Branstad says Cruz should be defeated in Iowa

ALTOONA - Gov. Terry Branstad long has vowed he would not endorse a candidate in Iowa's Feb. 1 caucuses, but Tuesday he did the opposite - saying it would be 'tragic” if fellow Republican Ted Cruz wins the state because the U.S. senator from Texas has opposed the federal ethanol mandate that benefits Iowa's economy.

Remarks from the nation's longest-serving governor that Iowans would be making 'a big mistake” to support Cruz go beyond comments he made last week calling Cruz's stance 'disastrous” but stopping short of urging a defeat.

Tuesday's slam against Cruz, which Branstad made at the Renewable Fuels Summit in Altoona, could be a boost to New York billionaire Donald Trump, who is neck-and-neck with Cruz in Iowa.

Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King of northwest Iowa, who backs Cruz but also the mandate, was at the summit and rebuked the governor's remarks as a 'de facto endorsement of Trump.”

King also attacked the governor's son, Eric, who is a spokesman for America's Renewable Future, which argues the standard is the nation's single most successful energy policy and has played a key role in creating 73,000 jobs in Iowa with a $5 billion payroll. Those numbers are not universally accepted as accurate, a recent Gazette Fact Checker analysis found.

'To send his son out and to declare Ted Cruz a hypocrite, a liar and one who wants to hurt Iowa farmers in order to line his own pockets, that's Democratic tactics,” King asserted. 'There's Democratic money behind there, I know by the tactics.”

Branstad, however, said he wasn't endorsing anyone.

'But I am the governor of Iowa, and I think I need to stand up for the interests of my state,” he said. 'I know (Cruz) is ahead in the polls, but I think it would be tragic if somebody that wants to dismantle the renewable energy standard were to win the Iowa caucuses, because I think that would be looked at (as if) Iowans don't care about our Iowa economy and the jobs that are related to them.”

A majority of likely caucusgoers of both parties favor the fuel mandate, a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll found in December. Sixty-one percent of likely Republican caucusgoers support it, the poll found.

Ethanol supporters have been dogging Cruz through the state recently, including an advocacy group led by the governor's son.

Cruz has said he opposes all government subsidies and mandates, including the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires the nation's fuel supply include a percentage of corn-based ethanol.

More recently, Cruz dropped his call for an immediate phaseout of the mandate and said instead that the existing requirement should be allowed to stay until 2022, when the current authorization runs out.

Campaigning Tuesday in New Hampshire, Cruz said Branstad's comments are a sign the establishment is 'in full panic mode.”

'We said from the beginning that the Washington cartel was going to panic more and more. As conservatives unite behind our campaign. you're going to see the Washington cartel firing every shot they can, every cannon they can. Because the Washington cartel lives on cronyism. It lives on making deals. It lives on picking winners and losers and supporting corporate welfare,” Cruz said.

Trump, who spoke at the summit after Branstad, quickly tweeted and amplified the governor's comments.

'He's a respected man and when he speaks, people listen,” Trump said.

Trump, who usually speaks without notes, read from a prepared statement in support of the Renewable Fuel Standard, saying he'd warn Congress against changing it.

'I am there with you 100 percent,” he said.

James Q. Lynch of The Gazette and the McClatchy Washington Bureau contributed to this report.