On Tuesday, June 3rd Iowa’s two big-box political parties will hold their primary elections to determine who will represent them on the November general election ballot. As usual, interest groups are beginning to rate the candidates. Here are some key ratings from Iowa Gun Owners and Iowa Right to Life.
Iowa Gun Owners, which bills itself as “Iowa’s ONLY no compromise gun lobby,” recently emailed its “2014 Iowa Gun Rights Primary Voter Guide!” to supporters. This guide included the candidate survey results in the key State House and State Senate races that IGO is focusing on across the state. Here is the relevant portions in IGO’s words:
In Senate District 19 (Ankeny) Senator Jack Whitver is in a primary with Brett Nelson. Senator Whitver has surveyed 100% in this race promising to co-sponsor all of Iowa Gun Owners’ legislative priorities if re-elected.
Brett Nelson has refused his survey. We don’t know if he’s willing to support gun control or not but we do know where Senator Whitver stands.
In Senate District 27 (Hampton area) we’ve received signed surveys from both candidates seeking the GOP nomination. Sadly, both Shawn Dietz AND Timothy Junker have put down at least one anti-gun answer on their surveys.
Dietz refuses to help fix Iowa’s pre-emption problem, thus allowing you to get criminally charged for carrying a firearm in parts of Iowa that prohibit your carrying them there (i.e. Iowa City and many cities in Eastern Iowa.)
Junker is adamantly opposed to the idea of doing away with Iowa’s unconstitutional permit to purchase handguns, a relic of a bygone era of “Jim Crow” laws that have been largely phased out across the county.
In Senate District 29 (Dyersville area), long time IGO member James Budde has surveyed 100% pro-gun! More, Budde has pledged to LEAD in the gun rights fight by sponsoring gun rights legislation in Des Moines.
Budde’s going to adamantly fight against Bloomberg’s Universal Registration too.
However, despite our best efforts, James Heavens, also from District 29, simply won’t fill out the survey. We have no idea if he’s planning to ‘make a deal’ with gun-grabbers in Des Moines or not – since he’s unwilling to tell gun owners where he stands.
Senate District 39 (Washington area) is a three-way primary as Senator Sandy Greiner is retiring. IGO members in this district have been busily trying to get a survey from all three candidates for some time.
But as of this writing, Royce Phillips is the only candidate in this race who is willing to tell gun owners where he stands.
Not only did Phillips answer the survey but he did so with 100% pro-gun answers – giving us a reason to believe that he’ll fight to stop gun control at every corner if elected. Michael Moore and Bob Anderson have refused to survey at all. We simply don’t know if they’ll vote pro-gun or anti-gun if elected.
State House:
In House District 15 (Council Bluffs) we have vastly different candidates running.
John Blue has surveyed 100%. No hesitation, no wavering, he’s been clear all along that he’ll fight against gun control and for Constitutional Carry if elected. We’ve talked with John and he seems very serious about the 2nd Amendment in our conversations with him.
Troy Arthur has returned the survey as well, but unlike John Blue, Arthur’s survey was very disturbing.
Troy Arthur will not support Constitutional Carry and he will not support repeal of the unconstitutional ‘permit-to-purchase’ either!
More dangerous, however, was Arthur’s answer on mental health legislation. Gun grabbers are using mental health legislation to come after gun owners, especially vets, by having them declared unfit to possess a firearm.
The key is the word ‘declared.’ This can be done by virtually anyone. Hundreds of thousands of vets have lost their rights this way according to Gun Owners of America. Hundreds of thousands!
On the other hand, if someone is ‘adjudicated’ defective it means that the individual was given a chance to appear in a court of law, have counsel present, produce evidence, confront the opposition’s evidence, and more.
In other words, adjudication implies you have rights, declaration means someone can arbitrarily decide to seize your gun rights. Troy Arthur supports the idea of you simply being declared prohibited. No due process, no lawyer, no rights, just the end of your gun rights.
Thankfully, John Blue is opposed to this radical attack on the 2nd Amendment!
In House District 39 (Johnston area) we have received multiple surveys as this is a 3-way primary. Representative Jake Highfill and Taylor Egly have surveyed 100% pro-gun. Jerry Kinder has REFUSED to survey in this race at all.
It’s important to note that Rep. Highfill, in his two years in the House, has co-sponsored all of the legislation put forth by Iowa Gun Owners.
In House District 47 (Boone) we have a Democratic primary with a reportable difference that voters should know about.
Hans Erickson has surveyed 100% in favor of your gun rights. Constitutional Carry, Stand Your Ground, Pre-Emption reform – Hans Erickson supports all of these concepts and more.
Mark Trueblood has not returned our survey, although IGO members in the district say that he may have dropped out of the race, which may explain this.
In House District 60, Rep. Walt Rogers has failed to return his survey. We’ve spoken to Walt about gun rights, at length, this past legislative session. You see, when Constitutional Carry legislation came to the House for a vote in 2011 Walt voted “NO!”
Now Walt is in a leadership position in the House, and insiders have reported that Walt’s more concerned about maintaining that leadership position that he is about fighting for your gun rights. This pattern of behavior is what makes his refusal to survey this time around all the more concerning.
Thankfully, Jason Welch, who is running against Rogers, has surveyed 100% pro-gun. More, Jason Welch has promised to SPONSOR key pieces of legislation for IGO. We appreciate his support for the 2nd Amendment.
In House District 61 (Waterloo area) we have a 3-way Democratic primary that you should know about as Brad Condon answered 6 out of 9 questions with arrogantly anti-gun answers. He wasn’t just anti-gun, he’s proud of it!
Andrew Miller answered the survey too, but thinks it’s ok for a single ‘mental health professional’ to take gun rights away from Iowa’s veterans on their own volition without any basic due process rights!
Miller actually called our office wanting to make sure we highlighted how ‘good’ he is on the 2nd Amendment and basically argued that anyone who’s even accused of being ‘mental’ should have their gun yanked immediately. Andrew, consider your race “highlighted.”
Timi Brown-Powers refused to survey in this race.
In House District 84 (Mt. Pleasant area) incumbent Dave Heaton is hoping that the voters will forget about his vote against Constitutional Carry in 2011 as Ralph Holmstrom is primarying him to be the GOP nominee in this district.
Heaton has refused to complete his candidate survey whereas Ralph Holmstrom has surveyed 100% pro-gun!
Finally, in District 91, Rep. Mark Lofgren, no friend to the 2nd Amendment whatsoever, is retiring from that seat to run for Congress (voters beware, Lofgren is ducking his federal survey while Matt Waldren has answered 100%) creating an open seat race between Mark Cisneros and Gary Carlson.
While Gary Carlson is refusing to tell gun owners where he stands on the 2nd Amendment, Mark Cisneros has been extremely up front about his pro-gun views in signing his survey 100% pro-gun.
(Cisneros actually surveyed twice for us, as his original survey was misplaced by a volunteer in our office. Cisneros was very sincere in his support of the 2nd Amendment when we spoke to him.)
Cold Hard Cashner 