The new co-chair of the Iowa Republican Party says his main focus will be on promoting the principles that are outlined in the GOP’s platform. Danny Carroll of Grinnell was elected to the party’s number two position this past weekend.

“The constitution of the Republican Party says that one of our main purposes is to promote the principles and policies of Republicans,” Carroll says. “It doesn’t really say anything about electing Republicans. It kind of does indirectly, but to promote the principles and policies (of Republicans) and those are reflected in our platform.”

Carroll is currently a lobbyist for The Family Leader, a conservative Christian organization.  In January of 2010 Carroll announced neither he nor The Family Leader would support Terry Branstad if he won the Republican Party’s nomination for governor. Carroll says his relationship with Branstad today is “cordial.”

“Having worked for and working for The Family Leader, we’ve had some differences and those are fairly well known,” Carroll says. “But he attended our leadership conference last fall and was well received.”

The Family Leader’s president and CEO is Bob Vander Plaats (PLAHTZ, like the word “plots”) who ran against Branstad in 2010. However, The Family Leader and Branstad’s reelection campaign just co-hosted an Iowa G-O-P event and Branstad tried to name The Family Leader’s board chairman to The Board of Regents last year, but Democrats in the senate rejected the nomination.

Carroll was a state legislator for eight years, rising to become the number three Republican in the Iowa House, before losing a reelection bid in 2006.  The budget for his first campaign was about a thousand dollars, but by his fifth campaign Carroll was raising tens of thousands of dollars, for a six-figure budget. With the Iowa GOP struggling to raise money, Carroll plans to start making the pitch for donations — and promising efficiency.

“I happen to think that if you are going to make the case to the voter, the citizens, that you ought to put us in charge of government, we ought to demonstrate how efficient we are at spending donated money to the party,” Carroll says.

Carroll replaces former Iowa GOP co-chair David Fischer of Altoona who resigned to run for a seat in the Iowa House.