Dear Gopal

Yesterday, Gopal Krishna let it be known that he is not running to be Chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, and never has been a candidate. He also took a little time to call his colleges on the State Central Committee immature and that the reason he would not run is because he doesn’t want to be their babysitter.

If you ask me, it looks like Gopal is the one who needs to grow up, get his facts straight.

First, while I question some of the actions taken by the SCC, they are all good people who want to do what’s best for the party. Unfortunately, we have lacked a strong chairman for the better part of a decade meaning the committee has been adrift. I’m actually one of the few who think this committee is a lot better than the previous one.

Additionally, it is no secret that the Iowa Christian Alliance is responsible for helping get most of these members elected to the SCC. So if Gopal is upset with maturity level of many of the members, he can thank himself for putting them in their current position.

Secondly, Gopal calls out members who don’t attend meetings. Yet it was Gopal who didn’t show up at State Central Committee meeting when he was Co-Chair 19 years ago, and he also didn’t attend the 1999 Straw Poll, yet he has the audacity to call other people out for their attendance record.

Gopal might be able to fool the media that he was never a candidate, but will never fool those who understand how these campaigns for chair are run. There is no doubt in my mind that Gopal was a candidate. However, this chair election has been very different that the previous ones. Usually a perspective candidate will reach out to the SCC members, but if they can’t garner the 9 votes needed they don’t pull the trigger. While it might not have been Gopal reaching out to other SCC members, there was an effort on his behalf. What happened is that Gopal is unable to get the 9 votes he needed, so of course he’s not running.

Finally, Gopal painted himself as a victim of lies and hate spread by a few blogs.

I guess he might be talking about me. While I understand that he probably didn’t like seeing all the stuff from the 2000 election cycle back in circulation for public consumption, I’m not the one who wants to reinvent history, Gopal is.

I did not make up the fact that the State Central Committee sent out a letter to county leaders about Gopal’s behavior which lead to his dismissal from the Party which was signed by Leon Mosley and Steve Scheffler and a majority of the SCC members at the time.

I did not magically produce a couple of Yepsen articles that deal with Gopal’s actions on the SCC in 2000 that are eerily similar to Yepsen’s columns this year about the dysfunction within RPI.

I did not make up the fact that he skipped out on the Straw Poll and wasn’t present at the SCC meeting which lead to his forced resignation.

Gopal, I have not lied about your past; I have simply made sure people knew about it. Sorry you if you cannot accept the truth. You might be glad to know that I held back at times, because I wanted to keep the debate about your “candidacy” for chairman about the facts.

Other Chair Business – Let the maneuvering begin!

I’ve heard through the grapevine that 2 potential chair candidates might pull from the race. One is Matt Randall, which doesn’t surprise me. Matt’s a good guy who is smart enough to know whether or not he’s got the votes or not. His vote is extremely valuable as the race between Strawn and Carroll is tight. The other rumor out there is that Paul Pate will not run for chairman, but for the Co-Chair position.