Transcript below:

Spencer (00:00:01 ):

Thanks for clicking play on the latest edition of Iowa Revolution.

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My name is Spencer.

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He is Dr. Bob.

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Dr. Bob, good to see you.

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Good to see you, Spencer.

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First of all, the big news, we do have Pete Buttigieg coming later on in the show.

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He's in Cedar Rapids as we speak,

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or at least as we're recording,

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getting ready to speak to the Vote Vets rally tonight in downtown Cedar Rapids.

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So we got about 10 minutes to talk to Pete.

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Even had a chance to give him my top five Pete's.

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So you'll want to make sure to stick around for that later on in the show.

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But first off,

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Dr.

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Bob,

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the biggest news in the state of Iowa is Rob Sand has announced that he will run

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for governor,

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of course,

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as a Democrat.

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He does have $8 million in his coffers right now.

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$7 million of that is from his family and extended family.

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And it is expected that we're going to be seeing some more Republicans put their

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name in the hat.

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Brenna Byrd, Pat Grassley, now Randy Feenstra has...

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explored now possibly getting into the governor's race so those are just a few

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names also mike busolo republican from ankeny he's also kind of entertained running

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for governor so first of all just your thoughts on rob sand now officially in the

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race

Dr. Bob (00:01:09 ):

Well, it's something we've suspected would happen for some time, for years.

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In fact, you and I have talked about it.

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A lot of people saw him as the likely candidate since he's the only elected official.

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I think he's a good man.

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I think he'll do a great job.

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Having the money is important.

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These races aren't going to be easy to win.

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I just think that he's been... I think...

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very balanced in his auditor position.

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I really think that Kim Reynolds stripping that office of its power was,

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I don't know,

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something anti-democratic.

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I think that we needed that office to be a watchdog.

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Now, why wouldn't Kim Reynolds want a watchdog?

Dr. Bob (00:02:03 ):

Right.

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You know, so you can do things that you don't want anybody to know.

Spencer (00:02:07 ):

And I just think that's a question that answers itself.

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Yeah.

Dr. Bob (00:02:10 ):

Yeah.

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So I think Rob's done a good job.

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He may he may get a challenge or I think somebody is telegraphed that they may run.

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And I don't think that's a bad thing.

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I think that it will actually help him.

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I just worry about.

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primaries now in the sense that they take up so much money and that,

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you know,

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we just,

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I mean,

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there are diverging views on that.

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And I think there's probably merit to both of them.

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There's one side that says having a tough primary helps in terms of name recognition,

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then you're going to have to spend money to get ads earlier on.

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So you might get that early bump.

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So there is that side of the coin.

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But then,

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as you said,

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that also makes you burn through some money that you're not going to have then when

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you get to the governors,

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you know,

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when you get to the general race.

Dr. Bob (00:03:01 ):

Yeah, so we'll see.

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I'm forgetting the name of the candidate.

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I know that she's well respected, but yeah, I don't know.

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We'll see.

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I just think that,

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you know,

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Rob stands a really good chance of winning,

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especially against some of the people that have come forward that,

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you know,

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Brenna Byrd is just...

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cruel and vindictive.

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Fiendstra just... To me, it seems odd that Fiendstra would even enter the race.

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He's got a comfy seat for as long as he wants to stay in the Congress.

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Laura Bellin did say to me off the air last night,

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but she said this on the air before when we were doing our Capital Week show,

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but that old saying of...

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when they're handing out the pieces of the pie, that's when you grab your piece.

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We're probably not going to see an open governor's race for however long this new

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governor stays in their seat.

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So I guess that is the other side of it is,

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hey,

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now is your chance for an open Republican primary for governor.

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Might as well see if you have a shot.

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So that's really the only logic I can see in it.

Dr. Bob (00:04:05 ):

Well,

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the thing,

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too,

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is that if you're in Congress,

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there's a whole lot of people in Congress that don't do very much work.

Spencer (00:04:13 ):

Right.

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If you're a governor, you have to work.

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Right.

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And he doesn't go out and speak to his constituents.

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He's never really debated Ryan Melton in their two races previously.

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They did have one private debate that apparently went so badly that they never

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actually scheduled a public debate.

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And that's another issue.

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He hasn't really had any kind of contested race.

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Even when he's ran in that primary against Kevin Virgil, he only won like 60% to 40%.

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Nobody knew who the hell Kevin Virgil is.

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So, you know, it's not like he is.

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Yeah.

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To me, it seems strange that he would think that he would have a shot.

Dr. Bob (00:04:49 ):

Yeah.

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And while you mentioned Ryan Melton, I'm just going to say I think he's positively courageous.

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I think he's a really good person.

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I think he really knows the district and knows what's, you know, knows how to listen.

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He goes everywhere.

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You know, I've been in different kinds of things that.

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I was just at a meeting in Algona and I was giving a talk in Algona to the Algona Democrats.

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And then next thing I know is I look around and he's in the audience.

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So he's just everywhere.

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I actually really admire him.

Spencer (00:05:24 ):

While we're on the topic of campaigns,

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just your quick thoughts on Sarah Trone Garriott versus Jennifer Conferst in that

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race for the Democratic nomination that would go up against Zach Nunn if he decides

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to stay in that race.

Dr. Bob (00:05:37 ):

Well, I think they're both very well qualified.

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I think they'd both be true representatives of the people.

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Again,

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this is one of those situations where I don't see the value of burning all that

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money in a primary.

Dr. Bob (00:05:50 ):

Yeah,

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I think these are candidates,

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in terms of the Rob Sand candidacy,

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you would imagine that somebody would run certainly to his left.

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Because there are certainly a lot of