WILTON, Iowa A potential Republican presidential contender and the GOP candidate for one of the hottest races in the U.S. Senate were among the special guests at a barbecue benefit in Wilton on Wednesday evening.
About 300 guests at the event, not including both local and national media, packed the Wilton Community Center to meet with and hear from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, and state Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak.
Paul, who was there to support not only Ernst, but other local Republican candidates, is a first-term senator who is known for his libertarian political philosophy. Considered to be a contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, he is the son of former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who himself ran for president twice as a Republican.
The event was the sixth annual fall barbecue hosted by the Kaufmann family of Wilton, a prominent family in state Republican politics. Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who hosted the event, is running to secure a second term representing House District 73. Kaufmann said he'd met Paul on a campaign trip and found that they shared a common passion about the rights of property owners, one of the subjects of Paul's recent book, "Government Bullies."
"We just really hit it off," Kaufmann said.
Bobby Kaufmann noted that Paul is the fourth presidential contender to visit one of his family's barbecues during the past several years.
In his remarks, Paul argued against federal overreach regarding not just property rights, but in free speech and search and seizure issues, saying that the government has intruded too far on citizens' rights with electronic surveillance.
"This was what the [American] Revolution was fought over," Paul said.
Ernst, who spoke after Paul, is campaigning for the U.S. Senate to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. A lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, she is facing U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, in a tight race for the seat. She spoke out against Braley, saying that he has been too willing to attempt to raise taxes and not do enough to reduce the national debt.
"I'm not willing to pass that along to my children," she said.
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Rand Paul visits Wilton, boosts local candidates' profiles