GOP gubernatorial hopefuls attack Culver, each other

By James Q. Lynch

UPDATED: CEDAR RAPIDS -- Three Republicans hoping to win their party's nomination for governor came out swinging – at the incumbent.

Before it was over they were taking pokes at each other with former Gov. Terry Branstad twice interrupting Bob Vander Plaats.

Despite the back-and-forth in the Iowa News Broadcast Association debate less than six weeks before the June 8 primary that will determine the GOP nominee, Vander Plaats, Branstad and Rep. Roberts saved their best attacks for Gov. Chet Culver.

Culver has been “reckless and irresponsible” pushing for two of the largest budgets in state history and then using a 10 percent across the board cut when he realized his budget was more than the state could afford. The first-term Democrat has been equally reckless and irresponsible in his overall management of state, Branstad added.

Culver's campaign manager Donn Stanley threw that criticism back at Branstad and the other Republicans.

“None of these candidates have answered the ultimate question of how they would manage to balance the budget today and that is the definition of 'reckless and irresponsible,'” Stanley said. “Branstad was long on hyperbole but short on the facts and new ideas. Branstad must have forgotten, or hopes that we've forgotten, he made a few across the board cuts during his tenure as governor. It is sadly par for the course that Terry Branstad attacks others for the same things he has done before.”

Culver's 10 percent across the board cut demonstrated a lack of leadership and took “no intellectual firepower,” added Vander Plaats, a former teacher and administrator.

Roberts, a 10-year veteran of the Legislature, called for a “surgical approach” to budget cuts to “balance the needs of state government with the Iowans' needs.”

Overall, Stanley said, Republicans “pandered to their special interests with more tax cuts and proposed increased spending but with a lack of specifics about how they would pay for it.”

The early rounds of questions were marked by answers that offered only subtle distinctions between their positions on management of state government, education and economic development.

Those differences were sharper when the discussion turned to immigration, same-sex marriage and party unity.

Roberts and Vander Plaats favor an approach similar to a new law in Arizona directing police to enforce federal immigration law.

Roberts pointed out he sponsored legislation to deny state benefits to illegal immigrations. It would have saved about $92 million, mostly in human services benefits

 “I'm tired of relying on the federal government,” Vander Plaats said, saying he favors denying state benefits to illegal immigrants as a way of discouraging them from coming to Iowa. He would “embrace” legal immigration.

Branstad recommended an Iowa-oriented approach.

“We're not Arizona,” Branstad said. “We're not a border state. We need to do something that fits our state.”

The Republican hopefuls agreed that Iowans should be allowed to vote on whether to permit same-sex marriage. However, Roberts and Branstad took Vander Plaats to task for his plan to issue an executive order staying the Iowa Supreme Court decision that struck down the ban on same-sex marriages until the Legislature allows a vote.

“I don't believe the governor can hold the court in check,” Roberts said.

Vander Plaats argued the governor needs to “insert” himself in the debate not to make law, but to allow the people to vote.

“The court is not above the law,” Branstad said. “Neither is the governor.”

Asked about speculation social conservatives will sit out the election if Vander Plaats is not the nominee, all three pledged to support the GOP nominee.

“Any one of us up here this afternoon will do a far better job that Chet Culver,” Roberts said.

Branstad promised to “do all I can to work for a Republican governor.”

Vander Plaats said he's proven to be a team player, dropping out of the race for the nomination four years ago to be Jim Nussle's running mate

Unlike Branstad, he added, he's never endorsed a Democrat and chided Branstad for endorsing Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., “who gave us socialized medicine.”

That prompted an interruption by Branstad who defended the endorsement, pointing out he was out of office when he endorsed his longtime friend.

He interrupted Vander Plaats again to tell he was wrong in recalling a court challenge to one of Gov. Tom Vilsack's executive order.

The 90-minute forum will be rebroadcast at 9 p.m. May 1 on Iowa Public Television. In addition, the program will be replayed during May on Mediacom MC22 and via Mediacom on Demand. It will also be streamed live at www.IBNA.org and www.IPTV.org.

A third debate, sponsored by the Des Moines Register, is planned May 20.