Pearson for Governor

Yesterday I dissected Bob Vander Plaats and my belief he needs to take a break from politics for a while or at least run for something other than governor. Continuing my promise to write about each gubernatorial candidate then I will finish up with a ranking of who I think will serve best as governor of this great state, we move on to candidate two.

Mark Pearson is co-host of the Big Show on Iowa’s mega station 1040 WHO. For those of you who don’t know, the Big Show is the number one program on WHO airing daily from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm focusing on agricultural issues. Mark has very good name I.D. and is respected by all. Mark lives in central Iowa where he farms and raises livestock, is a very successful stockbroker, and also hosts IPTV’s weekly Market to Market ag news program. You can read his bio here.

I don’t know much about his political views other than I’m pretty sure he was a Bill Salier supporter. If he was a Salier supporter and he were to run his campaign without dodging the social issues, I think he’d be tough to beat.

I honestly don’t know if he wants the job or not since he hasn’t been extremely active in Republican politics lately but he was at the Lincoln dinner in 2007 and was also at Bruce Rastetter’s party the other night.

Mark’s pros are his high name I.D. and I’m sure he has good favorability. He’s a very good speaker making him one of the best at articulating a message. He’s garnered the respect of the rural and farm community which makes up most of the primary vote throughout the state. Mark also has a very good relationship with the press as opposed to some other candidates…Steve King. His history as an Assistant Secretary of Agriculture gives him more credibility than some other governor wannabes (ie: Bob VP). Add to that his military service and he’s a very attractive package.

Mark’s cons at this point are a little hard to identify other than the obvious ones. The base doesn’t know where Mark stands on the issues very important to them. As long as Mark runs a conservative campaign that wouldn’t be too hard to overcome. Although being an outsider I would say is a positive, it may be, depending on who jumps into the primary, hard for Mark to raise money from the good old boys. Another con may be his experience in running for office. He was an assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture so I’m sure he’s been around a campaign or two but that was a while ago and he never ran for office. Some people perform better their first time out than their last but you never know until you get into the race.

Mark is going to score fairly high on my ranking coming out in a few days. As long as he pushes a conservative message he will be tough to beat. He would definitely be good for our party either way. He’s a smart man and we would benefit from having his involvement.

Tomorrow I might have to take on the 800 pound conservative gorilla (per Krusty) or maybe a former Hawkeye.