial race.

The governor’s race is the one that matters most for third parties. In order to be recognized as an official political party in Iowa, organizations must win at least 2 percent in a presidential or gubernatorial race. That entitles them to special partisan privileges.

Iowa Libertarians achieved that status for the first time following the 2016 election. In the following midterm elections, they ran candidates for every statewide race, all four U.S. House seats and many more down-ballot contests.

The Libertarian nominee fell short of 2 percent in 2018, reverting the party to a non-party under Iowa law. What’s more, a 2021 law significantly increased the number of signatures required to get a third-party or no-party candidate on the ballot in some races.

As a result, the Libertarian Party of Iowa this year will only compete in a handful of legislative races, no federal races and only one statewide race, the all-important gubernatorial election.

Stewart, retired founder of Frontier Co-op in Norway, Iowa, has topped the 2 percent mark in statewide contests three times before — for U.S. Senate in 2014 and 2020 and for secretary of agriculture in 2018 — but the gubernatorial and presidential races are the only ones that count for party status. He also won 26 percent in a two-way race for Linn County sheriff in 2016.

Stewart employed some unconventional tactics in his previous campaigns. He has pedaled his bike around most counties in the state, stopping by newsrooms and radio stations to pitch his policy ideas to whoever will listen. He tows around a trailer with an image of himself depicted as Uncle Sam.

During his bid for county office, he ran ads in Washington, D.C., promising to hunt down members of Congress and send them to international criminal court for their part in waging the drug war.

Stunts like that can be double-edged swords for alternative candidates. They need to be a bit brash to capture attention, but they also run the risk of making themselves look like kooks.

Stewart said he has no such gimmicks planned in his 2022 campaign for governor. He’s using it as a vehicle to build the party, in contrast to the solo efforts of his previous runs.

“I don’t think there’s a shtick this year, but if there is, it’s the first time I’ve ever had a campaign team,” he said.

Jeni Kadel, a Libertarian candidate for the new House District 40 in Altoona, coordinated with Stewart to gather signatures for their candidate petitions.

Statehouse candidates weren’t included in last year’s law increasing signature requirements, but they were affected by a 2019 law moving the filing deadline for third-party candidates up from August to March. If Libertarians regain party status, they would be able to nominate candidates by convention instead of by petition.

"Rick is focusing very hard on building a structure to help Libertarians get and keep ballot access," Kadel said.

The current political landscape in Iowa — with an increasingly dominant Republican Party and a floundering Democratic Party — could bode well for Stewart’s odds of getting 2 percent in a three-way gubernatorial race. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is the safe favorite against Democrat Deidre DeJear.

That’s a much different outlook than in 2018 when Iowa had a competitive and expensive contest for governor. Reynolds and Democrat Fred Hubbell each raised more than $10 million. While several polls suggested Hubbell had a narrow lead throughout the campaign, Reynolds prevailed by about 3 percentage points.

Iowans bombarded by news coverage and advertisements that year knew it was a tight race, maybe not the time to use your one vote on a candidate who won’t win. Libertarian candidate Jake Porter got 1.6 percent, about 5,000 votes shy of the mark needed to maintain party status.

This year, in an uncompetitive race with a shoo-in incumbent, Stewart hopes more voters might be willing to try something different.

“In a tight race, they’re going to vote for the person they’re least afraid of. … If they think the person they’re least afraid of is already going to win or going to lose, they can say, ‘I want to vote for someone I like.’ My job is to make sure they find out who I am,” he said.

(319) 339-3156; adam.sullivan@thegazette.com