Vander Plaats: Chuck Norris Event Shows Campaign’s Broader Appeal in Drive to Win 2010 Primary, General Elections

/in /by

NAVASOTA, Texas – Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats said today that the support of actor Chuck Norris and his wife Gena provide his campaign with a potent weapon that will help propel him to the 2010 Iowa Republican gubernatorial nomination over former Gov. Terry Branstad.

More than 40 Iowans are among the people who joined the Norrises and Vander Plaats for a Texas-style barbeque at the Norris ranch about 20 miles southeast of College Station.

Noting that the latest Iowa Poll shows him leading Gov. Chet Culver by eight points, Vander Plaats said Iowans are ready to turn out the first-term Democratic governor because “his failure to lead has run our state budget into a $1 billion hole, provided little but empty words for the 100,000-plus Iowans who are unemployed and led to one fiasco after another, including the mismanagement of the Iowa Film Office.”

“Having the support of Chuck and Gena Norris is obviously helping us raise a significant amount of money today, but it does much more than that,” Vander Plaats said. “In his syndicated column earlier this year, Chuck endorsed three candidates across the country as his ‘three amigos.’ I was honored to be one of those candidates and the campaign has received a number of contributions from across the country as a result.”

He continued, “There’s a lot of media attention on Governor Branstad’s likely return to the politics and the fact he’s leading Chet Culver in the polls. Well, he’s not the only one and before the pundits and the party establishment declare him as the victor over Chet Culver, he’s going to have to go through us,” Vander Plaats said. “Today’s Republican Party isn’t the same as it was in 1982 when he first ran for governor. And with the help of great friends like Chuck and Gena Norris, our supporters who attended today’s event and, many, many others, this campaign will have the resources to get our message out to Iowans and win this primary on June 8.”

# # # #