CR Republican Debate Reax

Some reaction to Saturday's gubernatorial debate:

Bleeding Heartland has an extensive post detailing how each of the hopefuls, Terry Branstad, Bob Vander Plaats and Rod Roberts, essentially dodged my question, "Can you identify one tangible way Iowa has been harmed during a full year of legal same-sex marriage?"

Iowa Independent points out that Roberts, who called for denying state services to illegal immigrants to save money, must have forgotten a key vote from his legislative past:

He failed to mention his support for the IOWA Act in 2004, a bill that would have granted in-state college tuition to children who are not legal residents. He also failed to mention a study by the non-partisan Iowa Policy Project that showed the average undocumented family in Iowa pays an around $1,671 each year in taxes, or about 80 percent of a documented family in Iowa earning the same income. A Legislative Services Agency report from the same year found that undocumented immigrants qualify for few services at the state level, and those for which they do qualify are “largely mandated by federal law or the Courts. Therefore, decreasing undocumented immigrant eligibility for state spending does not appear to be a viable policy option.”

WHO-TV's Dave Price has some very good questions in the debate's aftermath. Including this big fat query:

I'll be curious if there will be any fallout from Vander Plaats' comment when asked whether the state should have any role in fighting obesity. He said, "I do believe this is role for the governor in this area to be a model about nutrition, as well. I try to run 25 miles a week." VP added that he has given up his nightly ice cream and will celebrate with "a cold one" (ice cream, that is) when he wins the nomination. I wonder what his big donors, the Wells family, think of his no ice cream sacrifice! They own Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream. Does this comment go too far poking fun at Culver? Or don't Iowans take it that way?

I could go for a big lug of a hot fudge sundae right about now.

Krusty Konservative was not impressed by the kandidates' performances in debate one or two:

I don't know about you, but I'm underwhelmed by the performances of all three of our Republican gubernatorial candidates in the first two debates.

They have one more chance to impress. The Des Moines Register's final forum of the primary campaign is May 29.

Think about it.

After the first debate we were all talking about how Bob Vander Plaats finally took a shot at Terry Branstad. It only took him seven months to do it. Oh sure, he sent out some zingers in a couple of press releases, but its different when you do it yourself. I'm glad Bob found the stones to take on his opponent directly, but that's what any candidate has to do if they want to win.

To quote a longtime Iowa politician, Leaders need to Lead, Teachers need to Teach, and candidates who are in second place need to attack the frontrunner. Sorry, I guess that last part is mine.