The Republican Party of Iowa may start asking presidential candidates to show their birth certificate before they begin campaigning here.
A 16-member committee has drafted a new platform for the Iowa GOP. The document will be debated and perhaps changed at the party’s state convention in mid-June. It appears Iowa Republicans want presidential candidates to “show proof of being a ‘natural born citizen’ of the United States.”
As you may recall, President Obama released copies of his birth certificate from Hawaii last year after businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S.A. The Iowa GOP’s 2010 platform had only called for all candidates — not just presidential candidates — to show they were U.S. citizens before their names were “placed in nomination.” That’s long after the Iowa Caucuses.
The platform draft calls for all Iowa Republican Party officials to remain neutral in primaries. That would have been problematic during the just-concluded presidential race as many members of the party’s state central committee were publicly backing a candidate in the 2012 Caucuses.
Another section of the draft Republican Party of Iowa platform, if adopted, would “demand that all laws restricting the growing of industrial hemp be immediately eliminated” and the platform seems to support the organic food movement. It calls for labeling genetically-modified crops and food and for labels that tell consumers if the food is imported from another country.
Several of the planks in the platform articulate Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s key policy points.
In what could be interpreted as a swipe at long-time Iowa Republican office-holder Chuck Grassley, the document calls for 12-year term limits for U.S. Senators. Grassley’s been in the Senate 32 years.
The document calls for a “personhood” amendment to the U.S. constitution, declaring that life begins at conception. It also calls for steps to ensure Planned Parenthood is denied any government funding.
This draft will be mailed to convention delegates soon. Find a copy of the party’s 2010 platform here.