Pro-NRA Iowa Official Flubs, Sets Gun Rights Amendment 4 Years

DES MOINES, IA — Iowa residents will have to wait at least another four years for expanded gun rights after the state’s top election official flubbed the notification process. Secretary of State Paul Pate derailed the process for a constitutional amendment when he failed to publish required notice in newspapers before the November midterm election.

Pate apologized for the error Monday, calling it a “bureaucratic oversight.” That means supporters of expanded gun rights will have to restart the lengthy process, and the earliest Iowans could vote on the referendum would be 2022, instead of 2020, as would have occurred if the notice had been published on time.

Pate, a Republican and lifetime National Rifle Association member, supports the amendment, which would read: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”

Backers of the amendment think it is necessary to protect Iowa gun owners from restrictions that might be passed by local, state and federal governments. Passed last year by the Iowa General Assembly, it was one of the few pieces of legislation expanding rights passed anywhere in the country after the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds told the Des Moines Register the oversight is “really unfortunate.”

Republicans in the state legislature who backed the amendment were less restrained. One of the key backers of the measure, Republican Sen. Brad Zaun, told television station KCCI he’s furious with Pate and he expects that thousands of other Iowans who worked on the issue are as well.
“(I'm) very disappointed and very angry,” Zaun told the television station. “Obviously, we have to start all over.”

State Rep. Matt Windschitl, who sponsored the bill in the House, told The Associated Press the constitutional amendment has been a priority for more than decade.

“Yes,” he said, “this may be a monumental setback, but we will try and get this on the ballot.”

Republicans currently have a majority in both the Iowa House and Senate, but if that changes in 2020, it could take longer to amend the Iowa Constitution. Democrats might be less inclined to back the proposed amendment.

Iowa constitutional amendments must be approved in two consecutive legislative sessions and then by a majority of voters. Amendment supporters had been planning to approve the measure again this session so that it could be on the 2020 ballot.

But the constitution also requires that any amendment be published for three consecutive months before the election in which voters decide who represents them during the second legislative session. That requirement falls to the secretary of state.

Pate also failed to publish another proposed amendment that would change how the lieutenant governor is selected when the governor leaves office. That came into play in 2017 when President Trump appointed former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as his ambassador to China. Reynolds, Branstad’s lieutenant governor, moved up, but sidestepped a legal challenge by hiring, not appointing, her lieutenant governor, Adam Gregg.

Gregg was elected with Reynolds in the November midterm, but if she had been unable to complete the term that ended this month, Gregg wouldn’t have been in line for succession under the rules as currently written.

“I accept full responsibility for this oversight and offer my sincerest apology to the legislators and supporters who worked so hard on these bills,” Pate said. “There is no excuse, and I am instituting a system that will ensure an error like this never happens again.”

Pate had promised members of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, which lobbied for the amendment, during a 2017 speech that he would “be right there with you making sure that your voice is going to be heard.” He said that he enjoyed the ability to hunt and shoot with his grandchildren and that

“I don’t think I’m going to let anybody, if I have anything to say about it, take it away from me.”
The group backed Pate in its 2018 voter guide, giving him an A grade. He won re-election by defeating Democrat Deidre DeJear.

Iowa Firearms Coalition President Kurt Liske told members Sunday that they had been “wronged” by Pate after working to pass the amendment for years.

“Knowing all of that has been undone due to a technicality and an elected official’s failure to act makes me sick and that is why I’ve chosen to share this information as soon as possible,” he wrote.

Liske said he bears some responsibility for failing to check with Pate to ensure that the notices were published but said he took it “for granted,” given Pate’s support.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

Image: In this Dec. 19, 2016, file photo, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate collects ballots during Iowa's Electoral College vote at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)