A former statewide office holder who’s now a big city mayor says he’s not going to run for governor in 2006. Former Secretary of State Paul Pate ran for governor in 1998. He’s now the mayor of Cedar Rapids. “Being president of the Iowa League of Cities and mayor of Cedar Rapids are two good partnerships because our goals are very similar, and I’m going to focus on that right now,” Pate says. Pate, in his role as leader of the Iowa League of Cities, is the main cheerleader for the group’s property tax reform plan that asks legislators to signfiicantly change the system. “Obviously, our priority right now is property tax reform because it’s good for all of Iowa,” Pate says. “Now that can sometimes sound like a governor’s speech, but if you read the proposal closely I don’t think I made a lot of friends in some cases, so I don’t think it’s the platform to run for governor. It’s good for Iowa, though, and sometimes that’s a little bit hard to swallow.” Yesterday (Thursday), Iowa Congressman Jim Nussle filed papers to open a campaign account so he can accept money for a gubernatorial race in 2006. Doug Gross, the 2002 G-O-P candidate for Governor, and 2002 G-O-P runner-up Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City are also laying the groundwork for gubernatorial campaigns.
