The three Republican candidates for governor were on campus Sunday afternoon to make one point: Get rid of Gov. Tom Vilsack.

Candidates Doug Gross, Steve Sukup and Bob Vander Plaats stated their positions on several issues, including education, human cloning, abortion, tax reform, job creation and ethanol promotion.

Each candidate also said several times that Vilsack, who is running for re-election but does not face any opponents in the June 4 primary, has failed to do his job as governor.

Rep. Sukup, R-Dougherty, said Vilsack has called the Legislature into special session three times in three years.

“It’s baseball season, and they have the `three strikes, you’re out’ rule,” he said. “Isn’t it time we did the same thing?”

“Vilsack has screwed up the state budget,” said Gross, a Des Moines attorney. “He’s given education the short end of the stick.”

All three candidates said keeping people in Iowa, including college graduates, and revitalizing state education were their primary goals.

“I have three goals: growth, growth and growth,” Gross said. “We could fill a wall of Curtiss auditorium with studies on economic development. We need to do something about it.”

Gross said the best way to create jobs for Iowans was to reform the tax structure to allow for more competitive businesses.

Vander Plaats, the CEO for a nonprofit organization in Sioux City, said the state has to cater to small business growth, which means restructuring taxes.

Doing that will help keep people in the state, he said.

“Iowa is exporting its most valuable resource – its kids,” Vander Plaats said. “If they want to move to another state, let them. But make it easier for them to return to Iowa.”

Sukup said the state should focus on producing the ideas created in the state.

Iowa is in the top half of states for creating patents, but “losing out” when it comes to manufacturing the products, Sukup said.

Instead, companies are taking the ideas and going to the coasts.

Sukup said manufacturing products in Iowa is “something I’d love to be able to tackle.”

Candidates also had to comment on how they would fight further tuition hikes at the Regents institutions during their first year in office.

Vander Plaats said he would “put the management of the state government in order.”

He said fiscal mismanagement “develops ripple effects” across state programs, including higher education.

Vander Plaats also said he would create a four-year plan for students who commit themselves to one of the Regents universities, telling them how much it will cost for four years of class “plus or minus a certain percentage.”

He said current students have no way to plan for the cost of four years of college.

Sukup said the state had to have tax revenue to support the universities, which meant creating jobs and attracting people to the state.

“Iowa is one of four states losing population,” he said. “We have to change funding to get individuals in the state.”

Gross said “the damage has been done” to higher education in the state of Iowa.

He said the state has to set long-term and short-term goals, but “no tuition increase should be higher than inflation.”

Gross also said the state had to grow to create the funds needed to support the growing universities.

“Institutions have to set priorities to make sure we have the best,” Gross said.