Rants Leaves Fund $200,000 in debt

Chris (formerly Christopher) Rants has been an outspoken critic of Governor Chet (formerly Chester) Culver's spending of taxpayer dollars. The Des Moines Register's Jason Clayworth has a piece in the Sunday paper calling Rants' money management into question. Rants was the house Republicans' former majority leader and speaker and helped oversee the House Majority Fund. That fund sent money to efforts to elect Iowa Republicans into the house. But Clayworth's reporting shows when Rants' peers booted him out of leadership, he left the fund $200,000 in the red.

Rants didn't comment for the story, other than a statement issued through a staff member. Will other Republican candidates for governor use this story as a strike against Rants during the campaign? Or is this too "inside baseball-type stuff" for most Iowa voters?

Rants Criticizes State Fleet

Iowa Republican Gubernatorial (Almost) Candidate Chris Rants used a free anti-Culver t-shirt to make a point Sunday. Rants has been a frequent critic of the fleet of state vehicles that sits in a lot near the Iowa Statehouse collecting dust, as he says. Sunday afternoon, Rants sent out a message on Twitter and Facebook that promised the shirt to whichever person could guess how many state vehicles he found near the Des Moines tea protest party Saturday. Here's the exchange:

Christopher Rants A free "Debt Culver" t shirt to the 1st person to correctly guess the number of state cars parked in the ramp across from the TEA party Sat
3 hours ago · via Twitter · Comment · LikeUnlike · Show Feedback (23)Hide Feedback (23)
You like this.
Ryan W. Frederick at 12:07pm July 5
75?
Jon McAvoy at 12:08pm July 5
12?
Matt Miller at 12:16pm July 5
100 - per http://www.rants.us/default.aspx?id=317
Christopher Rants at 12:22pm July 5
All answers are too low.... They stashed them on the top three floors were they were less likely to be seen - and I drove thru yesterday to count so I'd have up to date number.
Ryan W. Frederick at 12:23pm July 5
hmm...I'll try again... 135
Christopher Rants at 12:26pm July 5
Nope
Don McDowell at 12:36pm July 5
http://herdonthehill.blogspot.com/2009/03/sitting-idly-by.html
Rick Hunsaker at 12:43pm July 5
192
Darren Clayton at 12:44pm July 5
0
Christopher Rants at 12:49pm July 5
More than 135, but less than 192....
Rick Hunsaker at 12:54pm July 5
154
Ryan W. Frederick at 12:55pm July 5
172
Rick Hunsaker at 12:57pm July 5
163.
Doriano Rossi at 12:59pm July 5
167
Jill J. Noordhoek at 1:02pm July 5
145....or to darn many!
Rick Hunsaker at 1:07pm July 5
147
Grace Rants at 1:15pm July 5
152!!
Steve Larson at 1:20pm July 5
153
Sarah Bowman at 1:23pm July 5
176
Michele Ryan at 1:25pm July 5
191
Rick Hunsaker at 1:29pm July 5
159
Christopher Rants at 1:33pm July 5
Steve Larson would be the winner! Shoot me a direct message with your address and size so I can send you the shirt.
Steve Larson at 1:55pm July 5
Woohoo! I won!

Republican Roundup--The Possible Candidates for Governor

We called it a "Republican Roundup" on my Internet radio show "Purple Matters" (that's a lot of "quotation marks" in one sentence, huh?) We had six possible candidates for the Republican nomination for governor next year in Iowa. Sioux City Rep. Chris Rants, Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, Carroll Rep. Rod Roberts, Cedar Rapids economist Christian Fong, Boone Senator Jerry Behn and Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey all joined us. Chariton Senator Paul McKinley, Ankeny businessman Jeff Lamberti and Western Iowa Congress Steve King all cited scheduling conflicts, so they couldn't take part.

What did we find out?

Chris Rants--ALL IN, ALMOST. Rants is in the exploratory phase of the campaign. He has filed the papers to do raise money, etc. He said he will travel the state extensively in July and August and then said we should look for a possible announcement in the fall that he will run for governor.

Rants said he has informally polled Iowans about whether he should run as "Chris" or "Christopher". He said more people went with Chris. So he is running as Chris.

He denied reports that he has been talking with former West Des Moines Representative Libby Jacobs. Jacobs was recently laid off as Community Relations Director for the Principal Financial Group. Rants cited Cityview's "Civic Skinny" as the main source of the Rants/Jacobs talk. Although, a person who went along as part of the Greater Des Moines Partnership's annual trip to lobby the bigwigs in Washington, D.C. told me about it. Rants said it is too early to be thinking about a running mate and that it's like in baseball when you don't talk about a no-hitter before it's over.

Rants talked with us from his home in Sioux City. Listen to the full interview on "Purple Matters" from www.macsworldlive.com.