IOWA CITY, IA. — For weeks Rep. Michele Bachmann, a potential and popular 2012 Republican presidential hopeful, has been reminding Iowans that she is one of them. During an appearance on behalf of the socially conservative The Family…
During her speech at the Iowa-based Family Leader on Friday, potential presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann made a bold claim before the gathering of social conservatives: Sen. Al Franken, she said, stole the election against Sen. Norm Coleman, and that election is to blame for the passage of the national healthcare reform law.
When Jim Kirkpatrick, chairman of Iowa’s Fayette County Republican Central Committee, began to plan the organization’s spring fundraiser only one name was placed on his list for keynote speaker: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Rep. Michele Bachmann took Iowa by storm last week, making a series of media appearances and fundraising events and hitting on a common theme: “I am an Iowan.” She talked about taking Iowa’s money back home from the feds, about bringing jobs to Iowa and protecting Iowa’s quality public schools from the Department of Education. The district she represents north of the Twin Cities or the state in which it is contained went largely unmentioned over the course of the week.
Several rumored Republican candidates will gather in Des Moines later this month for conversations with clergy and congregants, and unlike most events featuring presidential hopefuls, very little is known about exactly who is behind the two-day, all-expenses-paid “Pastors’ Policy Briefing.” Attendees will get to hear Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann during the Mar. 24 and 25 event.
Rep. Michele Bachmann will continue her national “all in for 2012″ tour this spring when she heads to Des Moines for the Conservative Principles Conference in late-March and then New Orleans for the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference and Reagan Centennial Celebration in early June.
Tim Pawlenty and two other potential 2012 presidential candidates, along with some of Iowa’s leading Republicans, will be in attendance for the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Spring Event on March 7. The former Minnesota governor, Rick Santorum and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza Herman Cain will attend the event, which is put on by the Iowa arm of Ralph Reed’s national organization.
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty has spent the past few weeks trying to curry favor with a slew of conservative religious figures, some so extreme they’ve been labeled “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He’s gone public about his plan to reinstate of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers if elected president and claimed that America was founded “under God.” While Pawlenty has always been a social conservative, he hasn’t worn it on his sleeve this prominently. But will these new friends help or hamper his likely 2012 bid for president?
Former governor Tim Pawlenty will participate in a three-city Iowa lecture tour organized by a controversial conservative organization on Feb. 7. Pawlenty will deliver a “pro-family lecture” followed by a structured Q&A facilitated by Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, a group that that teaches “gay sex kills” and “homosexuality is not hardwired.”
A Florida judge ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional on Monday in a case filed by 26 states, almost all of which have Republican governors. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, a Reagan appointee expected to rule against health care reform, said the individual health insurance mandate which goes into effect in 2014 is unconstitutional, and because it’s integral to the entire statute the whole thing should be thrown out. Pawlenty said he was proud to be a part of the lawsuit.
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