DES MOINES - Republican Bob Vander Plaats returns to his roots in Sheldon today to begin his climb to Iowa's top elective executive post.

Vander Plaats, 46, a Sioux City executive, educator and author, plans a noon-hour announcement at his hometown's City Park to officially launch his third bid to win the Iowa Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination. He is the sixth Republican candidate to join the 2010 sweepstakes.

Vander Plaats said he selected Sheldon as his starting point because that's where he learned the values of life, marriage, family, hard work, personal responsibility, diligence, perseverance and integrity.

"We're going back home to say that this is where the bedrocks were placed," he said in an interview. "I'm not walking away from those bedrocks to run for governor."

Vander Plaats said he decided to challenge first-term Gov. Chet Culver because he wants to chart a new direction for economic development, tax policy, education and government management that are stark contrasts to the incumbent Democrat's leadership style.

He said Iowa is in a "fragile situation" due to government overspending, a massive bonding commitment and "red flag" anti-business proposals that are part of the Culver-led Democratic agenda at the Statehouse. He said he wanted to bring his experience as a "turnaround CEO" to reverse those trends.

"Our goal is going to be to actively market Iowa as a right to work state, and having a competitive tax and regulatory structure that is hospitable for business to develop, grow, and thrive in Iowa," said Vander Plaats.

He said he wanted to lower state individual and corporate income taxes by making the systems "fairer, flatter, family friendly and very predictable so every knows what they're paying."

The former president and CEO of Opportunities Unlimited, a Sioux City health and human services organization, said he would enlist innovative, results-oriented people to make better use of the state's finite resources and he would aggressively reduce the state debt load by accelerating the pay back of Culver's I-JOBS bond program.

The former teacher and high-school principal said he would shift the focus on education away from funding a "bloated bureaucracy that is trying to control our schools" to investing resources locally to uplift school standards and student achievement while making districts more accountable and transparent.

Vander Plaats, who ran as GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle's running mate in 2006 and served as Iowa chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign, said he believed his pro-life, pro-marriage views would inspire the Republican base, but his vision also will attract independents and even Democrats.

"We need to unite Iowans around a compelling vision, something to vote for and I think we're going to be able to offer that to them," he said. "This will not be an easy race against Gov. Culver. He's an incumbent governor, we don't replace them very quickly, but I think Gov. Culver has definitely left the door open that he can be beat."

Tim Hagle, a University of Iowa political science professor, said "the silver lining" in his previous unsuccessful bids for governor in 2002 and 2006 was that it raised his name recognition among Iowa voters.

"He's got more name recognition and more of a base to start with. He's not starting at ground zero," Hagle noted.

Vander Plaats noted he already has come under fire from GOP opponents, which he said "indicates we're a clear frontrunner and sometimes the hope of distant challengers is to throw bombs or grenades and see if anyone of them lands or hits."

He said he would not allow "potshots" from other candidates to deter him from taking "a higher road" in the campaign leading up to the GOP primary in June 8, 2010.