It may not have been the first Republican candidate appearance in Iowa City this cycle, as the student introducing Rudy Giuliani claimed. But it was the first large-scale rally for a Republican candidate in the liberal dark heart of the People’s Republic of Johnson County, as the former New York mayor drew a crowd of several hundred to the University of Iowa campus Wednesday night.
Giuliani repeated the claim that his visit was the first Iowa City stop and joked about the liberal reputations of his city and Iowa City. “There’s more Republicans just on this side of the room than in New York City,” he said. New York City Board of Elections statistics count 459,645 registered Republicans in the Big Apple, and the room definitely wasn’t that full.
The first-visit claim is false both in fact and spirit. Ron Paul spoke on campus in April, long before the Ron Paul Revolution kicked into high gear. John Cox, the longest of long shots, visited Iowa City in July. Tom Tancredo appeared just outside the city limits in March, and now-departed candidate Tommy Thompson visited the Wig and Pen, a tavern that straddles the Iowa City-Coralville boundary, in July. John McCain made an unannounced stop at the Hamburg Inn in May. And Fred Thompson, Sam Brownback, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee have all had big events in next-door Coralville.
Giuliani drew a respectable crowd of several hundred, three-quarters filling a room that Barack Obama packed two weeks ago. A long time Democratic observer said the event was the biggest of three in the building that night, outdrawing an Iowans for Sensible Priorities event that featured ice cream moguls Ben and Jerry.
Despite the lefty reputation, due to sheer size, Johnson County is among the top ten counties in the state for number of registered Republicans, noted former state Senator Jean Lloyd-Jones, a Democrat. She was filming the event for Iowa City’s Senior Center TV.
The introduction also noted that Giuliani’s Iowa City office was the only Republican headquarters east of Des Moines. “Giuliani setting up his office here in Johnson County says something,” local Republican activist Todd Versteegh told Iowa Independent. “He’s definitely playing an interesting strategy. I think what he’s doing, he’s pretty much writing off western Iowa. He’s focusing on eastern Iowa and focusing on soft Republicans, Independents, and maybe even going for some soft Democrats.”
The big crowd may not translate into caucus votes for Giuliani. The Jan. 3 GOP caucuses are in the middle of the University’s winter break, and many in the crowd were curiosity seekers. “I’m just checking it out,” said student Ryan Noser, who likes Giuliani but is leaning toward Mitt Romney. The curiosity seekers included a fair number of Democrats. “I’m on my See The Candidates Tour, and Rudy is an essential stop,” said Tom Carsner, a former Democratic county chair supporting John Edwards. “Rudy so rarely comes here, and I have to make the most of these rare opportunities.”
Student Kyle Blanchard, chatting with a friend about tests and weekend plans, was an enthusiastic Giuliani backer. “Rudy rocked the shit on 9/11. I dig the guy.” He thinks the crowd is a good sign for the GOP. “This is one of the most liberal campuses in the Big Ten, and look how this room is filling up,” he said before the speech.
The mood in the room was rowdy Rudy rally. While Democrats seem to parse rally music lyrics for political message, leaving us with a steady diet of John Mellencamp and U2, Team Rudy served up apolitical classic rock for the aging frat boy in all of us: AC/DC, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, with no discernable message other than kick ass. Most of the room was set up for standing students, with just a few chairs near the back for older folks who wanted to kick back and listen.
In a move not seen even at events for Secret Service-protected candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, two Iowa City police officers were looking in backpacks and inspecting crowd members on the way in.
The brief speech itself hit a macho tone. Repeated attacks on taxes and “socialized medicine” drew loud, throaty cheers. “Democrats do not trust the growth principles America has always had,” Giuliani said.
He defined America in terms of the free market: “The essential nature of America is, 'We’d like to sell you something.'” In an extended fable, Giuliani described a “recurring dream” that two planes pass each other. New French conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy is flying to America to get our ideas of free enterprise and low taxation, and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are flying to France to steal their socialized medicine and 35-hour workweeks. “Only one group of people in the world wants to raise taxes – and they’re all running for President as Democrats,” Giuliani said.
Perhaps hedging his bets, Giuliani is including Edwards and Obama in some of his Democrat bashing. Moving to tort reform, Giuliani said, “If you get a Hillary or Edwards or Obama you’ll get a lot more suing going on. If I become president you’ll see loser-pays rules and caps on damages.”
But Hillary Clinton was named two to three times more often, even in the introduction where Giuliani was praised as “the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton.” “You should be able to make your health care choices with a doctor, not a Hillary bureaucrat,” Giuliani said to loud cheers.
Giuliani wrapped with a brief discussion of the war, offering no Q and A, no specific plans and no apologies. “We’re at war because others want to be at war with us,” he said. Perhaps to remind him he was, after all, in liberal Iowa City, scattered protesters started chanting “BULL-SHIT! BULL-SHIT!” This was quickly drowned out by chants of “ROO-DY! ROO-DY!.” Once the shouting subsided, Giuliani picked up without missing a beat, saying, “Islamic terrorists attacked us and killed us and we have to be on offense.”
The “ROO-DY! ROO-DY!” chants were revisited in the lobby, as several dozen supporters marched down to overwhelm four Ron Paul supporters handing out flyers. “They did all this just for us?” one Paul supporter quipped, handing a curiosity-seeker a flyer.
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