Contact: Tom Hoefling, 712-887-1489, tomhoefling@gmail.com

DES MOINES, Iowa, April 16, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- Iowa GOP gubernatorial primary challenger Tom Hoefling today charged that incumbent Governor Terry Branstad and his campaign are deceiving Iowa Republicans about Branstad's ongoing support for the Common Core national standards.

Tom Hoefling said today, "I don't know why they think they can get away with this, frankly. It is obvious to any honest observer that Terry Branstad continues to support Common Core, and that he has done nothing of any real substance in this legislative session to stop it. It is also clear that the Branstad executive order from last October that they constantly cite did nothing to stop the implementation of Common Core. That was, to put it simply, a political smokescreen, and everybody who has looked into this question closely knows it."

Hoefling added, "Support for the Common Core standards, which amount to the final blow against any remaining vestige of local control of our schools, is bad enough. But when the Governor and his campaign staffers go out on the campaign trail and try to deceive the people of this state, that takes things to a whole new level. It is now more than just a disagreement over public policy. It is a question of honesty and integrity."

The Hoefling campaign pointed to a report from the statewide group "Iowans for Local Control," which can be found here:

iowansforlocalcontrol.com/2014/01/no-governor-branstad-did-not-reject-the-common-core/