Lt. Gov. Judge welcomes rival to the race, wants to debate

DES MOINES – Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, a Democrat from Albia, welcomed another southern Iowa woman to gubernatorial politics Thursday, saying she looked forward to an opportunity to meet state Sen. Kim Reynolds, R-Osceola, in face-to-face debates as Republican Terry Branstad's running mate.

Reynolds, 50, a first-term lawmaker who served 14 years as Clarke County treasurer, was introduced Thursday as Branstad's choice for running mate as he continues to assemble a comeback team in his quest for a fifth term as governor by defeating Democratic Gov. Chet Culver in the Nov. 2 general election.

Judge said she has known Reynolds because, as a former state senator herself, she represented Clarke County during the time that Reynolds was county treasurer. However, she said little is known about Reynolds' positions on issues of statewide interest and she looks forward to hearing more detailed information as the fall campaign progresses.

“As a relative newcomer, it's going to be interesting to see where she goes and where she's going to stand on the issues,” Judge told reporters.

Judge said she was not surprised by Branstad's announcement, but she expected him to chose someone more closely aligned with GOP primary election rivals Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City or state Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll, to win back support of religious and social conservatives following June 8 balloting where the former four-term governor mustered a little more than half of the GOP ballots.

“It will be interesting to see if Kim does help Terry win back the nearly 50 percent of the primary votes that he did not receive, and I'm not sure that she will,” Judge said. “In all candor, it appears that Kim comes out of the same camp as Terry and Doug Gross rather than the camp of Bob Vander Plaats or Rod Roberts. It will be interesting to see if they can pull that off.”

Judge said Iowa voters can expect an interesting gubernatorial race and she expects that she and Culver will prevail in November.

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