Majority of Branstad’s campaign funding is homegrown, but top donor is from South Dakota

DES MOINES - The political groups and out-of-state donors came through when he needed them - often with big bucks - but the bulk of the nearly $18.8 million raised by Terry Branstad during his second stint as Iowa's governor was contributed by individual Iowans.

The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau examined all donations made to Branstad's campaign, as recorded by the state's Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, during his second run as Iowa's governor. The data covers all donations by individuals and groups made directly to Branstad's campaign and spans 2009 - when he began to plan for a second run as governor - through 2016.

Branstad is poised to resign as governor in the coming weeks; he has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to China. Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds is to assume Branstad's position when he resigns.

Branstad, a Republican from Forest City, is the longest-serving governor in U.S. history, having served as Iowa's chief executive from 1983 to 1999 and again from 2011 to present. He returned to office by defeating incumbent Democratic Gov. Chet Culver in 2010 and fending off challenger Jack Hatch, a Democratic state senator, in 2014.

To fund those campaigns, Branstad raised $18,785,906.08 from 2009 to 2016, and 65 cents on every dollar donated came from individual Iowans. All told, nearly 82 percent of Branstad's donations came from individual donors. The rest came from political action committees representing businesses and issue advocacy groups and from state and local political party organizations. Those groups contributed $3.4 million to Branstad during his second stint.

'Gov. Branstad's entire professional career has been about service,” Jimmy Centers, who formerly worked as Branstad's spokesman on campaigns and in the governor's office, said in an email. 'Whether it was in the military, state legislature, governor's office and soon as our ambassador to China, the governor has always worked to leave our state and nation better than he found it. The thousands of Iowans who have contributed to the governor over the years clearly recognized and appreciated the governor's steadfast commitment to improving Iowa.”

South Dakota couple tops donor list

Chief among the donor groups were various tentacles of the Republican Governors Association, which chipped in a total of more than $2 million.

The only other group to donate in six figures to Branstad was the Iowa Health PAC, the political arm of the Iowa Health Care Association, which represents more than 700 Iowa health care facilities that serve the elderly and frail. The group donated more than $166,000 between 2009 and 2016.

Although Iowans accounted for 97 percent of Branstad's individual donors during his second run as governor, his biggest individual donor hails from the neighboring state of South Dakota.

Eldon and Regina Roth of Dakota Dunes, S.D., donated nearly $267,000 to Branstad during this gubernatorial stint. The Roths founded Beef Products Inc., a Dakota Dunes-based company that produces lean beef. The company has a plant in South Sioux City, Neb., just across the Missouri River from Sioux City. The company also had a plant in Waterloo that closed in 2012.

Their giving to Branstad was more generous even than the $239,000 contributed by Bruce Rastetter, the Iowa agribusiness entrepreneur and Republican mega-donor from Alden.

In 2011, Branstad nominated Rastetter to serve on the Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees the state's three public universities. Rastetter was elected board president in 2013.

Denny and Candy Elwell of Ankeny donated more than $231,000 to Branstad. Denny Elwell owns a Des Moines-area real estate development company.

The next top givers to Branstad during his second stint as governor include Mark Falb, a publishing CEO from Dubuque who gave $156,000; Gerald Kirke, the CEO of a gaming company that operates three Iowa casinos, who gave $136,000; and Henry Tippie, an Iowa native and former investor who now lives in Texas and donated $134,000.

Two notable donations to Branstad came from Trump, long before the latter announced his intention to run for president. Trump donated $15,000 to Branstad in September 2013 and $10,000 in June 2014.

Donation snapshot

Not surprisingly, Iowa was the largest source of campaign income for Branstad: Nearly three-fourths of the money he raised from 2009 through 2016 came from individuals living in and groups based in the state he governs.

More than $2.5 million came from Washington, D.C., most of that coming from political groups based there.

The next most-giving state to Branstad was South Dakota with $490,000, buoyed by the Roths' contributions.

Branstad also drew more than $326,000 in donations from Florida and nearly $275,000 from Texas.

Des Moines and its suburbs were the biggest source at the city level for Branstad. Individuals and groups from the state capital and its surrounding suburbs donated $5.2 million to Branstad from 2009 to 2016, more than a fourth of his entire haul.

The most generous city to Branstad outside the Des Moines metro was Dubuque, which historically has been a Democratic stronghold in liberal-leaning Eastern Iowa.

The Key City's total of nearly $653,000 is boosted by the Iowa Credit Union PAC, which is based there, and big donors such as Falb; Robert and Ruth Ann Kehl, who started riverboat gambling in Dubuque; and publisher Edward Babka. Robert Kehl died in 2013 and Babka in 2016.

Sioux City, in conservative western Iowa, and Cedar Rapids, in more liberal Eastern Iowa, both were responsible for just more than $445,000 to Branstad during his second stint as governor.

John Gleeson, a construction CEO from Sioux City, contributed more than $103,000, and John Smith, a freight company CEO from Cedar Rapids, contributed nearly $115,000.

shift to Reynolds

Branstad spokesman Ben Hammes said the governor's office does not comment on political activity, but said Branstad is 'humbled” that Iowans have voted him to serve as governor for more than 22 years.

Some Branstad donors already are giving their financial support to Reynolds, his hand-picked successor, as she prepares to take over for Branstad and, presumably, run for re-election in 2018.

Reynolds has more than $1 million in her campaign account, and she raised almost $185,000 in the last three weeks of 2016 after Trump announced his nomination of Branstad.

Rastetter jumped right on board with Reynolds, cutting a $25,000 check to her after the Branstad announcement. And Kyle Krause, the Waukee-based owner of the Kum & Go gas station franchise, donated $15,000 to Reynolds. Krause donated nearly $103,000 to Branstad during his second run as governor.

'The bigger story is the fact that Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds has been able to move quickly to consolidate financial support. In fact, public campaign disclosures show many individuals were contributing significantly to her before Gov. Branstad was named as ambassador,” Centers wrote. 'She already enjoys strong support across Iowa. Now, with an impressive war chest, she will instantly become a formidable incumbent upon taking the oath of office as governor.”

Reynolds also is drawing in some new donors. Jeffrey Feingold of Florida, who founded a dental insurance company, matched Rastetter's $25,000 donation after the Branstad announcement. Feingold did not donate to Branstad from 2009 to 2016.

l Comments: (515) 422-9061; erin.murphy@lee.net