A Republican who lost his 2008 bid to unseat Democrat Senator Tom Harkin is launching another campaign. Christopher Reed is traveling the second congressional district today, announcing his campaign for a seat in congress — the seat that is currently held by Democrat Dave Loebsack of Mount Vernon.
“He votes party-lines 98 percent of the time. That’s not representing Iowans. That’s representing the Democrat agenda,” Reed says. “I’m running as an American to represent Americans, as an Iowan to represent Iowans. I am my own person. I’m running as a conservative, to restore conservative fiscal and social values to Washington.”
Reed says Loebsack and his fellow Democrats in congress and the White House are piling too much debt on future generations.
“My children have never had a job yet, but when they do enter the workforce they’re going to be so in debt and they didn’t have anything to do with it. It’s not fair. We’re trillions in debt now and they’re trying to pile a health care bill on top of that that’s going to just bury us and break us,” Reed said during a telephone interview with Radio Iowa. “You have cap-and-trade out there looming on the horizon that’s also going to bury us. It’s going to ruin and destroy Iowa jobs. It’s going to ruin the family farm.”
A video posted on Reed’s campaign website shows Reed surrounded by his wife and three of his children as he holds his youngest — a baby boy — in his arms. Reed speaks, looking into the camera: “It’s time to return to fiscal sanity, sound economic principles and put our nation back on the path to prosperity.”
Reed asserts in the video that Loebsack makes most decisions based on partisan politics rather than on principles. “We need someone who will do what is right for Iowa, not what’s good for Washington,” Reed says.
Reed won a competitive, three-way Republican primary last June to secure the Republican Party’s nomination for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat. Last November, Reed lost to Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat. Harkin had 62.7 percent of the vote; Reed had 37.3 percent. Reed says he entered that campaign about three months before the primary and learned it’s best to start early — and that’s why he’s announcing his bid for congress today, nine months before the 2010 primary and a year before the next general election.
“I ran a 99-county race last time, almost by myself,” Reed says. “This time I’ve built up a solid team of exceptional volunteers to help me navigate the second district of Iowa. That’s the biggest difference. Instead of trying to do everything myself and try to be everywhere by myself, this time I have a great team behind me to help out.”
Reed kicked off his campaign tour this morning with a stop in Ottumwa. He’ll be in his hometown of Solon at 1:30 this afternoon and conclude with an event at his campaign headquarters in Cedar Rapids at 3:30.
(This story was updated at 12:24 p.m.)