Democrats rally faithful at state convention

DES MOINES – Up for re-election this year, Gov. Chet Culver said Saturday he wouldn't let Republican opponent Terry Branstad “pull the plug on progress” in Iowa.

Branstad, Iowa's former governor from 1983-1999, secured his party's nomination in Tuesday's primary for his comeback bid.

At the Iowa Democratic Party's state convention in Des Moines, Culver said the election would be a choice about whether to continue to build on the progress made in Iowa or go back to the 20th century with Branstad.

“I don't know about you, but not on my watch,” said Culver, who is seeking a second term. “We're not going back to the ‘80s.”

He said Democrats have to set the record straight before Election Day, and said he wanted to continue to build on Iowa's strengths in education, agriculture, manufacturing and renewable energy to create jobs.

Culver highlighted this state's investments in its infrastructure, as rebuilding continues after record flooding in 2008, including at the University of Iowa campus.

“We're going to put people to work at the same time,” Culver said.

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn said Iowans could not afford another four years of Culver's leadership.

“I'm confident that Iowans will reject the Culver record of job losses, generational debt spending, rising property taxes, and widespread executive mismanagement,” Strawn said.

The Democrats' new U.S. Senate nominee, Roxanne Conlin, also took the stage promising should would give Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley the race of his life.

She said that Grassley, first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980, “deserves a rest.”

“We know that you cannot send the same guy to do the same job and expect a different result. And we want a different result. We demand a different result,” Conlin said.

She accused Grassley of working to reduce taxes on those who already had the most, and said money was borrowed from China for those tax breaks.

And in light of the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Conlin placed blame on Grassley for what she said was trying to stop regulation of oil companies.

“Every morning, we look at that disaster and every morning we should point to Sen. Grassley and say why, why Sen. Grassley would you let this happen to our country?” Conlin said.

Strawn countered that Conlin would be “another vote in Congress for a Democrat majority that has tripled the federal deficit, put America $13 trillion in debt, and dramatically expanded the role of the government into our daily lives.”