Republican candidates of the future are among the Iowa delegates to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Stewart Iverson of Dows is there, as part of the process of deciding whether to run for Governor in 2002. Iverson has never been at a national convention before. He says it’s a good chance to network with others.Bill Salie of Nora Springs is an alternate delegate — but the main reason for his trip is to gauge his changes of being the Republican to challenge Senator Tom Harkin in 2002. The former Marine is now farming in northern Iowa, and he could face Congressman Greg Ganske of Des Moines in a primary in 2002. He says he’s never visited with Ganske about the primary, but says he hopes they could have a good race that would focus on defeating Harkin.Salier says he’s not running because he wants to be a politician. He says he wants to uphold the constitution and he feels that’s something Senator Harkin does not do.Darrell Kearney is a long-time Iowa campaign organizer who says the candidates of the future gain a lot by networking at a national convention.Kearney says the delegates who come from all over the state represent the worker bees of a campaign.Kearney is presently finance director of the Iowa Republican Party. He ran Bob Dole’s 1996 Iowa campaign. Iowa native Jim Nicholson, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, identified himself as a “proud Vietnam veteran” last night as he gave a brief introduction for “Stormin’ Norman Schwartzkoff”, the leader of American forces in the Gulf War. An Iowa delegate was a guest on cable television’s “C-SPAN” Tuesday morning. Kathy Kist of Cedar Rapids was a supporter of Alan Keyes, but she says George W. Bush’s decision to pick a pro-life running mate cemented her decision to throw her support to Bush.
