Last week, a friend of mine forwarded me an interesting email from the president of the Iowa State College Republicans, Logan Pals. In this email, he was informing members of the College Republicans of the treatment he had received from the Republican Party of Iowa. The following account is drawn purely from that email. It describes how the College Republicans had offered their time to volunteer at the straw poll and were told that they would be given tickets for the debate. After a string of phone calls from various representatives of the Republican Party of Iowa, it turned out that the state party would not be giving the College Republicans any tickets.

Mr. Pals’ email also describes threats to tell candidates about his “unprofessionalism” made by members of the party.

While my past experience with Mr. Pals has been rocky due to our disagreement about the way ISU Ambassadors should conduct itself at the annual Regents Day at the Capitol, I do think that this email detailing Logan’s experience with the Republican Party of Iowa should serve as a wake-up call for us.

During the six months leading up to the November elections, I volunteered my time at the Ames Victory office under the direction of Dane Nealson. While I personally regret helping to put many of the Republicans we did into office, I cannot say that the Ames office was not run superbly. Dane was a highly enthusiastic and motivational leader, his volunteers were exceptional, and his numbers clearly showed as much. The College Republicans put in a huge amount of time there, and continued to remain active throughout the spring.

However, according to Mr. Pals email, their efforts didn’t matter to the state GOP, and their bottom line is that they need to make money (how very Republican of them).

Last January, after voicing my support for the Iowa Supreme Court judges who were recalled, I was fired from my clerking position with Rep. Renee Schulte at the order of Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen. It rather surprised me that the House Republicans could get so unnerved by a Facebook post criticizing Bob Vander Plaats and my applauding the Varnum decision, but I am just one person with no particularly deep connection to the party. It amazes me that the state party would do such a thing to alienate what few supporters of our age it has.

The power trip that the Republican Party of Iowa has gone on is scandalous. In the last 7 months, I  have borne two attacks concerning Rep. Schulte’s dismissal of me and my views about Regents Day. In the same span of time. the Governor has gone on unprecedented firing and cutting sprees and the legislature has persistently tried to infringe on the rights of individuals, all the while bickering like children over the most minute issues.

In the meantime, the state’s budget is in pieces and a state senator is telling ISU students to go home. Now, the Republican Party of Iowa is threatening their very own minions. At what point should this party be held accountable? I hope this will happen in the 2012 elections, but in the meantime we at Iowa State need to step up and show that we are paying attention.

The future leaders of Iowa are being cultivated at Iowa State while the present leaders continually show us blatant disrespect. This is painful to watch, but it’s even more painful to see the apathy that students are showing. We need to make it known when these things happen to our fellow voters. Rather than letting these things deter us, we need to use them as motivation to make our government better.

By the way, College Republicans — when someone asks to be taken off of your mailing list, you might want to listen to them.