The Weekly Stampede - July 31

Republican Party of Iowa Opens Victory ‘08 Offices Across Iowa

(Council Bluffs, IA) – Fifth District Representative Steve King will be the keynote speaker for the grand opening of the newest Iowa Victory ’08 office on Monday July 28th. The Pottawattamie County Victory office will be located at 1851 Madison Ave, Suite 716 in Council Bluffs. The program, which will include Rep. King and several local candidates, is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.

"We are excited to open our headquarters so that we can continue our efforts to support and elect our local, state and federal Republican candidates," said Mary Ann Hanusa, chairwoman of the Pottawattamie County GOP.

The Pottawattamie County location will be the fourth Victory ’08 office opened by the Republican Party of Iowa this month and several more are set to open in August. Victory ’08 offices are currently open in Urbandale, Dubuque, and Davenport.

Offices in Ames, Waterloo, and Cedar Rapids will open over the next two weeks. Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota will join Fourth District Representative Tom Latham for the Ames opening on August 2nd. Program details for the Waterloo and Cedar Rapids openings have not been finalized.

“Our volunteers are eagerly awaiting the Ames grand opening and the campaign,” said Russ Cross, chairman of the Story County GOP. “Governor Pawlenty and Rep. Latham are two great Republican leaders and their visit will generate a lot of enthusiasm in the county and the Fourth District.”

Volunteers Needed for RPI Booth at the Iowa State Fair!

It’s that time of year again! The Iowa State Fair will be August 7 – 17 and the Republican Party of Iowa is looking for volunteers to staff the GOP booth in the air conditioned Varied Industries Building.

The booth needs to be manned from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. each day of the fair and we are asking that volunteers take at least one shift from either 9-1, 1-5, or 5-9. Volunteer duties are simply keeping the tables stocked with candidate literature and meeting new people from across Iowa and the U.S.! All volunteers will receive a free day pass to the fair!

If you would like to help, please contact Heather Hooper at 515-282-8105 or hhooper@iowagop.org.

McCain Gains as Obama Deplanes

Two pieces of polling data recently released by Gallup USA show that Barack Obama’s World Tour matches nicely with his campaign rhetoric – well scripted, fawned over by media, and not worth a hill of beans.

The Friday – Sunday poll, conducted as Obama was returning to the U.S., showed that overall only 35% of respondents had a positive opinion of the trip. Break those numbers down a little further and you see that the all-important independent vote was split with 31% viewing the trip favorably compared to 28% with an unfavorable opinion. What may be even more telling is that a whopping 39% of respondents said that they did not know enough about the trip to answer.
This begs the question: Are voters getting tired of the media’s incessant flaunting of their love for Senator Obama and are now tuning it out? Gallup just happened to ask and found that 39% of respondents saw press coverage of Obama as unfairly positive. Only 12% of those polled felt that John McCain got the same treatment.

Meanwhile, McCain’s numbers jumped during the same time period. Only a month ago Obama was leading McCain by six points amongst likely voters. This most recent poll now shows McCain with a four point edge. The poll also shows McCain’s favorable ratings moved up three points from last month to 62% as Obama’s dropped by the same amount to land at 61%.
Those may not seem like huge moves considering that the poll’s margin for error is +/- 4%...that is until we again look at those independent respondents. Obama actually lost 5% of his favorables with independent voters while McCain skyrocketed from 57% to 67%.

One last piece of good news for John McCain is this quote from Gallup released along with this weekend’s poll. “The media’s coverage of Obama’s foreign trip, coupled with a strong reaction from McCain and other conservatives, may have created the seemingly paradoxical effect of increasing Republicans’ energy and excitement about voting for McCain.”

Iowa GOP delegates to Republican National Convention

Radio Iowa has release a list of Delegates and Alternates to the Republican National Convention:

At-Large Delegates
Ike Ackerman, Bremer
Carmine Boal, Polk
Andy Christiansen, Polk
Bill Clark, Polk
Robert Cramer, Polk
Ed Failor, Jr., Muscatine
Sandy Greiner, Washington
Reid Houser, Pottawattamie
Roger Hughes, Hamilton
Morris Hurd, Des Moines
Drew Ivers, Hamilton
Katie Koberg, Polk
John Ortega, Scott
Kim Lehman, Polk
Bill Northey, Dickinson
Steve Scheffler, Polk
David Roederer, Polk
Loras Schulte, Benton
Lisa Smith, Wapello
Bob Vander Plaats, Plymouth
David Vaudt, Polk
Craig Williams, Carroll

At-Large Alternates
Jacob Bossman, Woodbury
Katherine Betts, Linn
Ray Dearin, Story
Ricky Dean, Mahaska
Tim DeMouth, Johnson
Katherine Farrand, Linn
David Fisher, Polk
Chuck Hurley, Polk
Drew Klein, Jasper
Mark Lundberg, Sioux
Ellen Markham, Dubuque
Chris McGowan, Plymouth
Shelly Pitts, Dallas
Lynn Proudfoot, Polk
Carmen Reitsma, Mahaska
Stephanie Laudner, Floyd
Liz Schofield, Clinton
Monte Shaw, Guthrie
Larry Smith, Madison
Scott Spray, Polk
Luana Stoltenberg, Scott
Jerry Tweeten, Winnebago

District Delegates
Sen. David Hartsuch, Scott
Matt Reitsetter, Black Hawk
Mike Knopf, Dubuque
Edward Thornton, Johnson
David Chung, Linn
David Miller, Jefferson
Diana Hansen, Poweshiek
Peggy Herman, Polk
Ted Sporer, Polk
Polly Granzow, Hardin
T.J. Augustine, Webster
Tamara Scott, Warren
Vergene Donovan, Dickinson
Ann Trimble-Ray, Sac
Mary Ann Hanusa, Pottawattamie

District Alternates
Steve Hoodjer, Butler
Nicole Baker, Clinton
Jeremiah Johnson, Dubuque
Bob Anderson, Johnson
Sarah Henderson, Linn
Rose Eaton, Linn
Roger Barr, Jasper
Charla Farnum
Wes Enos, Polk
Glen Massie, Warren
A.J. Spiker, Story
Crystal McIntyre, Warren
Linda Holub, Woodbury
Kurt Brown, O’Brien
Nancy Bowrey, Page


National Convention Committee Members
Credentials:
Steve Scheffler
Katie Koberg

Permanent Organization:
Loras Schulte
Vergene Donovan

Rules:
Steve Roberts
Sandy Greiner

Resolutions:
David Chung
Lisa Smith