Neither IFFC nor its leader, Steve Scheffler, endorsing

Steve Scheffler is the leader of the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition (a group that started life a couple of decades ago as the Iowa Christian Coalition).  He’s also one of the Iowa GOP’s representatives of the Republican National Committee.  In a few hours Scheffler will make a written announcement that neither he nor the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition will be endorsing one of the 2012 Republican presidential candidates.

“I have enough trust and faith in Caucus-goers that they will do their due diligence and study the candidates and the issues,” Scheffler said during an interview with Radio Iowa.  “Second, from my experience in working the conservative movement for several years, there is an agreement on a wide range of issues from economic to social issues, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that those individuals in the movement come to the same conclusion on who the best candidate is.”

Scheffler said an endorsement could be divisive “and quite frankly, I don’t think staunchly conservative Iowans don’t like to be told who to vote for when they go to the Caucuses on January 3.”

The Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s decision highlights the fact that conservatives in Iowa have not settled on a single candidate.  “A lot of (the candidates) have similar stances on issues…and our best shot at making sure we have someone who comes out of the Caucuses that’s with us on the wide range of issues is to make sure that that constituency turns out in big numbers and not worry about endorsing one candidate over another candidate and causing some friction and division within the conservative/Christian community. It just seems like a diversion from what the real goal is, to turning out a lot of conservative voters to the Caucuses and trusting them to make their choices.”