GOP candidates for governor push turnout

NEWTON – Republican gubernatorial candidates rallied their troops Wednesday for a big push to the polls next week.

“I think we are well set up to deliver a victory on June 8,” said Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, who is vying for his party's nomination for governor in a three-way race with former Gov. Terry Branstad and five-term state Rep. Rod Roberts of Carroll.

“We feel the votes are definitely coming our way,” he told about 40 people who attended a campaign stop at Uncle Nancy's restaurant on the Newton town square. “I believe this vote is going to be extremely pivotal and crucial about the future of our party and about the future of our state.”

Branstad exuded similar confidence in speaking to a morning crowd of about 30 people at Mickey's Irish Pub & Grill in Waukee, noting that 23,000 Republicans have requested absentee ballots – which has been a point of emphasis for his campaign.

“I'm very encouraged about the campaign,” said Branstad, who urges supporters at his event to each contact five people and get them to the polls. “We need your support, we need a good turnout,” said the former governor, who boasts a 10-0 record in contested elections.

Roberts spent Wednesday campaigning in Denison, Le Mars and Cherokee.

Branstad, who served as Iowa governor from 1983 to 1999, aimed most of his stump-speech criticism at Democratic Gov. Chet Culver, saying the first-term incumbent has an “abysmal record” of driving the state deep into debt and creating the highest unemployment rate in 24 years.

He pledged to get back to a “pay-as-you-go” system of meeting infrastructure needs, but conceded in an interview that some “debt financing” on a “very sparing basis with a significant payback” might have been required to address immediate infrastructure needs following the disastrous flood of 2008.

“But not this massive $800 million sort of thing,” added Branstad, who touted his administration's handling of the 1993 flood that hit parts of Iowa.

The former governor's remarks came on a day when Culver was in Coralville for a ground-breaking ceremony at an I-JOBS flood-prevention project totaling $27 million.

“Because of I-JOBS, the city of Coralville will make significant infrastructure improvements that will ensure business owners never suffer again because of flooding,” Culver said in defending the state's $875 million infrastructure investment programs designed to preserve and create jobs and upgrade roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure.

While Branstad took aim at Culver, Vander Plaats noted that state government grew 2.5 times its size under his GOP rivals watch and a one point in his speech noted that the governor's mansion in Des Moines is “Terrace Hill, not Terry's hill.”

Wes Enos, a GOP activist and Iowa Senate candidate who helped direct former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 caucus victory, said he sees parallels between Huckabee's rise and the “massive wave” building for Vander Plaats gubernatorial bid.

“What we're going to see on primary night is an upset that the national media is going to have to key on and focus in on this race,” Enos told the Newton crowd. “We're going to shoot this guy out of the primary with an absolute cannon.”

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