By Ben Cashner

Our major disappointment came in the governor's race. Regular readers will recall that Libertarian candidate Eric Cooper sought to win 2% of the vote, thereby securing "major party" status for the Libertarian Party under Iowa law. If ever we could achieve this status, I thought 2010 would be the year.

In Cooper we had a passionate and articulate candidate who was willing to do the necessary leg work. He garnered the most media coverage of any Iowa L.P. candidate that /I'd/ ever seen. There was a palpable anti-establishment buzz in the air this election season. All the political tumblers /seemed/ to be aligning for the L.P. to capture major party status. When the dust settled, however, Cooper had only received 1.28% of the vote (about 14,300 votes.) This is a respectable showing, but it didn't quite hit the state's arbitrary 2% requirement. The L.P.'s next shot for Iowa major party status will come in the 2012 presidential election.

Libertarian candidates in other races across the ballot had some decent showings also. John Heiderscheit got 25,168 votes (2.27%) in the U.S. Senate race. For the U.S. House, Rob Petsche got 4,072 votes (1.93%) in District 1 and Gary Sicard got 4,327 votes (1.91%) in District 2. One of the star performers of the night was Jake Porter who was running for Secretary of State. Porter got 33,683 votes or 3.13%. There were only 31,000 votes separating the two major party candidates, so Porter's votes were enough to make or break the election. That is the main goal of a third party candidate: make the big boys sweat, so they'll steal your issues to get those voters back the next time.

In statehouse elections, Libertarian candidate Dr. Christopher Peters got an impressive 25.22% of the vote (6,071 votes) for State Senate District 15. This district covers Iowa City and Republicans didn't bother running a candidate against Democrat Robert E. Dvorsky. Peters happily jumped at the losing cause and used his candidacy to promote limited-government ideals in an area of the state not known for those ideals. He was rewarded with the new record for highest vote percentage for an Iowa Libertarian candidate (beating Eric Cooper's 21% record for statehouse). Also in Iowa City (and again with no Republican running), medical student Dustin Krutsinger got 20.44% of the vote (2,550 votes) for State Representative District 30. In State Representative District 46, Tyler Pauly got 347 votes or 2.45%.

Excerpt from Benjamin Cashner's Blog “Cold Hard Cashner.” The complete article may be found at

http://coldhardcashner.blogspot.com/

IOWA LIBERTARIANS NOMINATE CANDIDATES AT STATE CONVENTION

Cooper Nominated Governor; Vows to Get Major Party Status

Ed Wright, Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Iowa, announces the 2010 nominees of the Iowa Libertarian Party selected today, April 24 at the Libertarian State Convention at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center in Ames.

Candidates selected at the convention were:

Eric Cooper, Nominee for Iowa Governor

Nick Weltha, Nominee for Iowa Lt. Governor

Gary Sicard, Nominee for U.S. House District 2

Rob Petsche, Nominee for U.S. House District 1,

Campbell DeSousa, Nominee for Iowa Senate

Tyler Pauly, 20, Nominee for Iowa House

Karen Tegtmeyer, Nominee for Polk County Attorney,

“Under Iowa law, the Libertarian Party can gain major party status if our governor candidate gets 2% of the vote in the general election. My goal in this election is not to win, but to get the 2% we need for major party status,” said Eric Cooper, the party’s gubernatorial nominee.

“The message of liberty, of smaller government is sounding in the hearts and minds of more Americans. The Libertarian Party is gaining favor with voters and the media. We welcome this opportunity,“ said Ed Wright, Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Iowa.

The Libertarian Party of Iowa had three members run in Tuesday's election:

• Nick Taiber-Cedar Falls City Council At-Large
• Bill Lynn-Davenport 5th Ward Alderman
• Roger Fritz-Roland Mayor

The Unofficial Results:

Taiber Will Face Winterhof in a December 1st run-off.

Roland Mayor

Total Votes 81

Roger Fritz 68 83.95%

Write-in Votes 13 16.05%

Source:  Story County Auditor

Davenport 5th Ward
-- 5 of 5 precincts reporting (100%)

Source:  KWQC

Dr. Eric Cooper was recently interviewed by KASI Radio about his campaign for Iowa Governor. 

You can listen to the interview by clicking here.  (If you click on the link and it does not play, right click and choose "save as" to save the file to your computer and open it from there)

The Cooper/Weltha website can be found here.

By Mike Malloy
AmesNewsOnline
 (Sept. 30, 2009 – 8:30 p.m.) Eric Cooper, an Iowa State University associate professor in psychology and neuroscience, will run for governor next fall as a Libertarian.

Click here to read full story

Other Articles:

Libertarian Strategy Monthly-Eric Cooper To Run For Iowa Governor

From KCRG:

State auditors released a report on Tuesday on the Iowa Industrial New
Jobs Training Program, which is run by the state's community colleges.

The
program has borrowed $38.5 million on behalf of businesses who promised
to move to Iowa or expand their operations in the state.

The audit shows that the companies either closed, went bankrupt or failed to create more than 15,000 planned jobs.

Click here to read full article

Source:  KCRG

"According to SurveyUSA, 42% of Iowans approve of the job Governor Culver is doing. That's a new low for Governor Culver.

50% of Iowans polled disapproved of Governor Culver's work. That ties a high since Culver took office, set in April 2008."

Click here to read full story

PGPF Citizens Guide 2009

According to an article, U.S. News and World Report ranks Iowa as the second worst state to start a business.

Chris Edwards, director of tax-policy studies at the Cato Institute recently gave, Iowa Governor, Chet Culver an F rating, and a score of 31 which ranked 44th out of 46 Governors. The rating was based on fiscal responsibility while in office.

From the report: