Tonight was the speech by former New York Governor George Pataki at Drake University.  He had some great comments about the current state of affairs, and took questions which he answered well.  Some in New York (see comments on this post) have speculated about him running for other posts in that state, others have suggested he could be a possible contender for President in 2012. Even if he does not run for anything, he certainly provides a strong sense of some of the things the GOP needs to do to take back the People’s Government.

There were about 90 people at the event tonight, including a number of Republican/Conservative activists that I’ve gotten to know, former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad,  Joseph Heuertz (and other leaders) of the Drake University Republicans, John Bloom from Polk County Republicans (along with probably a dozen members of the Polk County Republican Central Committee), Steve Rathje, David Van Ahn, Kim Schmett, Ed Failor Jr. (Iowans for Tax Relief), Craig Robinson (The Iowa Republican) and a host of others.  As sponsors of the event, it was great to see such a solid turnout from the Central Committee members!

The organization that put on the event was America Future Fund. They tout themselves as the conservative answer to moveon.org, and they did an excellent job of arranging this event (future lectures in the series are planned for other locations in Iowa… more info here as it becomes available). The group is headquartered here in Iowa, and they were active in 18 states during the 2008 election. The Communications Director, Tim Albrecht, runs The Bean Walker, an Iowa version of the Drudge Report.   This group is worth a close look.