http://www.RonPaul2012.com – Congressman Ron Paul’s new ad titled “Life”

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Bob Vander Plaats, the chief executive officer of an Iowa-based conservative advocacy group called the Family Leader, said that while he likes Paul personally, he sees little reason to support him. Vander Plaats, a three-time gubernatorial candidate, was the Iowa chairman for Mike Huckabee’s (victorious in Iowa) presidential campaign.

Paul joined six other candidates at a Thanksgiving forum held by the Family Leader in Des Moines, where he took a lonely stand by arguing against legislating morality through the power of the federal government. “The role of government isn’t to mold society and mold people,” Paul said. “The role of government is to preserve liberty.”

By the next week, the Family Leader removed Paul’s name from the list of candidates that it was considering endorsing.

“Although we believe he’s right on the sanctity of human life, we believe he’s wrong when it’s left to state’s rights issues,” Vander Plaats told Yahoo News this week during an interview in his office in Des Moines. “We believe he’s right in his belief in one woman one man marriage. We believe he’s wrong where he says the states should have nothing to do with it. To us this is a morality issue. So the reason you don’t have slavery in Alabama and not slavery in Iowa is because slavery is wrong. And we believe abortion is wrong. We don’t believe it should be left up to the states. And the same way with marriage.”

Steve Scheffler, the leader of another influential group in the state, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, has similar concerns about Paul. “I have no doubt that his core is that he’s pro-life, but he probably makes it a little challenging when he doesn’t support a constitutional amendment on life,” Scheffler told Yahoo News. “I don’t feel a lot social conservatives are gravitating toward him. He makes it hard for people to support him.”

Holly Bailey contributed to this report.

This story is part of a series of articles on the politics of Iowa, leading up to Saturday’s Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, sponsored by Yahoo News and ABC News. Come to Yahoo! at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday to watch the debate, to provide real-time feedback, and to watch and read live coverage and analysis.