August 13, 2009
Candidate Fong pushes for smaller government
Christian Fong has a habit of doing things earlier than most people.
He graduated from high school at 16. He earned his degree at Creighton as a 19 year old.
And now, at 32, the Republican businessman is seeking the Iowa governor’s seat in 2010.
Fong stopped at the Le Mars Daily Sentinel Wednesday as part of a campaign tour through northwest Iowa.
The state, he said, is currently redefining itself, economically and culturally. He wanted to be part of that reshaping.
“I looked at the problems facing Iowans, my own family,” Fong said. “When I looked at what Iowa was confronting as a state, I believed that my experiences over the past 13 years in the private sector uniquely dovetail with what Iowans are facing right now.”
Culturally, he said, Iowa faces issues ranging from defining legal marriage to strengthening the state’s education.
“I can lead Iowa through that sort of fog to a secure future,” Fong said.
Strongly pro-life and in favor letting Iowans vote on how marriage should be legally defined, Fong is also pushing for a “smaller, smarter government” and cutting back regulations on new businesses.
An executive with AEGON USA, a Cedar Rapids-based insurance company, Fong is pledging to balance Iowa’s budget every year he’s in office.
His first year goal: cut the size of government by 5 percent.
“It begins by making the public commitment and it continues by putting someone who knows how to manage an organization into place to actually begin to find and deliver the cost savings so it’s more than an empty campaign promise,” Fong said.
He suggested ending the practice of funding a head count of employees, some that are never hired—which could save $25 million annually, and leasing vehicles rather than owning them, to save another $18 million each year.
Fong is also a strong supporter of small businesses.
“Seventy-five percent of job growth comes from small and locally-owned businesses,” he said. “In order to drive job growth, you have to make sure the small and locally-owned businesses are free to do what they do best.”
That, he said, is to get their products to market free of excessive regulations and have a state government that enables them to grow.
Not only do we have to remain a right to work state, but we have to stop the political threat that we may not be a right to work state,” Fong said
That threat, he said, has chilled Iowa’s economic development.
In education, Fong calls for an end to the “slide to mediocrity.”
“Iowa was number one in the nation for education as recently as 2000, and now we’ve slid to 10th,” he said, calling for a higher state standard for teachers. Local communities, he added, could then set an even higher standard on their own.
“The very best solutions are going to emerge from the local level,” he said. “I really believe in small schools.”
Fong’s plan for his campaign is to spend time in all 99 counties, listening to Iowans.
“This is the best part of the campaign,” he said.
Fong calls his own story a “rags to riches” tale, explaining that his dad emigrated from China when his family was under religious persecution and lived in Arkansas and later Nebraska, where his father met his mother.
“Coming from a country where communism was ascending made the promise of what America is that much more attractive,” Fong said.
If Fong proves successful in his gubernatorial campaign, he’ll be the youngest to hold that office in Iowa.
“Certainly nationwide there have been younger governors than me. Iowa has a history of electing young governors,” he said. “I’ve got about the same amount of experience—13 years—as Governor Branstad had when he was elected back in 1982.”
Fong’s campaign strategy includes being available on Facebook, Twitter and even by cell phone.
“I read every text (message) I get and respond to many of them,” he said. “Really it’s about making not only the leadership process transparent, but it’s making leaders accessible.”
